Can you nice anthropologists please answer the whole ancient Egyptians being black question for us?

Question

I was hoping to escape all the acrimony I see in other groups. Maybe you guys can tell us if ancient Egyptians were really black or not. And maybe you can do it without getting all emotionally attached and biased. I guess I would be going too far if I asked you to do it for us by using layman's language and not getting into all that complex migratory analysis stuff ; )

Answer 1

Seated at the juncture of three continents, the Egyptians showed the physical characteristics of Caucasians, Negroes, and Asians. With the migration of various peoples into the Nile Valley throughout the thousands of years in which the Egyptian culture flourished, it is nearly impossible to avoid a racial mixture of the population. Therefore, the most heated debate centers around what race the Predynastic or earliest Egyptians were, the "original" Egyptians, if you will. Yet again, skeletal remains indicate that they shared the characteristics of Caucasians, Asians and Negroes.

They were neither "black" nor "white" as those terms are used today.

Some egyptians would be Nubians, who were "black" and some would be asiatics.

We can safely conclude that the ancient Egyptians were of various skin colors, few of which were light judging by the climate.

Answer 2

This question (and I'm not trying to be mean) is like asking if First Nations people were all red. It depends on what part of the country the person in question is from.

The vast majority of middle Egypt, including the royal house was what we would refer to as "Arabic" in hue and body type. The famous limestone bust of Nefertiti, although slightly idealized, is a fairly accurate rendition of what she (probably) looked like. It at least showed what was considered beautiful at the time; which was reddish/brown skin tone, dark eyes, long narrow nose and cheekbones and full lips.

Of course there were some egyptian people who had more Nubian blood in them (either through happenstance, or through geographic location), as well as those with Babylonian, and Jewish blood. This would all affect skin color and facial structure. Remember, ancient Egypt was a melting pot of sorts, and people from all over the mediterranean lived there. Including Greeks and Italians (whom we would today consider "white").

On the whole, ancient egyptians probably didn't look that much different from how they do today. It's a fallacy (and to me extremely racist) to believe that just because a civillization comes from Africa, that means they are "black."  Most of Northern Africa is comparatively light skinned (the arab countries like Morocco). Saying one African looks just like another is tantatmount to saying that all Asians look the same. Africa has a rich wealth of peoples with much variation in skin color and body structure, and to pretend otherwise is insulting.

Answer 3

Ancient Egyptians definitely didn't have either blond hair and blue eyes, nor did they have afros.

They most definitely had dark hair and medium to light brown skin.

The world is not divided into black and white you know! Most of the world is in the middle, like me!

How does this affect anyone? It doesn't matter!

Answer 4

About 80% north African Caucasian, 20% black African.

The upper (southern) Egyptians were probably about 1/3 black ancestry, but there was very little evidence of n£groid hair/teeth/skull up at the delta.

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

There's a page of all the portrait images of them on internet I could find, including a load of mummies here (300-ish). Only abour 1/6 look black.

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

Every study of dynastic mummy hair has concluded it was mostly Caucasian, with a small percentage of blondes and red heads, with dark brown and not black being the most commonly seen colour. Even Nubians show up at about 40% Eurasian ancestry from hair and DNA studies.

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

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I've spent a lot of time digging through anthropological studies of Egyptian hair, teeth and skuklls. They all hit the norm for modern Egypt.Some were even blond.

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

If you are really bothered, here is a cranial study by the world's leading anthropologist C Loring Brace that concludes there no sub Saharan afinities in the Egyptian population, but plenty to other mediterannean populations.

"The Predynastic of Upper Egypt and the Late Dynastic of Lower Egypt are more closely related to each other than to any other population. As a whole, they show ties with the European Neolithic, North Africa, modern Europe, and, more remotely, India, but not

at all with sub-Saharan Africa, eastern Asia, Oceania, or the New World."

http://wysinger.homestead.com/brace.pdf

The limb length is the same as modern Egyptians too.

We actually have the mummies to examine, the majority are described as Caucasian. The population doesn't seem to have changed at all.

Answer 5

They were a mix of different peoples. That is clear from the VERY DISTINCT carvings of people on the temples. Dna testing would clarify this once and for all, but sadly,although it has been done in some instances, it is considered 'too controversial' to do it in a complete and public manner.

  However, the mummy of Rameses has been dna tested and his mtdna is H, which is a European haplogroup.

Answer 6

The truth is most were Arabic but it was a diversified society and many blacks were present.

Answer 7

This is one of the traps in refering to races as continents.  Africa has at least 5 indigenous races, Negroes being only one.  Negroes relatively recently, in the last few thousand years, spread from Nigeria and conquered most of Africa.  They reached South Africa at about the same time as the British.  There were Nubians that traded with the Egyptians that were negroes.  Asia, also has numerous indigenous races some of which (ie. melanesians) are quite black.  They are not closely related to negroes, however.   Black skin is not a diagnostic feature for determining races.  

Answer 8

They were all colors. Of course, many were black. It was a port city. The center of the world. Engaged in trade for thousands and thousands of years. People tend to go where excitement is taking place. The shores of Africa are many different colors.  

Answer 9

for the last time i hope, the ancient egyptians were not black. they were of the mediterranean egypto-libyan branch which is part of the white or caucasian branch. there were; however, black or african pharaohs of the meroe culture in sudan south of egypt who built smaller pyramids. throughout egypts dynastic reign several ethinicites did rule for a short time such as the semitic amorites as well as the non-indoeuropean and non-semitic kassites. these groups were not black as well. The Egyptians were not arabs contrary to other posts here as the arabs came much later. Nefertiti most definately was not arab as she came from the country of mitanni which spoke a non-indo-european language called hurrian which is similar in structure to the languages of the caucasus.

Answer 10

No. Ancient Egyptians were not black, in the sense that black Africans were black. The word ancient refers to a certain era of Egyptian history, by which time Semites whose ancestors had left Africa long before had recolonized what is now Egypt. The ancient Egyptians were invaders from outside Africa, and were not black.