I originally wrote this paper for a peer-reviewed journal, but seeing that I am a mere student rather than a degree-carrying expert who has earned a lot of academic clout, I decided to share it with the larger Internet community on Scribd. The article’s thesis is that even though ancient Egypt is commonly characterized as a “Mediterranean” or “Near Eastern” civilization, it was in fact a predominantly indigenous African civilization created by dark-skinned people we would probably label “black” if we had to classify them according to our modern racial taxonomy.
My main argument is broken down in three sections, each dealing with evidence from a different academic discipline. The first section covers the archaeological evidence indicating a Sudanic and later Upper (southern) Egyptian origin for classical Egyptian culture. Next I cite cultural anthropological and Egyptological data that shows a cultural and linguistic relationship between ancient Egypt and the sub-Saharan African peoples. The final and longest section describes the biological anthropological evidence on the Egyptians’ physical appearance and relationship to other Africans.
I would appreciate some feedback on what I have written.
Link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/61235317/African-Origin-of-the-Ancient-Egyptians
By
Latecomer to this discussion. Depends on what you mean by ‘origin’. I have found Aschulien hand axes in the SED that date to 50,000-2oo,000 BP. According to the experts, things were much wetter in the desert during that period. the predynastic drawings in the desert bear that out. when the mid-holocene interpluvial came along c. 8000 ybp folks started migrating into the valley. As regards before 200,000 BP, we probably all have our origins in central Africa
interesting paper – but only comment is that generally in a literature review article – which this paper is – you summerize the information in the body of the paper and then state your positions and conclusions at the end
your paper seems to be “selling” or promoting your point of view through out the article so it was a bit off-putting
perhaps a re-write is in order
I think this essay could be improved by including more comparitive information on who the Egyptians are not like. It is certainly true that much of Egyptian culture shows links to sub-Saharan Africa. But it is also true that there are many links between Near Eastern cultures and that of Egypt. The same can be said of language. The Afroasiatic language family has members in Africa, certainly. But Semitic languages are also in this group and Akkadian (Babylonian and Assyrian), Ugaritic and Eblaite, and a good many other Near Eastern languages are Semitic. Studies of bones and teeth are notoriously inaccurate in demonstrating kinship and have now been largely supplanted by DNA research. As with language, the DNA shows links between sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt, but also between the Near East and Egypt. Even in their own artwork, the Egyptians demonstrated some awareness of this. They depict themselves as darker than the “Asiatics” but lighter than Africans from farther south.
As for whether the Egyptians were “Black” — it all depends on how you define that. It’s a social construct, after all. In the American South of the 1940′s, most contemporary Egyptians would have been refused service in “white-only” stores and restaurants. Change has been slow and there is still prejudice and discrimination. But any Egyptian could get service in any restaurant in the South today. But does any of that really matter today?
The title of the article is the African origin of the ancient Egyptians.
Kate, I may have understood but I am not sure how the 25th Dynasty, Ptolomies, and Assyrians relate to the origins of the ancient Egyptians.
Is this discussion about the ethnic origins of the ancient Egyptians or about their ethnicity over at least three milennia?
Kandace
I am not sure that the two questions are different unless the question is the ethnic orgins at the dawn of the Dynastic period which might be more tighly defined. The article however relies on New Kingdom examples and by then there had been a lot of mixing – and more would follow.
As a Founder of Egyptological I would rather let others comment first, but one observation I would make is that while it doesn’t say so, the focus of your article is probably the noble and elite groups because they have the best preserved and most studied mummies. As with any elite group, there was a practice of international marriages. That would include typically European cultures such as the Minoans, Middle Eastern cultures like the Assyrians and of course African cultures since Africa was the source of many important resources. Slave women would also be captured on military expeditions and received as tribute, and incoming DNA would pass down into lower echelons of society.
For these reasons we should expect the noble and elite groups to be somewhat ethnically mixed – and include African traits, Arab traits and European traits. While it is tempting to look to pigeonhole Ancient Egyptians into any single ethnic group, I wonder whether this may be overly simplistic? Ethnicity is a topic which always attracts considerable interest and there is potential for research in this area. I can see how the application of tests on hair which you mention could form the basis of one area of study (and not one I had encountered before, so thank you), as could DNA which is my interest, or maybe even forensic study of skeletons which is well outside my area of expertise. These could all be fruitful areas of study. My personal prediction is that if undertaken they will reveal a complex and mixed heritage.
If you are interested, I am sure there are areas of research you may be able to pursue if you can obtain funding.
(Of course, the period in discussion can make a big difference too. There was clearly more African influence under the Nubian Pharaohs and more European influence under the Ptolemies.)