Ethnicity of Ancient Egyptians

[EireEmerald]

I have been interested in ancient Egyptian history for many years. It is one of the main reasons i ever got a total war game.



Art on tombs depict many different skin colors (from dark to light; some mummies even had red hair)
What race were the ancient Egyptians? Black? Semitic? Mediterranean? Mixed?
__________________

[Alkarin]

they were humans like the rest of us.

[EireEmerald]

they were humans like the rest of us.

Well one thing is for certain, they were not white

that doesn't throw out the possibility of them being " caucasian " as it were.

[dogukan]

they were humans like the rest of us.

@Eire
I'd guess they were semitic...and I doubt they had any relations to Caucusia.
White looking people are not that uncommon in semitic majority countries btw.

[Habelo]

they were humans like the rest of us.

lol human is a specie, not a race

[Mangalore]

lol human is a specie, not a race

and race is not the same as ethnicity. The latter is not solely biological, but also cultural etc.

Which kind leads to the point that the Ancient Egyptian were ethnic Ancient Egyptians. From the looks of them painting themselves they considered themselves on average more tanned than northern foreigners and less tanned than southern foreigners so strangely precisely what they would be living in the Nile delta and valley: neither European nor Central African.

[Tiberios]

and race is not the same as ethnicity. The latter is not solely biological, but also cultural etc.

Which kind leads to the point that the Ancient Egyptian were ethnic Ancient Egyptians. From the looks of them painting themselves they considered themselves on average more tanned than northern foreigners and less tanned than southern foreigners so strangely precisely what they would be living in the Nile delta and valley: neither European nor Central African.

Agreed.

[DAVIDE]

From the looks of them painting themselves they considered themselves on average more tanned than northern foreigners and less tanned than southern foreigners so strangely precisely what they would be living in the Nile delta and valley: neither European nor Central African.

bullseye.... in ancient egyptian art, it's well showed how did they look like or their skin colour

[A pimp named Slickback]

They were nubians.

[Babur]

I have been interested in ancient Egyptian history for many years. It is one of the main reasons i ever got a total war game.



Art on tombs depict many different skin colors (from dark to light; some mummies even had red hair)
What race were the ancient Egyptians? Black? Semitic? Mediterranean? Mixed?
__________________

they were black



but seriously I know they spoke an Afro-Asiatic language, the sub-divisions of which consist of Berber,Semitic and others.

[EireEmerald]

they were black



but seriously I know they spoke an Afro-Asiatic language, the sub-divisions of which consist of Berber,Semitic and others.

People say Egypt was Black, People say Egypt was white, they are both wrong. The Truth is much more complex. Prehistoric egypt reveals the truth. The original people came from multiple directions to prehistorica Egypt. Travellers from ancient Nubia, Nomads from Libyia in Northern Africa and wanderers from Palestine. from the beginning Egypt was a mixing pot of different ethnicities.

To the Egyptians what we call art might be something different altogether. Statues of Queen Tiye, wife of Amunhotep3 are a good example.. With some examples she seems to have definite negroid features, with others different Caucasoid features. These terms “ negroid “ and “ Caucasoid tend to cause a lot of negative polarisation when all they are , really, anthropological desriptors “Caucasoid “ does not necessarily mean white, It also refers to most people who populate the middle east, India and north Africa. Caucasoid people can have dark skin.

Egypt was a very mixed and Cosmopolitan society with mixed ethnicity. They did not care for “ race “
Reliefs in Horembed’s tomb show Egypt at war with other people. The Libyans, the Asiatics and the Nubians, often being depicted dark.

[Habelo]

People say Egypt was Black, People say Egypt was white, they are both wrong. The Truth is much more complex. Prehistoric egypt reveals the truth. The original people came from multiple directions to prehistorica Egypt. Travellers from ancient Nubia, Nomads from Libyia in Northern Africa and wanderers from Palestine. from the beginning Egypt was a mixing pot of different ethnicities.

To the Egyptians what we call art might be something different altogether. Statues of Queen Tiye, wife of Amunhotep3 are a good example.. With some examples she seems to have definite negroid features, with others different Caucasoid features. These terms “ negroid “ and “ Caucasoid tend to cause a lot of negative polarisation when all they are , really, anthropological desriptors “Caucasoid “ does not necessarily mean white, It also refers to most people who populate the middle east, India and north Africa. Caucasoid people can have dark skin.

Egypt was a very mixed and Cosmopolitan society with mixed ethnicity. They did not care for “ race “
Reliefs in Horembed’s tomb show Egypt at war with other people. The Libyans, the Asiatics and the Nubians, often being depicted dark.

they cared for buety, all who do that care for race, since some races are considered more beautiful in others. (just look on what racial features you are given when going to the ¨surgeon.)

[DAVIDE]

Art on tombs depict many different skin colors (from dark to light; some mummies even had red hair)
What race were the ancient Egyptians? Black? Semitic? Mediterranean? Mixed?
__________________

Black = Nubian
Mulatto = Egyptian
White = MEditerranean

[EireEmerald]

Black = Nubian
Mulatto = Egyptian
White = MEditerranean

"A common definition of a 'white person' is a person of primarily, or wholly, European ancestry.[1] However, the term is sometimes used more broadly, so that it becomes similar to the concept of the Caucasian race or Caucasoid people, which includes people with ancestry from the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Central, and South Asia, who share certain physiological characteristics and genetics with Europeans beyond skin colour. As Alastair Bonnett explains, a strong "current of scientific research supports the theory that Europeans were but one expression of a wider racial group (termed sometimes Caucasian), a group that included peoples from Asia and North Africa".[1] Bonnett, does, however, note that this is not a commonplace definition: in Europe and North America the inclusion of non-Europeans is a "technicality little favoured outside certain immigration bureaucracies and traditional anthropology."


Although I would consider a white person to be solely from Europe. Caucasians ( i dislike the term ) covers indians, northern africans, middle easterns and europeans.

[DAVIDE]

Generally in Egyptian painture, Caucasian men were the Minoans or Greeks

[Manco]

They were browner than me, but paler than a Congolese.

They would have pretty much looked like modern Egyptians, i.e. tanned with sizeable numbers of black Africans and paler Northern Mediterraneans.

Majority wouldn't have been black, since well, all their neighbours weren't, their own descriptions and depictions differentiate between them and Nubian's skincolour, it's the wrong geographic area for black skincolour,...

[EireEmerald]

They were browner than me, but paler than a Congolese.

They would have pretty much looked like modern Egyptians, i.e. tanned with sizeable numbers of black Africans and paler Northern Mediterraneans.

Majority wouldn't have been black, since well, all their neighbours weren't, their own descriptions and depictions differentiate between them and Nubian's skincolour, it's the wrong geographic area for black skincolour,...

I am at an odds because one side is blatantly saying the other end of the historical community is involved in some white conspiracy denying a black egypt and the other is denying most of their claims. I have been given tantalising evidence from both sides not knowing which to trust. Thich leads me to my conclusion that a simple " black " or " white " Egypt is so simplistic it is almost bordering on the ridiculous.

[DAVIDE]

I am at an odds because one side is blatantly saying the other end of the historical community is involved in some white conspiracy denying a black egypt and the other is denying most of their claims. I have been given tantalising evidence from both sides not knowing which to trust. Thich leads me to my conclusion that a simple " black " or " white " Egypt is so simplistic it is almost bordering on the ridiculous.

the motto "all the people are equal, indifferently by race, religion etc..", was unknow to Egyptians. And this is showed extremely good in painture.. colours they used had a simbology related even to their social class and geographical provenience (downer you go in Africa, blacker the people u meet). For example Amon, is depicted in blue, because blue for egyptians, symbolized the cosmos and serenity. Seth was depicted with red hair-eyes, because red symbolized the "danger" and also the colour of anger. Red was also a colour which showed aggressivity, and was used by Egyptians during celebrations, to paint their own bodies

[AnthoniusII]

Ethnos "nation" is a quite new term to define population's origin and id...
Ancient people used more simple and same time more sofisticated terms for such issues....
It is a great mistake and pointless matter to try to give ids of modern world to people of the past...
Anthropology has entire diferent standards to divide people and Ethnos(nation) is not one of them...

Such attempts were started from some people in their agony to add glamur in their national identity and 99% of those attempts lead to false conclusions!

Egypt was an empire even from 4000bc...as an empire had a lot of diferent people under it's rulle...
Those people have been proved that had the access to the higher administration (there were no racist divisions back then)...
A Pharao could be black,white or anything else no none would matter about it!

[Iskender-bey]

They belonged to the Mediterranean race, as they still do today.