Will there be white Nubians?
There are two reasons I'm making this thread. Firstly, I'd like to see the Nubians represented in a historically correct manner where white people are also represented. Secondly, I'm interested in seeing if the very same people who ferociously advocate black legionaries from this thread, also will advocate white Nubians. Will they also claim it is racist not to include white Nubians?
Contrary to what the PC-brigade that advocate black legionaries can show for, there is actually explicit archeological evidence for white Nubians. See link
http://wysinger.homestead.com/hair_semma.pdf
ABSTRACT: Hair samples from 76 burials at Semna South (Sudanese Nubia) were examined using a variety of techniques. Electrophoresis and fluo- rescence microscopy indicated some oxidation of the cuticule and keratin pro- tein had taken place. However, the cuticular structure and the lack of fluores- cence of the cortex indicate that the low humidity and non-alkaline conditions preserved the physical and chemical properties of the hair well. Pigmentation, even allowing for oxidation of melanin, showed a higher proportion of lighter samples than is currently associated with the Nubian area. Hair form analysis showed medium diameter and scale count; the curling variables were inter- mediate between European and African samples. There was a high ratio of maximum to minimum curvature (a measure of irregularity), approached only by Melanesian samples. Meroitic and X-group burial types were not statistical- ly significantly different (largely due to sample sizes), but the X-group, espe- cially males, showed more African elements than the Meroitic in the curling variables. Principal components analysis showed the Semna sample to be sig- nificantly different from seven populations examined earlier.
Quote from text 1:
Qualitative grading of the samples on the Fischer-Saller scale is shown in table 1. Sam- ples that were graded on the red scale (I-VI) for degree of red pigmentation were also graded on the blond-brown-black scale (A-Y) for degree of black pigmentation. Twenty-six percent (29% of the Meroitic, 13% of the X- group) of the total sample had some red pig- mentation, and 10.5% (8.9 Meroitic, 13% X- group) had "blond" pigmentation (Fischer- Saller category G or less).
Quote from text 2:
As Brothwell and Spearman (‘63) point out, reddish-brown ancient hair is usually the re- sult of partial oxidation of the melanin pig- ment. This color was seen in a large proportion of the Semna sample, and also noted by Titlbachova and Titlbach (‘77) on Egyptian material, where it also may have resulted from the mummification process. However, the large number of blond hairs that are not associated with the cuticular damage that bleaching produces, probably points to a sig- nificantly lighter-haired population than is now present in the Nubian region. Brothwell and Spearman (’63) noted genuinely blond ancient Egyptian samples using reflectance spectrophotometry
Originally Posted by omzdog
First of all the Numidians were a north african people that also lived in modern north Sudan and they were known as Nubians here. So basically I believe that Numidians migrated south of Egypt. Now the original Numidians were I think descended from CeltoIberians and Carthaginians merceneries (something like that). They were kicked out of Numidia after the defeat of Carthage. From there they migrated to south of Egypt. There they became the "Nubians" - which is I think Egyptian slang for Numidian. There they started to marry with local Africans and eventually their descendants turned black by the time the Pyramids were being built. So I think in the Roman time frame there should be a mix of black AND celtoiberian Nubians, since they were not fully black yet.
