Ancient Egyptian race controversy: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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<!--Please note: this is not the article for discussing actual evidence pointing either way in this debate. This is a "history of controversy" article: please discuss it in this way, bearing in mind academic consensus.-->

'''Controversy surrounding the race of ancient Egyptians''' is an integral topic in [[Afrocentric historiography]], and an important issue for [[Afrocentrism]] since the early years of the 20th century.

The current debate over the ethnic identity of dynastic Egypt has its roots in contradictory reports and perceptions accumulated since Classical times. The scarcity of "hard" evidence has served to fuel the debate.

The scholarly consensus outside the field of [[Egyptology]] is that the concept of "pure race" is incoherent;<ref>Bard, in turn citing [[B.G. Trigger]], "Nubian, Negro, Black, Nilotic?", in ''African in Antiquity, The Arts of Nubian and the Sudan'', vol 1, 1978.</ref> and that applying modern notions of [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]] to [[ancient Egypt]] is [[Anachronism|anachronistic]].<ref>Snowden, p. 122 of ''Black Athena Revisited''</ref>. ▼

==Origins of the Debate==▼

▲TheToday, scholarlythe consensusdebate largely takes place outside the field of [[Egyptology]].{{Fact|date=February 2009}} Scholarly consensus is that the concept of "pure race" is incoherent;<ref>Bard, in turn citing [[B.G. Trigger]], "Nubian, Negro, Black, Nilotic?", in ''African in Antiquity, The Arts of Nubian and the Sudan'', vol 1, 1978.</ref> and that applying modern notions of [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]] to [[ancient Egypt]] is [[Anachronism|anachronistic]].;<ref>Snowden, p. 122 of ''Black Athena Revisited''</ref> and that as far as [[Human skin color|skin colour]] is concerned, the ancient [[Egyptians]] were neither "black" nor "white" (as such terms are usually applied today).<ref>Bard, p. 111 of ''Black Athena Revisited''.</ref>

▲==Origins of the Debate==

===The Classical Observers===

{{see|Afrocentric historiography}}▼

*[[Herodotus]] travelled to Egypt around 450 BC, about 2000 years after the Pyramid Age and when Egypt was part of the Persian Empire. In his writings about the Egyptians, he described them as having "black skins and woolly hair". <ref name="dubois">[http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/webdubois/DuBoisTheNegro.pdf The Negro, pp18], WEB Du Bois</ref>Though Herodotus is regarded as the father of history, the [[Herodotus#Criticisms_of_Herodotus|veracity and accuracy]] of some of his accounts is disputed, including specifically those concerning Ancient Egypt.

The roots of Afrocentrism lay in the repression of [[black people|blacks]] throughout the Western world in the 19th century, most particularly in the United States.<ref>Bard p.106</ref> At the turn of the century, however, came a rise in black racial consciousness as a tool to overcome oppression. Part of this reaction involved a focus on black history, and counteracting what was perceived as white, [[Eurocentrism|eurocentric]] history in favour of a historical narrative of Europe (and what was viewed as its founding culture, ancient Greece) that gave blacks a more prominent role.<ref>lefkowtiz p. 7</ref> To a certain extent Afrocentrism also arose as a backlash against [[scientific racism]] (broadly speaking, a 19th-century phenomenon) which tended to attribute any advanced civilization to the immigration of Indo-Europeans.▼

*The Greek playwrite [[Aeschylus]] [525BC - 455BC], (also during the Persian Empire period,) mentioning a boat seen from the shore, declared that its crew are Egyptians, because of their black complexions.<ref name="dubois"/><ref name="anthon">{{cite book|authorlink= Charles Anthon|last=Anthon|first=Charles|title=A classical dictionary, chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=lWQPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA30#PPA30,M1 |chapter=Complexion and Physical Structure of the Egyptians|year=1851}}</ref>

*The philosopher and novellist [[Lucian]] [AD125-AD180], who lived long after the Dynastic Era, once described an Egyptian he encountered as being black.<ref name="anthon"/>

Specifically, this attempted rewriting of the historical narrative of Europe developed into two main forms: the claim that European civilization was founded not by the [[Greeks#Classical|Greeks]], but by the [[Egyptians#History|Egyptians]], whose culture and learning the Greeks allegedly stole, and that the Egyptians themselves were not only African but also black.<ref>Lefkowitz p. 8</ref> Often, Afrocentrists link the two claims, as the following quote (by [[Marcus Garvey]]) displays:{{cquote|Every student of history, of impartial mind, knows that the Negro once ruled the world, when white men were savages and barbarians living in caves; that thousands of Negro professors at that time taught in the universities in Alexandria, then the seat of learning; that ancient Egypt gave the world civilization and that Greece and Rome have robbed Egypt of her arts and letters, and taken all the credit to themselves.<ref>[[Marcus Garvey]]: "Who and what is a Negro", 1923. Quoted by Lefkowitz.</ref>}}▼

Both themes were to survive Garvey and to continue throughout the 20th century and up to the present day, provoking debate both in academia and in more public spheres, such as mainstream media and the internet.▼

===18thIn century =academia==

Although questions surrounding the race of the ancient Egyptians had occasionally arisen in 18th and 19th-century Western scholarship as part of the growing interest in [[Historical definitions of race|attempted scientific classifications of race]], in academia the meme was popularised and continued throughout the 20th century in the works of [[George James]], [[Cheikh Anta Diop]], and even, to a certain extent, in [[Martin Bernal]]'s ''[[Black Athena]]''. All three have used the terms "black", "African", and "Egyptian" interchangeably,<ref>Snowden p.116 of ''Black Athena Revisited''.</ref> despite what [[Frank M. Snowden, Jr.|Frank Snowden]] calls "copious ancient evidence to the contrary".<ref>Snowden p. 116</ref> ▼

In 1798 [[Volney]] published his book ''Travels Through Syria and Egypt, in the Years 1783, 1784, and 1785'', in which he documented his experiences. In the book he describes the [[Great Spinx]] as having Negro Characteristics. He also describes the Egyptians he encountered as being mixed race.

===19th century===

The revalations of Volney and other observers had made regarding the Negro characteristics of the Egyptians had a profound impact in the United States. In the early 19th century, slavery was still legal based on the belief of the Negro inferiority. According to George Mason University professor, Scott Trafton,<ref>[ home page http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/faculty/faculty_pages/trafton/trafton.html]</ref> the proslavery advocates were not receptive to any reports of black civilizations as these reports would undermine the rationale for slavery. In the early 19th century the anti-slavery movement had started to gain momemtum. In 1844, [[Samuel George Morton]], one of the pioneers of scientific racism and polygenism, published his book, Crania Aegyptiaca, with the intention of proving that the Ancient Egyptians were not Black. Morton was a proslavery supporter and his writings were provided the intellectual support for the movement. Morton had obtained several Egyptian crania from Egyptologist [[George Gliddon]]. As a physician, Morton was able to perform a cranial analysis of the specimens. Morton would conclude that the Ancient Egyptians were not black, however in his book he notes that the Egyptian crania in his possession belonged to the two great races of Man, the Caucasian and the Negro.

While at the [[University of Dakar]], Diop tried to establish the skin colour of the Egyptian mummies by measuring the melanin content of the skin, stating: “In practice it is possible to determine directly the skin color and, hence, the ethnic affiliations of the ancient Egyptians by microscopic analysis in the laboratory; I doubt if the sagacity of the researchers who have studied the question has overlooked the possibility.”<ref>Chris Gray, Conceptions of History in the Works of Cheikh Anta Diop and Theophile Obenga, (Karnak House:1989) 11-155</ref> ▼

[[Samuel George Morton]]'s proteges [[George Gliddon]] and [[Josiah C. Nott]] would follow in his footsteps publishing ''Types of Mankind'' in 1855 with the same intention. ''Types of Mankind'' ws a scientific bestseller, but is now regarded as a classic example of scientific racism<ref>[http://chnm.gmu.edu/egyptomania/scholarship.php?function=detail&articleid=37 General Remarks on "Types of Mankind"]</ref>. In the book, the authors acknowledge that Negroes were present in Egypt but they argue the Africans were only present in Egypt as captives or servants. However, even they admitted the Egyptians were intermediate between African and Asiatic races. <ref name="morton">{{cite book|year=1844|first=Samuel George |last=Morton|authorlink=Samuel George Morton|title=|chapter=Egyptian Ethnography|chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=t1MGAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#PPA4,M1|year=1844}}</ref>

Diop's work was well received by the political establishment in the [[Decolonisation of Africa|post-colonial]] formative phase of the state of [[Senegal]] under [[Léopold Sédar Senghor]], whose politics of [[African socialism]] was inspired by the Pan-Africanist ''[[Négritude]]'' movement. Diop further attempted to link Egypt to Senegal by arguing that the [[Ancient Egyptian language]] was related to his native [[Wolof language|Wolof]].<ref>Alain Ricard, Naomi Morgan, ''The Languages & Literatures of Africa: The Sands of Babel'', James Currey, 2004, p.14</ref> The University of Dakar was renamed in Diop's honour after his death, to [[Cheikh Anta Diop University]]. Diop participated in a [[UNESCO]] symposium in [[Cairo]] in 1974 and he wrote the chapter about the "[[origins of the Egyptians]]" in the UNESCO ''General History of Africa''.<ref>UNESCO, "Symposium on the Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script; Proceedings", (Paris: 1978), pp. 3-134</ref>▼

In 1871 [[Charles Darwin]] published his book ''Descent of Man'', in it he devoted an entire chapter to race. Having read Nott and Gliddon's ''Types of Mankind'' he wasn't entirely convinced about their assertions that the Egyptians were not black. Having seen the statue of Amunoph, he consulted with two men he described as "the most competent judges"e, and all three concluded that Amunoph had strongly marked Negro-type features. <ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=Lyu4AZPhu_oC&pg=PA168 The Descent of Man]</ref><ref name="nott">{{cite book|first=|last=Nott|authorlink=Josiah C. Nott|title=Types of Mankind|chapter=Negro Types|chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=znlxAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage#PPA217,M1|year=1855}}</ref>. .

Founded in 1979, the ''Journal of African Civilizations'' has continually advocated that Egypt should be viewed as a black civilization.<ref>Snowden p. 117</ref><ref>Homepage of the [http://www.journalofafricancivilizations.com/ Journal of African Civilizations]</ref> Figures attached to the group centering around the journal include [[Ivan van Sertima]] and J.H. Clarke (who has advanced further the "Cleopatra was black" meme). Other notable proponents of the meme include [[Chancellor Williams]].<ref>Snowden pp.117-120</ref> Mainstream scholarship has generally been critical of the journal: J.D. Muhly describes it as "well-intentioned but quite unconvincing and lacking in the basic techniques of critical scholarship."<ref> Muhly: "Black Athena versus Traditional Scholarship", Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 3, no 1: 83-110</ref>▼

Several other 19th century scholars wrote about the race of the Egyptians. In 1851 [[Charles Anthon]] published a classical dictionary. In it Anthon references several observers such as Herodutus and Aeschylus who had described the Egyptians as black or dark skinned. <ref name="anthon"/>.In 1886, [[George Rawlinson]] wrote that the fundamental character of the Egyptians, with respect to physical type, language and tone of thought is Nigritic. Though he thought the Egyptians were not Negroes, he stated his belief that the resemblance to Negroes was indisputable.<ref name="rawlinson">{{cite book|first=George |last=Rawlinson|authorlink= George Rawlinson|title=Ancient Egypt|chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=Et1EFsr8VSIC&pg=RA1-PA24&output=html|chapter=The People of Egypt|year=1886}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YHgv011kWIAC&printsec=frontcover#PPP1,M1 title=Egypt Land: Race and Nineteenth-Century|year=2004}}</ref>

The Afrocentric claim that European scholars have tried to deny significance of black people in the ancient Egyptian culture has some substance. During the European colonial era on the African continent, the prevalent European attitude was that ancient Egyptians were 'white', as the French scholar Alain Froment shows on the basis of two encyclopaedias from the 1930s.<ref>Froment 1994, p. 38</ref>▼

==Population history of the Egyptians==

The modern populations of Egypt have been classified as belonging to the [[Caucasian race]]. Egypt has experienced several migrations during its history, the last of which occurred in 639 AD, when region was invaded by Muslim Arabs. As a result, Arabic became the official language, the [[Egyptian language]] and its descendant, Coptic, became extinct by the 17th Century. The relationship between Modern Egyptians and Ancient Egyptians is an important part of the debate over race in Ancient Egypt.

The British Africanist [[Basil Davidson]] summarized the issue as follows:▼

===Predynastic Egypt===

Several studies involving human remains have concluded that Egypt has been a heterogeneous population from predynastic times, consisting of both Negroid and Non-Negroid populations. Human Remains from the South, [[Upper Egypt]], have been describes as having strong Negroid characteristics<ref name="zakrzewski"/>. Whereas Lower Egypt in the North was less Negroid.

In 1905 [[David Randall-MacIver]] analysed 1560 skulls from [[Thebes]]. Based on the elaborateness of graves, he concluded that during predynastic periods, Negroid people were the social equal of others. He also observed that there was equal representation of Negroids and Non-Negroids in the low and high class populations. According to McIver's study, the Negroid element was very pronounced in predynastic periods, but the Negroid form had significantly diminished by Roman times. McIver suggests that at some time, Non-Negroids must have gained the upper hand.<ref name="mciver">{{cite book|first=|last=MacIver|authorlink=David Randall-MacIver|title=The Ancient Races of the Thebaid |chapter=chapter 9|chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=gYoTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage#PRA1-PA86,M1}}</ref>

The traditional view has been that Non-Negroid northerners invaded the southern Negroid population. However most Egyptologists today believe it was the Southern populations that invaded the North ushering in the Dynastic period.<ref name="zakrzewski">{{cite journal|last=Zakrzewski|year=2006|doi=10.1002/ajpa.20569

|url=http://wysinger.homestead.com/zakrzewski_2007.pdf |

title=Population Continuity or Population Change:Formation of the Ancient Egyptian State}}</ref>

<blockquote>▼

Whether the Ancient Egyptians were as black or as brown in skin color as other Africans may remain an issue of emotive dispute; probably, they were both. Their own artistic conventions painted them as pink, but pictures on their tombs show they often married queens shown as entirely black, being from the south (from what a later world knew as Nubia): while the Greek writers reported that they were much like all the other Africans whom the Greeks knew.<ref>{{cite book|first=Basil|last=Davidson|title=African Civilization Revisited: From Antiquity to Modern Times|year=1991|publisher=Africa World Press}}</ref>▼

</blockquote>▼

==Specific controversies==

===Dynastic period===

{{Expand|date=February 2009}}

The Dynastic period begins in 3150BC and ends in 30BC with the Roman Conquest. There were several migrations into and out of Egypt that had significant impacts on the Egyptian population. Libyans, Asiatics and Nubians at various times settled in Egypt. For example, around the 2000 BC the Egyptians colonized much of Nubia. Whereas in the 8th Century BC, Nubian Kings conquered Egypt. <ref name="krings">{{cite journal|year=|last=Krings|title=mtDNA Analysis of Nile River Valley Populations: Genetic Corridor or a Barrier to Migration?|url=http://genapps.uchicago.edu/labweb/pubs/krings.pdf|pmid=PMC1377841}}</ref>

Debate in the public sphere has tended to focus more on the race of specific notable individuals from the history of Egypt, particularly [[Tutankhamun]], [[Cleopatra VII]] and also the [[Great Sphinx of Giza]]. Such claims by Afrocentrists have not been limited to Egyptians: [[Carthage|Carthaginian]] general [[Hannibal]] and Roman Emperor [[Septimius Severus]] have also been claimed as black, despite non-existent evidence,<ref>Snowden pp.120-121 of ''Black Athena Revisited''</ref> as well as the ancient Greek philosopher [[Socrates]].<ref>Black Athena revisited, p. 4</ref>

===DNA Studies===

A number of DNA studies on modern Egyptians indicate that there has been significant gene flow from both Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. A recent study by Krings et al revealed two [[mitochondrial DNA]] clines. A Eurasian mtdna cline runs from northern Egypt to Southern Sudan. The second cline of Sub-Saharan mtdna extends from Southern Sudan to Northern Egypt. The results suggest significant bidirectional gene exchange between Egypt and Nubia within the last few thousand years.<ref name="krings"/>

A study using the [[Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup|Y-chromosome]] of modern Egyptian males found similar results. African haplogroups are predominant in the South but infrequent in Northern Egypt. The predominant haplogroups in the North are characteristic of other Arabic populations. <ref name="lucotte">{{cite journal|title=Brief communication: Y-chromosome haplotypes in Egypt |year=2001|last=Lucotte|doi=10.1002/ajpa.10190|url=http://wysinger.homestead.com/haplotypes_in_egypt.pdf}}</ref>

=== Tutankhamun===▼

==Ancient Tomb Paintings==

[[Image:Egyptian races.jpg|thumb|1820 drawing of a fresco of the tomb of [[Seti I]], depicting (from left): [[Libyan]], [[Nubian]], [[Asian people|Asiatic]], [[Egyptians]].<ref>[http://personalwebs.coloradocollege.edu/~ctorresrouff/walkerlabpubs/buzon2006current.pdf Biological and Ethnic Identity in New Kingdom Nubia]</ref>]] In the many surviving tomb paintings and papyri, Egyptians depict themselves in a wide variety of colors, but predominant color used was reddish-brown. However Egyptian artisans also sometimes depicted their subjects in totally unreal colors (such as green), the purpose of which is not completely understood but may have had ritual significance.For example, paintings from the tomb of Huy, the Egyptian governor of Nubia during the reign of King Tutankhamun (1336–1327 BC), pictures Nubians bringing tribute for Egypt’s pharaoh. The scene shows a wide variety of Nubians. Some are in Egyptian dress, including a woman riding in a cart. Others, including children, appear in Nubian dress. The skin color of the Nubian men ranges from dark red to brown to black; skin tones for some of the women are lighter.<ref>[http://oi.uchicago.edu/museum/nubia/huy.html Nubia Gallery</ref>

Attempted reconstructions of [[Tutankhamun]]'s facial features have encountered much Afrocentric protest over concerns that he has been represented as too white.<ref>[http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iB6u3XEMp9IrJfl-kH6FHNgZCg_A Tutankhamun was not black: Egypt antiquities chief], [[Agence France-Presse|AFP]], September 2007</ref>Although modern technology can reconstruct Tutankhamun's facial structure with a high degree of accuracy based on CT data from his mummy,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/anthology/unsolvedhistory/kingtut/face/facespin.html|title=discovery reconstruction}}</ref><ref>[http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/tutankhamun/index.asp Science museum images]</ref> correctly determining his skin tone is impossible. ▼

===Cleopatra VII===

==The Language Element==

The Ancient [[Egyptian language]] has been classified as one of the [[Afro-Asiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic]] [[language family]]. The Afro-Asiatic languages comprise the following sub-families.

* [[Berber languages|Berber]]

* [[Chadic languages|Chadic]]

* [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]]

* [[Semitic languages|Semitic]]

* [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]]

* [[Omotic languages|Omotic]] Afro-Asiatic languages are indigenous to both Middle Eastern Caucasians and Sub-Saharan Africans. Of the six subfamilies of Afro-Asiatic, the [[Semitic languages]] form the only Afro-Asiatic subfamily that exists in both Africa and Asia. The other five of the six Afro-Asiatic subfamilies are restricted to the African continent. Though by numbers, most speakers of Afro-Asiatic languages are middle eastern, the greatest amount of linguistic diversity is found in Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the diversity in the Afro-Asiatic language family is found in [[Ethiopia]] where diverse languages exist in close geographic proximity. In [[Black Athena]], Bernal argues that Afro-Asiatic emerged in the in [[Great Rift Valley]], and the people speaking the Egyptian language migrated from this region, Northwest to what is now Egypt. <ref>[[Black Athena]], pp 88</ref>

[[Cleopatra]]'s race and skin colour have also caused frequent debate as described in an article from [[The Baltimore Sun]].<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_4_57/ai_82479151 Baltimore Sun]: "Was Cleopatra Black", 2002</ref> There is also an article titled: ''Was Cleopatra Black?'' from [[Ebony (magazine)|Ebony magazine]], <ref>[http://goliath.ecnext.com/premium/0199/0199-1352591.html "Was Cleopatra Black?"], from ''[[Ebony (magazine)|Ebony]]'' magazine, [[February 1]] [[2002]]. In support of this, she cites a few examples, one of which she supplies is a chapter entitled "Black Warrior Queens" published in 1984 in ''Black Women in Antiquity'', part of the ''Journal of African Civilization'' series. It draws heavily on the work of J.A. Rogers.</ref> and an article about Afrocetrism from the [[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]] that mentions the question, too.<ref>[http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SL&p_theme=sl&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB04E771E692744&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "Afrocentric View Distorts History and Achievement by Blacks"], from the ''St. Louis Dispatch'', [[February 14]] [[1994]].</ref> Scholars generally suggest a light olive skin colour for Cleopatra, based on the facts that her [[Macedon]]ian family had intermingled with the Persian aristocracy of the time, that her mother is not absolutely known for certain,<ref>Tyldesley, p. 30, suggests [[Cleopatra V]] as the most likely candidate.</ref> and that her paternal grandmother may have been African (or indeed from anywhere at all) which is possible but not provable.<ref>Tyldesley p. 32</ref> Afrocentric assertions of Cleopatra's blackness have, however, continued. The question was the subject of an heated exchange between [[Mary Lefkowitz]], who has referred in her articles a debate she had with one of her students about the question whether Cleopatra was black, and [[Molefi Kete Asante]], Professor of African American Studies at [[Temple University]]. As a response to ''Not Out of Africa'' by Lefkowitz, Asante wrote an article: ''Race in Antiquity: Truly Out of Africa'', in which he emphasizes that he "can say without a doubt that Afrocentrists do not spend time arguing that either Socrates or Cleopatra were black."<ref>[http://www.asante.net/scholarly/raceinantiquity.html Race in Antiquity: Truly Out of Africa] By Molefi Kete Asante</ref>

==In the public sphere==

There have been numerous controversies regarding the race of specific notable individuals from the history of Egypt, particularly the [[Great Sphinx]], [[Tutankhamun]] and [[Cleopatra VII]]. <ref>Snowden pp.120-121 of ''Black Athena Revisited''.</ref>

===The Great Sphinx of Giza===

[[Image:Great Sphinx Closeup.JPG|left|180px|thumb|The Great Sphinx at Giza]]A number of writers have described the face of the Sphinx as having features that are ''Ethiopian'', ''Nubian'', ''African'' or ''Negro'', as opposed to Grecian, Coptic or Arabian (Semitic). These writers include the French philosopher [[Constantin-François Chassebœuf]], <ref>Constantin-François Chassebœuf saw the Sphinx as "typically negro in all its features"; Volney, Constantin-François de Chasseboeuf, ''Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie'', Paris, 1825, page 65</ref> [[Gustave Flaubert]],<ref>"...its head is grey, ears very large and protruding like a negro’s...the fact that the nose is missing increases the flat, negroid effect. Besides, it was certainly Ethiopian; the lips are thick.." Flaubert, Gustave. ''Flaubert in Egypt'', ed. Francis Steegmuller. (London: Penguin Classics, 1996). ISBN 9780140435825.</ref> and [[W.E.B. Du Bois]].<!--which he stated were described as having "high cheek bones, flat cheeks,.. a massive nose, firm projecting lips, and thick hair with an austere and almost savage expression of power."--><ref>Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt (1915). [http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=h1RRPJSaThsC&dq=William+Edward+Burghardt+Du+Bois+the+negro&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=29btg7N5Rl&sig=yCEY4TPGbfE1wcBMAK3li0tLzPI&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result ''The Negro'']. (New York: [[Henry Holt and Company]], 1915).</ref>The exact identity of the model for the Sphinx is unknown as there are no known written records that proclaim its identity. Almost all Egyptologists and scholars currently believe that the face of the Sphinx represents the likeness of the Pharaoh Khafra, whose statues have been located near the Sphinx and who is held to be the creator of the statue. A few Egyptologists and interested amateurs have made several conflicting hypotheses regarding the identity of the Sphinx, but at present, no definitive proof exists.<ref>Hassan, Selim (1949). ''The Sphinx: Its history in the light of recent excavations''. Cairo: Government Press, 1949.</ref>See also [[Great Sphinx of Giza]]In 1992, the ''[[New York Times]]'' published a letter to the editor submitted by then [[Harvard University|Harvard]] professor of [[orthodontics]]<ref>[http://www.angle.org/anglonline/?request=get-abstract&issn=0003-3219&volume=068&issue=05&page=0455 Abstract] Sheldon Peck, Department of Orthodontics at Harvard</ref> Sheldon Peck, who noted of the Sphinx that is shows “an anatomical condition of forward development in both jaws, more frequently found in people of African ancestry than in those of Asian or Indo-European stock."<ref>{{cite news | first= | last=To the Editor | coauthors= | title= Sphinx May Really Be a Black African | date=[[1992-07-18]] | publisher= | url =http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1D7163DF93BA25754C0A964958260 | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-18 | language = }}</ref>

▲=== Tutankhamun===

▲Attempted reconstructions of Tutankhamun's facial features have encountered much Afrocentric protest over concerns that he has been represented as too white.<ref>[http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iB6u3XEMp9IrJfl-kH6FHNgZCg_A Tutankhamun was not black: Egypt antiquities chief], [[Agence France-Presse|AFP]], September 2007</ref>Although modern technology can reconstruct Tutankhamun's facial structure with a high degree of accuracy based on CT data from his mummy,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/anthology/unsolvedhistory/kingtut/face/facespin.html|title=discovery reconstruction}}</ref><ref>[http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/tutankhamun/index.asp Science museum images]</ref> correctly determining his skin tone is impossible.

==Afrocentrism==

▲{{see|Afrocentric historiography}}

▲The roots of Afrocentrism lay in the repression of [[black people|blacks]] throughout the Western world in the 19th century, most particularly in the United States.<ref>Bard p.106</ref> At the turn of the century, however, came a rise in black racial consciousness as a tool to overcome oppression. Part of this reaction involved a focus on black history, and counteracting what was perceived as white, [[Eurocentrism|eurocentric]] history in favour of a historical narrative of Europe (and what was viewed as its founding culture, ancient Greece) that gave blacks a more prominent role.<ref>lefkowtiz p. 7</ref> To a certain extent Afrocentrism also arose as a backlash against [[scientific racism]] (broadly speaking, a 19th-century phenomenon) which tended to attribute any advanced civilization to the immigration of Indo-Europeans.

▲Specifically, this attempted rewriting of the historical narrative of Europe developed into two main forms: the claim that European civilization was founded not by the [[Greeks#Classical|Greeks]], but by the [[Egyptians#History|Egyptians]], whose culture and learning the Greeks allegedly stole, and that the Egyptians themselves were not only African but also black.<ref>Lefkowitz p. 8</ref> Often, Afrocentrists link the two claims, as the following quote (by [[Marcus Garvey]]) displays:{{cquote|Every student of history, of impartial mind, knows that the Negro once ruled the world, when white men were savages and barbarians living in caves; that thousands of Negro professors at that time taught in the universities in Alexandria, then the seat of learning; that ancient Egypt gave the world civilization and that Greece and Rome have robbed Egypt of her arts and letters, and taken all the credit to themselves.<ref>[[Marcus Garvey]]: "Who and what is a Negro", 1923. Quoted by Lefkowitz.</ref>}}

▲Both themes were to survive Garvey and to continue throughout the 20th century and up to the present day, provoking debate both in academia and in more public spheres, such as mainstream media and the internet.

===Meaning of 'Kemet'===

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One of the many names for Egypt in ancient Egyptian is ''km.t'' (read ''Kemet''), meaning 'the black land' or 'the black one'. The claim that ''Kemite'' referred to the fact that the people of the land had black skins, as argued by [[Cheikh Anta Diop]],<ref name="Shavit01-148"/> [[William Leo Hansberry]],<ref name="Shavit01-148"/> or Aboubacry Moussa Lam<ref>Aboubacry Moussa Lam, "L'Égypte ancienne et l'Afrique", in Maria R. Turano et Paul Vandepitte, ''Pour une histoire de l'Afrique'', 2003, pp. 50 &51</ref> has become a cornerstone of Afrocentric historiography.<ref name="Shavit01-148"/> This view is rejected by most Egyptologists.<ref>Bard, Kathryn A. "Ancient Egyptians and the Issue of Race". in Lefkowitz and MacLean rogers, p. 114</ref> Generally, 'Kemet' is taken to be a reference to the fertile black soil which was washed down from Central Africa by the annual [[Nile]] inundation, and which made Egypt habitable and successful in contrast to the barren desert or 'red land' outside the narrow confines of the Nile watercourse.<ref name="Shavit01-148">Shavit 2001: 148</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Kemp | first = Barry J. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Ancient Egypt: Anatomy Of A Civilization | publisher = Routledge | date = | location = | pages = 21 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=l-t5vWHAVN0C&pg=PA21&ots=Whio1cbGsZ&dq=egypt+black+soil&sig=jmy3OWcilcwPoYZYgfbO2LU5_B8#PPA21,M1 | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0415063463 }}</ref> The use of the word ''kmt'' when referring to people is thought to be derived from the name of the land, meaning literally "those people who live in the black, fertile country."<ref name="Shavit01-148"/> Raymond Faulkner's ''Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian'' translates it into "Egyptians", as do most sources.<ref>Raymond Faulkner, ''A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian'', Oxford: Griffith Institute, 2002, p. 286.</ref>

==Contemporary academic debates==

▲Although questions surrounding the race of the ancient Egyptians had occasionally arisen in 18th and 19th-century Western scholarship as part of the growing interest in [[Historical definitions of race|attempted scientific classifications of race]], in academia the meme was popularised and continued throughout the 20th century in the works of [[George James]], [[Cheikh Anta Diop]], and even, to a certain extent, in [[Martin Bernal]]'s ''[[Black Athena]]''. All three have used the terms "black", "African", and "Egyptian" interchangeably,<ref>Snowden p.116 of ''Black Athena Revisited''.</ref> despite what Snowden calls "copious ancient evidence to the contrary".<ref>Snowden p. 116</ref>

▲While at the [[University of Dakar]], Diop tried to establish the skin colour of the Egyptian mummies by measuring the melanin content of the skin, stating: “In practice it is possible to determine directly the skin color and, hence, the ethnic affiliations of the ancient Egyptians by microscopic analysis in the laboratory; I doubt if the sagacity of the researchers who have studied the question has overlooked the possibility.”<ref>Chris Gray, Conceptions of History in the Works of Cheikh Anta Diop and Theophile Obenga, (Karnak House:1989) 11-155</ref>

▲Diop's work was well received by the political establishment in the [[Decolonisation of Africa|post-colonial]] formative phase of the state of [[Senegal]] under [[Léopold Sédar Senghor]], whose politics of [[African socialism]] was inspired by the Pan-Africanist ''[[Négritude]]'' movement. Diop further attempted to link Egypt to Senegal by arguing that the [[Ancient Egyptian language]] was related to his native [[Wolof language|Wolof]].<ref>Alain Ricard, Naomi Morgan, ''The Languages & Literatures of Africa: The Sands of Babel'', James Currey, 2004, p.14</ref> The University of Dakar was renamed in Diop's honour after his death, to [[Cheikh Anta Diop University]]. Diop participated in a [[UNESCO]] symposium in [[Cairo]] in 1974 and he wrote the chapter about the "[[origins of the Egyptians]]" in the UNESCO ''General History of Africa''.<ref>UNESCO, "Symposium on the Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script; Proceedings", (Paris: 1978), pp. 3-134</ref>

▲Founded in 1979, the ''Journal of African Civilizations'' has continually advocated that Egypt should be viewed as a black civilization.<ref>Snowden p. 117</ref><ref>Homepage of the [http://www.journalofafricancivilizations.com/ Journal of African Civilizations]</ref> Figures attached to the group centering around the journal include [[Ivan van Sertima]] and J.H. Clarke (who has advanced further the "Cleopatra was black" meme). Other notable proponents of the meme include [[Chancellor Williams]].<ref>Snowden pp.117-120</ref> Mainstream scholarship has generally been critical of the journal: J.D. Muhly describes it as "well-intentioned but quite unconvincing and lacking in the basic techniques of critical scholarship."<ref> Muhly: "Black Athena versus Traditional Scholarship", Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 3, no 1: 83-110</ref>

▲The Afrocentric claim that European scholars have tried to deny significance of black people in the ancient Egyptian culture has some substance. During the European colonial era on the African continent, the prevalent European attitude was that ancient Egyptians were 'white', as the French scholar Alain Froment shows on the basis of two encyclopaedias from the 1930s.<ref>Froment 1994, p. 38</ref>

▲The British Africanist [[Basil Davidson]] summarized the issue as follows:

▲<blockquote>

▲Whether the Ancient Egyptians were as black or as brown in skin color as other Africans may remain an issue of emotive dispute; probably, they were both. Their own artistic conventions painted them as pink, but pictures on their tombs show they often married queens shown as entirely black, being from the south (from what a later world knew as Nubia): while the Greek writers reported that they were much like all the other Africans whom the Greeks knew.<ref>{{cite book|first=Basil|last=Davidson|title=African Civilization Revisited: From Antiquity to Modern Times|year=1991|publisher=Africa World Press}}</ref>

▲</blockquote>

==Notes==