Ancient Egypt is rightfully considered one of the states claiming to be the cradle of world civilization. Despite the fact that before its appearance highly developed cultures of the Middle East already existed, such as, for example, the Nakad and Obeid, only from the banks of the Nile did world progress fully begin its journey across the planet. Studying his history, many involuntarily ask themselves the question of how the ancient Egyptians looked, several millennia ago laying the foundation of modern life.
Egyptian racial issue
The appearance of the people who once inhabited the banks of the Nile, having passed through the prism of legends, is often presented to us in a distorted form, and in order to get an objective idea of how the ancient Egyptians actually looked, it is necessary to take into account their race. The question about it was first raised at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, when a surge of interest in anthropology was observed in Europe.
Among scientists, heated discussions already broke out, dividing them into two irreconcilable camps. The representatives of one of them believed that the Egyptians belonged to a race that was the result of a mixture of the Afrasian and Middle Eastern peoples, while the other ranked them among the Nubians (residents of the territory of Northern Sudan). There were also those who claimed that Europeans once migrated to the banks of the Nile, having founded Ancient Egypt there. What the Egyptians looked like was not explained in the proposed hypotheses, and this question remained open.
Métis creating civilization
To establish the race of this people was also difficult because many elements of its culture were borrowed from the inhabitants of Africa and the Middle East. As a result, the theory that the population of Ancient Egypt was the product of mestization (random mixing) of a large group of peoples who migrated from remote territories and ended up on the banks of the Nile was spread among scientists. It is easy to guess that the question of how the ancient Egyptians looked, this added even more confusion, because it forced to take into account the characteristics of a large number of ethnic groups.
Today, most researchers believe that in relation to the population of Egypt in those distant times, which consisted of a wide variety of mestizos, the modern concept of race is generally not applicable, especially since there is not enough material to define it. In the question of how the ancient Egyptians looked, scientific versions are built mainly on the basis of clues received in the study of various literary monuments.
Testimony of a Greek historian
In particular, they point to the works of the Greek historian Herodotus, who in 450 BC. e., that is, during the heyday of the ancient Egyptian state, he wrote that a characteristic feature of its inhabitants is extremely dark skin and hard curly hair. Without questioning the accuracy of the information he provided, it is still difficult to answer the question that interests us, since representatives of many peoples are suitable for this very vague description.
The origin of the theory of racial superiority
The Napoleonic wars that swept through Europe at the beginning of the 19th century and caused the economic decline of a number of states provoked a surge of nationalism in them, whose proponents even then put forward the theory of racial superiority of some peoples and the inferiority of others. It is hard to believe, but it was this inhumane concept, which a century later laid the foundation for the creation of the Third Reich, that influenced in many ways the Europeans' idea of how the ancient Egyptians looked.
The fact is that in the scientific community there were many people who claimed that only white people - immigrants from Europe could create such a highly developed civilization. Moreover, they instilled the opinion that it was from them that the ruling class of the country was formed, while the lot of its dark-skinned inhabitants was slavery, forced labor and military service, where they constituted a faceless soldier mass.
According to this statement, it has become the norm in art to depict Egyptian aristocrats as Europeans dressed in outfits of that old era (remember Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra), and their servants similar to the characters in the famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Disputes about Tutankhamun's ethnicity
Disputes over how the ancient Egyptians appeared on the banks of the Nile received an additional impetus after the opening of the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922. Among other artifacts, a golden mask of the ruler was discovered in it, on the basis of which an idea was drawn of his appearance, which did not allow, however, to draw a final conclusion about racial affiliation. Nevertheless, many saw in it the features inherent in Europeans (which is very controversial), and on this basis concluded that the origin of the whole people.
Especially passionate flared up after in 2011 the results of Tutankhamun DNA analysis, produced by the Igenea Genetic Research Center, were classified by order of the Egyptian government. It is not known what caused this decision, but it provoked a lot of noise.
Eurocentrists and their opponents, supporters of the African descent of the Egyptians, tried to interpret it each in their own favor. Even voices were voiced saying that, according to research, the pharaoh turned out to be a Jew, and the Egyptian government hid this fact in order to deprive the Zionists of such a powerful weapon in the propaganda struggle. Thus, the purely scientific question was transferred to the political plane.
Stone in the garden of racists
In the early 2000s, when the general interest in the origin of the ancient inhabitants of the banks of the Nile was fueled by numerous publications from both academics and various politicians, the voice of a serious and authoritative researcher, British Egyptologist Professor Toby Wilkinson, sounded. His photo is below.
On a vast territory stretching between the Nile and the Red Sea, he discovered drawings that shed light on how the ancient Egyptians looked. The reconstruction of their appearance allowed the scientist to conclude that these people originated from the peoples who once inhabited the Eastern Desert, and hardly had European roots. Such a statement, made from the lips of the Briton, incited the wrath of the “militant” Eurocentrists on him and, perhaps, was one of the reasons that the results of his research were recognized as insufficiently substantiated.
Conclusions by Professor Wilkinson
Nevertheless, the scientist wrote that the people depicted in the drawings belonged to semi-nomadic cattle-breeding tribes moving between the dry areas of the Eastern Desert and the banks of the rivers. Specifying the routes of their migration, Wilkinson named the territories that nowadays belong to Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.
In his publications, he talked about how the houses of the ancient Egyptians looked. In the period to which the images found by him belong (the middle of the 3rd millennium BC), these were low squat constructions made of stems of papyrus and coated with clay. It is known that more durable materials, such as clay clay bricks, began to be used on the banks of the Nile much later.
Attempts to reconstruct the appearance of the Egyptians
The Igenea research center mentioned above at the beginning of this century also paid a lot of attention to how the ancient Egyptians looked. Reconstructions of the skulls collected by his employees from burials belonging to different historical eras showed that ethnically the population of the banks of the Nile was very homogeneous for a long time. It did not undergo noticeable changes throughout the history of the state, from the beginning of the pre-dynastic period (IV millennium BC) to its inclusion in the early Roman Empire (I-II centuries).
Research by Dr. Joel D. Irland
The center was attended by specialists from various fields. Among them was a famous American biologist - Dr. Joel D. Irish, who focused not only on the structural features of the skulls, but also on the remains of teeth. Like other researchers, he also tried to answer the question of what the ancient Egyptians looked like.
The history of the reconstruction of skulls and teeth is noteworthy in that Mr. Irland was able to show that the people who inhabited the Nile Valley were a product of the merger of many ethnic groups, including the inhabitants of the Sahara and the Eastern Mediterranean (present-day Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt).
Thus, the appearance of the ancient Egyptians was largely reminiscent of the features of the modern inhabitants of these regions. The scientist noted that their genetic similarity was determined by extensive trade relations within the country, providing contact between residents of different regions and being a more important factor for the formation of the race than any external influence.
What race did Cleopatra belong to?
The appearance in 1963 of the sensational film “Cleopatra”, in which Elizabeth Taylor played brilliantly, aroused the interest of the general public in how the Egyptian aristocrats looked and whether the image created by the Hollywood star corresponded to historical truth. The sensational archaeological find of those years also contributed to this.
The fact is that in the territory of modern Egypt, scientists have discovered a burial place in which, according to their assumption, the mummy of Cleopatra’s sister, Arsinoe IV, which she poisoned herself for political reasons, rested. Three decades later, a DNA analysis was performed showing that the remains of the grave belonged to a black woman.
Consequently, with a high degree of probability it can be argued that Cleopatra herself had all the characteristic African features in her appearance. This version was opposed by racists, who declared that the burial belonging to Cleopatra’s sister was not completely proven, and in addition, they could have a common father, but different mothers, which allowed their ethnic dissimilarity.
The disputes that arose about this led to nothing, and as a compromise, it was decided, as in previous years, to consider that the blood of many Mediterranean peoples, primarily Greeks, flowed in the veins of the Egyptian queen, since, according to legend, it happened from one of the closest associates of Alexander the Great - the famous commander Ptolemy. As a standard of her appearance, the image remained, embodied in the famous American film.
Unanswered question
The question of how the ancient Egyptians looked to this day remains open, since there is no exact definition of their race. The numerous images preserved among the wall paintings and sheets of illustrated papyruses do not give a definite answer.
They represent the widest range of types with various skin tones: from light, almost white to yellow, red and even black. The sculptures that once adorned the temples and palaces of Ancient Egypt do not contain the answer. The characters represented in them also carry the features of a wide variety of peoples - from Europeans to Afrosians.
It is noted that in papyrus illustrations and wall murals, men are represented more dark-skinned than women. However, this does not give rise to talk about their ethnic characteristics, since the tan they got while working in the open air could give an additional swarthiness.
In addition, Egyptian art was not so much realistic as symbolic. For this reason, for example, the red color of the skin could mean that this character is cursed by the evil desert god Seth. Thus, the question of how the ancient inhabitants of the banks of the Nile looked like is still very much unclear, and it is unlikely that someday a complete and unambiguous answer will be given to it.