Posted on 09/26/2007 11:58:41 AM PDT by presidio9
Egyptian antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass insisted Tuesday that Tutankhamun was not black despite calls by US black activists to recognise the boy king's dark skin colour.
"Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilisation as black has no element of truth to it," Hawass told reporters.
"Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa," he said, quoted by the official MENA news agency.
Hawass said he was responding to several demonstrations in Philadelphia after a lecture he gave there on September 6 where he defended his theory.
Protestors also claimed images of King Tut were altered to show him with lighter skin at the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit which leaves Philadelphia for London on September 30.
The exhibition sparked an uproar when it kicked off in Los Angeles in June 2005 when black activists demanded that a bust of the boy king be removed because the statue portrays him as white.
The face of the legendary pharaoh, who died around 3,300 years ago at the age of just 19, was reconstructed in 2005 through images collected through CAT scans of his mummy.
The boy king's intact tomb caused an international sensation when it was discovered by Briton Howard Carter in 1922 near Luxor in southern Egypt.
Why, the descendants of the Oldbians, of course!
Egypt was the first great cosmopolitan society, drawing in different peoples from all over the middle east over 1,000s of years.
Given the proximity of Egypt to ancient Nubia (Sudan) there is little doubt that people of the Negroid race migrated to Egypt and lived there as well, along with other peoples and people who were long there before those migrations.
However, claiming a pure “racial” identity back then to ancient Egypt would be like claiming one for the US today and by most accounts the Negroid component was less than it is in the US today.
Modern history has continued to redefine “Egyptian”, due to Greek, Roman and eventually Arab and Muslim conquerors who supplied their own additions to the Egyptian population. The majority of Egypt today is said to be, genetically, semitic, in the same family as most “Arabs” and Jews.
The Nubians were the people living just south of Egypt.They were also known as Kushites.
Fact is that there was quite a bit of intermingling between Egypt and Nubia throughout history.
And if you have ever seen a picture of Tut’s mom,Queen Tiy,there is not much doubt to me that she is quite”Negroid”in features.
Its absurd to say Egypt was completely white,black or Arab.They were as mixed ethnically as you can possibly get.
The mummies of the Pharoahs have been around long enough to be studied over and over. The face of Tut, the face of Ramses...they were not Black. Their skin was darkened in the mummification process, but they were not Black.
It's sort of like the folks who came from honest Scottish farmers (as I did, mostly) having to invent themselves some made-up tartan pattern and kinship with Bonnie Prince Charlie (who was actually half Polish, one quarter Italian, and the rest mostly French and Danish). It's usually harmless, but in the case of some of these activists I think it's crossed the line.
“He gave his life for tourism.”
Of course they are African ... were born on the continent of Africa. Just because you were born on the continent of Africa does not mean your skin color is black.
Another myth exploded.
I remember reading long ago (I'm 45 years out of college) what must be essentially the same story. The version I read went: Old Patrician: "Your low birth puts you beneath me". Young General: The differance between my birth and yours is that your family ends with you, while mine begins with me!
That story has been very helpful to me at times through the years.
Many of the Nubians were slaves of the Egyptians. I attended the King Tut exhibit in Philadelphia. One of the items shown was a black Nubian walking stick, with a Nubian form bent backwards as the handle.
“He’s got a condo made of stone-a.”
Shh... you’re not supposed to mention the semitic family and the Arab and Jewish connection.
The uneducated will be confused.
Cue the old joke about Charlize Theron being the first African American to win an Oscar for "Best Actress"...
Or Terayza potentially being our first African-American First Lady.
Actually, it’s always confused me how an arab can be antisemitic. Are we talking self-loathing or something.
Of course he wasn't.
Who was ever gullible enough to believe such tripe in the first place?
- John
Shaptoon and Jesse Jackass are probably on a plane headed for Egypt to assemble protesters to accuse the study group of "Racism" and "taking away our heritage".
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