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King Tut's skin color a topic of controversy
LA Life ^ | Wednesday, June 15, 2005 | Evan Henerson

Posted on 06/16/2005 6:59:26 AM PDT by optik_b

King Tut's skin color a topic of controversy

By Evan Henerson Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - Nobody can be sure exactly what the boy king Tutankhamun looked like. But a group of African-American activists charting the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibition are certain of one thing: He didn't look white.

Following an appearance before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, activists from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Committee for the Elimination of Media Offensive to African People, and the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations plan to protest the Tut exhibition, which opens today at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

They claim a trio of busts configured from Tut's corpse and a CT scan depict the ruler as being white, and are, therefore, inaccurate and racist.

"Those images are so critical for our children," says Legrand Clegg, Compton city attorney and a spokesman for the protesters. "We want them to focus not just on rappers, athletes and entertainers but on figures who are high achievers. What could be more elevating than a little boy who ruled the world?"

Three separate teams of researchers reviewing the data from the mummified corpse have concluded that Tutankhamun, who was part of the 18th Egyptian dynasty, was a Caucasoid North African. Clegg contends these conclusions fly in the face of separate research by a New Zealand and British research team that label Tut Negroid.

"The big variable is skin tone," says Terry Garcia, executive vice president for mission programs for National Geographic, one of the exhibition's presenters. "North Africans, we know today, had a range of skin tones, from light to dark. In this case, we selected a medium skin tone, and we say, quite up front, 'This is midrange.' We'll never know for sure what his exact skin tone was or the color of his eyes with 100 percent certainty.

"Maybe in the future, people will come to a different conclusion," Garcia continues. "From what we know, there is no doubt this individual was of North African descent."

That's not good enough for the activists, who demonstrated peacefully before an opening reception Wednesday and planned to protest again at today's opening.

"All we're asking," says Clegg, "is removal of those impostor busts, which have nothing to do with relics.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 18thdynasty; amarna; ancientautopsies; archaeology; blackathena; blackpharaoh; blackpharaohs; blackracism; blacksparkwhitefire; cary; earlofcarnarvon; egypt; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; haplogroupr1b1a2; helixmakemineadouble; history; howardcarter; iseedumbpeople; kingtut; r1b1a2; tut; tutankamen; tutankamun; tutankhamen; tutankhamun
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To: Red Badger

Why don't they just concede he was black and get this over with? Afterall, who cares?


21 posted on 06/16/2005 7:12:02 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: optik_b

I saw him on TV a long time ago.
He looked pretty pale to me, white hair.

http://www.songfacts.com/lyrics.lasso?ident=3813


22 posted on 06/16/2005 7:12:42 AM PDT by tumblindice
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To: optik_b
A few years ago I ran into a young lady who insisted that Cleopatra was an African-American. I asked how Cleopatra could be considering the Greek 'influence' of Alexandria at the time and teh fact that there was was no 'known' America at the time for her to be imported from to rule Egypt. The young lady said I was just being racist.

I then asked if she was an Amfrican American, who took her ancestors to American and then brought her back? More being called racist.

So I said, 'do you mean she looked like an African-American looks today?' and she finally said I was correct. She had no idea of what Alexander the Great did in Egypt (Alex the Who?).

23 posted on 06/16/2005 7:14:36 AM PDT by pikachu (Six is afraid of seven because seven ate nine!)
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To: optik_b
"We want them to focus not just on rappers, athletes and entertainers but on figures who are high achievers. What could be more elevating than a little boy who ruled the world?"

Oh yeah, right. Have the little munchkins daydream all say long about becoming Pharaoh. Why not present them with achievable goals like graduating from high school, to begin with!!!

24 posted on 06/16/2005 7:14:51 AM PDT by varon (Allegiance to the constitution, always. Allegiance to a political party, never.)
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To: optik_b

Well...with the Egyptian sun, there's not much of a chance he looks 'white' as in Nordic blonde blue eyed.


25 posted on 06/16/2005 7:15:48 AM PDT by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: PBRSTREETGANG

>>The homosexuals should be chiming in to say that he was gay any second now.<<

Well. . .you know. . .Tut did wear makeup and dressed rather "gay."

;-)


26 posted on 06/16/2005 7:16:54 AM PDT by Gunrunner2
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To: optik_b

The real question: With whom did he sleep with? "History" cannot be finally written till that is answered


27 posted on 06/16/2005 7:16:54 AM PDT by C210N (-)
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To: optik_b
Well, when a true African achiever is a rarity, one must adopt an Egyptian achiever.
28 posted on 06/16/2005 7:17:20 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: Joe 6-pack

Excellent comment and observation.


29 posted on 06/16/2005 7:18:36 AM PDT by Gunrunner2
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To: PBRSTREETGANG

Reg Shoe, undead head of the Fresh Start Club, is protesting that Tut isn't dead, only mortality challenged.


Of course, if you haven't read any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series - that won't make any sense.


30 posted on 06/16/2005 7:18:57 AM PDT by Tennessee_Bob (The Crew Chief's Toolbox: A roll around cabinet full of specialists.)
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To: optik_b

Egypt is a dead civilization. There's only today with today's problems and what's wrong with Condi Rice or Thomas Sowell? I've worked with these types before. I don't have a problem with Egyptians being black but it seems to me that the main attractants to this nubian-kemetic historical revisionism are inner city black people with no education who latch onto a kemetic guru and believe every word they say.


31 posted on 06/16/2005 7:19:02 AM PDT by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: cyborg

Want to start a fight in Egypt. . .call an Egyptian a Back and see what happens.

Whoa. . .


32 posted on 06/16/2005 7:20:47 AM PDT by Gunrunner2
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To: Gunrunner2

Oh yes I know all about that too.


33 posted on 06/16/2005 7:21:43 AM PDT by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: optik_b
The idea that these fools need to go back to Tut for a role model then is pathetic. What they (blacks) need is to get away from the Dems ands liberals. What they need is a stable caring family - mother and FATHER. Not Tut as a role model.
34 posted on 06/16/2005 7:25:48 AM PDT by ghitma (MeClaudius)
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To: pikachu

Cleopatra was a Ptolemy, from Greece, in the Caucuses and thus Caucasian. I'm also gonna guess that the Egyptians knew what they looked like when the painted themselves and from the Ramses II exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science, they look kind of White. There was a Nubian Dynasty but it was short lived and not from the era of Tut.

God Bless Victor Borge. He made them do the Bat Dance. Is that torture?


35 posted on 06/16/2005 7:27:47 AM PDT by massgopguy (massgopguy)
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To: optik_b; All

These people make morons look smart.

Egyptians are not dark like those from further south.

They REALLY need to get a brain.


36 posted on 06/16/2005 7:29:27 AM PDT by rwfromkansas (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=rwfromkansas)
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To: 1FASTGLOCK45

"What could be more exciting than a little black child that once ruled the world".

judging by all the TV coverage, a former black child who became a white adult who sleeps with children is more exciting...


37 posted on 06/16/2005 7:30:55 AM PDT by Rakkasan1 (The MRS wanted to go to an expensive place to eat so I took her to the gas station.)
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To: scott7278

'Wass wrong 'wit 50¢ent?!


38 posted on 06/16/2005 7:31:21 AM PDT by johnny7 ('Mama T' has seen her husbands 'dishonorable discharge'.)
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To: optik_b; SunkenCiv

Let's just say he was freckled and make everyone happy.


39 posted on 06/16/2005 7:32:27 AM PDT by ValerieUSA
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To: optik_b

Have they demanded an apology and reparations yet?


40 posted on 06/16/2005 7:34:01 AM PDT by BluH2o
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