King Tut's skin color a topic of controversy

LA Life ^ | Wednesday, June 15, 2005 | Evan Henerson

[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.

[Antoninus]

My post from the previous thread on this idiocy:

This should end this argument. Following are items from King Tut's tomb. The first is a bust of Tutankhamun:



The second is a close up of Tut's footstool, showing Asiatic and African captives:




Verdict: this guy's a bozo.

[SunkenCiv]

here's the earlier topic, also on the GGG list:

King Tut Exhibit Outrages Activists
NBC 4 | 4:03 pm PDT June 7, 2005
Posted on 06/08/2005 4:49:47 AM PDT by echoBoomer
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1418687/posts

[adam_az]

"The real question: With whom did he sleep with?"

His sister, which makes him a bona-fide Bubba.

[latina4dubya]

Using Democrat logic, Elizabeth Taylor played Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor is white, therefore King Tut has to be white as well. Holywierd has spoken to this issue and we all know that Hollywood celibrities are experts in all areas that concern us. /sarcasm on.

yes--but that was at a time when Loni Anderson took on roles as the typical Indian Squaw... dark make up, black hair, and there you have it... okay--sarcasm over...

[Cinnamon Girl]

Thank you for posting that. I have pictures in a book of Egyptian art and how carefully they distinguished the different colors and features of different peoples, but how could I post it?

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, you could scan it and then save the resulting doc files on line . . . .

(Lot of trouble, I know, but I've done it for special pics.)

[RightWhale]

I don't know why there should be any controversy. Can't somebody just take a look?

[AnAmericanMother]

His skin was completely covered with the unguents and tars used to preserve the body, and very badly stained. The embalmers overdid it a bit, and the corpse is in extremely poor condition. Unfortunately, you couldn't tell if he was originally purple.

[RightWhale]

Well, skin color isn't the characteristic anyway. The hair is it. Is there any hair left?

[AnAmericanMother]

Nope. What wasn't shaved off was burned up by the unguents. The only thing on the poor moke's head is sort of a braided cap thing. It doesn't look like hair.

I'm not going to post the pic because he's in pretty bad shape (his head was separated from his body a long time ago, I think by one of the archaeologists because his body had sort of melted into the coffin), but you can find it here

[RightWhale]

Oh. Well, there is no shortage of mummies even though they used them to power their locomotives not so long ago. Seems like there should be a clear enough picture of general characteristics of that region and time.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Actually, I would suspect that the Egyptian Coptic Chrisitians would bear the closest resemblance to ancient Egyptians.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Actually, I would suspect that the Egyptian Coptic Chrisitians would bear the closest resemblance to ancient Egyptians.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Actually, I would suspect that the Egyptian Coptic Chrisitians would bear the closest resemblance to ancient Egyptians.

[BenLurkin]

Bingo

[SaveTheChief]

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.

Maybe I'm not smart enough, but could someone please tell me why it is important to know the skin color of an Egyptian pharaoh who died thousands of years ago? Does this possibly have anything to do with who we are today and where we are going from here?

[Wuli]

I would not think that genetically or by appearence today's Coptic Christians differ much with the general Egyptian population.

I would think maybe you are projecting a similar kind of hopefulness on your part, as do African-Americans wishing to claim a heritage link with ancient Egypt.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Huh? I don't think that King Tut was black. Where did you get that idea? The Coptic Christians of Egypt do indeed look the majority but there are less likely to be descended from Arabs because their ancestors were in Egypt prior to the invasion. I never claimed they were black. I was only presenting the theory that they were more likely to resemble the Ancient Egyptians.

Perhaps you are confused because there are also Coptic Christians in Ethiopia, who also happen to be black.

[Modernman]

"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?"

What a moron. I doubt king of the world is a viable career path for many people, black or white. And is the inbred heir to a despotic bronze-age kingdom really a role model for anyone?

[ken21]

gracias, senor.