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 Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2014 10:28 am
Ok so I have been watching alot of youtube. Mostly focused on Egyptian documentaries. And on every single one there is the huge debate about what skin tone were the ancient Egyptians. Personally I think the only white king was Alexander the Great. The black pharaohs ruled in the 25th dynasty and everyone else was brown or in the case of the Ptolemaic period olive skinned. But I guess you could argue that as being "white". Thoughts?
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 3:39 pm
Oh the great skin debate. (Wasnt Cleopatra originally from Greece?)
The Egyptians were mixed due to their "Hey let's go convert this land!" I can't remember where I read it at but the "brown" skin was the "original" skin tone in Egypt. The "black" tone was introduced with the mixing of Egyptians and Nubians in Upper Egypt and then the lighter tones came from the mixing of Lower Egypt and traders. Grossly simplified.
The debate pops up every couple months within the Kemetic community. Next time it does I'll throw some links in here.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 5:50 pm
Actually Miss Cleo was born in Egypt. She was the only Ptolemy decedent to learn Ancient Egyptian. She married both her brothers as per tradition. So in essence she was Egyptian. Just not of Egyptian blood. Her ancestor Ptolemy was a general in Alexander the Greats army. He was from Macedonia (Upper Greece).
I think you are over simplifying with the skin tones. This is after all the land of Africa. They may not have had to mix Nubians with the "Originals" to produce the ligher black tone. Although I have no info on their mixing if indeed there was mixing. (I seriously doubt there wasnt some mixing). But not the point.
A few documentaries I have seen said the original founders of Kemet were nomadic in nature and would follow the rainy seasons north to the temporary lakes that would form. For a desert people water was the most important thing as 3 days without could mean death. Any how after the winds shifted the Sahara became a perma desert. No more lakes were to be found so the nomads headed east towards the Nile. What they found when they got there who can say? It could have vary well been settled by the Nubians already. Either way 2 kingdoms were set up into Upper and Lower Egypt.
We do know that Nubians ruled for over 100 years in the 25th dynasty. So I guess for the people who want to say there were no black people in Egypt are wrong. But so too are the Afrocentric people who believe all people of Kemet were black. If they were indeed all dark skinned like the Nubians wouldnt we see that in the art?
I guess in the end I would rather argue about what color they were then over "ALIENZ BUILDZ PYRAMIDZ! EARLY HUMAN STOOPIDZ!"
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 2:44 pm
The point that I was making was that Cleopatra would have had a different skin tone. Which the skin tone of the Kings started getting lighter towards the later periods due to the Greeks and Romans coming to conquer the land. According to Geraldine Pinch there was a distinct difference between Nubia and Egypt. The nomads settled in Egypt because of the extremely fertile soil along the Nile River. The record of contact between the Nubians and Egyptians was when kings in Upper Egypt (I don't remember which ones and I don't have the book readily available) decided they were going to go into Nubia and try to conquer them. They made a distinction by the skin color. That the Nubians were very much darker than the Egyptians.
The debate the Afrocentric people pose is solely based on that Egypt is in Africa and that kemet means "black land". What they refuse to acknowledge is that there are different skin tones throughout Egyptian history and that the Egyptian word for desert is deshret which means "red land". They say that kemet was referring to the skin tone of the people not the actual color of the land itself because the soil would turn black after the Nile would flood and recede.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2014 8:23 am
Oh yes Cleopatra would have had the greek skin tone. As for the lighter skins well we cant forget about the "Sea people". Hittites came in Ramesses II reign. I am sure there was some rape and pillage if not love of the exotic Egyptians.
I am not sure which king it was but I believe I heard something about them only using it for gold mining. Like they used the Sudan for turquoise mining.
I really think that whole Kemet is black land = black people but deshret means red land = sand is just silly. I had someone tell me that the Egyptians had to be black skinned because they have big noses and nostrils with wide foreheads. Well so does my husband and he is a pacific islander from Palau. Come to think of it my great uncle has one heck of nose on him. Guess he is black too! smile
You can see in art the differences in skin tone. There are all kinds of reliefs of them in papyrus and tombs.
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