What biological evidence do you have of this? While I think that it's highly likely that there were pockets of people from the Levant in early Lower Egypt, the bulk of all evidence (in all forms) points towards this region being peopled primarily by the Nilotic communities of the ancient Sahara.
Actually Keita only commented on the commonality seen between admixed Coastal Northwest African populations and early Dynastic Egyptians, he did not purposely exclude Semitic populations in the Middle East. In fact in his next study it was found that even when Egyptian cranial from different times periods and regions (including the north) pulled together they grouped closer to the tropical African series (which included Sudanese and even a West African sample) over the Near Eastern series:
In case you haven't noticed by now, the number of studies conducted on early Lower Egyptian population remains are minimal at best. One of the main reasons given for the lack of anthropological analysis of those people during that time is due to a simple lack of human remains, which is another nod to the fact that this region was sparsely populated during pre-early Dynastic times.
No, Actually Northeast African cranial variations are not the result of isolated/limited outside geneflow, but instead an product of Africa:
Genetic research also finds the same the thing:
Understanding that not all "black" Africans conform to a particular set of traits is key to understanding this stance. So when some people are insistence on using their own subjective interpretations of stylized Egyptian art work (while simultaneously ignoring everything else), then they must take these facts into consideration. For example are the Egyptians not "black" because they don't have the same pitch black skin tone as Dinka people? If so then that would mean that damn near 90% of Nigerians tend be a brownish-to yellow skinned color aren't black either:
Attachment 6276
(Egyptians bottom left)
Attachment 6277
(Beja man)
Attachment 6293
(Sudanese Dinka)
Attachment 6279
(Nigerian)
Attachment 6281
(Kenyan)
The list goes on X(1000).
What evidence do you have for this? The Thesis paper by Raxter (assuming that's what you're building off of) is limited in validity, but none the less does not dispute the consistent fact that the ancient Egyptians and Nubians (who are once yet again mentioned interchangeably) had limb proportions that grouped them with the majority of other Africans (who are tropically adapted). No mention of this affinity with Middle Easterners who are not tropically adapted.
No I did do not equate all of Africa and Africans as black, instead I have always specified "tropical" African and note that this indicates that a population is "black" or has dark skin like black Africans. Both Lower and Upper Egyptians were tropically adapted like other Africans further to the south. One was not intermediate between tropical and sub tropical populations as you are insinuating, but fully tropically adapted.
Nothing in that study refutes what I have been arguing.
NEVER have I denied that there was mutual influence between the Levant and early Lower Egypt. I have even stated several times that I believe it to be very likely that there were pockets of Levantine communities in early Lower Egypt. What I and the study that you just cited refute is the notion that Lower Egypt was initially populated by a large early movement of people from the Levant. The people of pre-Dynastic Lower Egypt were not
LONG TERM residence of the Sub Tropical environment that they recently settled in,
UNLIKE most people in the Levant. This is why they had limb proportion ratios which were said to have been "significantly different" from the people of the Levant and instead grouping with the majority of tropical African populations further to the south. This is consistent with archaeological evidence suggesting a migration from the southerly/tropical regions of the Sahara to Lower Egypt...hence the primary population source of that region. So why would these recent Nilotic migrants on the Lower Nile not be "black"?
No I'm asking
YOU to back
YOUR assertion that Egyptian artwork display a skin tone gradient from the south to the north. You have asserted time and time again (baselessly) that Lower Egyptians were tropically adapted yet "light skinned" and stated that artwork validates this claim (as nothing else appears to), so please back your assertion or admit that it is fallacious.
You are in denial of what almost every Egyptologist considers to be common knowledge.
ALL of it has not been destroyed by silt. It is
SPECULATED that
SOME sites may not have been destroyed, none the less I have yet to see any Egyptologist withhold judgement on the matter of early ancient Egypt's population centers because of this. They all conclude that it's
CLEAR that the south was where most of early Egypt's population resided and conversely where Dynastic culture originated. Acknowledging this fact does not "down play" the cultures of Lower Egypt, is a statement of fact.
Your entire opposition to calling ancient Egypt black, is because you wish to hold onto the
SPECULATIVE notion that some sites in Lower Egypt were destroyed by silt. From that
YOU (never citing an Egyptologist) comes to the conclusion that Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt may have had comparable populations (a statement which is contrary to two authoratative sources presented to you). Of course it all boils down to your unfounded belief that Lower Egyptians were some "light skinned" (yet tropically adapted) population. From all of that speculation that you've come up with
YOU conclude that my position that Egypt was black, which is soundly supported by biological and cultural evidence showing closest affinities towards more southerly African populations is baseless. Interestingly enough I have authoritative scholarship unmistakably backing my assertion:
So who is wrong; The scholars at Oxford or You and a handful of other armchair historians?
Tell me what bearing would population movement from 30k years ago have on a population that came into existence 5k years ago? Better yet what did people from the Levant even look like during early time in human history? Studies from the oldest skeletal remains in Egypt (around this time period) not surprisingly shows close affinities towards black Africans:
Bookmarks