Dynastic Kemetian physiognomy

It has been established that (bolded, below):

"The origins of the ancient Egyptian state and its formation have received much attention through analysis of mortuary contexts, skeletal material, and trade. Genetic diversity was analyzed by studying craniometric variation within a series of six time-successive Egyptian populations in order to investigate the evidence for migration over the period of the development of social hierarchy and the Egyptian state. Craniometric variation, based upon 16 measurements, was assessed through principal components analysis, discriminant function analysis, and Mahalanobis D2 matrix computation. Spatial and temporal relationships were assessed by Mantel and Partial Mantel tests. The results indicate overall population continuity over the Predynastic and early Dynastic, and high levels of genetic heterogeneity, thereby suggesting that state formation occurred as a mainly indigenous process."

- Zakrzewski (2007)

So state formation didn't come with any sweeping genetic impact that could be gleaned physically.

Moving on ...

Affinities (or lack thereof) to other peoples hugging the Mediterranean:

"…Finkel (1974, 1978), after a normal equivalent deviate analysis of numerous diachronic ancient “Middle Eastern” cranial series, including some Egyptian, Iranian, Turkish, Syrian, and Greek ones, as well as the Lachish Iron Age series, is able to conclude that this broad region’s populations do not have the characteristics of a single breeding population, i.e., a model viewing this area as a single breeding region with a single morphometric pattern fails. Thus the "Mediterranean race” concept is seen to be questionable-if not invalid-at least on the craniometric level."

- Keita, 1988, An analysis of crania from Tell-Duweir using multiple discriminant functions.

Affinities to the Maghreb

"Epipaleolithic 'mesolithic' Nile Valley remains have these characteristics and diverge notably from their Maghreban and European counterparts in key cranio-facial characteristics (see comments in Keita 1990) although late Natufian hunters and early Anatolian farmers (Angel 1972) shared some of these traits, suggesting late Paleolithic migration out of Africa, as supported by archeology (Bar Yosef 1987). Lumping the epipaleolithic remains of the Nile Valley and even those from the Maghreb, into one group has little to support it..."

- Keita, Studies and Comments on Ancient Egyptian Biological Relationships, 1993.

"Over 100 human skeletons of Late Paleolithic age are known from Egypt and adjacent Sudan. Physically, they are all classified as Homo Sapiens. They are grouped with the Mechtoids of the Maghreb, but details of their teeth indicate that they are a separate population, with many similarities to groups in sub-Saharan Africa."

- Encyclopedia of Prehistory - Volume 1: Africa Published in conjunction with the Human Relations Area Files (Encyclopedia of Prehistory) (Hardcover) by Peter N. Peregrine (Editor), Melvin Ember (Editor)Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (January 2001) p.117

These three unrelated papers seem to be pointing in the same direction:

Who WeretheAncient Egyptians? Dental Affinities Among Neolithic Through Postdynastic Peoples
Joel D. Irish et. al. 2006

"Did Egyptians in the second half of the dynastic period become biologically distinct from those in the first?

Ideally, more dynastic samples than those from Abydos, Thebes, Qurneh, Tarkhan, Saqqara, Lisht, and Gizashouldbe compared to address such abroad question. Yet excluding the Lisht and perhaps Saqqara outliers, it appears that overall dental homogeneity among these samples would argue against such a possibility (Table4; Figs. 2,3,5). Specifically, an inspection of MMD values reveals no evidence of increasing phenetic distance between samples from the first and second halves of this almost 3,000-year-long period. For example, phenetic distances between First-Second Dynasty Abydos and samples from Fourth Dynasty Saqqara (MMD¼0.050), 11- 12thDynastyThebes (0.000), 12thDynastyLisht (0.072), 19thþDynastyQurneh (0.053), and 26th-30thDynasty Giza (0.027) do not exhibita directional increase through time. Moreover, there is no conspicuous correlation between MMD and geographic distances within and between Upper and Lower Egypt. A similar pattern is evident when comparing First Dynasty Tarkhan to these same five Old Kingdom through Late Dynastic samples. All display moderate frequencies of the nine influential traits identified by CA, and a largely concordant occurrence of, and trends across, the remaining traits (Table 2). Thus, despite increasing foreign influence after the Second Intermediate Period, not only did Egyptian culture remain intact (Lloyd, 2000a), but the people themselves, as represented by the dental samples, appear biologically constant as well. These findings coincide with those of Brace et al. (1993, p. 1), who stated that the Egyptians were ''largely unaffected by either invasions or migrations,'' and do not support suggestions of increased diversity due to infiltration of outside physical elements.

Did Egyptians of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods differ significantly from their dynastic antecedents?

Again, more postdynastic samples would prove useful in answering this broad question. Moreover, any foreign genetic influence on the indigenous populace likely diminished relative to the distance upriver. However, as it stands, the lone Greek Egyptian (GEG) sample from Lower Egypt significantly differs from all but the small Roman-period Kharga sample (Table 4). In fact, it was shown to be a major outlier that is divergent from all others (Figs. 2,3,5). The Greek Egyptians exhibit the lowest frequencies of UM1 cusp 5, three-rooted UM2, five-cusped LM2, and two-rooted LM2, along with a high incidence of UM3 absence, among others (Table 2). This trait combination is reminiscent of that in Europeans and western Asians (Turner, 1985a; Turner and Markowitz, 1990; Roler, 1992; Lipschultz, 1996; Irish, 1998a). Thus, if the present heterogeneous sample is at all representative of peoples during Ptolemaic times, it may suggest some measure of foreign admixture, at least in Lower Egypt near Saqqara and Manfalut. Another possibility is that the sample consists of actual Greeks. Although their total number was probably low (Peacock, 2000), Greek administrators and others were present in Lower Egypt. Future comparisons to actual Greek specimens will help verify this possibility."

"Egyptian continuity extends across time (as evidenced by affinities among the three predynastic, five of seven dynastic, and two or perhaps three Roman period samples) and space (as indicated by the mostly random distribution of points denoting Upper and Lower Egyptians)."

- Irish et. al. 2006

Facts gleaned from the study

* Continuity throughout the Dynastic era and across Kemet.

* The Greek period sample a major outlier only resembling the Roman period one.

So any major demic events have to occur prior to, late in, and after Dynastic times. Joel and the gang go on to write:

"Still, the patterning illustrated by the MDS and CA diagrams is of interest, and will receive attention in future studies comparing Egyptians to samples from elsewhere in northeast Africa, greater North Africa, sub- Saharan Africa, and the western Mediterranean area."

- Irish 2006

Another study takes a look at a different feature and reaches similar conclusions:

Zakrzewski, Sonia R. (2003) Variation in Ancient Egyptian Stature and Body Proportions. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 121(3): 219-229.

"The nature of the body plan was also investigated by comparing the intermembral, brachial, and crural indices for these samples with values obtained from the literature. No significant differences were found in either index through time for either sex. The raw values in Table 6 suggest that Egyptians had the “super-Negroid” body plan described by Robins (1983). The values for the brachial and crural indices show that the distal segments of each limb are longer relative to the proximal segments than in many “African” populations (data from Aiello and Dean, 1990). This pattern is supported by Figure 7 (a plot of population mean femoral and tibial lengths; data from Ruff, 1994), which indicates that the Egyptians generally have tropical body plans. Of the Egyptian samples, only the Badarian and Early Dynastic period populations have shorter tibiae than predicted from femoral length. Despite these differences, all samples lie relatively clustered together as compared to the other populations."

- Zakrzewski et. al. 2003

Comparisons with folks further down the Nile (which has one major source in Ethiopia and the other clear past the equator) ..

"Badarian occupies a position closest to the Teita, Gaboon, Nubian, and Nagada series by centroid values and territorial maps. The Nagada and the Kerma series are so similar that they are barely distinguishable in the territorial maps; they subsume the first dynasty series in Abydos… The Badarian crania have a modal metric phenotype that is clearly “southern”; most classify into the Kerma (Nubian), Gaboon, and Kenyan groups… No Badarian cranium in any analysis classified into the European series"

- Keita (1990)

Prime example, and one relevant specifically to the topic at hand:

TABLE 4. Intra-limb bone length indices
in US and Egyptian samples

********************* Crural indexA__ | ___Brachial indexB
******************* Males_ \ _Females | __Males___ \ _Females_
**************** Mean - SE \ Mean - SE | Mean - SE__ \ Mean - SE
****** U.S. Whites: 81.9 - 0.4 \ 82.0 - 0.4 | 74.3 - 0.4__ \ 73.5 - 0.5
****** U.S. Blacks: 83.7 - 0.4 \ 83.8 - 0.5 | 77.1 - 0.5_ \ 76.5 - 0.5
Ancient Egyptians: 83.6c - 0.2 \ 82.8 - 0.3 | 77.9c - 0.5 \ 77.5c - 0.6

- courtesy Raxter et. al. 2007

In different ways, overall Ancient Kemetians and U.S. Blacks measure further than one another from U.S. whites. None of these populations are a totem by which to measure purity however. But then neither is any population. Say we have a group of say Asians, as source population from which another group we'll call neo-Asians fully derive, and they diverge even further from collective non-Asians than had their source meaning either reduced phenetic variation held in common with non-Asians. This would appear to be a "purer race" than the population that spawned them and in this hypothetical scenario still by that time retained all the genetic variation they have and more. This is all why methods have to be revised and fine tuned; it's evolution and adaptation. We now in studies of physical remains use tactics like looking for traits that are not subject to positive or negative natural selection (i.e. evolution) and measure these closely to see if we see any change with any variables, like in the Zakrzewski et. al. 2007 study.

By the way -- brachial indices (intra-limb, as opposed to limb-trunk) place them well within the tropical African range -- but i imagine it's very hot in deserts, like a giant frying pan.

On a different note: did kemetians vary by class? Did royals, high officials, and farmers display any distinct patterns?

From the same study:

"There is no evidence for significant temporal or class-related variation among ancient Egyptians in linear body proportions. Thus, the new equations may be broadly applicable to Egyptian archaeological samples.

[...]

When plotted, proportions between workers and high officials also showed consistency and independent samples t-test results demonstrated no effect of social class on any of the proportions investigated (P [ 0.10)."

The "African climate" incorporates diverse temperature,
humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall,
atmospheric particle count and other meteorological
elements in a wide range of environments -- from
deserts, to high altitude snowy zones, to jungle,
to savannah, to mixed woodlands, to higher altitude cloud forest,
and all that is WITHIN the TROPICAL zone of Africa.
Africa have the highest phenotypic diversity being where anatomically
modern humans originated- that diversity is built-in to begin with,
but side from this, the broad variation if climates and micro-
climates WITHIN the tropical zone also means there will be
variation based on environmental factors. No "race mix" is needed
fundamentally to explain narrow noses for example. Narrow noses
can occur in colder high altitude mountain zones, or colder
high altitude cloud forest, or near cooler coastline zones or in
hot deserts where noses adapt to the need to regulate temps of
incoming air. While Africa has had migrants over centuries, and has
had hybrids, like any other continent, no "incoming Caucasoids" are
needed to fundamentally explain native variation already in place.
Skin color likewise can vary.



---------------------------------------------------------

And just as tropical African environments are diverse,
so are tropical African peoples as credible scientists
note time and time again.
QUOTES:


Most phenotypic variation
"Both methods for estimating regional diversity show sub-Saharan
Africa to have the highest levels of phenotypic variation, consistent with many genetic studies."
--- Relethford, John "Global Analysis of Regional Differences in Craniometric
Diversity and Population Substructure". Human Biology - Volume 73, Number 5,
October 2001, pp. 629-636)


Most genetic variation
"Africa contains tremendous cultural, linguistic and genetic diversity, and
has more than 2,000 distinct ethnic groups and languages.. Studies using
mitochondrial (mt)DNA and nuclear DNA markers consistently indicate that
Africa is the most genetically diverse region of the world."
---Tishkoff SA, Williams SM., Genetic analysis of African populations:
human evolution and complex disease. Nature Reviews Genetics. 2002 Aug (8):611-21.)


Most skin color variation
"Previous studies of genetic and craniometric traits have found higher
levels of within-population diversity in sub-Saharan Africa compared
to other geographic regions.
This study examines regional differences in within-population diversity
of human skin color. Published data on skin reflectance were collected
for 98 male samples from eight geographic regions: sub-Saharan Africa,
North Africa, Europe, West Asia, Southwest Asia, South Asia, Australasia,
and the New World. Regional differences in local within-population diversity
were examined using two measures of variability: the sample variance and
the sample coefficient of variation. For both measures, the average level of
within-population diversity is higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in other geographic
regions. This difference persists even after adjusting for a correlation between
within-population diversity and distance from the equator. Though affected by
natural selection, skin color variation shows the same pattern of higher African
diversity as found with other traits."

-- Relethford JH.(2000). Human skin color diversity is highest in sub-Saharan
African populations. Hum Biol. 2000 Oct;72(5):773-80.)

Does anyone know about the cranial studies discussed at Egyptsearch where they found the cranial and or dental traits of groups changed during the Neolithic and switch to farming and different dietary habits?

Particularly one on the Nubians?

Or either, those studies existed but the one on the Nubians I'm looking for is the one where they cranially more resemble West Africans than later Nile Valley inhabitants. Thanks.

Good points. Some additional comments:

1) Almost 15-17% of AE is itself in the tropical zone. And that zone
has fluctuated further north.






2) ^^African Americans are not a sub-tropical population- they are
ancestrally a tropical one.


3) The San have intermediate indices in their cooler zone but they
are all the same "SubSaharan" Africans, hard as it is for some people
to believe.


4) While Africans show tropical adaptations they have also ranges in
such things as crural indices that overlap European populations- and
can be less than Europeans- an unsuprising pattern given the greater
phenotypic diversity of Africans.

F. X. Ricaut M. Waelkens
Cranial Discrete Traits in a Byzantine Population and Eastern Mediterranean Population Movements
Human Biology - Volume 80, Number 5, October 2008, pp. 535-564

Abstract: "Since the beginning of the Holocene, the Anatolian region has been a crossroads for populations and civilizations from Europe, Asia, and the Near to Middle East, with increasing interactions since the Bronze Age. In this context, we examine cranial discrete traits from a Byzantine population from southwest Turkey, excavated at the archeological site of Sagalassos; the site displays human occupation since the 12th millennium b.p. To investigate the biological history of this population, we analyzed the frequency distribution of 17 cranial discrete traits from Sagalassos and 27 Eurasian and African populations. Ward’s clustering procedure and multidimensional scaling analyses of the standardized mean measure of divergence (MMDst), based on trait frequencies, were used to represent the biological affinity between populations. Our results, considered within a large interpretive framework that takes into account the idea that populations are dynamic entities affected by various influences through time and space, revealed different strata of the Sagalassos biological history. Indeed, beyond an expected biological affinity of the Sagalassos population with eastern Mediterranean populations, we also detected affinities with sub-Saharan and northern and central European populations. We hypothesize that these affinity patterns in the Sagalassos biological package are the traces of the major migratory events that affected southwest Anatolia over the last millennia, as suggested from biological, archeological, and historical data."

"Keeping in mind these three elements, if we consider the affinity of the Sagalassos population with the sub-Saharan populations from Gabon and Somalia, a recent direct contact between these populations and regions probably can be excluded because they are seperated by significant geographic distances. However, indirect contacts through geographically intermediary populations carrying "sub-Saharan" biological features in the late Pleistocene-Holocene period are discussion points."

"From the Mesolithic to the early Neolithic period different lines of evidence support an out-of-Africa Mesolithic migration to the Levant by northeastern African groups that had biological affinities with sub-Saharan populations. From a genetic point of view, several recent genetic studies have shown that sub-Saharan genetic lineages (affiliated with the Y-chromosome PN2 clade; Underhill et al. 2004) have spread through Egypt into the Near East, the Mediterranean area, and, for some lineages, as far north as Turkey(E3b-M35 Y lineage; Cinnioglu et al. 2004; Luis et al. 2004), probably during several dispersal episodes since the Mesolithic (Cinnioglu et al. 2004; King et al. 2008; Lucotte and Mercier 2003; Luis et al. 2004; Quintanna-Murci et al. 1999; Semino et al. 2004; Underhill et al. 2001). This finding is in agreement with morphological data that suggest that populations with sub-Saharan morphological elements were present in northeastern Africa, from the Paleolithic to at least the early Holocene, and diffused northward to the Levant and Anatolia beginning in the Mesolithic. Indeed, the rare and incomplete 33,000-year-old Nazlet Khater specimen (Pinhasi and Semal 2000), the Wadi Kubbaniya skeleton from the late Paleolithic site in the upper Nile Valley (Wendorf et al. 1986), the Qarunian (Faiyum) early Neolithic crania (Henneberg et al. 1989; Midant-Reynes 2000), and the Nabta specimen from the Neolithic Nabta Playa site in the western desert of Egypt (Henneberg et al. 1980)-show, with regard to the great African biological diversity, similarities with some of the sub-Saharan middle Paleolithic and modern sub-Saharan specimens. This affinity pattern between ancient Egyptians and sub-Saharans has also been noticed by several other investigators (Angel 1972; Berry and Berry 1967, 1972; Keita 1995) and has been recently reinforced by the study of Brace et al. (2005), which clearly shows that the cranial morphology of prehistoric and recent northeast African populations is linked to sub-Saharan populations (Niger-Congo populations). These results support the hypothesis that some of the Paleolithic-early Holocene populations from northeast Africa were probably descendents of sub-Saharan ancestral populations."

"A late Pleistocene-early Holocene northward migration (from Africa to the Levant and to Anatolia) of these populations has been hypothesized from skeletal data (Angel 1972, 1973; Brace 2005) and from archaeological data, as indicated by the probable Nile Valley origin of the "Mesolithic" (epi-Paleolithic) Mushabi culture found in the Levant (Bar Yosef 1987). This migration finds some support in the presence in Mediterranean populations (Sicily, Greece, southern Turkey, etc.; Patrinos et al.; Schiliro et al. 1990) of the Benin sickle cell haplotype. This haplotype originated in West Africa and is probably associated with the spread of malaria to southern Europe through an eastern Mediterranean route (Salares et al. 2004)following the expansion of both human and mosquito populations brought about by the advent of the Neolithic transition (Hume et al 2003; Joy et al. 2003; Rich et al 1998). This northward migration of northeastern African populations carrying sub-Saharan biological elements is concordant with the morphological homogeneity of the Natufian populations (Bocquentin 2003), which present morphological affinity with sub-Saharan populations (Angel 1972; Brace et al. 2005). In addition, the Neolithic revolution was assumed to arise in the late Pleistocene Natufians and subsequently spread into Anatolia and Europe (Bar-Yosef 2002), and the first Anatolian farmers, Neolithic to Bronze Age Mediterraneans and to some degree other Neolithic-Bronze Age Europeans, show morphological affinities with the Natufians (and indirectly with sub-Saharan populations; Angel 1972; Brace et al 2005), in concordance with a process of demic diffusion accompanying the extension of the Neolithic revolution (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994)."

"Following the numerous interactions among eastern Mediterranean and Levantine populations and regions, caused by the introduction of agriculture from the Levant into Anatolia and southeastern Europe, there was, beginning in the Bronze Age, a period of increasing interactions in the eastern Mediterranean, mainly during the Greek, Roman, and Islamic periods. These interactions resulted in the development of trading networks, military campaigns, and settler colonization. Major changes took place during this period, which may have accentuated or diluted the sub-Saharan components of earlier Anatolian populations. The second option seems more likely, because even though the population from Sagalassos territory was interacting with northeastern African and Levantine populations [trade relationships with Egypt (Arndt et al. 2003), involvement of thousands of mercanries from Pisidia (Sagalassos region) in the war around 300 B.C. between the Ptolemaic kingdom (centered in Egypt) and the Seleucid kingdom (Syria/Mesopotamia/Anatolia), etc.], the major cultural and population interactions involving the Anatolian populations since the Bronze Age occured with the Mediterranean populations form southeastern Europe, as suggested from historical and genetic data."

"Consequently, one may hypothesize as the most parsimonious explanation that sub-Saharan biological elements were introduced into the Anatolian populations after the Neolithic spread and have been preserved since this time, at least until the 11th-13th century A.D., in the population living in the Sagalassos territory of southwestern Anatolia. This scenario implies that the affinity between Sagalassos and the two sub-Saharan populations (Gabon and Somalia) is more likely due to the sharing of a common ancestor and that the major changes and increasing interactions in the eastern Mediterranean beginning in the Bronze Age did not erase some of the sub-Saharan elements carried by Anatolian populations, as shown by genetic data and the morphologivcal features of our southwestern Anatolian sample."

"In this context it is likely that Bronze Age events may have facilitated the southward diffusion of populations carrying northern and central European biological elements and may have contributed to some degree of admixture between northern and central Europeans and Anatolians, and on a larger scale, between northeastern Mediterraneans and Anatolians. Even if we do not know which populations were involved, historical and archaeological data suggest, for instance, the 2nd millenium B.C. Minoan and later Mycenaean occupation of Anatolian coast, the arrival in Anatolia in the early 1st millennium B.C. of the Phrygians coming from Thrace, and later the arrival of settlers from Macedonia in Pisidia and in the Sagalassos territory (under Seleucid rule). The coming of the Dorians from Northern Greece and central Europe (the Dorians are claimed to be one of the main groups at the origin of the ancient Greeks) may have also brought northern and central European biological elements into southern populations. Indeed, the Dorians may have migrated southward to the Peloponnese, across the southern Aegean and Create, and later reached Asia Minor."