1-Basic Database of Nile Valley Studies

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Modern scientific analysis of some ancient Egyptian mummies shows distinct Nubian & African traits- part of native Egyptian diversity. The ‘Two Brothers’ mummies of the Middle Kingdom (12th Dynasty) illustrate this diversity, which is indigenous, not foreign.


“It appears that they were half-brothers, sharing a common mother, and all the evidence suggests that the younger of the two, Khnum-Nakht, had a negro father. He is estimated to have been 40-45 years old at death.. The skull is markedly prognathous, powerful in appearance and with a full set of teeth.. The elder brother, Nekht- Ankh, is estimated to have been 60 years old at death..”
--Ann Rosalie David,Egyptologist- The Manchester Museum Mummy Project. Manchester Museum (University of Manchester) - 1979


“This slight variation in the inscriptions, taken in conjunction with the men's marked anatomical differences, may indicate that their mother had two husbands, and that the father of Khnum-Nakht possessed Nubian ancestry. During much of Egypt's history, there was a certain mingling of the peoples of Nubia with those of Egypt at all levels of society.”
–A Rosalie David. 2007. The Two Brothers: Death and the Afterlife in Middle Kingdom Egypt. p109


Modern DNA testing confirms African character of the two mummies: QUOTE:

"We study the kinship of two high-status Egyptians from the 12th Dynasty.. Ancient DNA was extracted from the teeth of the two mummies.. Sequences were obtained after hybridization capture of mtDNA and Y chromosome DNA.. Both mummies belong to mt haplotype M1a1, suggesting a maternal relationship.... Y DNA sequences showed variations, indicating that the mummies had different fathers..The SNP identities were consistent with mtDNA haplogroup M1a1 with 88.05–91.27% degree of confidence, thus confirming the African origins of the two individuals."
--Drosoua et al. 2018. The kinship of two 12th Dynasty mummies revealed by ancient DNA sequencing. Jrnl of Ar Sci, v17. Feb 2018, 793-797

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Reconstruction of Roman period child mummy



FROM: Yearbook of Mummy Studies, Vol. 2, pp. 159-166, 5 figs., March 2014
Stages of the facial reconstruction of a Roman Period Egyptian child mummy
made by Raymond Evenhouse (University of Illinois at Chicago) in 1990.
(Wisseman & Hunt, pp. 87-94)

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MISCELLANEOUS NOTES- THE NATUFIANS




A Basal Eurasian lineage in the Near East is plausible given the presence of anatomically modern humans in the Levant29 ~100 thousand years ago and African-related tools likely made by modern humans in Arabia30,31. Alternatively, evidence for gene flow between the Near East and Africa32, and African morphology in pre-farming Natufians33 from Israel, may also be consistent with the population representing a later movement of humans out of Africa and into the Near East.”
–Lizardis et al 2014. Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans. Nature 513, 409–413


"Typologically these points exhibit sufficient similarity in form and method of manufacture to be subsumed within a single African “tradition.” They are absent at Fayum, where a distinct Natufian form occurs. Specimens dating to ca. 20,000 BP at Ishango, possibly a similar age at White Paintings Shelter, and up to 90,000 BP at Katanda clearly fall within this same African tradition and thus indicate a very long-term continuity which crosses traditionally conceived sub-Saharan cultural boundaries."

-John E. Yellen, Barbed Bone Points: Tradition and Continuity in Saharan and Sub-Saharan Africa. African Archaeological Review September 1998, Volume 15, Issue 3, pp 173-198


"The Natufians were secondary foragers and, perhaps, the earliest farmers. This information led to the recognition that the Na"ufian culture played a major role in the emergence of the early Neolithic farming communities, or what is known as the Agricultural Revolution."

--Bar-Josef, Ofer (1998). The Natufian culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of agriculture. Evo Bio: v6, I5, 159-177

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EGYPTOLOGIST BARRY KEMP ON HOW ANCIENT EGYPTIANS ARE MISREPRESENTED BY SKEWED STUDIES

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““



Scholars studying Egypt and Nubia show that the two peoples, while varying, shared several cultural, genetic and material links, debunking simplistic, conservative 'racial' theories. Africans are the most pheontypically diverse.


QUOTE: “Any Egyptian evidence in Nubia was seen as an import or as cultural influence, while any Nubian evidence in Upper Egypt was viewed as the sporadic presence of foreign people within Egyptian territory. On the last few years, new research on the subject, particularly from a Nubian point of view, shows that the interaction between the two cultures was much more complex than previously thought, affecting the time, space and nature of the interaction (Gatto & Tiraterra 1996; Gatto 2000, 2003a, 2003b). The Aswan area was probably never a real borderline, at least not until the New Kingdom. Of particular importance in this perspective is the area between Armant and Dehmit, south of the First Cataract, as well as the surrounding deserts, .. The data recently collected and a new interpretation of available information are bringing to light a stable and long-term interaction between Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia that has to be seen in a very different perspective. The two regions, and so their cultural entities, are not in antithesis to one another, but in the Predynastic period are still the expression of the same cultural tradition, with strong regional variations, particularly in the last part of the 4th millennium BC. Some of them are clearly connected with the major cultural and political changes of Egypt."-- Maria Carmela Gatto (British Museum, London) 2002. "At the Origin of the Egyptian Civilisation: Reconsidering the Relationship between Egypt and Nubia in the Pre- and Protodynastic Periods."


Built-in African diversity makes overlap with others common.
Quote: “Both methods for estimating regional diversity show sub-Saharan Africa to have the highest levels of phenotypic variation, consistent with many genetic studies.“
--(Relethford, J. 2001. ‘Global Analysis of Regional Differences.’.)


Conservative Egyptologists show Nubians the closest ethnically to Egyptians and were heavily involved in Egypt- even as pharaohs during various eras

QUOTES: "Among the foreigners, the Nubians were closest ethnically to the Egyptians. In the late predynastic period (c. 3700-3150 B.C.E.), the Nubians shared the same culture as the Egyptians and even evolved the same pharaonic political structure.“
- F. J. Yurco, Biblical Archaeology Review, 15:5

“the XIIth Dynasty (1991-1786 B.C.E.) originated from the Aswan region. As expected, strong Nubian features and dark coloring are seen in their sculpture and relief work. This dynasty ranks as among the greatest, whose fame far outlived its actual tenure on the throne.”
- (F. J. Yurco, 'Were the ancient Egyptians black or white?', Biblical Archaeology Review (Vol 15, no. 5, 1989)

Quote: "The Mahalanobis D2 analysis uncovered close affinities between Nubians and Egyptians… In some cases, the statistics reveal that the Egyptian samples were more similar to Nubian samples than to other Egyptian samples (e.g. Gizeh and Hesa/Biga) and vice versa (e.g. Badari and Kerma, Naqada and Christian). .. The clustering of the Nubian and Egyptian samples together supports this paper's hypothesis and demonstrates that there may be a close relationship between the two populations. This relationship is consistent with Berry and Berry (1972), among others, who noted a similarity between Nubians and Egyptians.”
-- Godde K. (2009) An Examination of Nubian and Egyptian biological distances.. Homo. 2009;60(5):389-404.


At times the association between Nubians and Egyptians is so close that no difference can be found in the archaeological record

Quote: "The ancient Egyptians referred to a region, located south of the third cataract the Nile River, in which Nubians dwelt as Kush.. Within such context, this phrase is not a racial slur. Throughout the history of ancient Egypt there were numerous, well documented instances that celebrate Nubian-Egyptian marriages. A study of these documents, particularly those dated to both the Egyptian New Kingdom (after 1550 B.C.E.) and to Dynasty XXV and early Dynasty XXVI (about 720-640 BCE), reveals that neither spouse nor any of the children of such unions suffered discrimination at the hands of the ancient Egyptians.. Furthermore, at times, certain Nubian practices, such as tattooing for women, and the unisex fashion of wearing earrings, were wholeheartedly embraced by the ancient Egyptians.. .. It is an extremely difficult task to attempt to describe the Nubians during the course of Egypt's New Kingdom, because their presence appears to have virtually evaporated from the archaeological record.."
--Robert Bianchi, 2004. Daily Life of the Nubians, pp 4, 99-100`

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NOTES ON Badarian technology



"Evidence for ancient Egyptian cloth production dates from at least the Neolithic period (c. 5500 BC), when linen weaving became a staple industry... The horizontal ground loom was the only loom used before the New Kingdom and was first depicted on a painted pre-Dynastic Badarian dish in the Petrie Museum, London."
--DT Jenkins 2003. The Cambridge history of western textiles. (2003) - Page 32-34

and

"predynastic graves of Egypt.. contain beads of native copper.. Traces of copper, chiefly pins, needles and bodkins hammered out of native metal are found in the debris of the earliest agricultural settlements of the Nile Valley.. It is now generally accepted that the first metal to be found on all prehistoric copper sites, at the earliest time, is native copper."

"the conditions in Egypt were particularly favourable for the early discovery of copper by smelting the ore, and there is no need to postulate the occurrence and use of the native metal. Copper ores occur within the geographical limits of modern Egypt in two widely separted localities, namely, in Sinai, and in the eastern desert. The evidence for ancient copper mining and smelting by the Egyptians is twofold, first the existence of ancient mines with ruins.. and second, inscriptions in the neighbourhood of mines left by mining expeditions.. some of these workings [of turquoise] ..was mployed for beads and jewellery in both the Old and Middle Kingdoms, and even as early as the Badarian period), there can be no doubt.."

"Copper, which unlike gold, is not usually fond in nature in the metallic condition, but which must be produced artifically from unattractive-looking ores, was yer one of the earliest metals known to man. In Egypt it was employed before gold as far back as Badarian and early predynastic times. The earliest copper objects found are beads, borers and pins, which date from the Badarian period, and which continued in use during the early predynastic period, supplemented however by bracelets, small chisels, finger rings, harpoon heads, small implements, needles, tweezers and other small articles."

-A Lucas. 2003. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries. pp 228-229

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


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

".. strong evidence suggests that the Badarians discovered the loom and were, therefore, producing textiles as well. A pottery dish depicting a horizontal ground-loom was found at a tomb at Al-Badari. The earliest known Egyptian flax and Neolithic linen goes back to the Badarian period.

The Badarians also cleverly crafted combs of ivory, bone and wood which are remarkably reminiscent of traditional African combs. But perhaps the most impressive feature of Badarian culture was their highly distinctive pottery. Of superlative quality, the Badarians' pottery was of a reddish brown finish and the tops were burned black, by being inverted in the ashes of the kiln. The walls of the Badarian ceramics were fired to something of a metallic hardness even though they were often eggshell-thin"
-- Egypt Before the Pharaohs; By Gamal Nkrumah; Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, 16 - 22 November 2000, Issue No. 508.
weekly.ahram.org.eg/2000/508/fo3.htm


"..the evidence equally favors a two-bar loom known as a horizontal ground loom. It is this loom that is depicted on a Badarian pottery dish (fig 1-8). c. 5000 B.C., and that is represented on the earliest tomb paintings at Beni Hasan.."
--Eric Brundy (1993) The Book of Looms, pg 38-89


"Thus at the very dawn of the historic period in Egypt we find the craft of the spinner and the weaver very highly developed in technique; manifestly the early stages of the evolution of the loom must be sought far back in the predynastic era."
-- Alfred Lucas. Ancient Egyptian Materials & Industries - Page 167



===================================================================================================




IN ADDITION TO THE VARIOUS TECHNOLOGIES THE BADARIANS WERE MAKING ONE OF THE MOST PRODUCTIVE
CONTEMPORARY AGRICULTURE SYSTEMS ON EARTH

QUOTE:
"With the onset of the Neolithic, the dietary
diversity of hunter-gatherers is replaced with
dietary specialization on one or a few cereal
crops and the products of domestic animals...
Increasing sedentism and population density are
almost universally associated with increases in
infectious disease.. and may underpin the the
reduction in stature in the Predynastic period.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the Badarian
civilization had higher population density than
did any other contemporaneous civilizations
(Gabriel, 1987, Hassan 1988)."
--Pinhasi and Stock 2011. Human Bioarchaelogy of the Transition to Agriculture

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Conservative African Orthodox Leader Pope Shenouda III of the Oriental Orthodox Communion (Egypt, Ethiopia, Armenia, Syria, Eritrea) Pope Shenouda III, in his 2003 book - laid out a Long Creation Age framework, incorporating possible long ages of evolution – Old Earth view:
QUOTE:

"Question: How can the saying of the Bible that God created the world in
six days coincide with the opinion of the geologists that the age of the earth is
thousands even millions of years?.

Answer: The days of creation are not Solar days as our days now... The day
of creation is a period of time, not known how long, which could have been a
second or thousands or millions of years. This period was determined by the
saying "so the evening and the morning were..."

The evidences for this are many, among which are:

1. The Solar day is the period of time between the sunrise and its rising again
or between the sunset and its setting again. Since the Sun was only created on
the fourth day [Gn 1:16-19]... then the first four days were not solar days.

2. As for the seventh day, the Bible did not state that it has ended... The Bible
did not say [so the evening and the morning were the seventh day, and thousands
of years passed from Adam till now while this seventh day is still going on. \
Accordingly, the days of creation are not Solar days but unknown periods of
time.

3. As a whole, the Bible said about the creation and its six days: "This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in (the day) that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." [Gn 2:4]. So the Bible summed up in the word (day) all the six days of creation...

Let the geologists say then whatever they want about the age of the earth; for the Bible did not mention any age for the earth that may contradict the view of the geologists. The way the Lord looks to the measure of time is explained by the apostle as follows: "With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day" [2 Pet 3:8]"

--FROM: Pope Shenouda, 2003. So Many Years with the Problems of People Part 1: Biblical Questions. pg 11-12
--------------------------------------



Other religious scholars have long reconciled the Biblical account with long evolutionary ages. Since
the 1600s for example, long before Darwin, the "Creation chaos-restitution approach" was recognized,
with variants popularized in the 1800s before Darwin.
QUOTE:

"Abstract
In 1550 few questioned the ‘biblical’ age of the earth, but by the mid-nineteenth century no educated person accepted it. The change is considered to have been a period of conflict between Christianity and science over the age of the earth. In fact, the conflict was small because from the Reformation era most considered the bible to be accommodated to its culture and that at the beginning of time God created a Chaos, which was re-constituted in ‘six days’. This was put forward by Grotius and Mersenne. then by the Theories of the Earth of Burnet. Whiston and others and then by later writers to allow for geological time. This reached its climax in early nineteenth century Britain with Chalmers. Conybeare and Buckland, thus preventing any major conflict between geology and Genesis. The perceived conflict of these centuries is a matter of retrospective interpretation, which does not do justice to those Christian thinkers, like de Luc, Chalmers and Townsend who accommodated geological time with little conflict, and those like Patrick, Ray and Whiston who opened up the way for this accommodation to geological time in the seventeenth century. The conflict between geology and Genesis is one of retrospective perception rather than historical reality. Only a minority of Christians, as with the anti- or scriptural geologists of the early nineteenth century, considered there to be a conflict."
--FROM: Genesis Chapter 1 and geological time from Hugo Grotius and Marin Mersenne to William Conybeare and Thomas Chalmers (1620–1825)
Michael B. Roberts. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 273, 39-49, 1 January 2007,
doi.org/10.1144/GSL.SP.2007.273.01.04

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Recap:
Keita on skewed/biased archaeology methods that "reclassified" tropical African samples
as something else.



"Analyses of Egyptian crania are numerous. Vercoutter (1978) notes that ancient Egyptian crania have frequently all been lumped (implicitly or explicitly) as Mediterranean, although Negroid remains are recorded in substantial numbers by many workers... "Nutter (1958), using the Penrose statistic, demonstrated that Nagada I and Badari crania, both regarded as Negroid, were almost identical and that these were most similar to the Negroid Nubian series from Kerma studied by Collett (1933). [Collett, not accepting variability, excluded "clear negro" crania found in the Kerma series from her analysis, as did Morant (1925), implying that they were foreign..."
(S. Keita (1990) Studies of Ancient Crania From Northern Africa. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 83:35-48)

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Keita- Godde study 2016

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In some DNA studies, various African samples were manipulated or
excluded so researchers could tailor the racial results they wanted.



"Another example of ambiguous branching patterns
and clusters within inferred phylogenies is seen in the
work of Masatoshi Nei and K. Roychoudhury (1993).
Their study, which utilized gene-frequency data from
samples derived from the traditional racial constructs,
revealed poor support from bootstrap tests for a cluster
designated Caucasian and consisting of European and
Middle Eastern populations.

Although this poor support is more reflective of the inadequacy of typological con-
structs and racial thinking, the investigators excluded
the non-European samples and subsequently obtained
results more satisfying to them. The data in effect were
tailored to fit into the traditional racial schema.
Other examples of the persistence of racial think-
ing may easily be identified. The examples cited above
illustrate this problem in otherwise interesting work.
The issue is not simply one of terminology. The racial
approach clearly does not contribute to an under-
standing of biohistorical processes, especially in Africa,
which cannot be defined by one trait or cluster of traits,
on any level: serogenetic, mtDNA, Y chromosome, nu-
clear DNA, odontometric, odontomorphological, cra-
niometrie, craniomorphological, hair form, or skin
color."

--S.O.Y. Keita and Rick Kittles. (1997) The Persistence of Racial Thinking
and the Myth of Racial Divergence, Amer Anthro 99:3 p534-544

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Proto-haplogroups inside Africa before exit- gene divergence may oft precede population divergence. Different groups at different times
may have left Africa with a variety of gene variants, or a single exit of a group carrying several proto-variants may have occurred. It makes little
difference. The proto or ancestral gene variants developed first within Africa, before migration out and subsequent development elsewhere.

"The tree of the Y-chromosome variation is similar to that of mtDNA in many respects: the root is within African lineages (Y-chromosome haplogroups A and B), and there is a trifurcation leading to two clades that are non-African (C and F) and one (DE) which is both African and non-African (Underhill et al. 2000, 2001); see Fig. 1. Haplogroup DE, defined by the YAP+ marker, was the subject of debate for a number of years, presenting a puzzling phylogeographic pattern. It falls into two subclades: haplogroup D, which is entirely southern, eastern and Central Asian, and haplogroup E which is largely African but also occurs in the Near East and southern Europe. Hammer et al. (1998) argued, using a poorly resolved tree, that haplogroup E was derived with respect to haplogroup D and therefore represented a "back-to-Africa" migration, 40,000 years ago. The much better resolved system of Underhill et al. (2000) clearly shows that D and E are in fact sister clades, rendering the postulated back-to-Africa migration superfluous (Underhill and Roseman 2001). In addition, Weale et al. (2003) have since discovered several underived DE lineages in Nigeria, indicating an origin for the YAP+ marker in west Africa...

It seems likely, therefore, that the ancestors of haplogroup D left Africa for South and East Asia without the ancestors of haplogroup E. This rules out the possibility that extant Eurasian Y chromosomes might trace to a single Eurasian founder lineage, as mtDNAs probably do (i.e. that there is a Y-chromosome equivalent of a dispersing mtDNA haplogroup L3). The equivalent in the Y-chromosome tree of mtDNA L3 is the clade CR defined by the derived state at the M168 marker and giving rise to three haplogroups C, DE and F. Haplogroups C and F are non-African, while DE (defined by YAP+) holds both African and Asian branches. So a minimum of either two or three Y-chromosome types probably participated in the dispersals out of Africa. It does not necessarily follow, however, that there were two or three migrations. The two or three ancestral Y-chromosome types, which are closely related (at least to the extent of all being derived with respect to M168), could equally well have been members of the same population, and could have been carried together in the exodus (Kivisild et al. 2003)."
--Human Mitochondrial DNA and The Evolution of Homo Sapiens - Bandelt, Macaulay & Richards ed 2006.

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African Haplogroup E appears in several European populations notably Greeks and other southern Europeans, in the Balkans zone. QUOTE:

"Haplogroup E originated in Africa. This is true also of its European subhaplogroup E3b. In Africa, this sub- group has four separate peak areas; these are in Southern Africa, Morocco, Northern Libya, and the Horn of Africa. The last two bear witness to the route from northwest Africa through Anatolia to Europe. (The frequencies are relatively high also in Anatolia.) In Europe, Haplogroup E3b has peak values (about 25%) in Albania; about equally high frequencies are also typical of some other parts of the Balkans and southern Italy."
--Kalevi Wiik (2008) Where Did European Men Come From? Jrnl Gen Genealogy, 4:35-83

QUOTE: "Underhill et al. (2001) showed that the frequency of the YAP+ Y haplogroup commonly referred to as haplogroup E or (III) is relatively high (about 25%) in the Middle East and Mediterranean. This haplogroup E is the major haplogroup found in sub-Saharan Africa (over 75% of all Y chromosomes). Specifically, Europeans contain the E3b sub-haplogroup, which was derived from haplogroup E in sub-Saharan Africa and currently is distributed along the North and East of Africa.. It appears that the 171 AIM test subject of this chapter may recognize the haplogroup E character as West African."
--T. Frudakis. 2008. Molecular photofitting: predicting ancestry and phenotype using DNA




"Sardinia appears to be a particularly appropriate test case to evaluate the extent to which surnames are informative in identifying the history of Y-chromosome haplogroups. As the other European populations, almost all the Sardinian Y chromosomes belong to haplogroups E-M35, I-M170, G-M201, J-12f2 and R-M269. Haplogroups E, G and J, which are believed to have an African (E) or Middle Eastern (G and J) origin and entered Europe through different migrations,30,34,35 show frequencies in the same range as other Mediterranean populations."
--Zei et al 2003. From surnames to the history of Y chromosomes: the Sardinian population as a paradigm. European Journal of Human Genetics (2003) 11, 802-807

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SOY Keita on M35- linking most African males across the contient

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Recent 2016 book by Zakrewski et al, offers primer on scientific techniques
that might be profitably applied in "Egyptology broadly,
and in Egyptian archaeology in particular."



PUB DESCRIPTION: Zakzewski et al 2016. Science in the Study of Ancient Egypt
Science in the Study of Ancient Egypt demonstrates
how to integrate scientific methodologies into
Egyptology broadly, and in Egyptian archaeology in
particular, in order to maximise the amount of
information that might be obtained within a study
of ancient Egypt, be it field, museum, or laboratory-based.
The authors illustrate the inclusive but varied
nature of the scientific archaeology being undertaken,
revealing that it all falls under the aegis of
Egyptology, and demonstrating its potential for
the elucidation of problems within traditional
Egyptology.



Curiously the text or coauthors seem quite concerned about avoiding "Afrocentrism" and mention it twice. Strangely, they do not name Eurocentrism as a matter of concern, as can be seen in the statements below, where it is seems barely to exist. Apparently neither race or Afrocentrism is to be discussed. Fair enough, but why is it "race" and "Afrocentrism," and not race, "Eurocentrism" and "Afrocentrism"? ANd why is it "Afrocentrism and associated issues" but no mention is made of the massively more pernicious influence of Eurocentrism, which existed long before "Afrocentrism" showed up significantly in the 1960s? Subtly, it appears EUROCENTRISM is not a "problem" at all, but "Afrocentrism"?! - WHOA! STOP! HOLD ON! The boogieman cometh.. Let's not discuss it... Interesting...


QUOTE:
"It is worth noting that biological and physical differences exist between humans on a global geographic scale (Howells 1973; 1989; 1995; Lahr 1996), and between groups within non-human species (Ridley 1993). Although some attention has been paid to physical and biological definitions of groups or populations for humans, this has been laden with racist overtones, particularly with regard to Egypt. This book is not a venue for a discussion either of race or the relative merits of Afrocentrism. It is, however, rather a discussion of aspects of human variation and diversity and their uses to inform as to population history and hence migration."
-pg 209

"Despite the past use of race and skin colouration within Egyptian archaeology and Egyptology, this volume is not the venue for a prolonged discussion of Afrocentrism and associated issues. By contrast, the concepts of ethnicity and population affinity are more useful for scientific analyses. Ethnicity is a personal construct, and hence is fluid and malleable in nature (Beck 1995; Lucy 2005). Population affinity is simply an evaluation of biological relatedness. It is clear that the ancient Egyptians constructed ethnic groupings as people from different geographic areas who were depicted and illustrated in different forms. For example, by the time of the New Kingdom, Puntite and Egyptian males were usually depicted in similarly reddish skins, whereas Nubians typically had darker skins and Libyans generally had light-coloured or yellowish skin (O’Connor & Reid 2003). It is unclear whether these matched biological reality, or were simply part of the Egyptian artistic canon. Viewing ethnicity as a category of social identity that may be either assigned or self-imposed permits the use of integrative contextual analysis, in the same manner as the social age groups noted above."
pg 220
--Sonia Zakrzewski, Andrew Shortland, Joanne Rowland. 2016. Science in the Study of Ancient Egypt. pg 209; 220




A bit disingenuous, or lacking up to date knowledge:- quote:
For example, by the time of the New Kingdom, Puntite and Egyptian males were usually depicted in similarly reddish skins, whereas Nubians typically had darker skins and Libyans generally had light-coloured or yellowish skin (O’Connor & Reid 2003). It is unclear whether these matched biological reality, or were simply part of the Egyptian artistic canon.

What the authors say as to depiction is true, but- 5 points as to what they say is "unclear":

(a) it has been well established that the Egyptians often used the "red" and "yellow" artistic convention,
(O'connor and Reid 2003, Yurco 1989 et al).

(b) the Nubians themselves were variable in color (just like other Africans- Morkot 2005, 2000)
They didn't ALL look like CERTAIN peoples from the SUdanic area- i.e. Dinka etc. The authors
seem not to fully grasp the diversity of the peoples of Africa.

(c) Numerous Egyptians wall paintings ALSO show not simply "red" men, but realistic
Egyptians depicted with dark skin as well. Dark skin is not, and never was "foreign"
to Egypt. This was always the "biological reality" of Kemet.

(d) Climatic variation over time in the Nile Valley which stretches from cool Mediterranean
zone to hot tropical belt (even Egypt itself is partly in the tropical zone) makes it painfully
obvious that just on climatic factors alone, there would be the "Biological reality" of variation
in skin color over time and space. These variations have always been in place. It is strange that
the authors, who again, hold that new high tech tools can provide so much, seem "unclear"
about such basic facts.

(e) Dark skinned people were always a "biological reality" in ancient Egypt. For the authors to
claim "it is unclear" as they set up an either-or color dichtomy, suggests a degree of disingenousness,
or lack of up to date knowledge re the archaeology and anthropology of ancient Egypt. In a book purporting
to argue for greater scientific rigor and application in Ancient Egypt, this is another weakness.




Another flaw in the book is how the authors avoid any. significant discussion or coverage on limb proportions
even though these are one key component in determining population relationships in ancient Egypt, and indeed
have also been sometimes helpful in such things as estimating stature and sex.

This is strange in a book that in Chapter 3 says it is examining population, and mentions numerous other things,
like the use of COmputed Tomography scans on crania, strontium isotopes, high tech chemical analysis of plant and
bone fragments to examine breast-feeding practices, etc, etc etc.. yet can't find much space for limb proportions-
a valid, well-established tool of analysis. Limb analysis primarily comes in in the context of bone changes,
bone disease, bone stress, etc etc.. Very curious...

It is also strange that the authors find time to mention "Afrocentrism" twice, but could not find space to significantly
mention the data and applications one of the key tools in analysis of ancient Egyptian populations- limb proportion
analysis. Such analysis is routinely mentioned in even beginning textbooks on physical anthropology. Nowhere
in the book does the published data appear on Ancient Egyptians on this variable, nor do even standard items such
as Allen's or Bergmann's Rule (which deal with limb and body proportions- again a routine matter). And yet the
goal of the book is purportedly to put the study of ancient Egypt on a more scientific footing- yet, ironically,
the very same book excludes solid science on Ancient Egypt. Whatever the issues of coverage, (or lack of, invoking
an "Afrocentrism" bogeyman seems a neat way to avoid a credible FULL discussion on population. Interesting...



CONTRADICTORY CLAIMS BASED ON NEW TECHNIQUES

Shiny new techniques like use of strontium and oxygen isotopes on dental enamel at Tombos
for example brings the conclusion that a majority of population there was "non-local." But traditional
Egyptological excavations almost 20 years ago at TOmbos contradict this, and established that some
Egyptians were buried there, along with the remains of local Nubians, with intermixture between the
two groups in place. The final isotope conclusion is misleading. And it is difficult to see what substantial
added value the isotope analysis adds to the extensive archaeological data already done. It is admitted
that the isotope survey confirms the intermingling of the groups, but this is later contradicted
by the "non-local" claim, and seems to indicate that shiny new techniques, and themselves subject to
narrow interpretations, and may not yield the additional understanding the authors claim.
The official Tombos archaelogical Projects notes that the site is key in- quote:

"documenting the interaction and entanglement of Egyptian colonists and local Nubians
during these major sociopolitical changes in the region."

THis is a more accurate and richer understanding of the site, as opposed to narrow
techniques that do not seem to grasp the full picture.




Conclusion

In the book's introduction, the authors say their purpose is:
".. to develop and deepen our understanding of the past individuals, groups and communities
who inhabited Egypt and travelled through its deserts from the earliest times onwards."

But the book has numerous gaps that make it miss this standard. Rather it appears like a 'cookbook' of
techniques, that while impressive technically, seems to lack a broader understanding of the deep
archaeology and analysis of the traditional discipline. When a key data items such as limb proportions
is left out for example, how does this illuminate understanding? Likewise the rather strange claim
of being "unclear" about skin color in Kemet, shows a lack of grasp of this deep context.

[zarahan]

^^
Still, in earlier work, Zakrewski generally accurately reports the divergence of Late
Period samples from earlier, typical Egyptian sample sets, and demonstrating that
these earlier sets show a fundamental unity, debunking dubious claims
based on incoming "Dynastic Races", "Hamitic conquerors" etc, as the source
of Nile Valley civilization. These bogus claims still find wide currency in
corners of the web.



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Note the key position of the Badarian peoples

QUOTE:

"As a result of their facial prognathism, the Badarian sample has been described as forming a morphological cluster with Nubian, Tigrean, and other southern (or "Negroid") groups (Morant, 1935, 1937; Mukherjee et al., 1955; Nutter, 1958, Strouhal, 1971; Angel, 1972; Keita, 1990). Cranial nonmetric trait studies have found this group to be similar to other Egyptians, including much later material (Berry and Berry, 1967, 1972), but also to be significantly different from LPD material (Berry et al., 1967). Similarly, the study of dental nonmetric traits has suggested that the Badarian population is at the centroid of Egyptian dental samples (Irish, 2006), thereby suggesting similarity and hence continuity across Egyptian time periods. From the central location of the Badarian samples in Figure 2, the current study finds the Badarian to be relatively morphologically close to the centroid of all the Egyptian samples. The Badarian have been shown to exhibit greatest morphological similarity with the temporally successive EPD (Table 5). Finally, the biological distinctiveness of the Badarian from other Egyptian samples has also been demonstrated (Tables 6 and 7).


These results suggest that the EDyn do form a distinct morphological pattern. Their overlap with other Egyptian samples (in PC space, Fig. 2) suggests that although their morphology is distinctive, the pattern does overlap with the other time periods. These results therefore do not support the Petrie concept of a Dynastic race" (Petrie, 1939; Derry, 1956). Instead, the results suggest that the Egyptian state was not the product of mass movement of populations into the Egyptian Nile region, but rather that it was the result of primarily indigenous development combined with prolonged small-scale migration, potentially from trade, military, or other contacts.

This evidence suggests that the process of state formation itself may have been mainly an indigenous process, but that it may have occurred in association with in-migration to the Abydos region of the Nile Valley. This potential in-migration may have occurred particularly during the EDyn and OK. A possible explanation is that the Egyptian state formed through increasing control of trade and raw materials, or due to military actions, potentially associated with the use of the Nile Valley as a corridor for prolonged small scale movements through the desert environment."

--Sonia R. Zakrzewski. (2007). Population Continuity or Population Change: Formation of the Ancient Egyptian State. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 132:501-509)