Black Pharaohs

[Ursus]

The dark skinned Nubians to Egypt's south absorbed Egyptian culture. During a period of Egypt's political decline they came to rule Egypt for 75 years.

 

 

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/...ert-draper-text

[Northern Neil]

The dark skinned Nubians to Egypt's south absorbed Egyptian culture. During a period of Egypt's political decline they came to rule Egypt for 75 years.

 

 

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/...ert-draper-text

Thats an amazing article. I had no idea there were monuments in Egyptian form so far down into Sudan.

[Crispina]

Thanks for sharing this wonderful article. I wish this could be presented as a film documentary some day.

[Rameses the Great]

Yup, we've had many a quarrel with our neighbor to the South. The Egyptians had something called 'good Nubians' and 'bad Nubians' suggesting that there were likely different kinds of them.

 

The Assyrian conquests came quick, after that the New Kingdom began and it would be Egypt who would rule over their Southern foes.

 

Interesting read, took the quiz and failed miserably though.

[Gladius Hispaniensis]

I suppose this is where Afrocentric fanatics in the U.S and elsewhere get some of their bizarre theories about Egypt being ruled by black people from. I've had some vehement arguments with some fellows about this. These gents seem to have a hard time understanding that only the 25th Dynasty consisted of Nubians proper. Seventy five years, in a relative time frame, is hardly anything to speak of. I've even had people arguing that Cleopatra was black! These wiseacres seem to be blissfully unaware of the fact that the Macedonian Ptolemies took over the country at some point in its history. All this would be charmingly potty if it weren't for the fact that there seems to be a whole big pseudo-intellectual movement behind it, complete with websites, books, self-styled experts, etc. and replete with frothing fanatics that (it seems to me) wouldn't shrink from causing bodily harm to get their point of view across. I realize that this is slightly OT but has anyone else encountered these endearing folk?

[Rameses the Great]

I suppose this is where Afrocentric fanatics in the U.S and elsewhere get some of their bizarre theories about Egypt being ruled by black people from. I've had some vehement arguments with some fellows about this. These gents seem to have a hard time understanding that only the 25th Dynasty consisted of Nubians proper. Seventy five years, in a relative time frame, is hardly anything to speak of. I've even had people arguing that Cleopatra was black! These wiseacres seem to be blissfully unaware of the fact that the Macedonian Ptolemies took over the country at some point in its history. All this would be charmingly potty if it weren't for the fact that there seems to be a whole big pseudo-intellectual movement behind it, complete with websites, books, self-styled experts, etc. and replete with frothing fanatics that (it seems to me) wouldn't shrink from causing bodily harm to get their point of view across. I realize that this is slightly OT but has anyone else encountered these endearing folk?

 

Problem is, as the article itself points out, is that the Egyptian never described people in race rather culture.

 

An Egyptian who then lived in Nubia would be considered a Nubian and a Nubian or Libyan who decided to live in Egypt would then be considered Egyptian, because they adopted Egyptian culture.

 

Problem is there are so many racists in today's world it's kind of impossible to fathom this. What 'race' were the Ancient Egyptians? Perhaps just Egyptian?

[docoflove1974]

Problem is, as the article itself points out, is that the Egyptian never described people in race rather culture.

 

An Egyptian who then lived in Nubia would be considered a Nubian and a Nubian or Libyan who decided to live in Egypt would then be considered Egyptian, because they adopted Egyptian culture.

 

Problem is there are so many racists in today's world it's kind of impossible to fathom this. What 'race' were the Ancient Egyptians? Perhaps just Egyptian?

 

Good point, Ramses, and one that we've made on here in a few occasions. The only thing that can be said is that the Ancient Egyptian language is linguistically part of the Afro-Asiatic family, of a different branch but still similar to the Semitic languages (Hebrew, Arabic, etc.) and the Hamitic (Kushtic, etc.) languages. Ancient Egypt.org has a pretty informative and accessible sight about the language, for those interested.

 

But, that's as far as I would go to describe the 'Egyptian' people. It seems like that area truly was a confluence--the river brought people from all over. The ethnic groups in Ancient Egypt could be varied; I would venture to say that the 'original' base is of the same group as the Semitic and Hamitic peoples, since the languages are so closely related...but beyond that? Who is to say?

 

Interesting note: the language of the Nubians...I don't know if the sources I'm finding are right, but if so, it may not be a Semitic language (but I could be wrong). Either way, the examples that exist on the language (Old Nubian) are from the Christian era, written using the Greek alphabet with some additions. Wikipedia has a decent bibliography on the subject. The other urls that I'm getting from Google I don't quite trust yet, so maybe someone else can add information here.

Edited February 19, 2008 by docoflove1974

[Rameses the Great]

The Semitic language branch was originally spoken in Ethiopia and later in Mesopatamia, however the first written Semitic language was used by the Mesopatamians.

 

So the entire 'Semitic' branch is actually African in origin.

[docoflove1974]

The Semitic language branch was originally spoken in Ethiopia and later in Mesopatamia, however the first written Semitic language was used by the Mesopatamians.

 

So the entire 'Semitic' branch is actually African in origin.

 

Well, yes, that's part of why it's a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It's a large branch which includes the Aramaic group (Central Semitic), the various Arabic, Hebrew/Caananite dialects and languages (Southern Aramaic Semitic), and Ethiopian and the Arabic languages of Yemen and Oman (Southern Semitic). The Berber, Chadic, Cushtic, Egyptian, and Omotic families make up the other branches of Afro-Asiatic.