what race where the egyptians?

Question

When they show pharyoahs some look black and some look middle eastern. Was it different at different times ? multiracial society? pardon my ignorance they don't teach that stuff in history class. By the way don't get on a soap box about one race or another I just want to know the truth.

Answer 1

The very simple answer is that the ancient Egyptians were Egyptians. Modern racial categories, which are a social construct, not a biological reality, don't really apply to the ancient world as modern categories were not used in the ancient world. Racial categories did exist in the ancient world, but their definitions and uses differ, in many cases, from our own. The ancient Egyptians considered themselves as Egyptian as contrasted with the rest of the world, most of whom they considered "inferior" - at least in official writings. Artistic conventions of the ancient Egyptians tend to depict men as a red brown, women and the elderly as a yellow shade, regardless of whether this would necessarily have reflected the actual appearance of the individual being portrayed.
Egypt being located where it is, it's natural that Egyptians would have physical features typically associated with sub-Saharan Africans (the large group that typically gets described as "Black" despite the wide range of physical variation in and between population groups in Africa) as well as features typically associated with "Semitic" (West Asian) or "European" groups. In general, the vast majority of researchers in the fields of Egyptology, anthropology, etc., have stated that modern Egyptians look very much like ancient Egyptians probably did. Thus, you have a population group that is quite varied, with individuals who, in the US could be described as "Black" or "Caucasian/White" or "Arab" depending on who is doing the describing. Overall, the stereotypical tendency in modern Egypt is for fairer skinned people with more "Semitic" or "European" features to be from the north while you find more "African" features as you move further south. There are, of course, exceptions to this general tendency, especially with the increasing urbanization of the modern Egyptian population.
There are many who take issue with the conclusions drawn by professional scholars for their own ideological reasons, primarily connected with elevating the status or asserting the primacy of the "race" with which they identify (black or white). Unfortunately, the vast majority of such statements cannot be taken at face value as they are made by people with only a very limited understanding of ancient Egyptian culture, language, art, religion, etc., and are made from a starting point that is itself biased (e.g. "proving" that the Egyptians were "white" or "black" or "--fill-in-racial/ethnic-category-here--").
So, again, the ancient Egyptians were Egyptian, that's how they regarded themselves. Some of them would fit the modern category "black" others would fit the modern category "middle eastern."

Answer 2

In modern terms they would have been considered Middle Easterners. If you walk around in Alexandria or Cairo and take a look at the people that's probably about what the ancient Egyptians would have looked like.

Now there was a period when Egypt was ruled by Kush (Nubia), and the people there are black. So the Kushite Pharoahs were probably black. And, of course, the Ptolemaic Pharoahs (Cleopatra's family) would have been Greek i.e. what we'd call white.

Egypt would have had minority populations of Libyans, Nubians, and Syrians so it would not have been an ethnically homogenous nation. As far as we know the Egyptians did not really care about skin color. Like most ancient people they were racist, but only to the extent of considering themselves superior and everyone else barbarians.

Answer 3

Modern day Egyptians are "Arab", that's only a lazy time period for "very combined". They are NOT white/caucasian/caucasoid. Even historic Egyptians have been combined, and evaluation of skulls and bones from that point finish that the Egyptians of that interval exhibited developments associated with Caucasoid, Negr0id, and Asian (mongoloid) peoples. They don't pertain to any race, and on no account did.

Answer 4

The orginal Egyptians were Kushite, which is what we would considered Black Africans, they later mixed with the Hysose, (sorry I'm not sure how to spell that) a lighter skinned race people,of herding tribes. That is how the Egyptians got that Middle Eastern look. That's about it in a nutshell.
And don't forget that they also mixed with the Greeks and Romans!

Answer 5

As a race, the ancient Egyptians were Arabic. But, ancient Egypt was very racially-open and a person's nationality was more important than the color of their skin. Thus, there were many races present (probably all of them). It is suspected that Ramses II may have been Roman in origin as he had a large Roman nose and blonde hair (the ancient Romans were slavic in origin). Bottom line, multi-racial. But predominately Arabic.

Answer 6

As for now, the Egyptians are a mystery, they seem to spring up out of no where. Their culture seems to have just moved in and started.

As for the area, it goes back fifteen thousand years or more, the sphinx is not related to the pyramids as many think but, from some culture that's unknown. It's thought to have had a head of a lion, a lion culture or a lion worshiping culture and it has been changed through time as it was worn.

In fact the sphinx was thought to have been in a swamp near a riverbed at one time, then thousands of years later, the sphinx was old, the Egyptian culture sprung up in this area, keeping the sphinx maybe even changing it for the first time to suit their own purpose.
The bottom of the sphinx has just been discovered and, a door with a room was found but, all this was stopped by the Government because it was destroying the area. Something mysterious is still to be found under or, in the sphinx at some time.

Answer 7

Egypt is in North Africa so they probably looked like Middle Easterners, maybe a little darker.

Answer 8

They were black as tar. The Egyptians you see today are mixed with Arabs, Greeks, all sorts. This mixing occured after Egypt was conquered by the Romans around 30 BC and subsequently conquered by other nations. It's laughable when they are potrayed as Arab looking or even white. Look at the statues and most of them clearly show black/******* looking people.

http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=003277

Answer 9

Many different tribes from both the north and the south of 'Egypt'/'Kmt'... also migrants from the east and west.
There were many 'civil wars' fought between many warlords in Prehistoric/predynastic 'Egypt' before it became 'one country', and then these periods did not always last for a very long time. Several different periods existed in which 'Egypt', [a later Greek misnomer], was not united. The most significant periods are called the 1st; 2nd; and 3rd; Intermediate Periods.

Answer 10

I think it would only be fair to say that not all colors were available for the heiroglyfics when they were created. It's not like there was an abundance of colors and they just chose not to make them. But the the other thing to remember is that Egypt used to be mecca of sorts so it is feasible to believe that all "colors" of people were attracted to the area long enough to become a pharoah.