Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:19:40.848Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Studies and Comments on Ancient Egyptian Biological Relationships*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

S. O. Y. Keita
S. O. Y. Keita*
Affiliation:
Howard University University of Maryland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This discussion seeks to evaluate some of the previous writings on the biological origins of the northern Nile valley population or peoples, who came to be known as “ancient Egyptians.” The subject is of interest for three reasons. The first is that Egypt lies at a geographical crossroads and would have been subject to possible colonization or migration from all directions. The second is that Egypt is in Africa and there is no scientific reason to think that Egyptians would not share some biological origins with other Africans. The third reason is that previous discussions have been misguided in focusing on “race” as opposed to biological affinity. There seems to be a problem in understanding that human genetic variation cannot always be easily described. Genetic origins can cut across ethnic (sociocultural or national) lines. At what village along the Nile valley today would one describe the “racial” transition between “Black” and “White”—assuming momentarily that these categories are real? It could not be done.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 20 , 1993 , pp. 129 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I wish to thank F. Gaballah, C. Stringer, J.L. Heim, M. Chamla, and P. Garlick for permission to study collections in their care. Part of this work was supported by the Boise Fund, Oxford University. Mrs. Wiggins of KOM Company typed the final manuscript. This paper is dedicated to V. Rochester, Y. Walker, Patrik, and India.

References

Anderson, J. E. 1968 “Late paleolithic skeletal remains from Nubia” In Wendorf, F. ed, The Prehistory of Nubia. Dallas, pp. 996–1040.Google Scholar
Angel, L. and Kelly, J. 1986 “Description and comparison of the skeleton.” In Wendorf, F. and Schild, R., ed., The Wadi Kubbaniya Skeleton. Dallas.Google Scholar
Angel, J. L. 1971 The People of Lerna. Washington.Google Scholar
Angel, J. L. 1972 “Biological relationships of Egyptian and Eastern Mediterranean populations during Predynastic times.” Journal of Human Evolution 1:307–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arkell, A. J. and Ucko, P. 1965 “A review of Predynastic development in the Nile valley.” Current Anthropology 6:145–66.Google Scholar
Arkell, A. J. 1975 “The prehistory of the Nile valley.” Handbuch der Orientalist, 1. Leiden.Google Scholar
Arnett, W. 1982 The Predynastic Origins of Hieroglyphs. Washington.Google Scholar
Bar Yosef, O. 1987 “Pleistocene connexions between Africa and Southwest Asia.” African Archaeological Review 5:29–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batrawi, A. M. 1935 Report on the Human Remains. Cairo.Google Scholar
Batrawi, A. M. 1945 “The racial history of Egypt and Nubia, I.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 75:81–102.Google Scholar
Batrawi, A. M. 1946 “The racial history of Egypt and Nubia, II.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 76:131–56.Google Scholar
Bennett, K. A. 1969 “The typological versus the evolutionary approach in skeletal population studies.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 30:407–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernai, M. 1987 Black Athena, London.Google Scholar
Berry, A. C. and Berry, R. J. 1967 “Epigenetic variation in the human cranium.” Journal of Anatomy 101:361–79.Google Scholar
Berry, A. C., Berry, R.J., and Ucko, P.J. 1967 “Genetical change in ancient Egypt.” Man 2:551–68.Google Scholar
Berry, A. C. and Berry, R.J. 1972 “Origins and relationships of the ancient Egyptians.” Journal of Human Evolution 1:199–208.Google Scholar
Bohannan, P. and Curtin, P.D. 1964 Africa and Africans. Garden City.Google Scholar
Brace, C. L. 1863 The Races of the Old World. New York.Google Scholar
Brauer, G. 1976 “Morphological and multivariate analysis of human skeletons from Iron Age graves northeast of Lake Eyasi (Tanzania).” Homo 27:185–765.Google Scholar
Brauer, G. “Human skeletal remains from Mumba Rock Shelter, Northern Tanzania.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 52:71–84.Google Scholar
Breasted, W. 1908 A History of the Ancient Egyptians. New York.Google Scholar
Briggs, L. C. 1955 “The Stone Age Races of Northwest Africa.” Bulletin 18. American School of Prehistoric Research. Cambridge.Google Scholar
British Museum. 1930 General Introductory Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum. London.Google Scholar
Brown, W. and Wilson, E. O. 1954 “The case against the trinomen.” Systemic Zoology 3:174–76.Google Scholar
Carlson, D. and Van Gerven, D. 1979 “Diffusion, biological determinism, and biocultural adaptation in the Nubian corridor.” American Anthropologist 81:561–80.Google Scholar
Cavalli-Sforza, L. 1991 “Genes, peoples and languages.” Scientific American 265(5):104–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamla, M-C. 1968 “Les populations anciennes du Sahara et des regions limitrophes.” Mémoires de Recherches Anthropologiques Préhistoriques et Ethnographiques 9. Paris.Google Scholar
Childe, V. G. 1953 New Light on the Most Ancient East. New York.Google Scholar
Coon, C. 1939 The Races of Europe. New York.Google Scholar
Coon, C., Garn, S. M., and Birdsell, J. 1950 Races: A study of the problems of race formation in man. Springfield.Google Scholar
Crichton, J. M. 1966 “A multiple discriminant analysis of the Egyptian and African negro crania.” Papers of the Peabody Museum 57:45–67.Google Scholar
Derry, D. 1956 “The dynastic race in Egypt.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 21:80–85.Google Scholar
Diop, C.A. 1974 “The Egyptian race as seen and treated by anthropologists.” In The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality? Bridgeport.Google Scholar
Dixon, R. 1923 The Racial History of Man. New York.Google Scholar
Drake, S. 1987 Black Folk Here and There. An Essay in History and Anthropology I. Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Falkenburger, F. 1947 “La composition raciale de l'ancienne Egypt.” L'Anthropologie 51:[239–50.Google Scholar
Fawcett, C. D. and Lee, A. 1902 “A second study of the variation and correlation of the human skull, with special reference to the Nagada crania.” Biometrika 1:408–67.Google Scholar
Finkel, D. 1978 “Spatial and temporal dimensions of middle eastern skeletal populations.” Journal of Human Evolution. 7:217–29.Google Scholar
Frankfort, H. 1949 “The ancient Egyptians and the Hamites.” Man 2(130):95–96.Google Scholar
Gabel, C. 1966 “Prehistoric populations in Africa.” In Boston University Papers on Africa. Volume II. African History. Ed. Butler, Jeffrey. Boston.Google Scholar
Gates, R. 1948 Human Ancestry. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilman, A. 1982 On Blackness Without Blacks: Essays on the Image of the Black in Germany. Boston.Google Scholar
Giuffrida-Ruggeri, V. 1915 “Were the predynastic Egyptians Libyans or Ethiopians?” Man 15:51–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giuffrida-Ruggeri, V. 1916 “A few notes on the neolithic Egyptians and the Ethiopians.” Man 16:87–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giuffrida-Ruggeri, V. 1922 “The actual state of the question of the most ancient populations of Egypt.” Harvard African Studies 3:3–7.Google Scholar
Gould, S. 1987 “Petrus Camper's angle …” Natural History Magazine. July:12–18.Google Scholar
Greene, D. L. 1972 “Dental anthropology of early Egypt and Nubia.” Journal of Human Evolution 1:315–24.Google Scholar
Greene, D. L. 1981 “A critique of methods used to reconstruct racial and population affinity in the Nile Valley.” Bulletin et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris 13/8:357–65.Google Scholar
Haddon, A. C. 1912, 1984 The Wanderings of Peoples. Oxford, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Haddon, A. C. 1925 The Races of Man. New York.Google Scholar
Harris, J. and Weeks, K. 1973 X-Raying the Pharaohs. New York.Google Scholar
Hassan, F. A. 1988 “The predynastic of Egypt.” Journal of World Prehistory 2:135–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, W. C. 1965 Most Ancient Egypt. Chicago.Google Scholar
de Heinzelin, J. 1962 “Ishango.” Scientific American 206(6): 105–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henneberg, M., Piontek, J., and Strzaldo, J. 1980 “Biometrical analysis of the early Neolithic human mandible from Nabta Playa (Western Desert of Egypt).” In Wendorf, F. and Schild, R., eds. Prehistory of the Eastern Sahara. New York.Google Scholar
Hiemaux, J. 1975 The People of Africa. New York.Google Scholar
Hillson, S. W. 1978 “Human Biological Variation in the Nile Valley, in Relation to Environmental Factors.” Ph.D., University of London.Google Scholar
Holmes, D. L. 1989 The Predynastic Lithic Industries of Upper Egypt. Cambridge monographs in African Archaeology 33. BAR International Series 469. Parts I and II.Google Scholar
Hooton, E. A. 1932 Up from the Ape. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Howells, W. W. 1973 “Cranial variation in man.” Papers of the Peabody Museum 67:1–269.Google Scholar
Irish, J. and Turner, C. C. 1990 “West African dental affinity of late Pleistocene Nubians.” Homo 41(1):42–53.Google Scholar
Junker, H. 1921 “The first appearance of the Negroes in history.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 7:121–32.Google Scholar
Karageorghis, V. 1988 Blacks in Ancient Cypriot Art. Houston.Google Scholar
Keita, S. O. Y. 1988 “An analysis of crania from Tell Duweir using multiple discriminant functions.” American Journal of Physical Anthopology 75:375–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keita, S. O. Y. 1990 “Studies of ancient crania from northern Africa.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 85:35–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keita, S. O. Y. 1992 “Further studies of crania from ancient northern African crania.…” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 87:245–54.Google Scholar
Krogman, W. M. 1937 “Cranial types from Alishar Huyuk.” In van der Osten, H.H., ed., The Alishar Huyuk, Seasons of 1930-32, Part III. Oriental Institute Publications 30:213–93.Google Scholar
MacGaffey, W. 1966 “Concepts of race in the historiography of northeast Africa.” Journal of African History 7:1–17.Google Scholar
MacIver, D. R. 1901 The Earliest Inhabitants of Abydos. Oxford.Google Scholar
Morant, G. 1925 “A study of Egyptian craniology from prehistoric to Roman times.” Biometrika 17:1–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morant, G. 1935 “A study of predynastic Egyptian skulls from Badari…” Biometrika 27:293–309.Google Scholar
Morant, G. 1937 “The predynastic Egyptian skulls from Badari and their racial affinities.” In Brunton, G., ed., Mostagedda and the Tasian Culture, pp. 63–66. London.Google Scholar
Montet, P. 1965 Eternal Egypt. London.Google Scholar
Morton, S. G. 1844 “Crania AEgyptiaca.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 9.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, R., Rao, C., and Trevor, J. C. 1955 The Ancient Inhabitants of Jebel Moya (Sudan). Cambridge.Google Scholar
Musgrave, J. H. and Evans, S. P. 1980 “By Strangers Honored: A statistical study of ancient crania from Crete, Mainland Greece, Israel and Egypt.” Journal of Mediterranean Anthropology and Archaeology 1:50–107.Google Scholar
Nielson, O. V. 1970 Human remains: Metrical and non-metrical anatomical variations. Copenhagen: Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia. Vol. 9.Google Scholar
Nott, J. and Gliddon, G. 1854 “Egypt and Egyptians (Chapter VII).” In Types of Mankind. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Nutter, M. C. 1958 “An Osteological Study of the Hominoidea.” PhD. Dissertation, Cambridge University.Google Scholar
O'Connor, D. 1971 “Ancient Egypt and Black Africa-early contacts.” Expedition 14:2–9.Google Scholar
Paoli, G. 1972 “Further biochemical and immunological investigations on early Egyptian remains.” Journal of Human Evolution 1:457–66.Google Scholar
Pearson, K., Jacob, S., Lee, A., Myers, C. S., and Torok, A. Von 1902–1903 “Craniological notes.” Biometrika 2:339-47, 504–12.Google Scholar
Peschel, O. 1888 The Races of Man. New York.Google Scholar
Petit-Mair, N. and Dutour, O. 1987 “Holocene populations of the Western and Southern Sahara: Mechtoids and paleoclimates.” In Close, A., ed., Prehistory of Arid North Africa, Dallas.Google Scholar
Petrie, W. M. F. 1906 “Migrations.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 36:189–223.Google Scholar
Petrie, W. M. F. 1939 The Making of Egypt. London.Google Scholar
Prichard, J. C. 1848 The Natural History of Man. London.Google Scholar
Rightmire, G. P. 1975 “Problems in the study of later Pleistocene Man in Africa.” American Anthropology 77:28–52.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. H. 1978 “On the presence of the Negro in the Nile Valley.” Current Anthropology 19(1): 177–78.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. H. and Bradley, R. 1979 “On skeletal analysis and the race concept.” Current Anthropology 20(4):414–15.Google Scholar
Robins, and Shute, 1983 “The physical proportions and living stature of New Kingdom pharoahs.” Journal of Human Evolution 12:455–65.Google Scholar
Robins, and Shute, 1986 “Predynastic Egyptian stature and physical proportions.” Human Evolution 1(4):313–24.Google Scholar
Ruffer, A. 1920 “Study of Abnormalities and pathology of ancient Egyptian teeth.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 3:335–82.Google Scholar
Sanders, E. 1969 “The Hamitic Hypothesis: Its origin and functions in time perspective.” Journal of African History 10:521–32.Google Scholar
Schepartz, L. A. 1987 “Who were the later Pleistocene Eastern Africans?” African Archeological Review 6:57–72.Google Scholar
Seligman, C. 1930, 1966 The Races of Africa. London.Google Scholar
Seltzer, C. 1937 “A critique of the coefficient of racial likeness.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 23:101–09.Google Scholar
Sergi, G. 1901 The Mediterranean Race. London.Google Scholar
Smith, G. E. 1909 “Anatomical Report.” Bulletin of the Egyptian Survey Department, Archaeological Survey of Nubia 4:19–21.Google Scholar
Smith, G. E. and Derry, D. 1910 “Anatomical report.” Bulletin of the Egyptian Survey Department, Archaeological Survey of Nubia 6:9–30.Google Scholar
Smith, G. E. 1916 “The influence of racial admixture in Egypt.” Eugenics Review 7:163–83.Google Scholar
Stewart, T.D. 1985 “Preliminary report on an early human burial in the Wadi Kubbaniya, Egypt.” In Tobias, P.V. ed., Hominid Evolution: Past, Present and Future, pp. 335–40. New York.Google Scholar
Stoessiger, B.N. 1927 “A study of the Badarian crania recently excavated by the British School of Archaeology in Egypt.” Biometrika 19:110–50.Google Scholar
Strouhal, E. 1968 “Une contribution à la question du caractère de la population préhistorique de la haute-Egypte.” Anthropologie 6:19–22.Google Scholar
Strouhal, E. 1971 “Evidence of the early penetration of Negroes into prehistoric Egypt.” Journal of African History 12:1–9.Google Scholar
Strouhal, E. 1981 “Current state of anthropological studies of ancient Egypt and Nubia.” Bulletin et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris 13/8:231–49.Google Scholar
Strouhal, E. 1984 “Craniometric analysis of the late paleolithic population of the Wadi Haifa region (Lower Nubia).” In Origin and Early Development of Food-Producing Cultures in North-Eastem Africa. Poznan.Google Scholar
Strouhal, E. and Jungwirth, J. 1979 “Paleogenetics of the late Roman-early Byzantine cemeteries at Sayala, Egyptian Nubia.” Journal of Human Evolution 8:699–703Google Scholar
Thoma, A. 1984 “Morphology and affinities of the Nazlet Khater man.” Journal of Human Evolution 13:287–96.Google Scholar
Thomson, A. 1905 “Composite photographs of early Egyptian skulls.” Man 38.Google Scholar
Thomson, A. and Randall-MacIver, D. 1905 Ancient Races of the Thebaid. Oxford.Google Scholar
Trinkhaus, E. 1981 “Neanderthal limb proportions and cold adaptation.” In Stringer, C., ed., Aspects of Human Evolution. London.Google Scholar
Turner, C. and Markowitz, M. 1990 “Dental discontinuity between late Pleistocene and recent Nubians.” Homo 41/1:32–41.Google Scholar
Vercoutter, J. 1976 “The iconography of the Black in ancient Egypt.” In Vercoutter, J., Leclant, J., Snowden, F., and Desanges, J., eds., The Image of the Black in Western Art. Lausanne, pp. 33–88.Google Scholar
Vercoutter, J. 1978 “The peopling of ancient Egypt and Discussion.” In The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of Meroitic Script. Paris, pp. 15–36.Google Scholar
de Villiers, H. 1968 The Skull of the South African Negro. Johannesburg.Google Scholar
Warren, E. 1897 “An investigation of the variability of the human skeleton; with especial reference to the Nagada race …” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 189B:135–227.Google Scholar
Wiercinski, A. 1962 “Report on human crania recovered at Maadi cemetery.” Anthropologie (Brno) 1:38–48.Google Scholar
Wiercinski, A. 1963 “Report on human crania recovered at Wadi Digla cemetery.” Anthropologie (Brno) 2:41–48.Google Scholar
Wiercinski, A. 1965 “The analysis of racial structure of early dynastic populations in Egypt.” Materialy i Prace Antropologiczny. 71:348.Google Scholar
Wiercinski, A. 1972 “The problem of anthroposcopic variations in ancient Egyptians.” In Brothwell, D. and Chiarelli, B., eds., Population Biology of the Ancient Egyptians. London.Google Scholar
Wiercinski, A. 1980 “Individual typology and the intraspecific taxonomy of man. Materialy i Przeglad Antroplogiczny. 46:279–96.Google Scholar
Williams, B. 1986 The A-Group Royal cemetery at Qustul: Cemetery L. University of Chicago Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition III. Chicago.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. and Brown, W. 1953 “The subspecies concept and its taxonomic application.” Systematic Zoology 2:97–110.Google Scholar