Why did people think that ancient Egyptians were black?

They've done DNA testing that have confirmed that ancient Egyptians are the same people that live there today- middle easterners, not blacks. Also, the art depicting the ancient Egyptians have middle eastern features, not black. This isn't a racist question despite what some people might claim, it's purely in the interest of science and history.

Asked By: msminnamouse - 2/12/2007
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
Egyptians of the Upper Nile were brown skinned mediterranian in appearance The lower nile dwellers were much darker and could be considered black These were the Nubians. Upper Egypt invaded the lowere reaches of the Nile and spread its empire South absorbing many of the Nubians into the court and jobs amongst the... More
Answered By: Shelty K - 2/12/2007
Additional Answers (20)
I never heard people thought they were black. Although I believe that their skin is and was dark.
Answered By: clcalifornia - 2/12/2007
Well, Egypt is in africa, so it's easy to come to that conclusion, but you're right, they are middle easterners.
Answered By: Robert - 2/12/2007
I never heard of history teaching ancient Egyptians to have black features. Where did you hear that? They certainly were not Germanic Anglo Saxons thats for sure, I remember the textbook drawings of the pharoahs, Cleopatra, Nefertiti from school. They were not black. What are you talking about?
Answered By: Quite New Here - 2/12/2007
I think your answer depends on what you consider to be "black". If you mean black as in African, than the Egyptians are, as you'd say, 'black' because Egypt is on the continent of Africa... More
Answered By: amo real madrid - 2/12/2007
How did they get the DNA of ancient Egyptians? Did they find some ancient cigarette butts around the pyramids or something?
Answered By: michinoku2001 - 2/12/2007
I've noticed that too that a lot of people have this misconception. I pointed this out during a discussion in an African American studies course in college. A fellow student was angry that Cleopatra was always portrayed as a "white woman". I felt compelled in the spirit of factual education to point out that... More
Answered By: Rebecca YZ - 2/12/2007
That opinion was generally held only by a small number of activists who wanted to claim Egyptian grandeur for black people. And in fairness, the art of the Upper Nile (in what is now Sudan) reveals that those Egyptians really were black--or, more correctly, Nubian. But you're right, there is no such thing as a pan-... More
Answered By: nbsandiego - 2/12/2007
The racial characteristics of ancient Egyptians have been a subject of debate and controversy dating back to 18th century natural history. Ironically, the Egyptians considered themselves part of a distinct race, separate from their neighbors... More
Answered By: sophieb - 2/12/2007
Ancient Egyptians were actually mixed. Some were brown with curly hair, some were black with nappy hair, some where white with straight hair. The majority were of the brown curly-haired variety, but you can't dismiss the black people that lived and thrived there too. As for DNA testing, I didn't know that we could... More
Answered By: Ledge - 2/12/2007
Racial categories are modern racialist inventions. Ancient Egyptians could not have cared about colour. 'Mid-Easter' would have meant nothing to them as it does to me. Many 'blacks' are mid-easterners. Ancient Egypt was a very cosmopolitan pot-mix of peoples. The Kush (Ethiopian) and Meroe kingdoms shared connections... More
Answered By: Elder - 2/12/2007
Despite what you might have learned from TV, DNA testing cannot differentiate between races. Who is it that thinks Egyptians are black? Even ancient Egyptian art depicts the people as having been caucasians.
Answered By: Charlie B. - 2/12/2007
They lived in what is now africa and the people thought that the people who lived in africa were black
Answered By: ??? - 2/12/2007
Some of the controversy stems from the famed Queen of Sheba...who by the way there is no evidence she ever existed. She supposedly controlled egypt before the egyptians and also built the great sphinx...supposedly it was really had a lion head and not a human. You might notice that so much care was put into the... More
Answered By: Mark B - 2/12/2007
Like Michel Jackson I think.
Answered By: hannibal - 2/13/2007
What is a "middle-easterner"? Countries like Turkey and Iran, for example, which are in the "Middle East", are grouped together with Arabs, even though they are Indo-European, not Arab. And another thing a lot of people don't know is that of the 200 million or so people on this planet that are called Arabs, most of... More
Answered By: Knicks #34 - 2/13/2007
Their skin was dark to adapt to the region in which they lived,nothing more nothing less...
Answered By: Chef Combo S - 2/13/2007
You obviously haven't done any "real" reading because if you have then your obvious ludicrous 'story' would have never been written, let alone put on the web. First, ancient egyptians were really called ancient khamites. Egypt is not in the middle east, in recent years 'people' began to place it into the middle east... More
Answered By: nneka s - 2/14/2007
Why is there so much denial in the Western World over the fact that the original ancient Egyptians were black Africans? Mainstream biological and cultural evidence establishes the fact that Egyptian Dynastic culture and the vast majority of it's early inhabitants originated and resided in Upper Egypt, which was... More
Answered By: Xavier Mack - 11/2/2013
im from middle east ancient egypt not black or white or brown they was race and they dead race old egypt build by jweish slave
Answered By: anna - 2/10/2014
This post is crazy and I&#x27;ll informed.
Answered By: George - 4/6/2014
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