The People

Sources

Debate. The people of ancient Egypt were typical North Africans. Their direct descendants are the current population of Egypt. A history of racist interpretation of ancient data by scholars in Europe and America claimed the Egyptians as Near Eastern or Indo-Aryan, disregarding the African component in Egyptian culture. In reaction to this racism that denied African achievements, a group of Afrocentric scholars has developed an equally misguided view of the Egyptians as racially “black.” As Stuart Tyson Smith has observed, both groups mistakenly equate cultural achievement with race.

Misconception. Early white scholars did not believe that Africans could have achieved the sophistication of Egyptian culture. Afrocentric scholars equate the value of their own humanity with ancient cultural achievement. Neither group is quite right. Egyptian culture certainly had some characteristics in common with other African cultures including divine kingship, use of headrests, body art, circumcision, and male coming-of-age rituals. Egyptian culture also shared characteristics with the ancient cultures of the Near East.

Close Relations. One new area of research shows the widespread connections of ancient Egyptian culture. The ancient Egyptian language shares vocabulary and grammatical structures with modern languages spoken in Ghana, Chad, Morocco, Libya, Sudan, and Ethiopia. It also shares vocabulary and grammatical structures with ancient Semitic languages such as Akkadian used in Mesopotamia, Hebrew used in ancient Israel, Ugaritic used in ancient Lebanon, and Aramaic, the Near Eastern diplomatic language of the first millennium b.c.e. These connections form the clearest evidence of Egyptian culture’s many close relatives.

View of Race. The Egyptians called themselves “people” (remetch). They divided the rest of the people they met into four groups including Libyans, Nubians, Near Easterners, and Aegean islanders. “People” were culturally Egyptian. Skin color was unimportant to being an Egyptian. Many Libyans, Nubians, and Near Easterners became Egyptian by adopting the culture. Nubians were members of the royal family as early as Dynasty 4 (circa 2625–2500 b.c.e.). A statue head found in a mastaba tomb in Giza clearly represented an individual with African facial features. The family of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II (2008–1957 b.c.e.), one of Egypt’s three greatest political heroes, was most likely originally Nubian. The kings following the New Kingdom (after 1075 b.c.e.) were almost entirely of Nubian or Libyan origin until the arrival of the Macedonian Greeks with Alexander the Great (332 b.c.e.). Near Easterners also achieved political power rising as high as vizier (prime minister) during the New Kingdom. A late Dynasty 18 (circa 1539–1295/1292) vizier had the name Aper-el, a name that certainly contains the name of the Semitic god El.

Acceptance. Religious doctrine, however, defined foreigners in the abstract as a threat to Egypt. Thus, Near Easterners and Nubians were usually depicted as

defeated enemies. Relief sculptures carved on temple entrances often showed the king smiting the peoples surrounding Egypt and offering them to the god. Oddly, this religious belief did not prevent foreigners from assimilating to Egyptian culture and full acceptance by other Egyptians.

Sources

William J. Murnane, The Penguin Guide to Ancient Egypt (Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1983).

Jack M. Sasson, ed., Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, 4 volumes (New York: Scribners, 1995).

Ian Shaw, ed., The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Stuart Tyson Smith, “People,” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, edited by Donald B. Redford, volume 3 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 27–32.