Posted on 09/26/2007 11:58:41 AM PDT by presidio9
Egyptian antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass insisted Tuesday that Tutankhamun was not black despite calls by US black activists to recognise the boy king's dark skin colour.
"Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilisation as black has no element of truth to it," Hawass told reporters.
"Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa," he said, quoted by the official MENA news agency.
Hawass said he was responding to several demonstrations in Philadelphia after a lecture he gave there on September 6 where he defended his theory.
Protestors also claimed images of King Tut were altered to show him with lighter skin at the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit which leaves Philadelphia for London on September 30.
The exhibition sparked an uproar when it kicked off in Los Angeles in June 2005 when black activists demanded that a bust of the boy king be removed because the statue portrays him as white.
The face of the legendary pharaoh, who died around 3,300 years ago at the age of just 19, was reconstructed in 2005 through images collected through CAT scans of his mummy.
The boy king's intact tomb caused an international sensation when it was discovered by Briton Howard Carter in 1922 near Luxor in southern Egypt.
Great...now can the Egypt antiquities chief rule on Bill Clinton?
. . . you really can't argue with the insane.
Of course, you can't give in to their demands either. Good on the director of antiquities.
Egyptians are neither Arabs nor Africans; they are space aliens!
Who else could have built the pyramids?
If the Egyptians aren’t black as they clearly are not, deal with it, you black activist nincompoops.
The Egyptians PAINTED all their statues. So did the Greeks. Modern people in India also paint statues. You really can’t tell the color of the subject of a bust by looking at the color of the stone.
This means that blacks should pay Jews reparations for slavery...
can’t you take x-rays or DNA analysis to determine the race?
If Black people would study our own REAL history, then we could be proud of who we are and what we have accomplished, and not need to INVENT a false history of so-called royalty which has nothing to do with the average Black person. And for the record, many East Indians and Arabs and Australians are darker than we are (in the US), and I wouldn’t call them “Black”.
I was in Baldwin Hills (a predominantly Black area of Los Angeles) a few years back. I noticed that the folks made Cleopatra out to be Black even though she has a Greek parent. I am White and Native American (Lenape/Cherokee) and don’t portray myself as only one. The truth is more important to me.
If Egyptians were black, who were the Nubians?
I thought Eddie Murphy was a dead ringer for Tut. No? Then why did he play him in an MJ video?
“He’s my favorite honkey.”
Can Al Sharpton be far behind?
Don't give me none of that jibba-jabba! Only a black man wears that kind of gold jewelry fool!
Two very prominent Roman generals were conversing when one of them, who came from an old Patrician family, told the other, a man of humble beginnings; “If you only had a family tree, you’d have everything.” To which the other general replied “That’s the difference between us-you’re at the bottom of your family tree; I’m at the top of mine.” Moral: only losers find it necessary to flaunt the successes of their ancestors.
Funny....I always thought he was gold.....
I thought Eddie Murphy was a dead ringer for Tut. No? Then why did he play him in an MJ video?
Please. It's well-known that this was what King Tut looked like.
Watch out for that quicksand cake!
Why, the descendants of the Oldbians, of course!
Egypt was the first great cosmopolitan society, drawing in different peoples from all over the middle east over 1,000s of years.
Given the proximity of Egypt to ancient Nubia (Sudan) there is little doubt that people of the Negroid race migrated to Egypt and lived there as well, along with other peoples and people who were long there before those migrations.
However, claiming a pure “racial” identity back then to ancient Egypt would be like claiming one for the US today and by most accounts the Negroid component was less than it is in the US today.
Modern history has continued to redefine “Egyptian”, due to Greek, Roman and eventually Arab and Muslim conquerors who supplied their own additions to the Egyptian population. The majority of Egypt today is said to be, genetically, semitic, in the same family as most “Arabs” and Jews.
The Nubians were the people living just south of Egypt.They were also known as Kushites.
Fact is that there was quite a bit of intermingling between Egypt and Nubia throughout history.
And if you have ever seen a picture of Tut’s mom,Queen Tiy,there is not much doubt to me that she is quite”Negroid”in features.
Its absurd to say Egypt was completely white,black or Arab.They were as mixed ethnically as you can possibly get.
The mummies of the Pharoahs have been around long enough to be studied over and over. The face of Tut, the face of Ramses...they were not Black. Their skin was darkened in the mummification process, but they were not Black.
It's sort of like the folks who came from honest Scottish farmers (as I did, mostly) having to invent themselves some made-up tartan pattern and kinship with Bonnie Prince Charlie (who was actually half Polish, one quarter Italian, and the rest mostly French and Danish). It's usually harmless, but in the case of some of these activists I think it's crossed the line.
“He gave his life for tourism.”
Of course they are African ... were born on the continent of Africa. Just because you were born on the continent of Africa does not mean your skin color is black.
Another myth exploded.
I remember reading long ago (I'm 45 years out of college) what must be essentially the same story. The version I read went: Old Patrician: "Your low birth puts you beneath me". Young General: The differance between my birth and yours is that your family ends with you, while mine begins with me!
That story has been very helpful to me at times through the years.
Many of the Nubians were slaves of the Egyptians. I attended the King Tut exhibit in Philadelphia. One of the items shown was a black Nubian walking stick, with a Nubian form bent backwards as the handle.
“He’s got a condo made of stone-a.”
Shh... you’re not supposed to mention the semitic family and the Arab and Jewish connection.
The uneducated will be confused.
Cue the old joke about Charlize Theron being the first African American to win an Oscar for "Best Actress"...
Or Terayza potentially being our first African-American First Lady.
Actually, it’s always confused me how an arab can be antisemitic. Are we talking self-loathing or something.
Of course he wasn't.
Who was ever gullible enough to believe such tripe in the first place?
- John
Shaptoon and Jesse Jackass are probably on a plane headed for Egypt to assemble protesters to accuse the study group of "Racism" and "taking away our heritage".
I have seen him many times on the Discovery Channel, Learning Channel, etc...
Bout one the straightest shooters most knowledgeable (on his subject) persons I have ever seen.
WHA?! He be mah homeboy!
Yeah, that guy is probably mooselimb I guess, but he’s an intellectual first. I really enjoy watching him talk.
Just as being born in Africa, moving to America and becoming a citizen doesn't make you an African American. Especially if you are white!
LAZARUS LONG
“not black despite calls by US black activists to recognise the boy king’s dark skin colour...”
You’d think you were reading Scrappleface.
Better that I post such musings on the internet(s) than act upon them and embarrass my offspring.
PaMom
Speaking of which in my above post, I remember several years ago some crazy female black activist got really upset with a black speaker on a panel because he refused to take the moniker African American. She repeatedly insisted he do so. He repeatedly refused. It really ticked her off.
The reason he wouldn't, though he was black, he had never been an American, nor had he ever lived in America!
But to her, simply by having black skin he should call himself an African American.
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