The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : $b Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : $b Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia
World history
Moreover, the type of the modern Egyptian cannot straightway determine
the question as to the origin of the ancient Egyptian population,
even if we do not take into account the difficult problem of how far
climate and soil exercise a moderating influence upon a race. The
inhabitants of the Lower Nile Valley at the time of the New Kingdom,
and from that time forward in the whole course of history, have mingled
so extensively with pure African blood, that it would have been a
miracle if no assimilation had taken place. It is an undoubted fact
that the Turks belong to the peoples resembling the Mongolians; but
who will put the modern Osman in the same line with the Chinaman, or
fail to recognise the assimilation to the Armenian, Persian, Semitic,
Greek type? The same is true, for example, of the Magyars. A strictly
analogous state of things is found in Egypt. It has been proved that,
in the skull-formation of the modern Egyptian, the influence of the
African element is more clearly discernible than in the days of the
ancients. Moreover, a careful comparison leads to the conclusion that
in ancient, as in modern Egypt, there are two coexistent types: one
resembling the Nubian more closely, who is naturally more strongly
represented in Upper Egypt than in Memphis and Cairo; and one sharply
distinguished from him whom we may define as the pure Egyptian. Midway
between these two stands a hybrid form, represented in numerous
examples and sufficiently accounted for by the intermixture of the two
races.
While the Nubian type is closer akin to the pure negro type and is
indigenous in Africa, we must regard the purely Egyptian type as
foreign to this continent; this directs us toward the assumption that
the most ancient home of the Egyptian is to be sought in Asia. The
Egyptians have depicted themselves, times out of number, on monuments,
and enable us clearly enough to recognise their type.
For the most part, they are powerful, close-knit figures, frequently
with vigorous features. Not infrequently, as Erman has sagaciously
suggested, the heads have a “clever, witty expression just like what
we are accustomed to meet with in cunning old peasants.” We have a
recurrence of the same trait in several early Roman portraits. Side
by side with this we have finely cut features: for instance, we are
reminded of the almost effeminate expression in the head of Ramses II.
The Egyptian type is altogether different from the negro type; the
structure of the nose, for instance, is delicate for the most part, and
there is no trace of prognathismus, or the protrusion of the lower part
of the face.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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