Author Topic: Face of a female king?  (Read 1328 times)

Anchorman

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Face of a female king?
« on: February 09, 2018, 09:46:17 PM »
Following on from the 'cheddar man' thread, this face has been causing a stushie in Egyptology groups. Not only the face, but the skin tone, and the identity of the individual herself. We know the individual had to be Tutankhamun's mum from DNA....but the rsst is causing ructions. For my part, I think the mummy - KV 35 YL - IS Nefertiti, great Royal Wife of Akhenaten, king in her own right, - and Tut's mum to boot. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/could-this-be-the-face-of-nefertiti-300593330.html
"for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."

Humph Warden Bennett

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Re: Face of a female king?
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2018, 03:08:08 PM »
The skin tone looks about right to me. They could have shown her smiling, though.

Anchorman

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Re: Face of a female king?
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2018, 03:28:40 PM »
The skin tone looks about right to me. They could have shown her smiling, though.
   



Oh, 'eck......
Humph, there are umpteen 'black only' advocates bursting blood vessels at the shade of colour...but most of us would point out that, if her gran and grandad, Yuya and Thuyu, were, as we assume, at least semi-Egyptian in origin, the shade of this portrait wouldn't be wide of the mark.
You wouldn't believe the outrage of certain groups when we point out that racial intermarriage with near Eastern, even Indo-European, royals wasn't unknown in her time.

"for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."

Humph Warden Bennett

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Re: Face of a female king?
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2018, 03:42:17 PM »
   



Oh, 'eck......
Humph, there are umpteen 'black only' advocates bursting blood vessels at the shade of colour...but most of us would point out that, if her gran and grandad, Yuya and Thuyu, were, as we assume, at least semi-Egyptian in origin, the shade of this portrait wouldn't be wide of the mark.
You wouldn't believe the outrage of certain groups when we point out that racial intermarriage with near Eastern, even Indo-European, royals wasn't unknown in her time.

I understood that the "black" Dynasty was rather later, during the Third Intermediate Period?

Anchorman

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Re: Face of a female king?
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2018, 06:38:00 PM »
I understood that the "black" Dynasty was rather later, during the Third Intermediate Period?


Yep.
BTW, if you want a reasonable overview of the TIP without too much paracetamol, try "Afterglow of Empire" by Aiden Dodson.
The twenty-fifth dynasty was the one where Nubian kings had a takeover bid, with a curious blend of African anf Egyptian cultures.
Before that time, though, settlers had been filtering into Egypt from Lybia, Palestine, what is now Asia MInor, and Greece, for centuries - even as much as a millenium. Kings married foreign wives, and the resultand offspring made it to high office at court - even becoming kings in their own right.
The 'official' portrayal of the mighty, racially pure, Egyptian ruler beating sevwen kinds of ---- out of Jihnny foreigner, which appears on temple walls by the dozen, was often far from reality.
Even Tutankhamun, through his grandmother, great grand mother(s) etc, was probably not 'pure blood Egyptian.

A lot of black people from the States (no surprise there, unfortunately) try to invade various Egyptian groups on FB claiming every single Egyptian was 100% 'African'.
When we point out that race didn't seem to bother the Egyptians, they throw a hissy fit.
"for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."

SteveH

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Re: Face of a female king?
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2018, 10:26:10 PM »
I know bugger-all about ancient Egypt, but in the British Museum there's a giant stone head of a pharaoh. The hair is hidden under a head-dress, and the skin is the reddish colour of the stone, so that's no guide, but the facial features are unmistakeably black. I think it's online somewhere - I'll google.
I have a pet termite. His name is Clint. Clint eats wood.

Anchorman

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Re: Face of a female king?
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2018, 09:56:11 AM »
I know bugger-all about ancient Egypt, but in the British Museum there's a giant stone head of a pharaoh. The hair is hidden under a head-dress, and the skin is the reddish colour of the stone, so that's no guide, but the facial features are unmistakeably black. I think it's online somewhere - I'll google.
     




Is this the one you'ere thinking about?
If it is, then it's Nebmaatre Amenhotep III - coincidentally Nefertiti's father in law.
There's a pretty good chance he wasn't totally Egyptian - genetically speaking; his mother, great Royal wife of Thutmose IV, Mutemwiya, was from the Yuya-thuyu branch of the elite family, and we know that that branch had foreign blood - not from africa, but Syria-Palestine.
There are a few flecks of black paint still clinging to the statue - not surprising, though; black was considered as a colour of fertility; the black mud deposited by the annual innundation of the Nile brought life to the crops. Lots of statues of kings and deities were painted black.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_red_granite_statue_of_Amenhotep_III
"for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."

SteveH

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Re: Face of a female king?
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2018, 10:46:58 AM »
     




Is this the one you'ere thinking about?
If it is, then it's Nebmaatre Amenhotep III - coincidentally Nefertiti's father in law.
There's a pretty good chance he wasn't totally Egyptian - genetically speaking; his mother, great Royal wife of Thutmose IV, Mutemwiya, was from the Yuya-thuyu branch of the elite family, and we know that that branch had foreign blood - not from africa, but Syria-Palestine.
There are a few flecks of black paint still clinging to the statue - not surprising, though; black was considered as a colour of fertility; the black mud deposited by the annual innundation of the Nile brought life to the crops. Lots of statues of kings and deities were painted black.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_red_granite_statue_of_Amenhotep_III
Yes, that's the one.
I have a pet termite. His name is Clint. Clint eats wood.

Anchorman

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Re: Face of a female king?
« Reply #8 on: February 17, 2018, 02:13:20 PM »
"for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."

Humph Warden Bennett

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Re: Face of a female king?
« Reply #9 on: February 17, 2018, 03:08:32 PM »
A lot of black people from the States (no surprise there, unfortunately) try to invade various Egyptian groups on FB claiming every single Egyptian was 100% 'African'.
When we point out that race didn't seem to bother the Egyptians, they throw a hissy fit.

FTR I have seen bibles in the USA which contain footnotes claiming to prove that everybody in the Bible was black ( with the exception of Pontius Pilate, whom would seem to be the sole cracker).

These Bibles contain far more footnotes trying to prove that the book is about black people, than they do discussing the ministry of Jesus, which IMHO is missing the point somewhat.

Anchorman

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Re: Face of a female king?
« Reply #10 on: February 17, 2018, 04:59:58 PM »
FTR I have seen bibles in the USA which contain footnotes claiming to prove that everybody in the Bible was black ( with the exception of Pontius Pilate, whom would seem to be the sole cracker).

These Bibles contain far more footnotes trying to prove that the book is about black people, than they do discussing the ministry of Jesus, which IMHO is missing the point somewhat.
     


The irony, of course, is that, apart from 'the Ethiopian' in Acts, Pilate himself might just have been the only black person in the NT; there's no reason to say he wasn't!
"for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."