Scholars have long believed that ancient Egypt was a genetic stew of ethnicity, as the fabled kingdom was both a center of international trade and often the victim of foreign invasions.
Now, new evidence suggests that may have been true even in the upper echelons of society, according to researchers who have used a blend of art and science to re-create what the ancients looked like in real life.
They have used CAT scans to model the skulls of seven mummies from various museums, including one unveiled yesterday at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences, revealing physical features that range from Mediterranean to African.
All seven were buried with the trappings of a high status in society, including two clearly connected to the priesthood, said project leader Jonathan Elias, director of the Harrisburg-based Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium.
He cautioned against drawing firm conclusions from such a small sample, and he stressed that ethnic traits were a small part of his research. But he said the findings suggested a society where race had little to do with class.
"They all identified themselves as Egyptians," Elias said. "These are people. You can't slice them up like they're chocolate cake or vanilla cake."
Philadelphia sculptor Frank Bender has created plaster busts from five of the seven skull models, including one of the anonymous young woman - dubbed Annie - whose 2,200-year-old remains are on display at the academy on Logan Circle.
Bender sculpted her with a nose and cheekbones that Elias described as "northern Mediterranean" - the location of modern-day Greece and Turkey. Another one of the five has what Elias called "Sudanese" features: full lips and a "prognathous" profile - meaning the jaw protrudes farther than the nose. The others have a blend of ethnic facial characteristics.
Anthropologists who have heard Elias speak about the work have been impressed.
"In the past, Egyptology has been very much based on architecture and artifacts and text," said Robert Yohe, an anthropologist at California State University, Bakersfield. "You got reconstructions of culture based on things and people's impressions of things."
Now, he said, mummy reconstructions provide more direct information about the ancient people: their role and status in society, their physical health, and sometimes even how they died.
Such efforts are not of much value on an individual basis but are provocative when done for a series of mummies from a particular place and time, said Andrew Nelson, an anthropologist from the University of Western Ontario.
"There were people sloshing up from Africa and around the Mediterranean and all over the place," Nelson said. "I think it's extremely interesting to see that reflected in the face."
Eventually, Elias hopes to scan more than 20 mummies, most from the Ptolemaic period, an intriguing span of three centuries during which Egypt came under Macedonian and Greek influence.
It began after Alexander the Great invaded Egypt in 332 B.C. Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals and also a boyhood friend, named himself king in 305 B.C.
One of his successors was dubbed Ptolemy Philadelphus - "brotherly love," like the city of Philadelphia - because he married his sister.
Much remains unknown about the period. Few U.S. scholars specialize in it, in part because it is a transitional period that requires a fair bit of interdisciplinary skill, said J.G. Manning, who teaches classics at Stanford University.
The Greeks left much of Egyptian society and customs intact, including its polytheistic religion. They even drew parallels between certain Greek gods and their Egyptian counterparts. The period saw flourishing international trade, wider use of coins, and prolific accomplishments in the sciences and literature.
"In a lot of ways, it's the beginning of the modern world," Manning said.
Yet ancient texts indicate there was political unrest and even rebellion, some of it in Akhmim, the burial site for the mummies that Elias is studying. The city is in southern Egypt and was a major center for textiles and trade; reasons for the unrest under the Ptolemaic kings are not fully understood.
The unveiling of the academy mummy head comes as Philadelphia immerses itself in Egyptology. Treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun go on display at the Franklin Institute on Feb. 3. At the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, there is a new exhibit of artifacts from Amarna, the Egyptian city where Tut spent his childhood.
The academy has no firm plans yet on how to display Annie's bust.
The mummy project is unusual in that Elias, its director, is not affiliated with a university.
He founded his research consortium in 2005 in Harrisburg, where he once worked at the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts. Project members include various universities and museums with Akhmimic mummies in their collections.
"He's a very engaging guy," Nelson said. "You have to have someone like that for this sort of project, to pull everyone together."
The work on the academy mummy began in April, when caretakers carefully drove it to Hahnemann University Hospital, using a makeshift stretcher wrapped in bubble wrap. A radiologist scanned the body with computed tomography - a CAT scan.
The images were then used to create a three-dimensional model of the skull at the University of Manitoba. A special 3-D printer was used to build up the model layer by layer, by spraying a mixture of plaster dust and a special polymer.
Then, Bender went to work.
Better known for helping law-enforcement agencies by sculpting the heads of missing persons, Bender relished the mummy project and even visited Egypt for inspiration.
He has sculpted five heads to date, marveling as history comes to life in his hands. He sculpted the Academy's anonymous mummy with flowing hair and a mouth opened as about to speak.
"She was beautiful," Bender said. "She was full of life, vibrant."
Another of the mummies conjures up a different sort of feeling, at least for Elias, the project director. Inscriptions on his coffin identify him as Djedhor, a burly fellow whose remains are stored in France.
"He actually looks a great deal like my father-in-law," Elias quipped. "I try to get past that."
To ask Jonathan Elias a question about the study, and to learn about the science behind the Great Pyramids' bricks, go to http://go.philly.com/ancient
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact staff writer Tom Avril at 215-854-2430 or tavril@phillynews.com
Posts: 2007 | From: Washington State | Registered: Oct 2006
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Bender sculpted her with a nose and cheekbones that Elias described as "northern Mediterranean" - the location of modern-day Greece and Turkey. Another one of the five has what Elias called "Sudanese" features: full lips and a "prognathous" profile - meaning the jaw protrudes farther than the nose. The others have a blend of ethnic facial characteristics.
Basically the rehashing of nonsense refuted both here and elsewhere on "Mediterranean" and what amounts to "forest Negro" characterization.
Posts: 5964 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:You can't slice them up like they're chocolate cake or vanilla cake."
....then proceeds to do exactly that.
Evidently he can't see that the folly is all the greater when one person is sliced up in said fashion.
Posts: 15202 | Registered: Jun 2004
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quote:Eventually, Elias hopes to scan more than 20 mummies, most from the Ptolemaic period, an intriguing span of three centuries during which Egypt came under Macedonian and Greek influence.
Isn't this a period after pharaonic Egypt, why is he interested in the greek period to represent AE, isn't it like looking at remains from todays america to represent ancient america? Funny people Posts: 1420 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Does anybody have the email to the forensic sculptor or anthropologist working on this project? Please note that during the time period when the said mummy was dated to was a period when intermingling between Greeks and Egyptians occured. We have textual evidence of some Greeks being allowed in Egyptian priesthoods. I would not be shocked to find some remains that have affinities with Greeks but the ultimate question is what criteria are they using for this conclusion. Just like many forensic teams working with law enforcement have mislabled eastern African burn victims.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Bender sculpted her with a nose and cheekbones that Elias described as "northern Mediterranean" - the location of modern-day Greece and Turkey. Another one of the five has what Elias called "Sudanese" features: full lips and a "prognathous" profile - meaning the jaw protrudes farther than the nose. The others have a blend of ethnic facial characteristics.
Basically the rehashing of nonsense refuted both here and elsewhere on "Mediterranean" and what amounts to "forest Negro" characterization.
quote:Originally posted by rasol:
quote:You can't slice them up like they're chocolate cake or vanilla cake."
....then proceeds to do exactly that.
Evidently he can't see that the folly is all the greater when one person is sliced up in said fashion.
My sentiments exactly. Posts: 26352 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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VAUGHAN, ONT. – York Regional Police have released drawings of an unidentified woman whose badly burned body was found in an industrial park more than 10 years ago.
A police officer made the gruesome discovery on Sept. 1, 1994, after noticing a fire behind a building on Bradwick Drive near Highway 7 in Vaughan.
When the fire was put out, the body of a young woman was found in the remains of a suitcase. Gasoline and tires had been used to fuel the fire.
On Tuesday, investigators released drawings of a clay reconstruction of the victim's face, along with previously unpublished information that they hope may help someone identify her.
Forensic testing indicates that the victim was likely a dark-skinned Caucasian from a North African country such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia or Egypt. Her estimated age was 17 to 18.
She stood five feet, four inches, and had a very slim build, weighing between 85 and 100 pounds. She had dark curly hair, which may have been dyed a reddish colour, and protruding front teeth, which were in good condition.
Police say the victim had suffered broken bones in her back and lower limbs that had been left to heal untreated. As a result, they say she was likely immobile and in constant pain.
Posts: 26352 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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EDIT: Reading the link provided in the header post, it seems like they came from the Greek period.
Posts: 7111 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Philadelphia sculptor Frank Bender has created plaster busts from five of the seven skull models, including one of the anonymous young woman - dubbed Annie - whose 2,200-year-old remains are on display at the academy on Logan Circle.
Bender sculpted her with a nose and cheekbones that Elias described as "northern Mediterranean" - the location of modern-day Greece and Turkey. Another one of the five has what Elias called "Sudanese" features: full lips and a "prognathous" profile - meaning the jaw protrudes farther than the nose. The others have a blend of ethnic facial characteristics.
Anthropologists who have heard Elias speak about the work have been impressed.
Looks like this is another brazen attempt to do a "King Tut-like makeover". The mischief never ceases.
Also one must note the anthropological ignorance in Jonathan Elias's(project leader) statements.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Underpants Man: How old were those mummies?
EDIT: Reading the link provided in the header post, it seems like they came from the Greek period.
Yes, they are from the Greek (Ptolemaic) periods, which is what Cheikh Anta Diop refers to as "The Great Miscegnation of Egypt Among A Sea of Whites", and doesn't the late dynastic gizeh "e" series date to around this period? And if the "E" cranial series that Keita found essentially to be mulatto (Mahanabolis distances found it be intermediate between European and African series) is found to be "atypical of Egyptian series" by Zarkewski, doesn't this mean that the Egyptian population was overwhemingly (85-90 %) black? I posted this question earlier in another thread...
Posts: 447 | From: Somewhere son... | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
^ Yes, even if this really does seem to be the case of Egyptians of mixed foreign ancestry (although the forensic artists is still ignorant of indigenous African phenotypic diversity), how interesting that these scholars try to focus on the ethnic and phenotypical make-up of the Egyptians during a time period when they were colonized and ruled by foreigners (the Ptolemaic).
Notice, how they try to make it seem like these few samples from the Ptolemaic period are somehow representative of all native Egyptians of the native dynastic period.
Posts: 26352 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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My sentiments exactly. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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