text- Quotations from research studies - Keita - Egypt- Nubia - race - DNA - Lovell - Yurco - Vogel

Quotations from research studies - narrow screen format

Recent studies find the ancient Egyptians had a
tropical body plan like sub-Saharan 'black' Africans
and were not cold-adapted like European type
populations. Ancient Egyptians were a tropically
adapted people, not intermediate, and their brachial
and crural indices show that the distal segments of
each limb are longer relative to the proximal
segments than in many “African” populations.
Tropical body plans also indicate darker-skin.

QUOTE:
"The raw values in Table 6 suggest that Egyptians
had the “super-Negroid” body plan described by
Robins (1983).. This pattern is supported by Figure
7 (a plot of population mean femoral and tibial
lengths; data from Ruff, 1994), which indicates that
the Egyptians generally have tropical body plans. Of
the Egyptian samples, only the Badarian and Early
Dynastic period populations have shorter tibiae than
predicted from femoral length. Despite these
differences, all samples lie relatively clustered
together as compared to the other populations."
(Zakrzewski, S.R. (2003). "Variation in ancient
Egyptian stature and body proportions". American
Journal of Physical Anthropology 121 (3): 219-229.

a 2008 Study puts the ancient Egyptians closer to
US Blacks than whites:

Quotes:

"Intralimb (crural and brachial) indices are
significantly higher in ancient Egyptians than in
American Whites (except crural index among
females), i.e., Egyptians have relatively longer distal
segments (Table 4). Intralimb indices are not
significantly different between Egyptians and
American Blacks... Many of those who have studied
ancient Egyptians have commented on their
characteristically ‘‘tropical’’ or ‘‘African’’ body plan
(Warren, 1897; Masali, 1972; Robins, 1983; Robins
and Shute, 1983, 1984, 1986; Zakrzewski, 2003).
Egyptians also fall within the range of modern
African populations (Ruff and Walker, 1993), but
close to the upper limit of modern Europeans as
well, at least for the crural index (brachial indices are
definitely more ‘‘African’’).. In terms of femoral and
tibial length to total skeletal height proportions, we
found that ancient Egyptians are significantly
different from US Blacks, although still closer to
Blacks than to Whites.

Comparisons of linear body proportions of Old
Kingdom and non-Old Kingdom period individuals,
and workers and high officials in our sample found
no statistically significant differences among them.
Zakrzewski (2003) also found little evidence for
differences in linear body proportions of Egyptians
over a wider temporal range. In general, recent
studies of skeletal variation among ancient Egyptians
support scenarios of biological continuity through
time. Irish (2006) analyzed quantitative and
qualitative dental traits of 996 Egyptians from
Neolithic through Roman periods, reporting the
presence of a few outliers but concluding that the
dental samples appear to be largely homogeneous
and that the affinities observed indicate overall
biological uniformity and continuity from
Predynastic through Dynastic and Postdynastic
periods.

Zakrzewski (2007) provided a comprehensive
summary of previous Egyptian craniometric studies
and examined Egyptian crania from six time periods.
She found that the earlier samples were relatively
more homogeneous in comparison to the later
groups. However, overall results indicated genetic
continuity over the Egyptian Predynastic and Early
Dynastic periods, albeit with a high level of genetic
diversity within the population, suggesting an
indigenous process of state formation. She also
concluded that while the biological patterning of the
Egyptian population varied across time, no
consistent temporal or spatial trends are apparent.
Thus, the stature estimation formulae developed
here may be broadly applicable to all ancient
Egyptian populations.."
("Stature estimation in ancient Egyptians: A new
technique based on anatomical reconstruction of
stature." Michelle H. Raxter, Christopher B. Ruff,
Ayman Azab, Moushira Erfan, Muhammad Soliman,
Aly El-Sawaf, (Am J Phys Anthropol. 2008,
Jun;136(2):147-55

Older limb studies find the same- Blacks closer to
ancient Egyptians than whites:

"An attempt has been made to estimate male and
female Egyptian stature from long bone length using
Trotter & Gleser negro stature formulae, previous
work by the authors having shown that these rather
than white formulae give more consistent results
with male dynastic material... When consistency has
been achieved in this way, predynastic proportions
are founded to be such that distal segments of the
limbs are even longer in relation to the proximal
segments than they are in modern negroes. Such
proportions are termed "super-negroid"...
Robins (1983) and Robins & Shute (1983) have
shown that more consistent results are obtained
from ancient Egyptian male skeletons if Trotter &
Gleser formulae for negro are used, rather than
those for whites which have always been applied in
the past. .. their physical proportions were more like
modern negroes than those of modern whites, with
limbs that were relatively long compared with the
trunk, and distal segments that were long compared
with the proximal segments. If ancient Egyptian
males had what may be termed negroid proportions,
it seems reasonable that females did likewise."
(Robins G, Shute CCD. 1986. Predynastic Egyptian
stature and physical proportions. Hum Evol
1:313–324. Ruff CB. 1994.)

The ancient Badarians were quite representative of
ancient Egyptians as a whole and showed clear links
with tropical Africans to the south. They have been
sometimes excluded in studies of the ancient
Egyptian population, which shows continuity in its
history, not mass influxes of foreigners until the late
periods.

"As a result of their facial prognathism, the Badarian
sample has been described as forming a
morphological cluster with Nubian, Tigrean, and
other southern (or \Negroid") groups (Morant,
1935, 1937; Mukherjee et al., 1955; Nutter, 1958,
Strouhal, 1971; Angel, 1972; Keita, 1990). Cranial
nonmetric trait studies have found this group to be
similar to other Egyptians, including much later
material (Berry and Berry, 1967, 1972), but also to
be significantly different from LPD material (Berry
et al., 1967). Similarly, the study of dental nonmetric
traits has suggested that the Badarian population is
at the centroid of Egyptian dental samples (Irish,
2006), thereby suggesting similarity and hence
continuity across Egyptian time periods. From the
central location of the Badarian samples in Figure 2,
the current study finds the Badarian to be relatively
morphologically close to the centroid of all the
Egyptian samples. The Badarian have been shown to
exhibit greatest morphological similarity with the temporally
successive EPD (Table 5). Finally, the biological
distinctiveness of the Badarian from other Egyptian samples has
also been demonstrated (Tables 6 and 7).

These results suggest that the EDyn do form a
distinct morphological pattern. Their overlap with
other Egyptian samples (in PC space, Fig. 2)
suggests that although their morphology is
distinctive, the pattern does overlap with the other
time periods. These results therefore do not support
the Petrie concept of a "Dynastic race" (Petrie,
1939; Derry, 1956). Instead, the results suggest that
the Egyptian state was not the product of mass
movement of populations into the Egyptian Nile
region, but rather that it was the result of primarily
indigenous development combined with prolonged
small-scale migration, potentially from trade,
military, or other contacts.

This evidence suggests that the process of state
formation itself may have been mainly an indigenous
process, but that it may have occurred in association
with in-migration to the Abydos region of the Nile
Valley. This potential in-migration may have
occurred particularly during the EDyn and OK. A
possible explanation is that the Egyptian state
formed through increasing control of trade and raw
materials, or due to military actions, potentially
associated with the use of the Nile Valley as a
corridor for prolonged small scale movements
through the desert environment.
(Sonia R. Zakrzewski. (2007). Population
Continuity or Population Change: Formation of the
Ancient Egyptian State. AMERICAN JOURNAL
OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 132:501-509)

Ancient Egyptians most related to other Africans
and are part of a Nilotic continuity rather than
something Mediterranean or Middle Eastern
Quotes:

"Certainly there was some foreign admixture [in
Egypt], but basically a homogeneous African
population had lived in the Nile Valley from ancient
to modern times... [the] Badarian people, who
developed the earliest Predynastic Egyptian culture,
already exhibited the mix of North African and
Sub-Saharan physical traits that have typified
Egyptians ever since (Hassan 1985; Yurco 1989;
Trigger 1978; Keita 1990.. et al.,)... The peoples of
Egypt, the Sudan, and much of East Africa, Ethiopia
and Somalia are now generally regarded as a Nilotic
continuity, with widely ranging physical features
(complexions light to dark, various hair and
craniofacial types) but with powerful common
cultural traits, including cattle pastoralist
traditions.." (Frank Yurco, "An Egyptological
Review," 1996 -in Mary R. Lefkowitz and Guy
MacLean Rogers, Black Athena Revisited, 1996,
The University of North Carolina Press, p. 62-100)

African peoples are the most diverse in the world
whether analyzed by DNA or skeletal or cranial
methods. Attempts to deny this are rooted in racism
and error. African people, particularly
SUB-SAHARAN Africans, vary the most in how
they look, more so than any other population in the
world.

Quotes:
"Estimates of genetic diversity in major geographic
regions are frequently made by pooling all
individuals into regional aggregates. This method
can potentially bias results if there are differences in
population substructure within regions, since
increased variation among local populations could
inflate regional diversity. A preferred method of
estimating regional diversity is to compute the mean
diversity within local populations. Both methods are
applied to a global sample of craniometric data
consisting of 57 measurements taken on 1734 crania
from 18 local populations in six geographic regions:
sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, East Asia, Australasia,
Polynesia, and the Americas. Each region is
represented by three local populations.Both methods
for estimating regional diversity show sub-Saharan
Africa to have the highest levels of phenotypic
variation, consistent with many genetic studies."
(Relethford, John "Global Analysis of Regional
Differences in Craniometric Diversity and
Population Substructure". Human Biology - Volume
73, Number 5, October 2001, pp. 629-636)

"The living peoples of the African continent are
diverse in facial characteristics, stature, skin color,
hair form, genetics, and other characteristics. No
one set of characteristics is more African than
another. Variability is also found in "sub-Saharan"
Africa, to which the word "Africa" is sometimes
erroneously restricted. There is a problem with
definitions. Sometimes Africa is defined using
cultural factors, like language, that exclude
developments that clearly arose in Africa. For
example, sometimes even the Horn of Africa
(Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea) is excluded because of
geography and language and the fact that some of its
peoples have narrow noses and faces.
However, the Horn is at the same latitude as
Nigeria, and its languages are African. The latitude
of 15 degree passes through Timbuktu, surely in
"sub-Saharan Africa," as well as Khartoum in Sudan;
both are north of the Horn. Another false idea is that
supra-Saharan and Saharan Africa were peopled
after the emergence of "Europeans" or Near
Easterners by populations coming from outside
Africa. Hence, the ancient Egyptians in some
writings have been de-Africanized. These ideas,
which limit the definition of Africa and Africans, are
rooted in racism and earlier, erroneous "scientific"
approaches." (S. Keita, "The Diversity of
Indigenous Africans," in Egypt in Africa, Theodore
Clenko, Editor (1996), pp. 104-105. [10])

Human skin color diversity is highest in sub-Saharan
African populations.
Quotes:

"Previous studies of genetic and craniometric traits
have found higher levels of within-population
diversity in sub-Saharan Africa compared to other
geographic regions. This study examines regional
differences in within-population diversity of human
skin color. Published data on skin reflectance were
collected for 98 male samples from eight geographic
regions: sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Europe,
West Asia, Southwest Asia, South Asia, Australasia,
and the New World. Regional differences in local
within-population diversity were examined using
two measures of variability: the sample variance and
the sample coefficient of variation. For both
measures, the average level of within-population
diversity is higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in
other geographic regions. This difference persists
even after adjusting for a correlation between
within-population diversity and distance from the
equator. Though affected by natural selection, skin
color variation shows the same pattern of higher
African diversity as found with other traits."
-- Relethford JH.(2000). Human skin color diversity
is highest in sub-Saharan African populations. Hum
Biol. 2000 Oct;72(5):773-80.)

Resemblances between Africans and other
populations do not necessarily represent any "race
mix" but the Out of Africa migrations, and the
subset of features non African populations derive
from the African originals.
Quotes:

[I]"What would account for this range of
resemblances- infraspecific convergence, parallelism,
admixture, chance or all of these? It is perhaps best
to consider these findings as reflective primarily of
an indigenous northeast African biological
evolutionary history and diversity. Hiernaux (1975)
reports that the range of values in selected metric
units from populations in the northeast quadrant of
Africa collectively largely overlaps the range found
in the world. Given that this region may be the place
from which modern humans left Africa, its people
may have retained an overall more generalized
craniometric pattern whose individual variants for
selected variables may resemble a range of centroid
values for non-African population values."[/I]
-- S.O.Y. Keita, "On Meriotic Nubian Crania
Fordisc 2.0, and Human Biological History."
Current Anthropology Volume 48, Number 3, June
2007

Computer programs such as FORDISC, used to
classify African peoples like Nubians are deeply
flawed and inaccurate. One such test on ancient
Nubians yielded ludicrous "matches" with people as
far afield as Hungarians, Japanese and islanders of
the Pacific.

"If Fordisc 2.0 is revealing genetic admixture of Late
Period Dynastic Egypt and Meroitic Nubia, then one
must also consider these ancient Meroitic Nubians to
be part of Hungarian, part Easter Islander, part
Norse, and part Australian Aborigine... In fact, all
human groups are essentially heterogeneous,
including samples within Fordisc 2.0. Howells’s
cranial samples exhibit far more variation within than
between skeletal series...” (Williams et al, 2005,
"Forensic Misclassification of Ancient Nubian
Crania).. The results of the analyses suggest that
Fordisc's utility in research and medico-legal
contexts is limited. Fordisc will only return a correct
ancestry attribution when an unidentified specimen is
more or less complete, and belongs to one of the
populations represented in the program's reference
samples. Even then Fordisc can be expected to
classify no more than 1 per cent of specimens with
confidence."
-- Frank L'Engle, Williams, Robert L. Belcher, and
George J. Armelagos. Forensic Misclassification of
Ancient Nubian Crania: Implications for
Assumptions About Human Variation. Current
Anthropology, Volume 46, Number 2, April
2005Population change in Egypt:

"...STABILITY and HOMOGENEITY persisted
right through the Old and Middle Kingdoms, and
breaks down only in the New Kingdom period, when
we know from many sources that there was
considerable infiltration into the Nile Valley."
--Berry, A.C., & Berry, R.J., 1972. ‘Origins and
Relationships of the Ancient Egyptians, Based on
the Study of Non-Metrical Variations in the Skull’,
Journal of Human Evolution, 1, 1972: 199-206;
p.203

"Cosmopolitan northern Egypt is less likely to have
a population representative of the core indigenous
population of the most ancient times".
- Keita (2005), pp. 564

Upper Egypt (south) was a fertile food producing
region from which the dynasties sprung, and was
well able to support advanced organization and
culture. Lower or northern Egypt was thinly settled
prior to the New Kingdom.
Ancient Egypt was divided into two regions: Upper
and Lower Egypt. Lower (northern) Egypt consisted
of the Nile River's delta made by the river as it
empties into the Mediterranean. Today the Delta is
fifteen thousand square miles of alluvium (silt),
which has been deposited over the centuries by the
annual inundation of the Nile. Prior to the New
Kingdom (before about 1539 B.C.), this area was
only thinly settled, although it was used as a grazing
area for cattle. Its high water table in modern times
has made archaeological excavation for evidence of
settlements difficult
http://www.carnegiemnh.org/exhibitions/egypt/guide
.htm
see also Toby A.H. Wilkinson in his book Early
Dynastic Egypt and Oxford History of Ancient
Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw

Toby A.H. Wilkinson in his book Early Dynastic
Egypt writes that Upper Egypt provided its
inhabitants with plenty enough grain in ancient
times. What was the true importance of Lower
Egypt to the traditional ruling class from Upper
Egypt from the Predynastic to the late periods? The
ease of trade routes to Asia and their control. This is
the reason Wilkinson pegs as the major reason that
caused the Upper Egyptians of the Predynastic
period to unite the Two Lands. Oxford's Ancient
Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw supports this as well.

Afrocentric critic Brace debunks "Caucasoid race
mix" claims for Horn of Africa peoples and notes
tropically adapted peoples are usually dark-skinned
and with limb elongation.
Quotes:

"In this regard it is interesting to note that limb
proportions of Predynastic Naqada people in Upper
Egypt are reported to be "Super-Negroid," meaning
that the distal segments are elongated in the fashion
of tropical Africans.....skin color intensification and
distal limb elongation are apparent wherever people
have been long-term residents of the tropics."
"An earlier generation of anthropologists tried to
explain face form in the Horn of Africa as the result
of admixture from hypothetical “wandering
Caucasoids,” (Adams, 1967, 1979; MacGaffey,
1966; Seligman, 1913, 1915, 1934), but that
explanation founders on the paradox of why that
supposedly potent “Caucasoid” people contributed a
dominant quantity of genes for nose and face form
but none for skin color or limb proportions. It makes
far better sense to regard the adaptively significant
features seen in the Horn of Africa as solely an in
situ response on the part of separate adaptive traits
to the selective forces present in the hot dry tropics
of eastern Africa. From the observation that 12,000
years was not a long enough period of time to
produce any noticeable variation in pigment by
latitude in the New World and that 50,000 years has
been barely long enough to produce the beginnings
of a gradation in Australia (Brace, 1993a), one
would have to argue that the inhabitants of the
Upper Nile and the East Horn of Africa have been
equatorial for many tens of thousands of years."
(-- C.L. Brace, 1993. Clines and clusters..")

Modern DNA studies find even though some
African peoples look different, they are genetically
related through the PN2 transition clade of the
Y-chromosone. Thus light-skinned African Libyans
and dark-skinned Zulus are all genetically related
Africans ,even though they don't look exactly the
same.
Quotes:

"But the Y-chromosome clade defined by the PN2
transition (PN2/M35, PN2/M2) shatters the
boundaries of phenotypically defined races and true
breeding populations across a great geographical
expanse. African peoples with a range of skin colors,
hair forms and physiognomies have substantial
percentages of males whose Y chromosomes form
closely related clades with each other, but not with
others who are phenotypically similar. The
individuals in the morphologically or geographically
defined 'races' are not characterized by 'private'
distinct lineages restricted to each of them." (S O Y
Keita, R A Kittles, et al. "Conceptualizing human
variation," Nature Genetics 36, S17 - S20 (2004)

"Recall that the Horn–Nile Valley crania show, as a
group, the largest overlap with other regions. A
review of the recent literature indicates that there are
male lineage ties between African peoples who have
been traditionally labeled as being ‘‘racially’’
different, with ‘‘racially’’ implying an ontologically
deep divide. The PN2 transition, a Y chromosome
marker, defines a lineage (within the YAPþ derived
haplogroup E or III) that emerged in Africa
probably before the last glacial maximum, but after
the migration of modern humans from Africa (see
Semino et al., 2004). This mutation forms a clade
that has two daughter subclades (defined by the
biallelic markers M35/215 (or 215/M35) and M2)
that unites numerous phenotypically variant African
populations from the supra-Saharan, Saharan, and
sub-Saharan regions.."
(S.O.Y Keita. Exploring northeast African metric
craniofacial variation at the individual level: A
comparative study using principal component
analysis. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 16:679–689, 2004.)
keita2004neanalysis.htm"

Quotes:
"Africa contains tremendous cultural, linguistic and genetic
diversity, and has more than 2,000 distinct ethnic groups and
languages.. Studies using mitochondrial (mt)DNA
and nuclear DNA markers consistently indicate that
Africa is the most genetically diverse region of the
world." (Tishkoff SA, Williams SM., Genetic
analysis of African populations: human evolution
and complex disease. Nature Reviews Genetics.
2002 Aug (8):611-21.)

DNA of some modern Egyptians found a genetic
ancestral heritage to East Africa:
Quotes:

"The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity of 58
individuals from Upper Egypt, more than half (34
individuals) from Gurna, whose population has an
ancient cultural history, were studied by sequencing
the control-region and screening diagnostic RFLP
markers. This sedentary population presented
similarities to the Ethiopian population by the L1
and L2 macrohaplogroup frequency (20.6%), by the
West Eurasian component (defined by haplogroups
H to K and T to X) and particularly by a high
frequency (17.6%) of haplogroup M1. We
statistically and phylogenetically analysed and
compared the Gurna population with other
Egyptian, Near East and sub-Saharan Africa
populations; AMOVA and Minimum Spanning
Network analysis showed that the Gurna population
was not isolated from neighbouring populations. Our
results suggest that the Gurna population has
conserved the trace of an ancestral genetic structure
from an ancestral East African population,
characterized by a high M1 haplogroup frequency.
The current structure of the Egyptian population
may be the result of further influence of
neighbouring populations on this ancestral
population."
(Stevanovitch A, Gilles A, Bouzaid E, et al. (2004)
Mitochondrial DNA sequence diversity in a
sedentary population from Egypt.Ann Hum Genet.
68(Pt 1):23-39.)

Tishkoff et al: Quotes:
"Africa contains tremendous cultural, linguistic and
genetic diversity, and has more than 2,000 distinct
ethnic groups and languages (see online link to
Ethnologue). Studies using mitochondrial (mt)DNA
and nuclear DNA markers consistently indicate that
Africa is the most genetically diverse region of the
world(TABLE 1).However,most studies report only
a few markers in divergent African populations,
which makes it difficult to draw general conclusions
about the levels and patterns of genetic diversity in
these populations (FIG. 1). Because genetic studies
have been biased towards more economically
developed African countries that have key research
or medical centres, populations from more
underdeveloped or politically unstable regions of
Africa remain undersampled (FIG. 1). Historically,
human population genetic studies have relied on one
or two African populations as being representative
of African diversity, but recent studies show
extensive genetic variation among even
geographically close African populations, which
indicates that there is not a single ‘representative’
African population."
-- Tishkoff NATURE REVIEWS | GENETICS
VOLUME 3 | AUGUST 2002

The M2 DNA lineage is well represented in "Broad"
physiognomy Africans (stockier in build, etc) but is
also well represented in their Elongated
physiognomy African brethren as well across the
continent (taller, more slender build), including clear
representation in Egypt and Nubia. Assorted
"biodiversity" writers have attempted to explain this
away as the result of alleged and stereotypical
"Bantu" migrations to various parts of Africa but
such peoples are an ancient part of the Saharan zone
that populated the Nile Valley long before any
alleged "bantu" appeared. The distribution of M2
also undermines assorted modern "Hamite" theories
attempting to create artificial "racial" or "mixed"
categories between African peoples.
Quotes: [Quote]

"The M2 lineage is mainly found primarily in
"eastern", "sub-saharan", and sub-equatorial African
groups, those with the highest frequency of the
"Broad" trend physiognomy, but found also in
notable frequencies in Nubia and Upper Egypt, as
indicated by the RFLP TaqI 49a, f variant IV (see
Lucotte and Mercier, 2003; Al-Zahery et al. 2003
for equivalencies of markers), which is affiliated with
it. The distribution of these markers in other parts of
Africa has usually been explained by the "Bantu
migrations", but their presence in the Nile Valley in
non-Bantu speakers cannot be explained in this way.
Their existence is better explained by their being
present in populations of the early Holocene Sahara,
who in part went on to people the Nile Valley in the
mid-Holocene, according to Hassan (1988); this
occurred long before the "Bantu migrations", which
also do not explain the high frequency of M2 in
Senegal, since there are no Bantu speakers there
either."
Source: S. Keita. Exploring Northeast African
Metric Craniofacial Variation at the Individual
Level: A Comparative Study Using Principal
Components Analysis. Am J Hum Biol. 2004
Nov-Dec;16(6):679-89.

Assorted "evolutionary" "racial split" theories are
dubious. The touted "non-African" group in various
"evolutionary" or "bio-diversity" theories, itself
includes "sub-Saharan" Africans! as credible
mainstream scholars show.
Quotes:

"Genetic studies that attempt to recover the
biological history of the species have generally found
that there is a split between their restricted African
samples and "the rest of the world." These
approaches conceptualize human population history
as a series of bifurcations with each node being
relatively uniform. The "Africans" usually used are
either the short statured Aka or Mbuti, Khoisan
speakers, or West African stereotype s, in keeping
with a socially, not scientifically constructed concept
of African. Studies using individuals as the unit of
analysis evince a different pattern. A select subset of
Africans called the "group of 49" forms a unit versus
the rest of humankind. However the latter
individuals ("rest of humankind") also includes
non-East African sub-Saharans. Hence there is no
"racial" split. As has been stated, the idea that
human variation can be described as being structured
by subspecies (races) that are treated as lineages is
fundamentally false. In actuality, also, although
averages are used, the gene studies usually give us
histories that are not necessarily the same as
population histories."
Philips, J. (ed) Writing African History
(2005)Chapter 4, Physical Anthropology and
African History, Shomarka Keita University of
Rochester Press p.134

Continent wide African DNA linkages Quotes:

"The most extensive pan-African haplotype (16189
16192 16223 16278 16294 16309 16390) is in the
L2a1 haplogroup. This sequence is observed in West
Africa among the Malinke, Wolof, and others; in
North Africa among the Maure, Hausa, Fulbe, and
others; in Central Africa among the Bamileke, Fali,
and others; in South Africa among the Khoisan
family including the Khwe and Bantu speakers; and
in East Africa among the Kikuyu. Closely related
variants are observed among the Tuareg in North
and West Africa and among the East African Dinka
and Somali."
(-- Bert Ely , Jamie Lee Wilson , Fatimah Jackson
and Bruce A Jackson. (2006). African-American
mitochondrial DNAs often match mtDNAs found in
multiple African ethnic groups. BMC Biology 2006,
4:34)

"It is of interest that the M35 and M2 lineages are
united by a mutation – the PN2 transition. This PN2
defined clade originated in East Africa, where
various populations have a notable frequency of its
underived state. This would suggest that an ancient
population in East Africa, or more correctly its
males, form the basis of the ancestors of all African
upper Paleolithic populations – and their subsequent
descendants in the present day."
(--Bengtson, John D. (ed.), In Hot Pursuit of
Language in Prehistory: Essays in the four fields of
anthropology. 2008. John Benjamins Publishing: pp.
3–16)

Modern DNA evidence shows in-situ evolution of
several key lineages inside Africa, not outside in
Europe.

"..Haplogroup CF and DE molecular ancestors first
evolved inside Africa and subsequently contributed
as Y chromosome founders to pioneering migrations
that successfully colonized Asia. While not proof,
the DE and CF bifurcation (Figure 8d ) is consistent
with independent colonization impulses possibly
occurring in a short time interval."
(--Use of Y Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA
Population Structure in Tracing Human Migrations
Peter A. Underhill , Toomas Kivisild - 2007)
"Both phylogeography and microsatellite variance
suggest that E-P2 and its derivative, E-M35,
probably originated in eastern Africa. This inference
is further supported by the presence of additional Hg
E lineal diversification and by the highest frequency
of E-P2* and E-M35* in the same region. The
distribution of E-P2* appears limited to eastern
African peoples. The E-M35* lineage shows its
highest frequency (19.2%) in the Ethiopian Oromo
but with a wider distribution range than E-P2*.
Indeed, it is also found at high frequency (16.7%) in
the Khoisan of South Africa (Underhill et al. 2000;
Cruciani et al. 2002) (suggesting, once again, their
ancient relationship with Ethiopians) and observed in
southern Europe (present study). "
(--Semino O, Magri C, Benuzzi G, L. et. al. (2004)
Origin, diffusion, and differentiation of
Y-chromosome haplogroups E and J: inferences on
the neolithization of Europe and later migratory
events in the Mediterranean area. Am J Hum Genet.
2004 May;74(5):1023-34.)

Conservative mainstream DNA analysis shows that
the E3b-M35 lineages, so often appearing in Egypt,
are African derived sub-Saharan origin lineages that
moved through the continent as an indigenous
development, and expanded from its African origin
into Europe and Asia via various migration routes.
This data contradicts claims of the need for
mysterious "Eurasian" migrants to come into Africa
to bring such native lineages.
[quote:] Quotes:

"Since the E3b*-M35 lineages appear to be confined
mostly to the sub-Saharan populations, it is
conceivable that the initial migrations toward North
Africa from the south primarily involved derivative
E3b-M35 lineages. These include E3b1-M78, a
haplogroup especially common in Ethiopia (23%),
and, perhaps, E3b2-M123 (2%), which is present as
well (Underhill et al. 2000; Cruciani et al. 2002;
Semino et al. 2002). The data suggest that two later
expansions may have followed: one eastward along
the Levantine corridor into the Near East and the
other toward northwestern Africa............. This M35
profile, combined with the substantially older
BATWING expansion times of the corresponding
Egyptian lineages (E3b1-M78: 7.8 ky in Egypt vs.
4.8 ky in Turkey [Cinnioglu et al. 2004];
E3b3-M123: 10.8 ky in Egypt vs. 3.7 ky in Turkey
[Cinnioglu et al. 2004]), is highly consistent with a
northbound migration through the Levantine
corridor reflected in M35 males as far north as
Turkey."
Source: Luis, et al. The Levant versus the Horn of
Africa: Evidence for Bidirectional Corridors of
Human Migrations. Am J Hum Genet. 2004 March;
74(3): 532–544.
Egyptian Y-chromosome haplotypes show
preponderance is with African clusters not Europe
or the Near East

Other DNA quotes from S.O.Y. Keita
See: http://www.geocities.ws/keitadnaquotes.htm

Recent DNA studies of the Sudan show genetic
unity and linkage between the Sudanic, Horn,
Egyptian, Nubian and other Nilotic peoples,
confirming earlier skeletal/cranial studies and
historical data. (Yurco (1989, 1996), Keita
(1993,2004, 2005) Lovell (1999), Zakrewski (2003,
2007) et. al). Of note is that DNA data shows that
some peoples from one of the oldest Egyptian
populations, the original Copts, have a significant
frequency of the B-M60 marker, indicating early
colonization of Egypt by Nilotics in the state
formation period.
Quotes:
QUOTES:

"Haplogroup E-M78, however, is more widely
distributed and is thought to have an origin in
eastern African. More recently, this haplogroup has
been carefully dissected and was found to depict
several well-established subclades with defined
geographical clustering (Cruciani et al., 2006, 2007).
Although this haplogroup is common to most
Sudanese populations, it has exceptionally high
frequency among populations like those of western
Sudan (particularly Darfur) and the Beja in eastern
Sudan... Although the PC plot places the Beja and
Amhara from Ethiopia in one sub-cluster based on
shared frequencies of the haplogroup J1, the
distribution of M78 subclades (Table 2) indicates
that the Beja are perhaps related as well to the
Oromo on the basis of the considerable frequencies
of E-V32 among Oromo in comparison to Amhara
(Cruciani et al., 2007)...

These findings affirm the historical contact between
Ethiopia and eastern Sudan (1998), and the fact that
these populations speak languages of the Afroasiatic
family tree reinforces the strong correlation between
linguistic and genetic diversity (Cavalli-Sforza,
1997)."

"Genetic continuum of the Nubians with their kin in
southern Egypt is indicated by comparable
frequencies of E-V12 the predominant M78
subclade among southern Egyptians."

"The Copt samples displayed a most interesting
Y-profile, enough (as much as that of Gaalien in
Sudan) to suggest that they actually represent a
living record of the peopling of Egypt. The
significant frequency of B-M60 in this group might
be a relic of a history of colonization of southern
Egypt probably by Nilotics in the early state
formation, something that conforms both to
recorded history and to Egyptian mythology."
Source:
(Hisham Y. Hassan 1, Peter A. Underhill 2, Luca L.
Cavalli-Sforza 2, Muntaser E. Ibrahim 1. (2008).
Y-chromosome variation among Sudanese:
Restricted gene flow, concordance with language,
geography, and history. Am J Phys Anthropology,
2008.)

Older research notes the physical makeup of the
original Copts:

"In Libya, which is mostly desert and oasis, there is
a visible Negroid element in the sedentary
populations, and at the same is true of the Fellahin
of Egypt, whether Copt or Muslim. Osteological
studies have shown that the Negroid element was
stronger in predynastic times than at present,
reflecting an early movement northward along the
banks of the Nile, which were then heavily forested."
(Encyclopedia Britannica 1984 ed. "Populations,
Human")

Haplogroup E3A and E3B represent more than 70%
of the Y-chromosones on the African continent, with
varying proportions found in different parts of the
continent. In some African populations for example,
E3B exceeds 80%. Migrations out of Africa, are
responsible for the spread of E3b to Europe.
Non-Africans thus acquired a sub-set f African genes
through this migration.
Quotes:

"In Europe, the overall frequency pattern of
haplogroup E-M78 does not support the hypothesis
of a uniform spread of people from a single parental
Near Eastern population... The Y chromosome
specific biallelic marker DYS271 defines the most
common haplogroup (E3a) currently found in
sub-Saharan Africa. A sister clade, E3b (E-M215),
is rare in sub-Saharan Africa, but very common in
northern and eastern Africa. On the whole, these
two clades represent more than 70% of the Y
chromosomes of the African continent. A third clade
belonging to E3 (E3c or E-M329) has been recently
reported to be present only in eastern Africa, at low
frequencies.. The new topology of the E3
haplogroup is suggestive of a relatively recent
eastern African origin for the majority of the
chromosomes presently found in sub-Saharan
Africa."

"In conclusion, we detected the signatures of several
distinct processes of migration and/or recurrent gene
flow associated with the dispersal of haplogroup
E3b lineages. Early events involved the dispersal of
E-M78d chromosomes from eastern Africa into and
out of Africa, as well as the introduction of the
E-M34 subclade into Africa from the Near East.
Later events involved short-range migrations within
Africa (E-M78? and E-V6) and from northern Africa
into Europe (E-M81 and E-M78ß), as well as an
important range expansion from the Balkans to
western and southern-central Europe (E-M78a).
This latter expansion was the main contributor to the
present distribution of E3b chromosomes in
Europe."

(Cruciani, F, et. al. (2004) Phylogeographic Analysis
of Haplogroup E3b (E-M215) Y Chromosomes
Reveals Multiple Migratory Events Within and Out
Of Africa, Am J Hum Genet. 74(5): 1014–1022.)
Fundamental African genetic diversity is built-in and
not due to to simplistic "race" mixes say Kittles and
Keita

"These genetic differences broadly correlate with geographic distances.
Various populations in Africa have interacted via migrations during past
history. One striking and most apparent signature of migration is the dramatic
eastern-to-western Africa cline of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup L3a
frequencies (Watson et al., 1997). Haplogroup L3a is closely related to a mtDNA
haplotype common in European populations [the Cambridge Reference Sequence
(Anderson et al., 1981)]. A subgroup of related mtDNA haplotypes appears to be
East African specific and may represent a common ancestral sequence for most of
Europe and Eurasia. In other words, the mtDNA diversity observed in non-African
populations is a subset of African mtDNA variation. We note that while this group
of mtDNA haplotypes is common in Eastern Africa, it represents only a subset of
the total mtDNA diversity observed throughout the African continent. A similar
pattern is observed for nuclear (Tishkoff et al., 1996, 1998) and Y chromosome
(Passarino et al., 1998) variation in Eastern Africa. There are several implications
for these observations. First, it provides evidence for an African (specifically,
Eastern African) origin for Eurasians. Second it suggests that before major migrations
occurred out of the continent, populations were diverging. These observations
deconstruct racial thinking, especially the concept of "racial divergence."

The term racial divergence fails to describe the process responsible for producing
the variation that exists as a continuum in the human species. So-called
racial divergence dates reflect the times of differentiation of genes within populations
used in a given analysis and should be interpreted as such. "Racial divergence"
time estimates have been used to infer the age of the common ancestor between
sampled groups, but this is definitely not the time of origin for the so-called "racial
groups," which traditionally have been defined by morphology, nor is it the time
of "origin" for the sampled populations. Time, geography, and other data help elucidate
the larger meaning of genetic studies. A date of 156,000 years ago has been
suggested by Goldstein etal. (1995) for the separation of African (stereotypically
defined) and non-African populations. Given that there is no fossil evidence for
modern humans anywhere at 150,000 years ago except in Africa, this does not
represent an African/non-African "split." This date is actually an estimate of the
initial genetic divergence that occurred within the continent of Africa among our
modern human ancestors. After the expansion of modern humans out of Africa,
subsets of the resultant genetic variation were distributed throughout the other
continents. Most genetic variants observed outside of Africa are also found within
Africa at various frequencies (and are of indigenous origin); this clearly indicates
that "Africans" are not monomorphic. Northern African genetics, when this information
is considered carefully with palaeontological data, would not seem to be
explicable as simply "hybrids" or lost Eurasians. A different perspective, having
more explanatory power and consistent with the available data, is that northern and
Horn of Africa populations constitute gradients of differentiation largely reflective
of African biohistorical processes."

See full article here:
Rick Kitties1 and S. O. Y. Keita2
Interpreting African Genetic Diversity
African Archaeological Review, Vol. 16, No. 2,1999

Modern DNA shows that Horn of Africa
populations like Ethiopians are locally derived due
to long evolutionary time in Africa, genetic drift,
clinal factors etc. and are not due to any race mixes
with Eurasians:
Quotes:

"Comparative genetic studies on geographically
diverse populations provide evidence of high levels
of diversity in continental Africa. Sarah Tishkoff and
her colleagues (1986) find an intermediate pattern of
genetic variation at the CD4 locus in northeastern
(actually Horn) African populations. They explain
this by local evolution and not by admixture with
Eurasians. In essence they are describing a gradient
of differentiation. The Horn, largely at the latitude of
Nigeria, contains a subset of the diversity seen in
other African regions. Tishkoff and her colleagues
suggest that the Horn's inhabitant's are the local
descendants of those who left Africa to populate the
world."

".. the Horn of Africa certainly contributed more
recently to the Near East, because based on
linguistic re- construction and the principles of "least
moves" and "greatest diversity." It is the
geographical home of the ancestor of Afro-Asiatic
languages, spoken primarily in Africa with one
member in the Near East (Semitic) (Ehret 1984,
1995; Ruhlen 1987). Early Afro-Asiatic spread out
from the Horn and did not come into Africa from
Asia (brought by "Caucasians") as was believed at
one time, and as is occasionally assumed by
non-linguists (e.g., Barbujani and Pilastro 1993;
Cavalli-Sforza and Cavalli-Sforza 1995). In fact,
there is evidence for movement out of Africa at the
very time some claim in-migration (Bar-Josef 1987).
By the time of the radiation of Afro-Asiatic speakers
there was already genetic differentiation in Africa
due to African biohistorical processes.

There is no need to postulate massive European
settler colonization of Africa or genetic swamping
and/or settler colonization by Eurasians, as is
implied or stated in some contemporary genetic
work (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994), echoing the now
defunct Hamitic hypothesis. Continental African
variation may be interpreted largely without external
mass invasions. The antiquity of modern humans in
Africa means that there has been time to accumulate
a large amount of random genetic variation
(Cavalli-Sforza et. al. 1983), which has been shaped
by great ecological diversity in the continent
(Hiernaux 1975). Genetic drift would also contribute
to variability due to fluctuations in population size as
founder effects and population expansion events
occurred throughout the continent. Therefore it is
far more accurate to speak of a range of
biohistorical African variants than different races of
Africans. Northern Africans are more accurately
conceptualized as primarily the products of
differentiation than of hybridization."

( S.O.Y. Keita and R. Kittles. The Persistence of
Racial Thinking and the Myth of Racial Divergence,
S. O. Y. Keita, Rick A. Kittles, American
Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 99, No. 3 (Sep.,
1997), pp. 534-544)

Somalis link much more heavily with African
populations such as those in Kenya and Ethiopia
than Middle Eastern or European ones according to
DNA evidence. Eurasian genes only accounted for
about 15% of the mix among Somalis, typically
associated with recent Arab influence. On such key
common DNA markers as E3b1, Europeans only
weighed in at 5%, and Middle Easterners at
approximately 6%. The overwhelming link of
Somalis- over 85% of the total is with Africans.
Kenya and Ethiopia are located in "sub-Saharan"
Africa.
Quotes:

"The high frequency (77.6%) of haplogroup E3b1
was characteristic of male Somalis. The frequency of
E3b1 was significantly lower in Ethiopian Oromos
(35.9%), Ethiopian Amharas (22.9%), Egyptians
(20.0%), Sudanese (17.5%), Kenyans (15.1%),10
Iraqis (6.3%), Northern Africans (6.1%), Southern
Europeans (0.5–5.1%) and sub-Saharan
populations." (Sanchez et al.,(2005) High
frequencies of Y chromosome lineages characterized
by E3b1, DYS19-11, DYS392-12 in Somali males,
Eu J of Hum Genet (2005) 13, 856–866)

"E1 is the predominant subclade, while E2 is much
less frequent. Within E1, E1b1 (defined by SNP P2)
is the most abundant and widespread representative,
and accounts for most of Haplogroup E worldwide.
E1b1 lineages vary in abundance over Africa and
three main regions are evident from the distribution
peaks of three subclades: E1b1a (SNP M2) in
Sub-Saharan Africa, E1b1b1a (SNP M78) in East
Africa and E1b1b1b (SNP M81) in Northwest
Africa. The difference in geographic location of
Haplogroup E subclades also aligns with distinct
language groups supporting the idea that there is
prevailing father to son transmission of language in
Africa. "

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------
Simplistic "race percentage" models are dubious in
Africa which has the highest genetic diversity in the
world. That diversity proceeded from deeper
sub-Saharan Africa, to East and N.E. Africa, then to
the rest of the globe. All other populations, including
Europeans and "Middle easterners" carry this
diversity which was built into Africa to begin with.
Africans thus don't need any "race mix" to look
different. Their diversity is built-in and supplied the
whole globe. Any returnees or "backflow" to Africa
looked like Africans, including Europeans. (Brace
2005, Hanihara 1996, Holliday 2003).
Quotes:

" These studies suggest a recent and primary
subdivision between African and non-African
populations, high levels of divergence among
African populations, and a recent shared common
ancestry of non-African populations, from a
population originating in Africa. The intermediate
position, between African and non-African
populations, that the Ethiopian Jews and Somalis
occupy in the PCA plot also has been observed in
other genetic studies (Ritte et al. 1993; Passarino et
al. 1998) and could be due either to shared common
ancestry or to recent gene flow. The fact that the
Ethiopians and Somalis have a subset of the
sub-Saharan African haplotype diversity and that the
non-African populations have a subset of the
diversity present in Ethiopians and Somalis makes
simple-admixture models less likely; rather, these
observations support the hypothesis proposed by
other nuclear-genetic studies (Tishkoff et al. 1996a,
1998a, 1998b; Kidd et al. 1998) that populations in
northeastern Africa may have diverged from those in
the rest of sub-Saharan Africa early in the history of
modern African populations and that a subset of this
northeastern-African population migrated out of
Africa and populated the rest of the globe. These
conclusions are supported by recent mtDNA analysis
(Quintana-Murci et al. 1999)."
[Tishkoff et al. (2000) Short Tandem-Repeat
Polymorphism/Alu Haplotype Variation at the
PLAT Locus: Implications for Modern Human
Origins. Am J Hum Genet; 67:901-925]

Data on Ethiopian peoples like the Oromo are
underreported even though they make up the largest
group percentage wise in the Ethiopian population,
(50%) and are often pooled with others, hiding and
obscuring their overall contribution to the Ethiopian
gene pool.

"This difference, not revealed in the study by
Passarino et al. (1998), in which the Oromo were
underrepresented, might reflect distinct population
histories."
(--Semino, et al. (2002). Ethiopians and Khoisan
Share the Deepest Clades of the Human Y..")

"These data, together with those reported elsewhere
(Ritte et al. 1993a, 1993b; Hammer et al. 2000)
suggest that the Ethiopian Jews acquired their
religion without substantial genetic admixture from
Middle Eastern peoples and that they can be
considered an ethnic group with essentially a
continental African genetic composition." (Cruciani,
et. al Am J Hum Genet. 2002 May; 70(5):
1197–1214. "A Back Migration from Asia to
Sub-Saharan Africa Is Supported by
High-Resolution Analysis of Human
Y-Chromosome Haplotypes)

Afrocentric critic Mary Lefkowitz says the Egypt
was peopled by people from sub-Saharan Africa, not
Europeans or Middle Easterners.
Quotes:

"Recent work on skeletons and DNA suggests that
the people who settled in the Nile valley, like all of
humankind, came from somewhere south of the
Sahara; they were not (as some nineteenth-century
scholars had supposed) invaders from the North. See
Bruce G. Trigger, "The Rise of Civilization in
Egypt," Cambridge History of Africa (Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 1982), vol I, pp
489-90; S. O. Y. Keita, "Studies and Comments on
Ancient Egyptian Biological Relationships," History
in Africa 20 (1993) 129-54."
(Mary Lefkotitz (1997). Not Out of Africa: How
Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as
History. Basic Books. pg 242)

In Black Athena Revisited, Lefkowitz finds
similarity between Egyptians and Sudanics and
recommends the work of conservative
anthropologist Nancy Lovell for more research on
the subject.

Quotes:

"not surprisingly, the Egyptian skulls were not very
distance from the Jebel Moya [a Neolithic site in the
southern Sudan] skulls, but were much more
distance from all others, including those from West
Africa. Such a study suggests a closer genetic
affinity between peoples in Egypt and the northern
Sudan, which were close geographically and are
known to have had considerable cultural contact
throughout prehistory and pharaonic history...
Clearly more analyses of the physical remains of
ancient Egyptians need to be done using current
techniques, such as those of Nancy Lovell at the
University of Alberta is using in her work.."
(- Mary Lefkowitz, "Black Athena Revisted. pp.
105-106)

Lefkowitz cites Keita 1993 in Not Out of Africa.
Here is Keita on the Jebel Moya studies:

"Overall, when the Egyptian crania are evaluated in
a Near Eastern (Lachish) versus African (Kerma,
Jebel Moya, Ashanti) context) the affinity is with the
Africans. The Sudan and Palestine are the most
appropriate comparative regions which would have
'donated' people, along with the Sahara and
Maghreb. Archaeology validates looking to these
regions for population flow (see Hassan 1988)...
Egyptian groups showed less overall affinity to
Palestinian and Byzantine remains than to other
African series, especially Sudanese."
S. O. Y. Keita, "Studies and Comments on Ancient
Egyptian Biological Relationships," History in Africa
20 (1993) 129-54

Here is the work of the anthropologist so strongly
recommended by Lefkowitz, Nancy Lovell:

"There is now a sufficient body of evidence from
modern studies of skeletal remains to indicate that
the ancient Egyptians, especially southern Egyptians,
exhibited physical characteristics that are within the
range of variation for ancient and modern
indigenous peoples of the Sahara and tropical
Africa.. In general, the inhabitants of Upper Egypt
and Nubia had the greatest biological affinity to
people of the Sahara and more southerly areas."
(Nancy C. Lovell, " Egyptians, physical
anthropology of," in Encyclopedia of the
Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, ed. Kathryn A. Bard
and Steven Blake Shubert, ( London and New York:
Routledge, 1999) pp 328-332)

and

"must be placed in the context of hypotheses
informed by archaeological, linguistic, geographic
and other data. In such contexts, the physical
anthropological evidence indicates that early Nile
Valley populations can be identified as part of an
African lineage, but exhibiting local variation. This
variation represents the short and long term effects
of evolutionary forces, such as gene flow, genetic
drift, and natural selection, influenced by culture and
geography." ("Nancy C. Lovell, " Egyptians,
physical anthropology of," in Encyclopedia of the
Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, ed. Kathryn A. Bard
and Steven Blake Shubert, ( London and New York:
Routledge, 1999). pp 328-332)

The same Nancy Lovell recommended by Lefkowitz
studied dental traits among some high status persons
of the key Egyptian Naqada group and found that
they resembled the peoples of Nubia.

"A biological affinities study based on frequencies of
cranial nonmetric traits in skeletal samples from
three cemeteries at Predynastic Naqada, Egypt,
confirms the results of a recent nonmetric dental
morphological analysis. Both cranial and dental traits
analyses indicate that the individuals buried in a
cemetery characterized archaeologically as high
status are significantly different from individuals
buried in two other, apparently non-elite cemeteries
and that the non-elite samples are not significantly
different from each other. A comparison with
neighboring Nile Valley skeletal samples suggests
that the high status cemetery represents an
endogamous ruling or elite segment of the local
population at Naqada, which is more closely related
to populations in northern Nubia than to neighboring
populations in southern Egypt."
(T. Prowse, and N. Lovell "Concordance of cranial
and dental morphological traits and evidence for
endogamy in ancient Egypt". American journal of
physical anthropology. 1996, vol. 101, no2, pp.
237-246 (2 p.1/4)

In "Black Athena Revisted" Lefkowitz warns against
Eurocentric "racial" analysis as to the Egyptians and
Nubians.

"The Nubian tribute-bearers are painted in two skin
tones, black and dark brown. These tones do not
necessarily represent actual skin tones in real life but
may serve to distinguish each tribute-bearer from the
next in a row in which the figures overlap.
Alternatively, the brown-skinned people may be of
Nubian origin, and the black-skinned ones may be
farther south (Trigger 1978, 33). The shading of
skin tones in Egyptian tomb paintings, which varies
considerably, may not be a certain criterion for
distinguishing race. Specific symbols of ethnic
identity can also vary. Identifying race in Egyptian
representational art, again, is difficult to do-
probably because race (as opposed to ethnic
affiliation, that is, Egyptians versus all
non-Egyptians) was not a criterion for differentiation
used by the ancient Egyptians..."
(pg 105-107)

Northern Egypt shows more physical variation than
the south, but not necessarily as part of any
significant 'race' mix, but local, built-in variation.
They were closer to southerners than any other
peoples. In comparisons with "Middle Eastern"
populations of the same ancient period, the
Egyptians link more closely with other Africans than
the Middle Easterners. Africans vary in how they
look because they have the highest built-in molecular
diversity to begin with.

QUOTE(s):
"..sample populations available from northern Egypt
from before the 1st Dynasty (Merimda, Maadi and
Wadi Digla) turn out to be significantly different
from sample populations from early Palestine and
Byblos, suggesting a lack of common ancestors over
a long time. If there was a south-north cline
variation along the Nile valley it did not, from this
limited evidence, continue smoothly on into southern
Palestine. The limb-length proportions of males from
the Egyptian sites group them with Africans rather
than with Europeans." (Barry Kemp, "Ancient Egypt
Anatomy of a Civilisation. (2005) Routledge. p.
52-60)

"Individuals from different geographical regions
frequently plotted near each other, revealing aspects
of variation at the level of individuals that is
obscured by concentrating on the most distinctive
facial traits once used to construct ‘‘types.’’The high
level of African interindividual variation in
craniometric pattern is reminiscent of the great level
of molecular diversity found in Africa." (S.O.Y
Keita. Exploring northeast African metric
craniofacial variation at the individual level: A
comparative study using principal component
analysis. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 16:679–689,
2004.)Quote on northern Egypt analysis- the
Qarunian (Faiyum) remains (c. 7000 BC)
"The body was that of a forty-year old woman with
a height of about 1.6 meters, who was of a more
modern racial type than the classic 'Mechtoid' of the
Fakhurian culture (see pp. 65-6), being generally
more gracile, having large teeth and thick jaws
bearing some resemblance to the modern 'negroid'
type." (Beatrix Midant-Reynes, Ian Shaw (2000).
The Prehistory of Egypt. Wiley-Blackwell. pg. 82)

Modern studies show diversity in how people look is
heavily based on distance from sub-Saharan Africa,
not merely climate. In genetically diverse Africa,
broad-nosed people live on the cool or cold
mountain slopes of East Africa or the hot, dry
Sahara, and narrow-nosed peoples like many Fulani
like in the wet tropics of West Africa.
Yellowish-skinned San tribes live in the hot zones of
Southern Africa.

"The relative importance of ancient demography and
climate in determining worldwide patterns of human
within-population phenotypic diversity is still open
to debate. Several morphometric traits have been
argued to be under selection by climatic factors, but
it is unclear whether climate affects the global
decline in morphological diversity with increasing
geographical distance from sub-Saharan Africa.
Using a large database of male and female skull
measurements, we apply an explicit framework to
quantify the relative role of climate and distance
from Africa. We show that distance from
sub-Saharan Africa is the sole determinant of human
within-population phenotypic diversity, while
climate plays no role. By selecting the most
informative set of traits, it was possible to explain
over half of the worldwide variation in phenotypic
diversity. These results mirror those previously
obtained for genetic markers and show that ‘bones
and molecules’ are in perfect agreement for
humans." (Distance from Africa, not climate,
explains within-population phenotypic diversity in
humans. (2008) by: Lia Betti, François Balloux,
William Amos, Tsunehiko Hanihara, Andrea
Manica, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences,
2008/12/02)

Analysis of skeletal and cranial remains reveals that
the ancient Egyptians of the early Dynastic and
pre-Dynastic phases, link closer to nearby Saharan,
Sudanic and East African populations than
Mediterranean and Middle Eastern peoples. Greeks,
Romans, Hyskos, Arabs and others were to appear
later in Egyptian history. Craniometric studies
generally place ancient Upper Egyptian populations
closer to the range of tropical Africans in the Nile
Valley and East Africa than to Mediterraneans, or
Middle Easterners.
Quotes:

QUOTE(s):
S. O. Y. Keita, "Studies and Comments on Ancient
Egyptian Biological Relationships," History in Africa
20 (1993) 129-54

"Overall, when the Egyptian crania are evaluated in
a Near Eastern (Lachish) versus African (Kerma,
Kebel Moya, Ashanti) context) the affinity is with
the Africans. The Sudan and Palestine are the most
appropriate comparative regions which would have
'donated' people, along with the Sahara and
Maghreb. Archaeology validates looking to these
regions for population flow (see Hassan 1988)...
Egyptian groups showed less overall affinity to
Palestinian and Byzantine remains than to other
African series, especially Sudanese." (Keita 1993)

"When the unlikely relationships [Indian matches]
and eliminated, the Egyptian series are more similar
overall to other African series than to European or
Near Eastern (Byzantine or Palestinian) series."
(Keita 1993)

"Populations and cultures now found south of the
desert roamed far to the north. The culture of Upper
Egypt, which became dynastic Egyptian civilization,
could fairly be called a Sudanese transplant."(Egypt
and Sub-Saharan Africa: Their Interaction.
Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa, by Joseph O.
Vogel, AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California
(1997), pp. 465-472 )

"Analysis of crania is the traditional approach to
assessing ancient population origins, relationships,
and diversity. In studies based on anatomical traits
and measurements of crania, similarities have been
found between Nile Valley crania from 30,000,
20,000 and 12,000 years ago and various African
remains from more recent times (see Thoma 1984;
Brauer and Rimbach 1990; Angel and Kelley 1986;
Keita 1993). Studies of crania from southern
predynastic Egypt, from the formative period
(4000-3100 B.C.), show them usually to be more
similar to the crania of ancient Nubians, Kushites,
Saharans, or modern groups from the Horn of Africa
than to those of dynastic northern Egyptians or
ancient or modern southern Europeans."
(S. O. Y and A.J. Boyce, "The Geographical Origins
and Population Relationships of Early Ancient
Egyptians", in Egypt in Africa, Theodore Celenko
(ed), Indiana University Press, 1996, pp. 20-33)

"There is no archaeological, linguistic, or historical
data which indicate a European or Asiatic invasion
of, or migration to, the Nile Valley during First
Dynasty times. Previous concepts about the origin of
the First Dynasty Egyptians as being somehow
external to the Nile Valley or less native are not
supported by archaeology... In summary, the
Abydos First Dynasty royal tomb contents reveal a
notable craniometric heterogeneity. Southerners
predominate. (Kieta, S. (1992) Further Studies of
Crania From Ancient Northern Africa: An Analysis
of Crania From First Dynasty Egyptian Tombs,
Using Multiple Discriminant Functions.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY 87:245-254)"

"The predominant craniometric pattern in the
Abydos royal tombs is 'southern' (tropical African
variant), and this is consistent with what would be
expected based on the literature and other results
(Keita, 1990). This pattern is seen in both group and
unknown analyses... Archaeology and history seem
to provide the most parsimonious explanation for
the variation in the royal tombs at Abydos.. Tomb
design suggests the presence of northerners in the
south in late Nakada times (Hoffman, 1988) when
the unification probably took place. Delta names are
attached to some of the tombs at Abydos (Gardiner,
1961; Yurco, 1990, personal communication), thus
perhaps supporting Petrie's (1939) and Gardiner's
contention that north-south marriages were
undertaken to legitimize the hegemony of the south.
The courtiers of northern elites would have
accompanied them.

Given all of the above, it is probably not possible to
view the Abydos royal tomb sample as
representative of the general southern Upper
Egyptian population of the time. Southern elites
and/or their descendants eventually came to be
buried in the north (Hoffman, 1988). Hence early
Second Dynasty kings and Djoser (Dynasty 111)
(Hayes, 1953) and his descendants are not buried in
Abydos. Petrie (1939) states that the Third Dynasty,
buried in the north, was of Sudanese origin, but
southern Egypt is equally likely. This perhaps
explains Harris and Weeks' (1973) suggested
findings of southern morphologies in some Old
Kingdom Giza remains, also verified in portraiture
(Drake, 1987). Further study would be required to
ascertain trends in the general population of both
regions. The strong Sudanese affinity noted in the
unknown analyses may reflect the Nubian
interactions with upper Egypt in predynastic times
prior to Egyptian unification (Williams,
1980,1986)..." (S. Keita (1992) Further Studies of
Crania From Ancient Northern Africa: An Analysis
of Crania From First Dynasty Egyptian Tombs,
Using Multiple Discriminant Functions.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY 87:245-254)

"Early Dynastic Periods. When the Elephantine
results were added to a broader pooling of the
physical characteristics drawn from a wide
geographic region which includes Africa, the
Mediterranean and the Near East quite strong
affinities emerge between Elephantine and
populations from Nubia, supporting a strong
south-north cline." (Barry Kemp. (2006) Ancient
Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. p. 54)

Gene flow into the Nubian area during the Neolithic
was not from reputed "wandering Caucasoids" but
from tropical, Sub-Saharan types.
Quotes:

"Prior to the Neolithic, populations of the Nile
Valley in Nubia are very robust, and, because of a
gap in the fossil record, it is difficult to connect them
to later populations. Some have postulated a local
evolution, due to diet change, while others
postulated migrations, especially from the Sahara
area. But between 5000 and 1000 BC, many
cemeteries have supplied a large amount of
skeletons, and the anatomical characters of Nubian
populations are easier to follow-up. Twenty-seven
archaeological samples (4 at 5000 BC, 5 at 4000
BC, 10 at 3000 BC, 3 at 2000 BC, 5 at 1000 BC),
and 10 craniofacial measurements, have been
considered.

While cerebral skull is fairly stable, facial
skull displays several regular modifications, and
specially a reduction of facial and nasal heights, a
broadening of the nose, and an increase of
prognathism, while bizygomatic breadth is
unchanged. These features illustrate a trend towards
a growing resemblance with populations of
Sub-Saharan Africa living in wet environments.
However, paleoclimatological studies show that
Nubia experienced an increasing aridification during
that period. It is then unlikely that such a
morphological change could be related to any local
adaptive evolution to environment. Random drift is
also unlikely, because the anatomical trend is
relatively uniform during these millennia. It then
seems more plausible that these changes correspond
to the increasing presence of Southern populations
migrating northward."
-- Froment, A. (2002) Morphological
micro-evolution of Nubian Populations from,
A-Group to Christian Epochs: gene flow, not local
adaptation. Am J Phys Anthropol [Suppl] 34:72.
Afrocentric critic Froment also notes:
"Black populations of the Horn of Africa (Tigré and
Somalia) fit well into Egyptian variations."
(Froment, Alain, Origines du peuplement de
l’Égypte ancienne: l’apport de l’anthropobiologie,
Archéo-Nil 2 (Octobre 1992), 79-98)

Afrocentric critic C. Loring Brace's 2005 study
groups ancient Egyptian populations like the Naqada
closer to Nubians and Somalis than European,
Mediterranean or Middle Eastern populations.
Brace's study shows that the closest European
linking with Africans in Egypt or Nubia are Middle
Stone Age Portugese and Neolithics, OLDER
populations more closely resembling AFRICANS
than modern Europeans. Early Neolithic
populations, like the Nautifians, in what is now
Israel, show sub-Saharan 'negroid' affinities. (Brace,
et al. The questionable contribution of the Neolithic
and the Bronze Age to European craniofacial form,
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 January 3; 103(1):
p. 242-247.)

"The Niger-Congo speakers, Congo, Dahomey and
Haya, cluster closely with each other and a bit less
closely with the Nubian sample, both the recent and
the Bronze Age Nubians, and more remotely with
the Naqada Bronze Age sample of Egypt, the
modern Somalis, and the Arabic-speaking Fellaheen
(farmers) of Israel. When those samples are
separated and run in a single analysis as in Fig. 1,
there clearly is a tie between them that is diluted the
farther one gets from sub-Saharan Africa" (Brace,
2005)

"The surprise is that the Neolithic peoples of Europe
and their Bronze Age successors are not closely
related to the modern inhabitants, although the
prehistoric/modern ties are somewhat more apparent
in southern Europe. It is a further surprise that the
Epipalaeolithic Natufian of Israel from whom the
Neolithic realm was assumed to arise has a clear link
to Sub-Saharan Africa... Interestingly enough,
however, the small Natufian sample falls between
the Niger-Congo group and the other samples used.
Fig. 2 shows the plot produced by the first two
canonical variates, but the same thing happens when
canonical variates 1 and 3 (not shown here) are
used. This placement suggests that there may have
been a Sub-Saharan African element in the make-up
of the Natufians (the putative ancestors of the
subsequent Neolithic), .. When canonical variates
are plotted, neither sample ties in with Cro-Magnon
as was once suggested. The data treated here
support the idea that the Neolithic moved out of the
Near East into the circum-Mediterranean areas and
Europe by a process of demic diffusion but that
subsequently the in situ residents of those areas,
derived from the Late Pleistocene inhabitants,
absorbed both the agricultural life way and the
people who had brought it." (Brace, 2005)

Both skeletal/cranial and DNA studies by other
authors confirm that some Neolithics did not derive
from the Near East. They most likely resembled
African populations. Hence comparisons using older
European Neolithics versus Africans are
comparisons with older prehistoric Europeans who
looked more like Africans, than modern 'white'
Europeans, as shown by Brace (2005), and Hanihara
(1996) also, who states "Early West Asians looked
like Africans."

"The absence of mtDNA haplogroup J in the ancient
Portuguese Neolithic sample suggests that this
population was not derived directly from Near
Eastern farmers. The Mesolithic and Neolithic
groups show genetic discontinuity implying
colonisation at the Neolithic transition in Portugal."
(CHANDLER, H.; SYKES, B.; ZILHÃO, J. (2005)
— Using ancient DNA to examine genetic continuity
at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Portugal, in
ARIAS, P.; ONTAÑÓN, R.; GARCÍA-MONCÓ, C.
(eds.) — «Actas del III Congreso del Neolítico en la
Península Ibérica», Santander, Monografías del
Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones
Prehistóricas de Cantabria 1, p. 781-786.)Early
Europeans still resembled modern tropical peoples -
some resemble modern Australian and Africans,
more than modern Europeans.. Nor does the picture
get any clearer when we move on to the
Cro-Magnons, the presumed ancestors of modern
Europeans. Some were more like present-day
Australians or Africans, judged by objective
anatomical observations." (Christopher Stringer,
Robin McKie (1998). African Exodus. Macmillan, p.
162)

Early Europeans, as recently as 6,000-9000 years
ago, looked somewhat like Africans in terms of
retained 'tropical' characteristics. Cold adaptation
was to bring about several physical changes over
time from the initial Out of Africa migrations to
Europe. Retained traces of 'tropical' characteristics,
indicate a "large African role in the origins of
anatomically modern Europeans." (Holliday and
Churchill 2003).

"Body proportions covary with climate, apparently
as the result of climatic selection. Ontogenetic
research and migrant studies have demonstrated that
body proportions are largely genetically controlled
and are under low selective rates; thus studies of
body form can provide evidence for evolutionarily
short-term dispersals and/or gene flow. Replacement
predicts that the earliest modern Europeans will
possess “tropical” body proportions (assuming
Africa is the center of origin), while Regional
Continuity permits only minor shifts in body shape,
due to climatic change and/or improved cultural
buffering. .. results refute the hypothesis of local
continuity in Europe, and are consistent with an
interpretation of elevated gene flow (and population
dispersal?) from Africa, followed by subsequent
climatic adaptation to colder conditions." (Holliday,
Trenton (1997) Body proportions in Late
Pleistocene Europe and modern human origins.
Journal of Human Evolution, Volume 32, Issue 5,
1997, Pages 423-447)

".. while the Late Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic
humans have significantly higher (i.e.,
tropically-adapted) brachial and crural indices than
do recent Europeans, they also have shorter (i.e.,
cold-adapted) limbs. The somewhat paradoxical
retention of “tropical” indices in the context of more
“cold-adapted” limb length is best explained as
evidence for Replacement in the European Late
Pleistocene, followed by gradual cold adaptation in
glacial Europe." (Holliday, Trenton (1999) Brachial
and crural indices of European Late Upper
Paleolithic and Mesolithic humans. Journal of
Human Evolution. Volume 36, Issue 5, May 1999,
Pages 549-566)

"Stature, body mass, and body proportions are
evaluated for the Cheddar Man (Gough's Cave 1)
skeleton. Like many of his Mesolithic
contemporaries, Gough's Cave 1 evinces relatively
short estimated stature (ca. 166.2 cm [5' 5']) and low
body mass (ca. 66 kg [146 lbs]). In body shape, he is
similar to recent Europeans for most proportional
indices. He differs, however, from most recent
Europeans in his high crural index and tibial
length/trunk height indices. Thus, while Gough's
Cave 1 is characterized by a total morphological
pattern considered ‘cold-adapted’, these latter two
traits may be interpreted as evidence of a large
African role in the origins of anatomically modern
Europeans." (TRENTON W. HOLLIDAY a1 and
STEVEN E. CHURCHILL. (2003). Gough's Cave 1
(Somerset, England): an assessment of body size and
shape, Bulletin of the Natural History Museum:
Geology, 58:37-44 Cambridge University Press)

Neanderthals and tropical adaptation

"Regarding environmental buffering, Trinkaus (1986
and this volume) reiterates that while Neanderthal
limb proportions are suggestive of cold adaptation,
no such indications are shown by Eurasian early
modern humans. Their distinct limb proportions are
instead indicative of an equatorial ancestry and
better culturally based thermal protection.. the limb
proportions of the Eurasian early modern samples
are retentions of the African ancestral morphology
of long limbs with long distal segments.."
(-- Erik Trinkaus (ed), 'The Emergence of Modern
Humans", (C. Stringer p. 88). School of American
Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1989.

More data showing early Europeans were tropically
adapted types like Africans

"Body proportions are under strong climatic
selection and evince remarkable stability within
regional lineages. As such, they offer a viable and
robust alternative to cranio-facial data in assessing
hypothesised continuity and replacement with the
transition to agro-pastoralism in central Europe.
Humero-clavicular, brachial and crural indices in a
large sample (n=75) of Linienbandkeramik (LBK),
Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age specimens
from the middle Elbe-Saale-Werra valley (MESV)
were compared with Eurasian and African terminal
Pleistocene, European Mesolithic and geographically
disparate recent human specimens. Mesolithic
Europeans display considerable variation in
humero-clavicular and brachial indices yet none
approach the extreme "hyper-polar" morphology of
LBK humans from the MESV. In contrast, Late
Neolithic and Early Bronze Age peoples display
elongated brachial and crural indices reminiscent of
terminal Pleistocene and "tropically adapted" recent
humans. These marked morphological changes likely
reflect exogenous immigration during the terminal
Fourth millennium cal BC. Population expansion and
diffusion is a function of increased mobility and
settlement dispersal concomitant with significant
technological and subsistence changes in later
Neolithic societies during the late fourth millennium
cal BCE."
-- Gallagher et al. "Population continuity, demic
diffusion and Neolithic origins in central-southern
Germany: the evidence from body proportions."
Homo. 2009;60(2):95-126. Epub 2009 Mar 4.

Early West Asians looked like Africans. Thus any
ancient returnees or "backflow" from West Asia
back to Africa is by people who look like Africans to
begin with. Brace 2005 shows this as to Europeans.
Hanihara 1996, demonstrates this below as to West
Asians (i.e. 'Middle easterners'). Also see above.
Quotes:

"Distance analysis and factor analysis, based on
Q-mode correlation coefficients, were applied to 23
craniofacial measurements in 1,802 recent and
prehistoric crania from major geographical areas of
the Old World. The major findings are as follows: 1)
Australians show closer similarities to African
populations than to Melanesians. 2) Recent
Europeans align with East Asians, and early West
Asians resemble Africans. 3) The Asian population
complex with regional difference between northern
and southern members is manifest. 4) Clinal
variations of craniofacial features can be detected in
the Afro-European region on the one hand, and
Australasian and East Asian region on the other
hand. 5) The craniofacial variations of major
geographical groups are not necessarily consistent
with their geographical distribution pattern. This
may be a sign that the evolutionary divergence in
craniofacial shape among recent populations of
different geographical areas is of a highly limited
degree. Taking all of these into account, a single
origin for anatomically modern humans is the most
parsimonious interpretation of the craniofacial
variations presented in this study."
(Hanihara T. Comparison of craniofacial features of
major human groups. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1996
Mar;99(3):389-412.)
===================

More studies on early DNA of European farmers
show that they are not much related to ancient
European caveman types, but rather early Neolithic
farmers, who 7500 -10000 years ago, introduced
revolutionary agricultural advances into Europe
from the subtropical Near East. These early
Neolithic farmers in turn were found by Brace 2005
(The Questionable Contribution) to more closely
resemble tropical Africans than ancient
Cro-Magnon, Neanderthal and other such caveman
types, OR modern Europeans of today. In short, the
peoples that introduced the Neolithic Revolution to
Europe did not look either like old cavemen, neither
like today's French, Swedes, Italians, English etc,
but rather resembled modern tropical Africans. This
technological revolution, in addition to plant and
animal domestication, also includes such things as
drilling rock, sawing huge stone forms, using levers
and pulleys, metal smelting and fabrication,
advanced pottery, textiles and weaving, building in
stone and brick, mining and animal domestication
and use in agriculture.
Quotes:

"The ancestry of modern Europeans is a subject of
debate among geneticists, archaeologists, and
anthropologists. A crucial question is the extent to
which Europeans are descended from the first
European farmers in the Neolithic Age 7500 years
ago or from Paleolithic hunter-gatherers who were
present in Europe since 40,000 years ago. Here we
present an analysis of ancient DNA from early
European farmers.

We successfully extracted and sequenced intact
stretches of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA
(mtDNA) from 24 out of 57 Neolithic skeletons
from various locations in Germany, Austria, and
Hungary. We found that 25% of the Neolithic
farmers had one characteristic mtDNA type and that
this type formerly was widespread among Neolithic
farmers in Central Europe. Europeans today have a
150-times lower frequency (0.2%) of this mtDNA
type, revealing that these first Neolithic farmers did
not have a strong genetic influence on modern
European female lineages."

-- Wolfgang Haak et al. (2005) Ancient DNA from
the First European Farmers in 7500-Year-Old
Neolithic Sites. Science 11 Vol. 310. no. 5750, pp.
1016 - 1018.

Modern Europeans a product of incoming Neolithic
says DNA study. Quotes:

"Even assuming low mutation rates and long
generation times, we found no evidence for
population splits older than 10,000 years, with the
predictable exception of Saami (Lapps). The
simplest interpretation of these results is that the
current nuclear gene pool largely reflects the
westward and northward expansion of a Neolithic
group. This conclusion is now supported by purely
genetic evidence on the levels and patterns of
microsatellite diversity, rather than by correlations of
biological and nonbiological data. We argue that
many mitochondrial lineages whose origin has been
traced back to the Paleolithic period probably
reached Europe at a later time."
-- CHIKHI, et al. 2000. Clines of nuclear DNA
markers suggest a largely Neolithic ancestry of the
European gene pool. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.
Vol. 95, pp. 9053-9058, July 1998

Yet more DNA studies show there were 2 key sets
of movements in populating Europe. One early set
of movement s was in the Paleolithic, some 40,000
years ago of tropically adapted peoples, part of the
Out Of Africa migrations, by way of the Middle East
and/or Central Asia. A second key set of movements
is the Neolithic Revolution and the introduction of
farming. More developed peoples came in this
second group that brought the advances of
agriculture. They came from the Near East, but they
still looked like or resembled today's tropical
Africans. The ancient Natufians, precursors of the
Neolithic Revolution for example, show clear links
to sub-Saharan Africa (Brace 2005), and Hanihara
(1996) shows that early Iranians also looked like
today's tropical Africans.

"Y- chromosome data show that living Europeans
have deep roots in the region--and researchers say
genetic markers may be linked to cultures known
from archaeological remains. In a report on page
1155, an international team reports that a wealth of
data from the Y chromosome show that more than
80% of European men have inherited their Y
chromosomes--which are transmitted only from
father to son--from Paleolithic ancestors who lived
25,000 to 40,000 years ago. Thus, the genetic
template for European men was set as early as
40,000 years ago, then modified--but not recast--by
the Neolithic farmers who arrived in the region
about 10,000 years ago."
--Ann Gibbons. 2000. Europeans Trace Ancestry to
Paleolithic People. Science 10 November 2000: Vol.
290. no. 5494, pp. 1080 - 1081 DOI:
10.1126/science.290.5494.1080

So-called "Mechtoids" , early populations of North
Africa, resemble other African populations of the
Sudan and sub-Saharan Africa

"Population, Health, and Disease. Over 100 human
skeletons of Late Paleolithic age are known from
Egypt and adjacent Sudan. Physically, they are all
classified as Homo Sapiens. They are grouped with
the Mechtoids of the Maghreb, but details of their
teeth indicate that they are a separate population,
with many similarities to groups in sub-Saharan
Africa."
-- Encyclopedia of Prehistory - Volume 1: Africa
Published in conjunction with the Human Relations
Area Files (Encyclopedia of Prehistory) (Hardcover)
by Peter N. Peregrine (Editor), Melvin Ember
(Editor)
Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (January 2001) p.117

Older studies often show misclassification or
exclusion of Nile Valley remains deemed 'negroid'.
Although clearly of the "African" type, such remains
were frequently relabeled "Mediterranean."
Quotes:

"Analyses of Egyptian crania are numerous.
Vercoutter (1978) notes that ancient Egyptian crania
have frequently all been lumped (implicitly or
explicitly) as Mediterranean, although Negroid
remains are recorded in substantial numbers by many
workers... "Nutter (1958), using the Penrose
statistic, demonstrated that Nagada I and Badari
crania, both regarded as Negroid, were almost
identical and that these were most similar to the
Negroid Nubian series from Kerma studied by
Collett (1933). [Collett, not accepting variability,
excluded "clear negro" crania found in the Kerma
series from her analysis, as did Morant (1925),
implying that they were foreign..." (S. Keita (1990)
Studies of Ancient Crania From Northern Africa.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY 83:35-48)

Europeans, supposedly the defining Caucasians, are
simply a hybrid population according to some
conservative geneticists, and are not a primary race
at all.
Quotes:
".. it appears that Europeans are about two-thirds
Asians and one-third African."
(--Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (2000). Genes, peoples
and languages. FARRAR STRAUS AND GIROUX
Publishers)

"Nuclear DNA studies also contribute to the
deconstruction of received racial entities. Ann
Bowcock and her colleague's interpretation
(Bowcock et al. 1991; Bowcock et al. 1994) of
analyses of restriction-site polymorphisms and
microsatellite polymorphisms (STRPs) suggests that
Europeans, the defining Caucasians, are descendants
of a population that arose as a consequence of
admixture between already differentiated
populations ancestral to (some) Africans and Asians.
Therefore, Caucasians would be a secondary type or
race due to its hybrid origin and not a primary race".
This compromises the racial schema and also
invalidates the metaphysical underpinnings of the
persisting race construct, which implies deep and
fundamental differences between its units. In this
case if the interpretation of Bowcock and her
colleagues (1991) is correct then one of the units is
not fundamental because its genesis is qualitatively
different from the other units and even connects
them."
-- S.O.Y. Keita and Rick Kittles. (1997) The
Persistence of Racial Thinking and the Myth of
Racial Divergence, American Anthropologist, New
Series, Vol. 99, No. 3 (Sep., 1997), pp. 534-544

Different features among Africans, particularly
EAST AFRICANS, like narrow noses are not due to
different "race" mixes but are part of the built-in
physical diversity and variation of African peoples.
Narrow noses appear in the oldest African
populations for example, in Kenya's Gamble Cave
complex. East Africans like Somalians or Kenyans
do not need any outside race "mix" or migration to
make them look the way they do.

QUOTE(s):
".. all their features can be found in several living
populations of East Africa, like the Tutsi of Rwanda
and Burundi, who are very dark skinned and differ
greatly from Europeans in a number of body
proportions.. There is every reason to believe that
they are ancestral to the living 'Elongated East
Africans'. Neither of these populations, fossil and
modern, should be considered to be closely related
to the populations of Europe and western Asia.. In
skin colour, the Tutsi are darker than the Hutu, in
the reverse direction to that leading to the
caucasoids. Lip thickness provides a similar case: on
an average the lips of the Tutsi are thicker than
those of the Hutu." [Jean Hiernaux, The People of
Africa (1975), pgs 42-43, 62-63)

"In sub-Saharan Africa, many anthropological
characters show a wide range of population means
or frequencies. In some of them, the whole world
range is covered in the sub-continent. Here live the
shortest and the tallest human populations, the one
with the highest and the one with the lowest nose,
the one with the thickest and the one with the
thinnest lips in the world. In this area, the range of
the average nose widths covers 92 per cent of the
world range: only a narrow range of extremely low
means are absent from the African record. Means for
head diameters cover about 80 per cent of the world
range; 60 per cent is the corresponding value for a
variable once cherished by physical anthropologists,
the cephalic index, or ratio of the head width to head
length expressed as a percentage....."
- Jean Hiernaux, "The People of Africa" 1975 p.53,
54

"Prehistoric human crania from Bromhead's Site,
Willey's Kopje, Makalia Burial Site, Nakuru, and
other localities in the Eastern Rift Valley of Kenya
are reassessed using measurements and a
multivariate statistical approach. Materials available
for comparison include series of Bushman and
Hottentot crania. South and East African Negroes,
and Egyptians. Up to 34 cranial measurements taken
on these series are utilized to construct three
multiple discriminant frameworks, each of which can
assign modern individuals to a correct group with
considerable accuracy. When the prehistoric crania
are classified with the help of these discriminants,
results indicate that several of the skulls are best
grouped with modern Negroes. This is especially
clear in the case of individuals from Bromhead's
Site, Willey's Kopje, and Nakuru, and the evidence
hardly suggests post-Pleistocene domination of the
Rift and surrounding territory by "Mediterranean"
Caucasoids, as has been claimed. Recent linguistic
and archaeological findings are also reviewed, and
these seem to support application of the term Nilotic
Negro to the early Rift populations." (Rightmire GP.
New studies of post-Pleistocene human skeletal
remains from the Rift Valley, Kenya. Am J Phys
Anthropol. 1975 May;42(3):351-69. )

"....inhabitants of East Africa right on the equator
have appreciably longer, narrower, and higher noses
than people in the Congo at the same latitude. A
former generation of anthropologists used to explain
this paradox by invoking an invasion by an itinerant
"white" population from the Mediterranean area,
although this solution raised more problems than it
solved since the East Africans in question include
some of the blackest people in the world with
characteristically wooly hair and a body build unique
among the world's populations for its extreme
linearity and height.... The relatively long noses of
East Africa become explicable then when one
realizes that much of the area is extremely dry for
parts of the year." (C. Loring Brace, "Nonracial
Approach Towards Human Diversity," cited in The
Concept of Race, Edited by Ashley Montagu, The
Free Press, 1980, pp. 135-136, 138)

"The .... excavations at Gogoshiis Qabe (Somalia)
uncovered eleven virtually complete and articulated
primary burials...Closest morphological affinities are
with early Holocene skeletons from Lake Turkana,
Kenya...and Lake Besaka, Ethiopia.."
(S. Brandt, (1986) The Upper Pleistocene and early
Holocene prehistory of the Horn of Africa. Journal
African Archaeological Review. Volume 4, Number
1, Pages 41-82 )

"The role of tall, linearly built populations in eastern
Africa's prehistory has always been debated.
Traditionally, they are viewed as late migrants into
the area. But as there is better palaeoanthropological
and linguistic documentation for the earlier presence
of these populations than for any other group in
eastern Africa, it is far more likely that they are
indigenous eastern Africans. ... prehistoric linear
populations show resemblances to both Upper
Pleistocene eastern African fossils and present-day,
non-Bantu-speaking groups in eastern Africa, with
minor differences stemming from changes in overall
robusticity of the dentition and skeleton. This
suggests a longstanding tradition of linear
populations in eastern Africa, contributing to the
indigenous development of cultural and biological
diversity from the Pleistocene up to the present."
(L . A . SCHEPARTZ, "Who were the later
Pleistocene eastern Africans?" The African
Archaeological Review, 6 (1988), pp. 57- 72)

Whether ancient or modern Egyptians are
considered, Blacks are closer than white Europeans
or Americans. Recent study shows ancient Egyptians
physically more like tropically adapted Black
Americans than White Americans, confirming older
studies that show today's Egyptians closer to US
blacks than Northern Europeans, and Southern
Europeans as well.
Quotes:

QUOTE(s):
"We also compare Egyptian body proportions to
those of modern American Blacks and Whites...
Long bone stature regression equations were then
derived for each sex. Our results confirm that,
although ancient Egyptians are closer in body
proportion to modern American Blacks than they are
to American Whites, proportions in Blacks and
Egyptians are not identical... Intralimb indices are
not significantly different between Egyptians and
American Blacks. ..brachial indices are definitely
more ‘African’... There is no evidence for significant
variation in proportions among temporal or social
groupings; thus, the new formulae may be broadly
applicable to ancient Egyptian remains." ("Stature
estimation in ancient Egyptians: A new technique
based on anatomical reconstruction of stature."
Michelle H. Raxter, Christopher B. Ruff, Ayman
Azab, Moushira Erfan, Muhammad Soliman, Aly
El-Sawaf, (Am J Phys Anthropol. 2008,
Jun;136(2):147-55

Africa is the most genetically diverse region in the
world with the original man being from East Africa
according to conservative scholars:

"Africa contains tremendous cultural, linguistic and
genetic diversity, and has more than 2,000 distinct
ethnic groups and languages.. Studies using
mitochondrial (mt)DNA and nuclear DNA markers
consistently indicate that Africa is the most
genetically diverse region of the world." (Tishkoff
SA, Williams SM., Genetic analysis of African
populations: human evolution and complex disease.
Nature Reviews Genetics. 2002 Aug (8):611-21.)

" In other words, all non-Africans carry M168. Of
course, Africans carrying the M168 mutation today
are the descendants of the African subpopulation
from which the migrants originated.... Thus, the
Australian/Eurasian Adam (the ancestor of all
non-Africans) was an East African Man." (Linda
Stone, Paul F. Lurquin, L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza,
Genes, Culture, and Human Evolution: A Synthesis,
Wiley-Blackwell: 2006, pg 108)

The Natufians, early inhabitants of the Sinai - Israel-
Palestine area, and reputed pioneers of several
Neolithic agricultural and technological
developments, appear to have had several "Negroid"
affinities. Important Natufian sites include Mt.
Carmel, Jericho and several others.

"Against this background of disease, movement and
pedomorphic reduction of body size one can identify
Negroid (Ethiopic or Bushmanoid?) traits of nose
and prognathism appearing in Natufian latest hunters
(McCown, 1939) and in Anatolian and Macedonian
first farmers, probably from Nubia via the unknown
predecesors of the Badarians and Tasians....".
(Biological Relations of Egyptians and Eastern
Mediterranean Populations during pre-Dynastic and
Dynastic Times. J. Lawrence Angel. Journal of
Human Evolutiom. 1972:1, 1, Pg 307)
"The Mushabians moved into Sinai from the Nile
Delta, bringing North African lithic chipping
tecniques."
("Pleistocene connections between Africa and
Southwest Asia: an archaeological perspective. O.
Bar-Yosef. African Archaeological Review. 5
(1987) Pg 29)

"It is a further surprise that the Epipalaeolithic
Natufian of Israel from whom the Neolithic realm
was assumed to arise has a clear link to Sub-Saharan
Africa... Interestingly enough, however, the small
Natufian sample falls between the Niger-Congo
group and the other samples used... This placement
suggests that there may have been a Sub-Saharan
African element in the make-up of the Natufians (the
putative ancestors of the subsequent Neolithic.."
(C.L Brace, et. al. 2005. The Questionable
contribution of the Neolithic...)

Early inhabitants of the general Natufian Israel area
show limb proportions suited to tropical peoples-
similar to sub-Saharan's homeland
Quotes:

"However, the real revelation came when Erik
[Trinkhaus] inserted his data on the Cro-Magnons of
Europe and the Skhul-Qafzeh skeletons from Israel
into the equations. In this case, he got a figure of 85
percent for the shinbone-thighbone ratio. Not only
were they unlike the Neanderthals, but these people
actually fell at the other extreme in their readings on
the limb thermometer. The predicted average
temperature of origin for folk with an 85%
shin-thigh fraction, indicating much longer
extremities relative to trunk length — was about 20
degrees higher than the Neanderthals', suggesting a
subtropical- if not tropical- homeland!" (African
Exodus By Christopher Stringer, Robin McKie,
McMillan: pg 79-83)

The 1993 'Clines and Clusters' study by C.L. Brace,
et. al. has been used to minmize or downplay the
relationship between Egypt and its African
neighbors. For example it:

--Created an "African" or "sub-Saharan" group, but
excluded the Maghreb (including parts of the Sahara
and Sahel), the Sudan and the Horn area (Ethiopia
and Somalia) even though these latter two are
BELOW the Sahara, and thus "sub-Saharan".

--Excluded the Badari, and Naqada I and II, key
Egyptian groups, thus obscuring the
Sudanic/Saharan character of numerous early
samples, noted in several earlier analyses.
Ignored the formative range of the Saharans on
Egypt, from the megaliths and cattle cults of the
Nabta Playa to early mummification practices was
ignored.

--Excluded the Nubian population of the Badari and
early Naqada period, including the rich remains of
the well documented Qustul culture, near the present
Sudanese-Egyptian border, again obscuring the
close relationship between the two peoples.

--Created a vague "Bronze Age" grouping of Nubians,
and a "modern" group of medieval samples, an era
long after the dynasties and when Nubia had
experienced more gene flow of that and the later
Arab incursions, beginning in the 700s. Sampling
thus ignored the early Badari/Naqada Nubians,
jumped the 25th Dynasty era, and shifted to the
medieval era in the age range of the Arab conquests.

--Used Somalian samples that were modern, and thus
within the range of recent gene flow (such as the
Arab era), particularly on the coast.

The result was a "comparison" finding that the
ancient Egyptians had no relationship "at all" to
other "sub-Saharan" peoples and were relatively
distant from the Nubians and Somalians. peoples.
This finding has been undermined by the subsequent
research of several scholars, including limb
proportion studies.
QUOTE(s):

"However, Brace et al. (1993) find that a series of
upper Egyptian/Nubian epipalaeolithic crania
affiliate by cluster analysis with groups they
designate “sub-Saharan African” or just simply
“African” (from which they incorrectly exclude the
Maghreb, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa), whereas
post-Badarian southern predynastic and a late
dynastic northern series (called “E” or Gizeh) cluster
together, and secondarily with Europeans. In the
primary cluster with the Egyptian groups are also
remains representing populations from the ancient
Sudan and recent Somalia. Brace et al. (1993)
seemingly interpret these results as indicating a
population relationship from Scandinavia to the
Horn of Africa, although the mechanism for this is
not clearly stated; they also state that the Egyptians
had no relationship with sub-Saharan Africans, a
group that they nearly treat (incorrectly) as
monolithic, although sometimes seemingly including
Somalia, which directly undermines aspects of their
claims. Sub-Saharan Africa does not define/delimit
authentic Africanity." (S.O.Y. Keita. "Early Nile
Valley Farmers from El-Badari: Aboriginals or
"European" Agro-Nostratic Immigrants?
Craniometric Affinities Considered With Other
Data". Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp.
191-208 (2005)

Brace excluded the Badari- a key native
pre-dynastic group that led into the dynasties, and
suggested possible European immigration to ancient
Egypt. Keita put this to the test and found that the
excluded group matched up more closely with
Africans than Europeans.
Quotes:

"An examination of the distance hierarchies reveals
the Badarian series to be more similar to the Teita in
both analyses and always more similar to all of the
African series than to the Norse and Berg groups
(see Tables 3A & 3B and Figure 2). Essentially
equal similarity is found with the Zalavar and Dogon
series in the 11-variable analysis and with these and
the Bushman in the one using 15 variables. The
Badarian series clusters with the tropical African
groups no matter which algorithm is employed (see
Figures 3 and 4).. In none of them did the Badarian
sample affiliate with the European series."(S.O.Y.
Keita. Early Nile Valley Farmers from El-Badari:
Aboriginals or "European" Agro-Nostratic
Immigrants? Craniometric Affinities Considered
With Other Data. Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 36
No. 2, pp. 191-208 (2005)

More on the 'true negro'

"Another example of the use of a socially
constructed typological paradigm is in studies of the
Nile Valley populations in which the concept of a
biological African is restricted to those with a
particular craniometric pattern (called in the past the
'True Negro' though no 'True White' was ever
defined). Early Nubians, Egyptians, and even
Somalians are viewed essentially as non-Africans,
when in fact numerous lines of evidence and an
evolutionary model make them a part of African
biocultural/biogeographical history. The diversity of
'authentic' Africans is a reality. This diversity
prevents biogeographical/biohistorical Africans from
clustering into a single unit, no matter the kind of
data." (The Persistence of Racial Thinking and the
Myth of Racial Divergence, S. O. Y. Keita, Rick A.
Kittles, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol.
99, No. 3 (Sep., 1997), pp. 534-544)

"..presents all tropical Africans with narrower noses
and faces as being related to or descended from
external, ultimately non-African peoples. However,
narrow-faced, narrow-nosed populations have long
been resident in Saharo-tropical Africa... and their
origin need not be sought elsewhere. These traits are
also indigenous. The variability in tropical Africa is
expectedly naturally high. Given their longstanding
presence, narrow noses and faces cannot be deemed
`non-African."(S.O.Y. Keita, "Studies and
Comments on Ancient Egyptian Biological
Relationships," History in Africa 20 (1993), page
134 )

"Another example of the use of a socially
constructed typological paradigm is in studies of the
Nile Valley populations in which the concept of a
biological African is restricted to those with a
particular craniometric pattern (called in the past the
'True African' though no 'True White' was ever
defined). Early Nubians, Egyptians, and even
Somalians are viewed essentially as non-Africans,
when in fact numerous lines of evidence and an
evolutionary model make them a part of African
biocultural/biogeographical history. The diversity of
'authentic' Africans is a reality. This diversity
prevents biogeographical/biohistorical Africans from
clustering into a single unit, no matter the kind of
data."
---Keita and Kittles. "The Persistence of Racial
Thinking and the Myth of Racial Divergence."
American Anthropologist 99, no. 3 (September
1997): 534-544

The Fulani of Africa vary in their genetic
makeup just as other groups do in the
world. Modern DNA analysis makes
them a firmly African population. Gene
variation likely developed from other
AFRICAN groups near them, and are not
an indicator of some sort of outside
"race" mix that changed the natives.
Africans can vary without the need to
invoke some "outside" influence,
surprising as this may seem to some.

quotes:

"Mitochondrial DNA analysis indicates
that Fulani have lineages of
predominantly West African origin and
that they cluster together and close to the
Mandenka population from Senegal
[S93]... "Our analysis, using
genome-wide nuclear markers and
STRUCTURE, indicates that the Fulani
have distinctive ancestry [fuchsia] at K =
14 in the global analysis [Figs. 3,4] and
at K = 9 -14 in the Africa analysis [Fig.
S13]. The Fulani cluster with the Chadic
and Central Sudanic speaking
populations at K <13> They also cluster
near the Chadic and Central Sudanic
speaking populations in the NJ tree based
on population genetic distances [Fig. 1]."

--The Genetic Structure and History of
Africans and African Americans.
Tishkoff et al (2009)

Non-sub-Saharan gene variation not
due to any outside "race" mix

"HVS-I analysis of four Fulani
populations revealed the different
proportions of the mtDNA gene pool. A
major role is played by West African
mtDNA haplogroups, such as L1b, L3d,
L3b, L2b, L2c, and L2d, which together
make up 79.6% of the whole. The far
from negligible presence of some
haplogroups from western Eurasia
(8.1%), such as U5, U6, and J1, is not
particularly surprising in a sub-Saharan
context because these haplogroups
currently appear in North Africa. This
may suggest an ancient origin of the
nomads in the more northerly mountain
massifs of the Central Sahara (Dupuy
1999). According to our own
anthropological examination (data not
shown), the non-sub-Saharan
haplogroups are not carried by "West
Eurasian-like" individuals, as might be
anticipated, but were rather detected in
common "Fulani type" peoples."

- Cherny et al. (2006), mtDNA of Fulani
Nomads and Their Genetic Relationships
to Neighboring Sedentary Populations

Hair and the 'true negro'
Quotes:
"Strouhal (1971) microscopically examined some
hair which had been preserved on a Badrarian skull.
The analysis was interpreted as suggesting a
stereotypical tropical African-European hybrid
(mulatto). However this hair is grossly no different
from that of Fulani, some Kanuri, or Somali and
does not require a gene flow explanation any more
than curly hair in Greece necessarily does. Extremely
"wooly" hair is not the only kind native to tropical
Africa.." (S. O. Y. Keita. (1993). "Studies and
Comments on Ancient Egyptian Biological
Relationships," History in Africa 20 (1993) 129-54)

Sampling bias and the true negro. In some Nile
Valley research sampling bias persists such as
drawing samples from the far north of Egypt,
boscuring the region's genetic complexity. The
stereotypical "true negro" type is still used to
artifically separate related peoples and obscure a
fuller, more accurate picture of African genetic
diversity. Sampling bias appears both in DNA
studies (noted by Keita) and in cranial studies (noted
by Egyptologist Barry Kemp).
Quotes:

1--Keita on DNA studies drawing samples from the far
north, an area with more foreign settlement and gene
flow

"However, in some of the studies, only individuals
from northern Egypt are sampled, and this could
theoretically give a false impression of Egyptian
variability (contrast Lucotte and Mercier 2003a with
Manni et al. 2002), because this region has received
more foreign settlers (and is nearer the Near East).
Possible sample bias should be integrated into the
discussion of results." (S.O.Y. Keita, A.J. Boyce,
"Interpreting Geographical Patterns of Y
Chromosome Variation1," History in Africa 32
(2005) 221-246 )

Egyptologist Barry Kemp on the worldwide
CRANID database that used northern samples near
the Mediterranean as "representative" of the ancient
Egyptians, and classifying them in a "European"
direction, while excluding key historic sites further
south.. The CRANID database uses LATE PERIOD
SAMPLES, the 26th thru the 30th Dynasties, drawn
from the far north of Egypt near Giza. Such late
period samples beginning with the 27th Dynasty
involved the Persian conquest and influx into Egypt,
and they would reflect such Persian/foreign
influence. QUOTE:

"..collected by Petrie in 1907 from a cemetery on a
desert ridge to the south of Giza and dating from the
26th to the 30th Dynasties.. If, on the other hand,
CRANID had used one of the Elephantine
populations of the same period, the geographic
association would be much more with the African
groups to the south. It is dangerous to take one set
of skeletons and use them to characterize the
population of the whole of Egypt." (Barry Kemp,
Ancient Egypt Anatomy of a Civilisation,
Routledge: 2005, p. 55)

Modern anthropology shows that the ancient
Egyptians are well within the range of tropical
Africa, contradicting older research in the 1990s that
sought to deny any relationship.
Quotes:

"There is now a sufficient body of evidence from
modern studies of skeletal remains to indicate that
the ancient Egyptians, especially southern Egyptians,
exhibited physical characteristics that are within the
range of variation for ancient and modern
indigenous peoples of the Sahara and tropical
Africa.. In general, the inhabitants of Upper Egypt
and Nubia had the greatest biological affinity to
people of the Sahara and more southerly areas."
(Nancy C. Lovell, " Egyptians, physical
anthropology of," in Encyclopedia of the
Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, ed. Kathryn A. Bard
and Steven Blake Shubert, ( London and New York:
Routledge, 1999) pp 328-332)

"The evidence also points to linkages to
other northeast African peoples, not
coincidentally approximating the modern
range of languages closely related to
Egyptian in the Afro-Asiatic group
(formerly called Hamito-Semetic). These
linguistic similarities place ancient
Egyptian in a close relationship with
languages spoken today as far west as
Chad, and as far south as Somalia.
Archaeological evidence also strongly
supports an African origin. A widespread
northeastern African cultural assemblage,
including distinctive multiple barbed
harpoons and pottery decorated with
dotted wavy line patterns, appears during
the early Neolithic (also known as the
Aqualithic, a reference to the mild
climate of the Sahara at this time).

Saharan and Sudanese rock art from this
time resembles early Egyptian
iconography. Strong connections
between Nubian (Sudanese) and
Egyptian material culture continue in
later Neolithic Badarian culture of Upper
Egypt. Similarities include black-topped
wares, vessels with characteristic
ripple-burnished surfaces, a special
tulip-shaped vessel with incised and
white-filled decoration, palettes, and
harpoons...

Other ancient Egyptian practices show
strong similarities to modern African
cultures including divine kingship, the
use of headrests, body art, circumcision,
and male coming-of-age rituals, all
suggesting an African substratum or
foundation for Egyptian civilization
(rather than diffusion from sub-Saharan
Africa, as claimed by some Afrocentric
scholars.)"

[endquote]
Source: Donald Redford (2001) The
Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Egypt,
Volume 3. Oxford University Press. p. 28

One of the oldest remains from Upper Egypt, shows
strong sub-Saharan affinities, and early northern
Egypt also shows sub-Saharan affinities through
cultural traits- the 'Nubian complex' of technology
and production.

"The morphometric affinities of the 33,000 year old
skeleton from Nazlet Khater, Upper Egypt are
examined using multivariate statistical procedures..
The results indicate a strong association between
some of the sub-Saharan Middle Stone Age (MSA)
specimens, and the Nazlet Khater mandible.
Furthermore, the results suggest that variability
between African populations during the Neolithic
and Protohistoric periods was more pronounced
than the range of variability observed among recent
African and Levantine populations." (PINHASI
Ron, SEMAL Patrick (2000). The position of the
Nazlet Khater specimen among prehistoric and
modern African and Levantine populations. Journal
of human evolution. 2000, vol. 39, no3, pp. 269-288
)

"..Middle Paleolithic and the transition to the Upper
Paleolithic in the Lower Nile Valley are described...
the Middle Paleolithic or, more appropriately,
Middle Stone Age of this region starts with the
arrival of new populations from sub-Saharan Africa,
as evidenced by the nature of the Early to Middle
Stone Age transition in stratified sites. Throughout
the late Middle Pleistocene technological change
occurs leading to the establishment of the Nubian
Complex by the onset of the Upper Pleistocene."
(Van Peer, Philip. Did middle stone age moderns of
sub-Saharan African descent trigger an upper
paleolithic revolution in the lower nile valley?
Anthropologie. vol. 42, no3, pp. 215-225)

Dental studies provide evidence that the ancient
Egyptian population maintained a high degree of
continuity into the early, mid and late Dynastic
periods. A key ancient group, the Badari, found to
link to tropical African metrics, was excluded by
such studies as Brace (1993) but dental research
shows they link well with later pre and Dynastic
populations. J. Irish's 2006 dental study examined
the ancient Badarian people excluded by Brace and
found that they were a "good representative of what
the common ancestor to all later predynastic and
dynastic Egyptian peoples would be like." His dental
results show that:
QUOTE:

"Despite the difference, Gebel Ramlah [the Western
Desert- Saharan region] is closest to predynastic and
early dynastic samples from Abydos, Hierakonpolis,
and Badari.."

the Badarians were a "good representative of what
the common ancestor to all later predynastic and
dynastic Egyptian peoples would be like"

"A comparison of Badari to the Naqada and
Hierakonpolis samples .. contradicts the idea of a
foreign origin for the Naqada (Petrie, 1939;
Baumgartel, 1970)"

Evidence in favor of continuity is also demonstrated
by comparison of individual samples. "Naqada and
especially Hierakonpolis share close affinities with
First–Second Dynasty Abydos.. These findings do
not support the concept of a foreign dynastic
‘‘race’’"

"Thus, despite increasing foreign influence after the
Second Intermediate Period, not only did Egyptian
culture remain intact (Lloyd, 2000a), but the people
themselves, as represented by the dental samples,
appear biologically constant as well."

(Joel D. Irish (2006). Who Were the Ancient
Egyptians? Dental Affinities Among Neolithic
Through Postdynastic Peoples. Am J Phys
Anthropol. 2006 Apr;129(4):529-43.)

Africans have the highest dental diversity

"Previous research by the first author revealed that,
relative to other modern peoples, sub-Saharan
Africans exhibit the highest frequencies of ancestral
(or plesiomorphic) dental traits... The fact that
sub-Saharan Africans express these apparently
plesiomorphic characters, along with additional
information on their affinity to other modern
populations, evident intra-population heterogeneity,
and a world-wide dental cline emanating from the
sub-continent, provides further evidence that is
consistent with an African origin model." (Irish JD,
Guatelli-Steinberg D.(2003) Ancient teeth and
modern human origins: an expanded comparison of
African Plio-Pleistocene and recent world dental
samples. Hum Evol. 2003 Aug;45(2):113-44. )

[b]Dental studies confirm the data yielded by
skeletal and cranial studies. The inhabitants of
ancient Egypt, particularly in the formative era on
into the early Dynastic ages, cluster more closely
with African populations that with Europeans or
Middle Easterners. These Nile Valley populations
are continuous and of local origin, with no major
contemporaneous migration or replacement
events.[/b]

[quotes:]
[i]"The question of the genetic origins of ancient
Egyptians, particularly those during the Dynastic
period, is relevant to the current study. Modern
interpretations of Egyptian state formation propose
an indigenous origin of the Dynastic civilization
(Hassan, 1988). Early Egyptologists considered
Upper and Lower Egyptians to be genetically
distinct populations, and viewed the Dynastic period
as characterized by a conquest of Upper Egypt by
the Lower Egyptians. More recent interpretations
contend that Egyptians from the south actually
expanded into the northern regions during the
Dynastic state unification (Hassan, 1988; Savage,
2001), and that the Predynastic populations of
Upper and Lower Egypt are morphologically distinct
from one another, but not sufficiently distinct to
consider either non-indigenous (Zakrzewski, 2007).
The Predynastic populations studied here, from
Naqada and Badari, are both Upper Egyptian
samples, while the Dynastic Egyptian sample
(Tarkhan) is from Lower Egypt. The Dynastic
Nubian sample is from Upper Nubia (Kerma).
Previous analyses of cranial variation found the
Badari and Early Predynastic Egyptians to be more
similar to other African groups than to
Mediterranean or European populations (Keita,
1990; Zakrzewski, 2002). In addition, the Badarians
have been described as near the centroid of cranial
and dental variation among Predynastic and Dynastic
populations studied (Irish, 2006; Zakrzewski, 2007).

This suggests that, at least through the Early
Dynastic period, the inhabitants of the Nile valley
were a continuous population of local origin, and no
major migration or replacement events occurred
during this time.

Studies of cranial morphology also support the use
of a Nubian (Kerma) population for a comparison of
the Dynastic period, as this group is likely to be
more closely genetically related to the early Nile
valley inhabitants than would be the Late Dynastic
Egyptians, who likely experienced significant mixing
with other Mediterranean populations (Zakrzewski,
2002). A craniometric study found the Naqada and
Kerma populations to be morphologically similar
(Keita, 1990). Given these and other prior studies
suggesting continuity (Berry et al., 1967; Berry and
Berry, 1972), and the lack of archaeological
evidence of major migration or population
replacement during the Neolithic transition in the
Nile valley, we may cautiously interpret the dental
health changes over time as primarily due to
ecological, subsistence, and demographic changes
experienced throughout the Nile valley region."[/i]

-- AP Starling, JT Stock. (2007). Dental Indicators
of Health and Stress in Early Egyptian and Nubian
Agriculturalists: A Difficult Transition and Gradual
Recovery. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY 134:520–528

Ancient Egyptian civilization was indigenous with
continuity among its peoples, not an influx of Middle
Easterners, Europeans or other outsiders like Arabs
until relatively late in history

QUOTE(s):
"Some have argued that various early Egyptians like
the Badarians probably migrated northward from
Nubia, while others see a wide-ranging movement of
peoples across the breadth of the Sahara before the
onset of desiccation. Whatever may be the origins of
any particular people or civilization, however, it
seems reasonably certain that the predynastic
communities of the Nile valley were essentially
indigenous in culture, drawing little inspiration from
sources outside the continent during the several
centuries directly preceding the onset of historical
times..." (Robert July, Pre-Colonial Africa, 1975, p.
60-61)

"overall population continuity over the Predynastic
and early Dynastic, and high levels of genetic
heterogeneity, thereby suggesting that state
formation occurred as a mainly indigenous process."
(Zakrzewski, S.R. (2007). "Population continuity or
population change: Formation of the ancient
Egyptian state". American Journal of Physical
Anthropology 132 (4): 501-509)

"the peoples of the steppes and grasslands to the
immediate south of Egypt domesticated cattle, as
early as 9000 to 8000 B.C. They included peoples
from the Afroasiastic linguistic group and the second
major African language family, Nilo-Saharan
(Wendorf, Schild, Close 1984; Wendorf, et al.
1982). Thus the earliest domestic cattle may have
come to Egypt from these southern neighbors, circa
6000 B.C., and not from the Middle East.[148]
Pottery, another significant advance in material
cultural may also have followed this pattern,
initiatied "as early as 9000 B.C. by the
Nilo-Saharans and Afrasians who lived to the south
of Egypt. Soon thereafter, pots spread to Egyptian
sites, almost 2,000 years before the first pottery was
made in the Middle East."
(Christopher Ehret, "Ancient Egyptian as an African
Language, Egypt as an African Culture," in Egypt in
Africa, Theodore Celenko (ed), Indiana University
Press, 1996, pp. 25-27)

X-ray Atlas of the Royal Mummies show some to be
linked physically to Nubian types, and some
documented royal officials are clearly "Negroid' like
Pepi-seneb, an eminent scribe c. 2745 BC. Some
royal New Kingdom mummies also show melanin
frequencies consistent with Negroid origin.

"In terms of head shape, the XVIV and XX
dynasties look more like the early Nubian skulls
from the mesolithic with low vaults and sloping,
curved foreheads.The XVII and XVIII dynasty
skulls are shaped more like modern Nubians with
globular skulls and high vaults."
(An X-ray atlas of the royal mummies. Edited by
J.E. Harris and E.F. Wente. (The University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, 1980.) Review: Michael R.
Zimmerman, American Journal of Physical
Anthropology, Volume 56, Issue 2 , (1981) Pages
207 - 208)

"While the Upper Nile Egyptians show phenotypic
features that occur in higher frequencies in the
Sudan and southward into East Africa (namely,
facial prognathism, chamaerrhiny, and paedomorphic
cranial architecture with specific modifications of the
nasal aperature), these so-called Negroid features
are not universal in the region of Thebes, Karnak,
and Luxor."
(Kennedy, Kenneth A.R., T. Plummer, J. Chinment,
"Identification of the Eminent Dead: Pepi, A Scribe
of Egypt," In Katherine J. Reichs (ed.), Forensic
Osteology, 1986.)

Modern analysis of ancient skin link the Egyptians
with sub-Saharan origin based on melanin content
Tracing population movements or histories through
skin characteristics is difficult due to the
deterioration over the millennia and the possibility of
contamination. Some modern analysis however has
been able to guard against these factors when
analyzing skin composition of the Egyptian ancients.
One such study sampled three different types of
tissues from several different mummies from royal
tombs of the famed city of Thebes in 2005. The
results showed that the skin from the mummies was
packed with melanin, confirming their Negroid
origin. The presence of such mummified individuals
is inconsistent with claims of a "Caucasoid" elite
sweeping into the Egypt to create civilization.
Quotes:

"During an excavation headed by the German
Institute for Archaeology, Cairo, at the tombs of the
nobles in Thebes-West, Upper Egypt, three types of
tissues from different mummies were sampled to
compare 13 well known rehydration methods for
mummified tissue with three newly developed
methods. .. Skin sections showed particularly good
tissue preservation, although cellular outlines were
never distinct. Although much of the epidermis had
already separated from the dermis, the remaining
epidermis often was preserved well (Fig. 1). The
basal epithelial cells were packed with melanin as
expected for specimens of Negroid origin."
--(A-M Mekota and M Vermehren. (2005)
Determination of optimal rehydration, fixation and
staining methods for histological and
immunohistochemical analysis of mummified soft
tissues. Biotechnic & Histochemistry 2005, Vol. 80,
No. 1, Pages 7-13[[37A]]

Nubians were ethnically the closest people to the
Egyptians. Conflict between the two were typical
clashes between kingdoms without the simplistic
"racial" models drawn by some 20th century writers.
Quote 1:
“The ancient Egyptians referred to a region, located
south of the third cataract the Nile River, in which
Nubians dwelt as Kush.. Within such context, this
phrase is not a racial slur. Throughout the history of
ancient Egypt there were numerous, well
documented instances that celebrate
Nubian-Egyptian marriages. A study of these
documents, particularly those dated to both the
Egyptian New Kingdom (after 1550 B.C.E.) and to
Dynasty XXV and early Dynasty XXVI (about
720-640 BCE), reveals that neither spouse nor any
of the children of such unions suffered
discrimination at the hands of the ancient Egyptians.
Indeed such marriages were never an obstacle to
social, economic, or political status, provided the
individuals concerned conformed to generally
accepted Egyptian social standards. Furthermore, at
times, certain Nubian practices, such as tattooing for
women, and the unisex fashion of wearing earrings,
were wholeheartedly embraced by the ancient
Egyptians." (Bianchi, 2004: p. 4)

'It is an extremely difficult task to attempt to
describe the Nubians during the course of Egypt's
New Kingdom, because their presence appears to
have virtually evaporated from the archaeological
record.. The result has been described as a wholesale
Nubian assimilation into Egyptian society. This
assimilation was so complete that it masked all
Nubian ethnic identities insofar as archaeological
remains are concerned beneath the impenetrable
veneer of Egypt's material; culture.. In the Kushite
Period, when Nubians ruled as Pharaohs in their
own right, the material culture of Dynasty XXV
(about 750-655 B.C.E.) was decidedly Egyptian in
character.. Nubia's entire landscape up to the region
of the Third Cataract was dotted with temples
indistinguishable in style and decoration from
contemporary temples erected in Egypt. The same
observation obtains for the smaller number of
typically Egyptian tombs in which these elite Nubian
princes were interred. (Bianchi, 2004, p. 99-100)

- Robert Bianchi ( 2004). Daily Life of the Nubians.
Greenwood Publishing Group

Quote 2:

"the XIIth Dynasty (1991-1786 B.C.E.) originated
from the Aswan region.4 As expected, strong
Nubian features and dark coloring are seen in their
sculpture and relief work. This dynasty ranks as
among the greatest, whose fame far outlived its
actual tenure on the throne. Especially interesting, it
was a member of this dynasty- that decreed that no
Nehsy (riverine Nubian of the principality of Kush),
except such as came for trade or diplomatic reasons,
should pass by the Egyptian fortress at the southern
end of the Second Nile Cataract. Why would this
royal family of Nubian ancestry ban other Nubians
from coming into Egyptian territory? Because the
Egyptian rulers of Nubian ancestry had become
Egyptians culturally; as pharaohs, they exhibited
typical Egyptian attitudes and adopted typical
Egyptian policies."

- (F. J. Yurco, 'Were the ancient Egyptians black or
white?', Biblical Archaeology Review (Vol 15, no. 5,
1989)THE MEDJAY

"The Medjay in the ancient Egyptian documents, or
Pan Grave culture Nubians, by archaeologists,
because of the characteristic shallow, oval
configuration of their graves. Graves of this type
have been discovered over a wide geographic area
from Nubia as far north into Egypt as Saqqara...
That the Medjay are desert-Nubians is certain. Their
presence has been detected in Old Kingdom
contexts, but the Medjay are more frequently
encountered as a distinct group during the Middle
Kingdom when their designation, Medjay, appears
among the named Egyptian foes in the Execration
Texts of the Middle Kingdom. On the other hand,
the Medjay like the Nubians of the C-Group culture
interacted favorably with the Egyptians. In the case
of the Medjay, they appear to be reliable allies and
formed, therefore, part of the Egyptian army under
Kamose in his campaigns against the Hyksos."
reference: (--Daily Life of the Nubians, Robert
Steven Bianchi, 2004, pp. 102-103)

X-Ray analysis of some royal mummies reveal
strong Nubian affinities, also confirming
Egyptologist Frank Yurco's findings as to such
affinities.

"The late XVII Dynasty and XVIII Dynasty royal
mummies display the strongest Nubian affinities. In
terms of maxillary protrusion as measured by SNA,
the mean value for these Pharaohs is 84.21
comparable to that of African Americans. .. They
exceed the latter in terms of ANB and SN-M Plane,
but are closer to Caucasians in regards to SNB.
However, the ability of SNA and SNB to predict
maxillary and mandibular protrusion respectively has
been questioned. Some studies suggest that
measuring prognathism from the Frankfort
horizontal would produce more reliable results (See
RM Ricketts, RJ Schulhof, L Bagha.
Orientation-sella-nasion or Frankfort horizontal. Am
J Orthod 1976 Jun;69(6):648-654; also JW Moore.
Variation of the sella-nasion plane and its effect on
SNA and SNB. J Oral Surg. 1976 Jan; 34(1):
24-26).

In regards to head shape, the late XVII and XVIII
dynasty mummies are very close to Nubian samples
intermediate between the Mesolithic and Christian
periods. The zygomatic arches are almost always
vertical or forward and not receding."
--James Harris & Edward Wente, X-ray Atlas of the
Royal Mummies (Chicago: University of Chicago,
1980)

2009 study finds the Nubians were ethnically the
closest population to the ancient Egyptians not
Europeans or Middle Easterners, confirming
Egyptologist Frank Yurco's data from the late
1980s.
Quotes:

"The Mahalanobis D2 analysis uncovered close
affinities between Nubians and Egyptians. Table 3
lists the Mahalanobis D2 distance matrix... In some
cases, the statistics reveal that the Egyptian samples
were more similar to Nubian samples than to other
Egyptian samples (e.g. Gizeh and Hesa/Biga) and
vice versa (e.g. Badari and Kerma, Naqada and
Christian). These relationships are further depicted
in the PCO plot (Fig. 2).

The clustering of the Nubian and Egyptian samples
together supports this paper's hypothesis and
demonstrates that there may be a close relationship
between the two populations. This relationship is
consistent with Berry and Berry (1972), among
others, who noted a similarity between Nubians and
Egyptians.

Both mtDNA (Krings et al., 1999) and
Y-Chromosome data (Hassan et al., 2008; Keita,
2005; Lucotte and Mercier, 2003) indicate that
migrations, usually bidirectional, occurred along the
Nile. Thus, the osteological material used in this
analysis also supports the DNA evidence.

On this basis, many have postulated that the
Badarians are relatives to South African populations
(Morant, 1935 G. Morant, A study of predynastic
Egyptian skulls from Badari based on measurements
taken by Miss BN Stoessiger and Professor DE
Derry, Biometrika 27 (1935), pp. 293–309.Morant,
1935; Mukherjee et al., 1955; Irish and Konigsberg,
2007). The archaeological evidence points to this
relationship as well. (Hassan, 1986) and (Hassan,
1988) noted similarities between Badarian pottery
and the Neolithic Khartoum type, indicating an
archaeological affinity among Badarians and
Africans from more southern regions. Furthermore,
like the Badarians, Naqada has also been classified
with other African groups, namely the Teita
(Crichton, 1996; Keita, 1990).

Nutter (1958) noted affinities between the Badarian
and Naqada samples, a feature that Strouhal (1971)
attributed to their skulls possessing “Negroid” traits.
Keita (1992), using craniometrics, discovered that
the Badarian series is distinctly different from the
later Egyptian series, a conclusion that is mostly
confirmed here. In the current analysis, the Badari
sample more closely clusters with the Naqada
sample and the Kerma sample. However, it also
groups with the later pooled sample from Dynasties
XVIII–XXV.

The reoccurring notation of Kerma affinities with
Egyptian groups is not entirely surprising. Kerma
was an integral part of the trade between Egypt and
Nubia.

However, the archaeological evidence actually
showed slow change in form over time (Adams,
1977) and the biological evidence demonstrated a
similar trend in the skeletal data (e.g. Godde, in
press; Van Gerven et al., 1977). These conclusions
negate the possibility of invasion or migration
causing the shifts in time periods. The results in this
study are consistent with prior work; the Meroites
and X-Group cluster with the remaining Nubian
population and are not differentiated.

Gene flow may account for the homogeneity across
these Nubian and Egyptian groups and is consistent
with the biological diffusion precept. Small
geographic distances between groups allow for the
exchange of genes.
The similarities uncovered by this study may be
explained by another force, adaptation.. resemblance
may be indicative of a common adaptation to a
similar geographic location, rather than gene flow
Egypt and Nubia have similar terrain and climate.
Because of the similarity between and the
overlapping of the two territories that would require
similar adaptations to the environment, common
adaptation cannot be discounted.

Gene flow appears likely between the Egyptians and
Nubians, although common adaptations to a similar
environment may have also been a factor in their
cranial similarities. This study does not rule out the
possibility that in situ biological evolution occurred
at other times not represented by the samples in this
analysis. "

-- Godde K. (2009) An Examination of Nubian and
Egyptian biological distances: Support for biological
diffusion or in situ development? Homo.
2009;60(5):389-404.

Ancient Egyptian religion closer to the religion of
African regions than to Mesopotamia, Europe or the
Middle East

QUOTE(s):
Encyclopedia Britannica 1984 ed. Macropedia
Article, Vol 6: "Egyptian Religion" , pg 506-508
"A large number of gods go back to prehistoric
times. The images of a cow and star goddess
(Hathor), the falcon (Horus), and the human-shaped
figures of the fertility god (Min) can be traced back
to that period. Some rites, such as the "running of
the Apil-bull," the "hoeing of the ground," and other
fertility and hunting rites (e.g., the hippopotamus
hunt) presumably date from early times..
Connections with the religions in southwest Asia
cannot be traced with certainty."
"It is doubtful whether Osiris can be regarded as
equal to Tammuz or Adonis, or whether Hathor is
related to the "Great Mother." There are closer
relations with northeast African religions. The
numerous animal cults (especially bovine cults and
panther gods) and details of ritual dresses (animal
tails, masks, grass aprons, etc) probably are of
African origin. The kinship in particular shows some
African elements, such as the king as the head
ritualist (i.e., medicine man), the limitations and
renewal of the reign (jubilees, regicide), and the
position of the king's mother (a matriarchal
element). Some of them can be found among the
Ethiopians in Napata and Meroe, others among the
Prenilotic tribes (Shilluk)."
(Encyclopedia Britannica 1984 ed. Macropedia
Article, Vol 6: "Egyptian Religion" , pg 506-508)

Egyptian dynastic civilization based from the 'darker'
tropical south (Upper Egypt) not the north (Lower Egypt)

QUOTE(s):
"While not attempting to underestimate the
contribution that Deltaic political and religious
institutions made to those of a united Egypt, many
Egyptologists now discount the idea that a united
prehistoric kingdom of Lower Egypt ever existed."

"While communities such as Ma'adi appear to have
played an important role in entrepots through which
goods and ideas form south-west Asia filtered into
the Nile Valley in later prehistoric times, the main
cultural and political tradition that gave rise to the
cultural pattern of Early Dynastic Egypt is to be
found not in the north but in the south.":
The Cambridge History of Africa: Volume 1, From
the Earliest Times to c. 500 BC, (Cambridge
University Press: 1982), Edited by J. Desmond
Clark pp. 500-509

"..the early cultures of Merimde, the Fayum, Badari
Naqada I and II are essentially African and early
African social customs and religious beliefs were the
root and foundation of the ancient Egyptian way of
life." (Source: Shaw, Thurston (1976) Changes in
African Archaeology in the Last Forty Years in
African Studies since 1945. p. 156-68. London.)

Egyptian state founded from the south, and
indigenous in character. Egyptians dominated
Palestine in some eras.

"What is truly unique about this state is the
integration of rule over an extensive geographic
region, in contrast to other contemporaneous Near
Easter polities in Nubia, Mesopotamia, Palestine and
the Levant. Present evidence suggests that the state
which emerged by the First Dynasty had its roots in
the Nagada culture of Upper Egypt, where grave
types, pottery and artifacts demonstrate an evolution
of form from the Predynastic to the First Dynasty,
This cannot be demonstrated for the material culture
of Lower Egypt, which was eventually displaced by
that which originated in Upper Egypt. Hierarchical
society with much social and economic
differentiation, as symbolized in the Nagada II
cemeteries of Upper Egypt, does not seem to have
been present, then, in Lower Egypt, a fact which
supports an Upper Egyptian origin for the unified
state. Thus archaeological evidence cannot support
earlier theories that the founders of Egyptian
civilization were an invading Dynastic race from the
east.."

"Egyptian contact in the 4th millennium B.C. with
SW Asia is undeniable, but the effect of this contact
on state formation is Egypt is less clear... The
unified state which emerged in Egypt in the 3rd
millenium B.C. however, was unlike the polities in
Mesopotamia, the Levant, northern Syria, or Early
Bronze Age Palestine- in sociopolitical organization,
material culture, and belief system. There was
undoubtedly heightened commercial contact with
SW Asia in the 4th millennium B.C., but the Early
Dynastic state which emerged in Egypt is unique and
religious in character."
(Bard, Kathryn A. 1994 The Egyptian Predynastic:
A Review of the Evidence. Journal of Field
Archaeology 21(3):265-288.)

"From Petrie onwards, it was regularly suggested
that despite the evidence of Predynastic cultures,
Egyptian civilization of the 1st Dynasty appeared
suddenly and must therefore have been introduced
by an invading foreign 'race'. Since the 1970s
however, excavations at Abydos and Hierakonpolis
have clearly demonstrated the indigenous, Upper
Egyptian roots of early civilization in Egypt.

Contact between northern Egypt and Palestine was
overland, as evidence in northern Sinai
demonstrates.. Israeli archeologists suggest that this
evidence represents a commercial network
established and controlled by the Egyptians as early
as EBA Ia, and that this network was a major factor
in the rise of the urban settlements found later in
Palestine EBA II. Naomi Porat's technological study
of ceramics from EBA sites in southern Palestine
clearly demonstrates that in EBA Ib strata many of
the pottery vessels used for food preparation were
probably manufactured by Egyptian potters using
Egyptian technology but local Palestinian clays. In
EBA Ib strata there are also many storage jars made
from Nile silt and marl wares, which must have been
imported from Egypt. Not only did the Egyptians
establish camps and way stations in northern Sinai,
but the ceramic evidence also suggests that they
established a highly organized network of
settlements in southern Palestine where an Egyptian
population was in residence."
(Ian Shaw ed. (2003) The Oxford History of
Ancient Egypt By Ian Shaw. Oxford University
Press, page 40-63)

Much older scholarship shows cultural similarities
between ancient Egypt and the rest of Africa,
contradicting claims of Middle Eastern inspiration.

--Specific central African tool designs found at the
well known Naqada, Badari and Fayum
archaeological sites in Egypt (de Heinzelin 1962,
Arkell and Ucko, 1956 et al). Shaw (1976) states
that "the early cultures of Merimde, the Fayum,
Badari Naqada I and II are essentially African and
early African social customs and religious beliefs
were the root and foundation of the ancient
Egyptian way of life."

--Pottery evidence first seen in the Saharan Highlands
then spreading to the Nile Valley (Flight 1973).
Art motifs of Saharan rock paintings showing
similarities to those in pharaonic art. A number of
scholars suggest that these earlier artistic styles
influenced later pharaonic art via Saharans leaving
drier areas and moving into the Nile Valley taking
their art styles with them (Mori 1964, Blanc 1964, et
al)

--Earlier pioneering mummification outside Egypt.
The oldest mummy in Africa is of a black Saharan
child (Donadoni 1964, Blanc 1964) Frankfort (1956)
suggests that it is thus possible to understand the
pharaonic worldview by reference to the religious
beliefs of these earlier African precursors. Attempts
to suggest the root of such practices are due to
Caucasoid civilizers from elsewhere are thus
contradicted by the data on the ground.

--Several cultural practices of Egypt show strong
similarities to an African totemic clan base. Childe
(1969, 1978), Aldred (1978) and Strouhal (1971)
demonstrate linkages with several African practices
such as divine kingship and the king as divine
rainmaker.

--Physical similarities of the early Nile valley
populations with that of tropical Africans. Such
connections are demonstrated in the work of
numerous scholars such as Thompson and Randall
Mclver 1905, Falkenburger 1947, and Strouhal
1971. The distance diagrams of Mukherjee, Rao and
Trevor (1955) place the ancient Badarians
genetically near 'black' tribes such as the Ashanti and
the Taita. See also the "Issues of lumping under
Mediterranean clusters" section above for similar
older analyses.

--Serological (blood) evidence of genetic linkages.
Paoli 1972 for example found a significant
resemblance between ABO frequencies of dynastic
Egyptians and the black northern Haratin who are
held to be the probable descendants of the original
Saharans (Hiernaux, 1975).
Language similarities which include several hundred
roots ascribable to African elements (UNESCO
1974)

--Ancient Egyptian origin stories ascribing origins of
the gods and their ancestors to African locations to
the south and west of Egypt (Davidson 1959, White
1970).
quote: "It may be noted that the ancient Egyptians
themselves appear to have been convinced that their
place of origin was African rather than Asian. They
made continued reference to the land of Punt as their
homeland." --(White, Jon Manchip., Ancient Egypt:
Its Culture and History (Dover Publications; New
Ed edition, June 1, 1970), p. 141.

--Advanced state building and political unity in Nubia,
including writing, administrative apparatus and
insignia some 300 years before dynastic Egypt, and
the long demonstrated interchange between Nubia
and Egypt (Williams 1980)

--Newer studies (Wendorf 2001, Wilkinson 1999, et
al.) confirm these older analyses. Excavations from
Nabta Playa, located about 100km west of Abu
Simbel for example, suggest that the Neolithic
inhabitants of the region were migrants from
Sub-Saharan Africa, based on cultural similarities
and social complexity which is thought to be
reflective of Egypt's Old Kingdom

--Other scholars (Wilkinson 1999) present similar
material and cultural evidence- including similarities
between predynastic Egypt and traditional African
cattle-culture, typical of Southern Sudanese and
East African pastoralists of today, and various
cultural and artistic data such as iconography on
rock art found in both Egypt and in the Sudan.

Assorted demic diffusion theories holding a mass
influx of Europeans or Middle Easterners to Africa
bringing cattle and agriculture to the natives is not
supported by credible evidence. Indigenous
development is most likely.

"Furthermore, the archaeology of northern Africa
DOES NOT SUPPORT demic diffusion of farming
from the Near East. The evidence presented by
Wetterstrom indicates that early African farmers in
the Fayum initially INCORPORATED Near Eastern
domesticates INTO an INDIGENOUS foraging
strategy, and only OVER TIME developed a
dependence on horticulture. This is inconsistent with
in-migrating farming settlers, who would have
brought a more ABRUPT change in subsistence
strategy. "The same archaeological pattern occurs
west of Egypt, where domestic animals and, later,
grains were GRADUALLY adopted after 8000 yr
B.P. into the established pre-agricultural Capsian
culture, present across the northern Sahara since
10,000 yr B.P. From this continuity, it has been
argued that the pre-food-production Capsian
peoples spoke languages ancestral to the Berber
and/or Chadic branches of Afroasiatic, placing the
proto-Afroasiatic period distinctly before 10,000 yr
B.P."
Source: The Origins of Afroasiatic
Christopher Ehret, S. O. Y. Keita, Paul Newman;,
and Peter Bellwood
Science 3 December 2004: Vol. 306. no. 5702, p.
1680 Early Nile Valley Farmers From El-Badari

"Male Badarian crania were analyzed using the
generalized distance of Mahalanobis in a
comparative analysis with other African and
European series from the Howells?s database. The
study was carried out to examine the affinities of the
Badarians to evaluate, in preliminary fashion, a
demic diffusion hypothesis that postulates that
horticulture and the Afroasiatic language family
were brought ultimately from southern Europe. (The
assumption was made that the southern Europeans
would be more similar to the central and northern
Europeans than to any indigenous African
populations.) The Badarians show a greater affinity
to indigenous Africans while not being identical.
This suggests that the Badarians were more affiliated
with local and an indigenous African population than
with Europeans."
(S.O.Y. Keita. "Early Nile Valley Farmers from
El-Badari: Aboriginals or "European"
Agro-Nostratic Immigrants? Craniometric Affinities
Considered With Other Data". Journal of Black
Studies, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 191-208 (2005)

The Sahara and the Sudan seem to have provided a
major source for the genesis of Egyptian civilization
contributing many of its unique elements.

QUOTE(s):
"a critical factor in the rise of social complexity and
the subsequent emergence of the Egyptian state in
Upper Egypt (Hoffman 1979; Hassan 1988). If so,
Egypt owes a major debt to those early pastoral
groups in the Sahara; they may have provided Egypt
with many of those features that still distinguish it
from its neighbors to the east."
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17, 97-123
(1998), "Nabta Playa and Its Role in Northeastern
African Prehistory," Fred Wendorf and Romuald
Schild.

"Over the last two decades, numerous contemporary
(Khartoum Neolithic) sites and cemeteries have been
excavated in the Central Sudan.. The most striking
point to emerge is the overall similarity of early
neolithic developments inhabitation, exchange,
material culture and mortuary customs in the
Khartoum region to those underway at the same
time in the Egyptian Nile Valley, far to the north."
(Wengrow, David (2003) "Landscapes of
Knowledge, Idioms of Power: The African
Foundations of Ancient Egyptian Civilization
Reconsidered," in Ancient Egypt in Africa, David
O'Connor and Andrew Reid, eds. Ancient Egypt in
Africa. London: University College London Press,
2003, pp. 119-137)

Islamic learning responsible for much advance in
Western science
Quotes:
"Moreover, amongst the Muslims, only a number of
such scientists were Arabs; most were instead Turks,
Iranians, Spanish Muslims, Berbers, Kurds...thus a
myriad of people and origins brought under the
mantel of Islam, a religion open to all who sought
to, and excelled in learning."
"In a time when the movement of ideas was at a
relative standstill, 'the Muslims came along with a
new outlook, with a sense of enquiry into the old,
and finally to a point where Western Europe could
take over this thoroughly examined knowledge and
endow its ripeness with a completely fresh approach
of its own."
- Martin Levey

"First and foremost, the learning recovered, or
found, or available, at that Renaissance of 16th-17th
(another illogically based notion of western history)
bears no resemblance to anything left by the Greeks.
The mathematics, the medicine, the optics, the
chemistry, the astronomy, geography, mechanics etc,
of the 16th is centuries ahead of that left by the
Greeks. Any person with the faintest knowledge of
any such subjects can check this by looking at what
was left by the Greeks and compare it with what was
available in the 16th century, and even with what
was available centuries up to the 14th. Anyone can
thus question this notion of Greek learning
recovered during the Renaissance.
Furthermore, even supposing the Greeks had made
some contribution in some of the sciences cited,
what is the Greek contribution to the invention of
paper, printing, farming techniques, irrigation,
windmills, the compass, industrial production, glass
making, cotton production, the system of numerals,
trade mechanisms, paper money, the cheque?
Modern finance as a whole, gardens, flowers, art of
living, urban design, personal hygiene, and many
more manifestations that compose our modern
civilization?"
— Dr. Salah Zaimeche. Multi-ethnic Science
Community with Islam. (2002). by: Foundation for
Science Technology and Civilisation.Image gallery
-http://www.africanamericanculturalcenterpalmcoast
.org/historyafrican/imagegallery.htm

"Sub-Saharan" genetic elements found as far afield
as the Turkish and Greek regions
Quotes:
F. X. Ricaut, M. Waelkens. (2008). Cranial Discrete
Traits in a Byzantine Population and Eastern
Mediterranean Population Movements Human
Biology - Volume 80, Number 5, October 2008, pp.
535-564

"A late Pleistocene-early Holocene northward
migration (from Africa to the Levant and to
Anatolia) of these populations has been
hypothesized from skeletal data (Angel 1972, 1973;
Brace 2005) and from archaeological data, as
indicated by the probable Nile Valley origin of the
"Mesolithic" (epi-Paleolithic) Mushabi culture found
in the Levant (Bar Yosef 1987). This migration finds
some support in the presence in Mediterranean
populations (Sicily, Greece, southern Turkey, etc.;
Patrinos et al.; Schiliro et al. 1990) of the Benin
sickle cell haplotype. This haplotype originated in
West Africa and is probably associated with the
spread of malaria to southern Europe through an
eastern Mediterranean route (Salares et al. 2004)
following the expansion of both human and
mosquito populations brought about by the advent
of the Neolithic transition (Hume et al 2003; Joy et
al. 2003; Rich et al 1998). This northward migration
of northeastern African populations carrying
sub-Saharan biological elements is concordant with
the morphological homogeneity of the Natufian
populations (Bocquentin 2003), which present
morphological affinity with sub-Saharan populations
(Angel 1972; Brace et al. 2005). In addition, the
Neolithic revolution was assumed to arise in the late
Pleistocene Natufians and subsequently spread into
Anatolia and Europe (Bar-Yosef 2002), and the first
Anatolian farmers, Neolithic to Bronze Age
Mediterraneans and to some degree other
Neolithic-Bronze Age Europeans, show
morphological affinities with the Natufians (and
indirectly with sub-Saharan populations; Angel
1972; Brace et al 2005), in concordance with a
process of demic diffusion accompanying the
extension of the Neolithic revolution (Cavalli-Sforza
et al. 1994)."

"Following the numerous interactions among eastern
Mediterranean and Levantine populations and
regions, caused by the introduction of agriculture
from the Levant into Anatolia and southeastern
Europe, there was, beginning in the Bronze Age, a
period of increasing interactions in the eastern
Mediterranean, mainly during the Greek, Roman,
and Islamic periods. These interactions resulted in
the development of trading networks, military
campaigns, and settler colonization. Major changes
took place during this period, which may have
accentuated or diluted the sub-Saharan components
of earlier Anatolian populations. The second option
seems more likely, because even though the
population from Sagalassos territory was interacting
with northeastern African and Levantine populations
[trade relationships with Egypt (Arndt et al. 2003),
involvement of thousands of mercenaries from
Pisidia (Sagalassos region) in the war around 300
B.C. between the Ptolemaic kingdom (centered in
Egypt) and the Seleucid kingdom
(Syria/Mesopotamia/Anatolia), etc.], the major
cultural and population interactions involving the
Anatolian populations since the Bronze Age
occurred with the Mediterranean populations form
southeastern Europe, as suggested from historical
and genetic data."

""In this context it is likely that Bronze Age events
may have facilitated the southward diffusion of
populations carrying northern and central European
biological elements and may have contributed to
some degree of admixture between northern and
central Europeans and Anatolians, and on a larger
scale, between northeastern Mediterraneans and
Anatolians. Even if we do not know which
populations were involved, historical and
archaeological data suggest, for instance, the 2nd
millennium B.C. Minoan and later Mycenaean
occupation of Anatolian coast, the arrival in
Anatolia in the early 1st millennium B.C. of the
Phrygians coming from Thrace, and later the arrival
of settlers from Macedonia in Pisidia and in the
Sagalassos territory (under Seleucid rule). The
coming of the Dorians from Northern Greece and
central Europe (the Dorians are claimed to be one of
the main groups at the origin of the ancient Greeks)
may have also brought northern and central
European biological elements into southern
populations. Indeed, the Dorians may have migrated
southward to the Peloponnese, across the southern
Aegean and Create, and later reached Asia Minor."

Berber populations are extremely diverse. "Berber"
is a language group, not a "racial" one. Undermining
claims of massive European or Asiatic migrations
into Africa to create "white Berbers" throughout
the continent, modern DNA studies show that one
of the distinctive "Berber" peoples, the Tuareg,
show little evidence of the purported "Eurasian"
influx.
Quotes:
"The mitochondrial data of the Northwest African
populations (Berber from Morocco and Algeria,
Moroccans, West-Saharans, Mauritanians, Tuareg)
show a mosaic composition of mtDNA types, with a
pronounced gradient of sub-Saharan lineages from
north to south: at the one extreme, the Berbers from
Morocco have a predominantly European (Iberian)
affinity, while at the other extreme, the Tuareg are
closely related to sub-Saharan West Africans as
represented by several Senegalese groups in this
study, whereas the West-Saharans and Mauritanians
are somewhat intermediate. It is remarkable that the
Tuareg bear little mitochondrial resemblance to the
Berber populations, although they speak a Berber
language."
-- Rando et al. 1998 [mtDNA analysis of Northwest
African populations reveals genetic exchanges with
European, Near Eastern and sub-Saharan
populations] Ann Hum Genet. 1998 Nov;62(Pt
6):531-50.

"It is curious that, at least for the Tuareg maternal
gene pool, there are no mtDNA lineages connected
with the Neolithic expansion from the Near East
despite being present in considerable frequencies in
other North African populations."
-- Pereira et. al. "Linking the sub-Saharan and West
Eurasian gene pools: maternal and paternal heritage
of the Tuareg nomads from the African Sahel"

Recent studies of the Siwa Berber population in
Egypt, puts them closer to sub-Saharan populations
that other populations. {quote:}

"Admixture values based on Alu/STR combinations
indicate that sub-Saharan flow in North Africa
ranged from 16% (North East Moroccan Berbers) to
35% (remaining samples) with the exception of Siwa
berbers who showed the highest admixture value
(51%)"
-- --Gonzalez et al on the Siwa (Egyptian Oasis)
Berbers. "Population Relationships in the
Mediterranean Revealed by Autosomal Genetic
Data" 2009, Amer Jrn Phy. Anth.

Berber populations in Egypt more related to tropical
Africans than Europeans or Middle Easterners based
on mtDNA.

"The mitochondrial DNA variation of 295
Berber-speakers from Morocco (Asni, Bouhria and
Figuig) and the Egyptian oasis of Siwa was
evaluated.. A clear and significant genetic
differentiation between the Berbers from Maghreb
and Egyptian Berbers was also observed. The first
are related to European populations as shown by
haplogroup H1 and V frequencies, whereas the latter
share more affinities with East African and Nile
Valley populations as indicated by the high
frequency of M1 and the presence of L0a1, L3i,
L4*, and L4b2 lineages. Moreover, haplogroup U6
was not observed in Siwa. We conclude that the
origins and maternal diversity of Berber populations
are old and complex, and these communities bear
genetic characteristics resulting from various events
of gene flow with surrounding and migrating
populations."
-- Coudray et al. (2008). The Complex and
Diversified Mitochondrial Gene Pool of Berber
Populations. Annals of Human Genetics. Volume 73
Issue 2, Pages 196 - 214

2010 Berber mtDNA study finds Berber roots
foundational in Africa - Frigi 2010
Quotes:
"Our objective is to highlight the age of sub-Saharan
gene flows in North Africa and particularly in
Tunisia. Therefore we analyzed in a broad
phylogeographic context sub-Saharan mtDNA
haplogroups of Tunisian Berber populations
considered representative of ancient settlement.
More than 2,000 sequences were collected from the
literature, and networks were constructed. The
results show that the most ancient haplogroup is
L3*, which would have been introduced to North
Africa from eastern sub-Saharan populations around
20,000 years ago. Our results also point to a less
ancient western sub-Saharan gene flow to Tunisia,
including haplogroups L2a and L3b. This conclusion
points to an ancient African gene flow to Tunisia
before 20,000 years BP. These findings parallel the
more recent findings of both archaeology and
linguistics on the prehistory of Africa. The present
work suggests that sub-Saharan contributions to
North Africa have experienced several complex
population processes after the occupation of the
region by anatomically modern humans. Our results
reveal that Berber speakers have a foundational
biogeographic root in Africa and that deep African
lineages have continued to evolve in supra-Saharan
Africa."

-- Ancient Local Evolution of African mtDNA
Haplogroups in Tunisian Berber Populations
Frigi et al. Human Biology (August 2010 (82:4)

Evolution shows that the original human skin color
is dark and humans until quite recently had dark
skin, until they migrated from the tropics.
Quotes:
"The evolution of a naked, darkly pigmented
integument occurred early in the evolution of the
genus Homo. A dark epidermis protected sweat
glands from UV-induced injury, thus insuring the
integrity of somatic thermoregulation. Of greater
significance to individual reproductive success was
that highly melanized skin protected against
UV-induced photolysis of folate.. As hominids
migrated outside of the tropics, varying degrees of
depigmentation evolved in order to permit
UVB-induced synthesis of previtamin D3. The
lighter color of female skin may be required to
permit synthesis of the relatively higher amounts of
vitamin D3 necessary during pregnancy and
lactation."
-- Jablonski, N (2000). The evolution of human skin
coloration. Journal of Human Evolution 39,
57–106

"Humans skin is the most visible aspect of
the human phenotype. It is distinguished mainly by
its naked appearance, greatly enhanced abilities to
dissipate body heat through sweating, and the great
range of genetically determined skin colors present
within a single species. Many aspects of the
evolution of human skin and skin color can be
reconstructed using comparative anatomy,
physiology, and genomics. Enhancement of thermal
sweating was a key innovation in human evolution
that allowed maintenance of homeostasis (including
constant brain temperature) during sustained
physical activity in hot environments. Dark skin
evolved pari passu with the loss of body hair and
was the original state for the genus Homo. Melanin
pigmentation is adaptive and has been maintained by
natural selection."
-- Jablonski N (2004)THE EVOLUTION OF
HUMAN SKIN AND SKIN COLOR. Annual
Review of Anthropology Vol. 33: 585-623

Important African mtDNA lineages, such as L3,
which gave rise to mutations in Asia, were already
undergoing expansion and mutation within Africa
well PRIOR to the out of Africa. The rise of outside
haplogroups such as M or N are a continuation of a
process already begun inside Africa.

"Past population size can be estimated from modern
genetic diversity using coalescent theory. Estimates
of ancestral human population dynamics in
sub-Saharan Africa can tell us about the timing and
nature of our first steps towards colonizing the
globe. Here, we combine Bayesian coalescent
inference with a dataset of 224 complete human
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences to estimate
effective population size through time for each of
the four major African mtDNA haplogroups
(L0–L3). We find evidence of three distinct
demographic histories underlying the four
haplogroups. Haplogroups L0 and L1 both show
slow, steady exponential growth from 156 to 213
kyr ago. By contrast, haplogroups L2 and L3 show
evidence of substantial growth beginning 12–20 and
61–86 kyr ago, respectively. These later expansions
may be associated with contemporaneous
environmental and/or cultural changes. The timing
of the L3 expansion—8–12 kyr prior to the
emergence of the first non-African mtDNA
lineages—together with high L3 diversity in eastern
Africa, strongly supports the proposal that the
human exodus from Africa and subsequent
colonization of the globe was prefaced by a major
expansion within Africa, perhaps driven by some
form of cultural innovation."

--Atkinson, et al (2019). Bayesian coalescent
inference of major human mitochondrial DNA
haplogroup expansions in Africa. Proc Biol Sci.
276(1655):367-73.

2007 DNA study finds that ancient mtDNA
haplogroups M and N had an African origin, and
expanded from a possible location in East Africa to
areas within Africa and the rest of the world.
Quotes:

"Studies of human mitochondrial (mt) DNA
genomes demonstrate that the root of the human
phylogenetic tree occurs in Africa. Although 2
mtDNA lineages with an African origin
(haplogroups M and N) were the progenitors of all
non-African haplogroups, macrohaplogroup L
(including haplogroups L0-L6) is limited to
sub-Saharan Africa. Several L haplogroup lineages
occur most frequently in eastern Africa (e.g., L0a,
L0f, L5, and L3g), but some are specific to certain
ethnic groups, such as haplogroup lineages L0d and
L0k that previously have been found nearly
exclusively among southern African "click"
speakers. Few studies have included multiple
mtDNA genome samples belonging to haplogroups
that occur in eastern and southern Africa but are
rare or absent elsewhere. This lack of sampling in
eastern Africa makes it difficult to infer relationships
among mtDNA haplogroups or to examine events
that occurred early in human history. We sequenced
62 complete mtDNA genomes of ethnically diverse
Tanzanians, southern African Khoisan speakers, and
Bakola Pygmies and compared them with a global
pool of 226 mtDNA genomes.. We propose that a
large and diverse human population has persisted in
eastern Africa and that eastern Africa may have been
an ancient source of dispersion of modern humans
both within and outside of Africa."
-- Gonder, M, et al (2007). Whole mtDNA Genome
Sequence Analysis of Ancient African Lineages. Mol
Biol Evol. 24(3):757-68.

Ancient Egyptian language is part of the Afrasian or
Afroasiatic group which has its origins in Africa, and
together with other archaeological evidence firmly
makes it an African culture. Acording to mainstream
research:

QUOTE(s):

"Ancient Egyptian civilization was, in ways and to
an extent usually not recognized, fundamentally
African. The evidence of both language and culture
reveals these African roots. The origins of Egyptian
ethnicity lay in the areas south of Egypt. The ancient
Egyptian language belonged to the Afrasian family
(also called Afroasiatic or, formerly,
Hamito-Semitic). The speakers of the earliest
Afrasian languages, according to recent studies,
were a set of peoples whose lands between 15,000
and 13,000 B.C. stretched from Nubia in the west to
far northern Somalia in the east. They supported
themselves by gathering wild grains. The first
elements of Egyptian culture were laid down two
thousand years later, between 12,000 and 10,000
B.C., when some of these Afrasian communities
expanded northward into Egypt, bringing with them
a language directly ancestral to ancient Egyptian.
They also introduced to Egypt the idea of using wild
grains as food." (Christopher Ehret (1996) "Ancient
Egyptian as an African Language, Egypt as an
African Culture." In Egypt in Africa Egypt in Africa,
Theodore Celenko (ed), Indiana University Press)

"Ancient Egypt belongs to a language group known
as 'Afroasiatic' (formerly called Hamito-Semitic) and
its closest relatives are other north-east African
languages from Somalia to Chad. Egypt's cultural
features, both material and ideological and
particularly in the earliest phases, show clear
connections with that same broad area. In sum,
ancient Egypt was an African culture, developed by
African peoples, who had wide ranging contacts in
north Africa and western Asia." (Morkot, Robert
(2005) The Egyptians: An Introduction. Routledge.
p. 10)

Bogus "race" wars in ancient Egypt debunked

Link to research papers and articles: (http://wysinger.homestead.com/keita.html)

Link to current African DNA research: (http://exploring-africa.blogspot.com/)

Google Search- other data
http://knol.google.com/k/mainstream-academic-research/peopling-of-the-nile-valley/3q8x30897t2cs/2#