Coming of Age in Ancient Egypt

Hi, thanks for commenting.

Not sure if you're the same person as the other anonymous comment? As you say there could be an admixture between ethnic groups. I have chosen to write the story on the basis that Egyptians did not have the same modern day view of race as we do today. I've read more about the genetics of the mummies of the 18th dynasty, but there's still disagreement between Egyptologists about what the 'right' answer is, not to mention the fact that they're not sure whether they've even identified them all correctly. On that basis I've based the descriptions of the family of the 18th dynasty with the current views on genetics, but largely on what their busts look like.

I'm aware Rameses had red hair, but having the gene for red hair is not something absent from present day black Africans? So I'm not sure why that's relevant.

I studied the busts of Queen Tiye, Akhenaten who was then known as Amenhotep, Amenhotep III and the smaller depictions of Sitamun and Iset, to try to get as accurate a representation as possible of their facial features.

I know Ahmose was depicted with black skin, and Osiris with green as symbolism, thanks for pointing that out though. I think a lot of people don't realise how symbolic Egyptian art is.

Of course Egyptians saw race, but they did not see it as we currently see it in the present day, and as such I haven't described it through the lens of how we view 'black' and 'white'. They view Nubians, Asiatics, and desert folk differently to how we would today, based on what is true now, in the present day. Egyptians thought they were better than everyone else, certainly. But I don't believe that they thought that BECAUSE of their skin colour. They just thought that they were the best because their Gods were the best, the land of Egypt was the best, their culture was the best, they were the richest and most advanced, and skin colour doesn't have to come into that. Again, I think that's more of a modern day view. I'm sure they thought fair skin was a sign of wealth and privilege. I know Tutankhamun had depictions of Nubians on his sandals so he could symbolically squash them underfoot. But does that mean people in Ancient Egypt born with darker skin were ostracised or viewed as less than? As far as I can tell, not necessarily. There are plenty of people in high status positions who, in their tombs, in the artwork depicting them, shows them with dark skin. There's even art of people who look culturally Nubian wearing Egyptian dress, who I can only assume were members of Egyptian society, from Nubia, who made a good life for themselves in Egypt. But Egyptians had dark skin as well as light. So what's the problem?

On the busts of Queen Tiye and Akhenaten they have pretty thick lips, and most busts and art of Queen Tiye depicts her with dark skin. There were questions about Tiye's heritage, and Yuya and Thuya her parents. They may not have been native Egyptians, as such I've chosen to go with that and depict her as having darker skin, akin to her bust and artistic representations. Busts which do not show her with symbolic black skin, but shades of dark brown. Her husband is depicted with red skin, her children all varying shades in between. Akhenaten is portrayed as much paler, he is also in art depicted as more feminine. I chose the paler, staying indoors, more of a thinker than a doer kind of character for him.

I think it's also fair to say that much of Egyptian art has faded, and we cannot judge based on their current appearance. Pigments will fade over thousands of years. I have chosen not to get hung up on skin colour for this story, people living in this city would have been pale, yellowish, caramel, brown, dark brown, black skinned, even blue-black, all depending on where they came from, who their parents married, and what kind of lifestyle they led. As we know, it would have been very multicultural. It sounds like you have a problem with this choice I've made as the author, and that's fair enough. Would you rather I changed it and said they were fair skinned?? Pale? Sandy skinned? Light brown? If you don't like it, feel free to write what you feel is a more accurate representation. I've done my research and I stand by my choices. We don't know for sure what these people looked like, but I've given it my best guess based on art, literature, scientific journals and looking at the present day people of Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Jordan, Israel and Iraq.

Thanks for commenting, though. It's great to find people equally as passionate about Ancient Egypt.

In your erotic work feast of the tail you give many descriptions of members of the 18th dynasty with descriptions that are more or less descriptions of that of sub saharan black africans . You see we in the 21st century have the great advantage of the science of DNA. The mummies of all the members identified with the 18th dynasty carried Genetic markers in both the Y and X chromosomes that could also be found in ethnic groups living in West Asia(middle east), Mediterranean and North Africa. Mabye they had some nubian admixture but not enough for them to have pitch black skin and big lips reminiscent of sub saharan africans as described in your feast of the tail works. The mummies of the 18th dynasty debunk your inaccurate descriptions of them. Another example of afrocentric revisionism is of the belief that the Rammisid dynasty Pharoah were Kushitic looking when that couldn't be farther from the truth. The Pharoah of that line such as seti and Ramasses were known to have ginger red hair. Infact Ramasses 2 hair was dyed with henna to imitate the red hair he had in his youth and his DNA gives evidence to the redheads of his dynasty. The actual black Pharoah would be the 25th dynasty who were invaders from kush until they were beaten and expelled from Egypt by the persians. Also the Ancient Egyptians did see race as evidenced in their artwork depicting themselves as a distinct people separate from other foreign peoples and the victimization and Villification of foreigners such as the description of Nubians as being "Vile" and "wretched". Also don't forget that Egyptian art tended to be highly stylized. The men and women had their roles with men being out all day in the sun giving them a tan making their skin "red" and women being in houses thereby protected from the sun their skin is more Wheatish yellow. Infact many Afrocentrists use the depiction of Ahmose nefertari with coal black skin as evidence that she is quote on quote "Negroid" but in their ignorance they fail to realize that Ancient Egyptians used black skin as symbol of rejunivation and there are other depictions of Ahmose nefertari with yellow skin. This artistic depiction of skin colors goes to the gods too with Osiris lord of the underworld being depicted with green skin.

Thanks again for your feedback, I'm so glad that my readers are engaging in my work. So many people are passionate about Ancient Egypt. You seem quite offended, so let me clarify a few things. I'm aware of the 25th dynasty of Egypt since having taken Egyptology lectures to write my more recent pieces. I'm not sure why you've interpreted this piece as afro-centric. Ancient Egypt was very diverse, in my other writing I've tried to include references to this diversity, since there was trade between Egypt and Punt, and eastern Asiatic people like Mitanni/Babylonians, plus people who would have travelled from Libya, desert people e.g Berbers, or people who travelled up from Ethiopia. Frankly, as far as I can tell people in ancient times did not see race in the same way we do today. There were many different skin colours and physical features, and this would be described more in terms of your country of origin rather than 'race'. The skin colour here is described as dark, intended to be understood as various shades of brown, as Egyptians and Libyans look today. Since the Egyptians themselves described themselves as 'red skinned' I've leaned towards that in my descriptions. Hope that explains the reasoning behind all this and helps my other readers to understand the writing process. I do try to keep it as accurate as possible, so thanks for commenting :) I will go away and read even more about the subject

While your take on ancient Egyptian mythology is very accurate you have sadly fallen for the Afrocentrist trap of depicting the North african Egyptians as Sub saharan black africans. Judging from the descriptions of your work its probably one those crazy hotels in the USA or the UK.

While the story uses many accurate descriptions of ancient Egyptian mythology and cultural practices i see that you have fallen for the Afrocentric propaganda that labels the Ancient Egyptians as resembling Sub Saharan black africans. North Africa and North africans in general have always been Caucasoid or Eurasian in appearance and ethnicity and this can be seen with the Amazigh berbers and the Egyptian copts. They are only Arab culturally not genetically. Ancient Egyptians themselves depicted their people as distinct from people from the levant, North african Libyan and the kushites of nubia who were the actual black africans the Egyptians had contact with. The only so called black Pharoahs were the 25th dynasty who were invaders from nubia. Its amazing how you ruined such an interesting story by portraying the 18th dynasty as Sub saharan black africans. Its amazing how prevalent these Afrocentric ideas are that seek to blackwash an entire civilization. Same with them claiming the ancient Hebrews were black africans and the moors were also black (they werent)