What are some features that Kushite and Egyptian cultures had in common? How were they different?
Both had pyramids, though the ones in Sudan came later and were much smaller.
Why were ancient Egyptians White?
Some theorists believe that ruling house of Egypt was descended from the survivors of Atlantis. The Atlantians were supposedly fair skinned and had great skill at oceanic navigation. This lead some to believe the link to the Atlantians was true because of the funeral ships buried with the Pharaohs. These boats were also used on the Nile, also called the river of Life, so it's hard to decipher the truth about the burial of boats in the tombs. The ancient Egyptians were also know to bleach their skins and dye their hair. Men as well as women wore makeup, especially for ceremonial gatherings. With the influences of the Greeks, Persians and even the Romans, It is sometimes hard to sift through the history to track the exact roots of Egypt.
How are Egyptians white if white people were not in Africa back in antiquity? Alexander came thousands of years later. The pyramids were already built thousands of years before Alexander came across black Africans.
Because the whole idea of “black” and “white” is an arbitrary invention based on the very specific racial issues of the United States. For most of American history, there was a clear divide between extremely pale skinned English and Germanic settlers and the dark skinned sub-Saharan African slaves they imported.If we go anywhere else, this dichotomy isn’t nearly as clear. Would southern Europeans like Italians, Greeks and Spaniards be considered white? Most people today would say yes. But if we actually look, they have more in common physically with Middle Eastern groups than British or Scandinavian groups. They aren’t clearly “white” or “black.” They’re a level of brown in the middle. Below are some Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, Tunisians, and Lebanese Arabs. Can you tell which are which? Who’s white? Who’s not?Greek, Lebanese, Italian, Tunisian, Spanish by the wayThe point is, arguing whether Near Eastern people like the Ancient Egyptians were white or black isn’t useful, because they, like most people, didn’t fit neatly into either category. The art and sculpture they left behind usually depicts themselves as looking similar to modern Egyptians. Their pictures of completely black skinned people were typically drawings of Kushites, who were actually sub-Saharan Africans, or rarer stylized paintings. That’s not to say there weren’t black Africans in Egypt, as there was constant contact between Egypt and Kush. A Kushite dynasty even conquered and occupied all of Egypt for over a century. But they weren’t the dominant ethnic group.Abdal Fattah el-Sisi, a modern day EgyptianAnwar Sadat, an Egyptian leader of Nubian descent