My daughter is convinced that the ancient Egyptians were black. Is she right or wrong?
Why don’t we ask the Ancient Egyptians themselves? They can tell us:You can see on this one that there are very clear differences in skin tone and colouration: indeed, there is black on the drawing, for hair colour, and the tone of Anubis’ mask. The Egyptians themselves are a little more red ochre in colour.This one is showing some of the darker-skinned Africans (likely Nubians) alongside the lighter-toned Egyptians. It does have to be noted that there’s not a single dominant skin type: their skin clearly ranged from lighter Caucasian tones all the way up to the darker African tones more commonly-associated with that continent.The Ancient Egyptians likely had skin tones more akin to this, if their drawings and paintings are to be believed:And we can’t ignore the recreation of Tutankhamen:It’s not nearly as simple as your daughter believes, I’m afraid. Worth noting that there was a significant black population in Ancient Egypt: many ‘less-civilised’ African tribes (particularly from Nubia) were taken by Egyptian slave-catchers, and gradual interbreeding would have led to a darker skin tone among parts of the population. Worth looking into!Hope that answered your question!