Chapter 8: Egypt: Nordic Desert Empire Part One: The Pre-Dynastic Era and the Old Kingdom 3500 BC - 2270 BC
Although situated in North Africa, Egypt had been settled by three White groupings prior to 3500 BC, namely Old European Mediterranean types, Proto-Nordics and Nordic Indo-Europeans, with the latter group penetrating the territory as part of the great wave of Indo-European invasions which took place from 5600 BC onwards. Right: Entering Egypt at the time of the great Indo-European migrations from the Black Sea Basin circa 5600 BC, Nordic peoples such as "Ginger" (below) settled the Nile River Valley and laid the basis for what was, by 3000 BC, to become the first Egyptian Dynasty. Living in typical Neolithic settlements, this period of history is called the pre-dynastic period and is formally considered to have come to an end in 3100 BC.
"GINGER" AND OTHER INHABITANTS OF EARLY EGYPT Racially speaking, the inhabitants of Egypt at this period in time were divided into three groups. Skeletal evidence from grave sites show that the original White Mediterraneans and Proto-Nordics were in a majority in the area - a well preserved body found in a sand grave in Egypt dating from approximately 3000 BC, on display in the British Museum in London, has even been nicknamed "Ginger" because of his red hair - a racial trait only found in persons of Nordic ancestry.
However, diggings also reveal a significant minority of Semitic (Arabic) peoples were living in the Nile Delta valley alongside the Whites, and in the very far south (in what later became southern Egypt and the Sudan) lived a large number of Blacks. These were the Nubians who were to feature in Egypt's history - and against whom the Egyptians waged war and enslaved for nearly 2,000 years. The existence of these two non-White groupings within Egypt was later to have a major impact on the history of that civilization, and also do much to destroy the "environmental" theory of the origin of civilizations, as all three groups shared the same environment, yet produced very different levels of achievement. THE OLD KINGDOM 3100 - 2270 BC In terms of contemporary time frames, however, the Egyptian state first started formally emerging shortly after the establishment of the civilization between the Tigris and Euphrates river valley. By the year 3100 BC, a measure of unity had started to take hold in Egypt, coalescing into northern and southern kingdoms. Around that year a dynamic leader named Menes united these northern and southern kingdoms and established a capital city at Memphis on the Nile River. The year 3100 BC therefore marks the start of the Dynastic Period, called the Old Kingdom by historians. Menes developed the idea of using channels to divert the waters of the Nile to irrigate land - and this irrigation system exists along the Nile River to this day. Menes was such a gifted and charismatic leader that he was later deified by later Egyptians, and a cult developed which pictured him as a direct descendant of the Gods, a tradition which then spread to other pharaohs. It is very likely that the very word "man" originated with Menes. During the reign of Menes, construction was first started on the greatest city of ancient Egypt, Memphis, which became the capital of this first kingdom. Also about this time, Egyptian pictograph writing appeared, probably inspired by the Sumerian script. The Old Kingdom traded extensively with surrounding lands, obtaining wood from Lebanon and copper from mines in the Sinai peninsula.
It was also during this Old Kingdom period that the great pyramids and Sphinx at Giza were built, starting around the year 2,500 BC. The project was launched by Pharaoh Cheops (also known as Khufu), who, because of the pyramids, remains one of the most famous pharaohs of this First Kingdom.
The Cheops pyramids are however not the oldest Egyptian pyramids - the step pyramid at Memphis predates the Cheops pyramids by at least a century, and was designed by a court architect who was later to be deified by the Egyptians, Imhotep. This great structure, nearly 66 meters high, must have seemed overwhelming to ordinary Egyptians at the time, who at best lived in two story mud brick houses, and it is no surprise that the builder was eventually deified.
The Cheops pyramids are impressive today - by the standards of the time of their construction they must also have appeared to be superhuman. Twenty years in the building, these pyramids used between five and six millions tons of stone, some blocks being moved over 500 miles, with virtually perfect masonry work on site so that the alignment variance of the stones even today is less than one percent. The greatest pyramid reaches 146 meters - higher than St. Peter's cathedral in Rome (which remains the biggest Christian cathedral in the world.) Old Kingdom Racial Types
Chapter 8: Part Two : Egyptian Religion, Mummies, Racial Types and the Middle Kingdom Chapter 8: Part Three : Racial Imagery in Tutankhamen's Tomb Chapter 8: Part Four: Racial Images in Egyptian Art Chapter 8: Part Five: The Nubians and the Fall of White Egypt All material (c) copyright Ostara Publications, 1999. Re-use for commercial purposes strictly forbidden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
