Chapter 8: Egypt: Nordic Desert Empire Part Two: Egyptian Religion, Mummies, Racial Types and the Middle Kingdom
EGYPTIAN RELIGION PROVIDES INSIGHT INTO RACE Charms and magical prayers were collected into a book and paid for by the living to put into their tombs - a sort of insurance policy for a successful resurrection in the hereafter. This book made up what is known as the "Egyptian Book of the Dead."
Egyptian religion of the time was primarily concerned with the achievement of life after death. The practice of mummification was started on the basis of a myth that the God of the Nile River, Osiris, had been murdered by his evil brother, Seth. According to the myth, Seth cut Osiris' body into pieces. These pieces were, however, gathered together by Osiris' grieving widow, Isis, and re-assembled, thus resurrecting Osiris. The Nile God then became the first mummy, and every mummified Egyptian became a second Osiris. This resurrection theme was to become dominant in other religions, and adopted by Christianity. Thus the tradition of mummification started: a jump start to everlasting life in the hereafter. The process of mummification has also provided modern day historians with a spectacular and virtually unique chance to see the physical characteristics of Egyptians exactly as they were. The evidence is overwhelming that these first Egyptian societies were White - a Proto-Nordic/Alpine/Mediterranean cross. The leadership elite - in particular the pharaohs themselves - were mostly Nordic. The mummified remains of numerous pharaohs and common folk from this first great Egyptian civilization have unmistakable White features, while the first written reference to blond hair is made on an Egyptian wall painting of the daughter of the famous pharaoh Cheops, Queen Hetep-Heres II, who is identified specifically by her blond hair. The well preserved body of Pharaoh Ramses II has red hair, and there are large numbers of mummies whose blond hair has been extraordinarily well preserved through the centuries. This tradition of Nordic pharaohs was to last almost till the second part of the Third Kingdom, circa 1050 BC, by when racial demographic shifts had taken place in Egyptian society in favor of non-White groups. NORDIC NOBILITY IN ANCIENT EGYPT:
RACIAL IMAGES IN EGYPTIAN ART Egyptian art is also filled with racial images: slaves and enemies of Egypt are almost always depicted as Semites or Blacks (with one or two Nordic slaves thrown in - they are easily identified by not only their facial features but also by their depiction with blond hair). These slaves were probably captives from wandering Indo-European invaders who had the misfortune to fall into bondage in Egypt.
All this is not to say that no other races lived in the area. There lived a significant number of Semitic Arabic racial types, who had settled there from their homeland in the Arabian peninsula. These non-White peoples were, however, for many years - centuries even - excluded from mainstream Egyptian society because of their race, being most often used as laborers, along with Blacks captured by the Egyptians in warring expeditions even further south into modern day Sudan.
Above: Semites, clearly identified as racially foreign with distinctive "Jewish" noses, present tributes to the Egyptian pharaoh, a painted scene from the tomb of Sobkhotep at Thebes. EGYPTIAN ACHIEVEMENTS Aside from the stupendous achievement of building the pyramids, the White civilization of Egypt is credited with many achievements, some of which benefit to this day. The Egyptians were the first to divide the solar year into 365 and one quarter days and twelve months, each of three weeks of ten days long, with five extra days at the end of the year. The Egyptians also became famous for their medical skills, although the difference between magic and science does not appear to have been fully made. Evidence exists of advanced surgery having been carried out as far back as the First Kingdom, and many techniques and herbal remedies were taken over in toto by the Classical Greeks and survived right into medieval European times. In contrast to Mesopotamian writing, Egyptian writing (hieroglyphics, meaning "sacred signs") remained pictorial in content throughout the span of this civilization. Egyptian writing was only deciphered in 1822 after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM (THE SECOND KINGDOM) 2060-1785 BC The period 2270 - 2060 BC was marked by great instability in Egypt, where the political unity of the country fell to pieces for the lack of a strong leader. Only in the year 2060 BC was Egypt again politically united and once again rose to its Old Kingdom splendor, although never again managing to build anything of the size of the Great Pyramids of Giza. This period of political unity did not however last longer than 70 years, and around the year 1785 BC, a divided Egypt was conquered by a Semitic tribe known as the Hyksos, who had little trouble subjecting the Egyptians, aided through the use of iron weapons and the horse and chariot, neither of which the Egyptians had seen before. The Hyksos themselves had been attacked with this weapon by the Indo-European Nordic tribes who had developed the chariot on their route south from their respective homelands in the north. It took some 200 years for the Egyptians to rebuild their strength and the Hyksos were only finally expelled in 1580 BC - after the Egyptians had managed to master the new weapon of horse and chariot and turn it against the Hyksos. The Egyptian records show that the Minoans from Crete had helped to fight the Semitic Hyksos invaders - further evidence of the close links between the Egyptians and the Old European civilization. However, the result of 200 years of Hyksos rule left its mark upon the Egyptian population, and a small but from then on growing number of the original White populace began to show physical characteristics which mark the start of the dissolution of the White gene pool into the White/Semitic mix which came to characterize virtually the entire Middle and Near East. However, the majority of the Egyptian population was still overwhelmingly original White at this stage - it was only with the Third kingdom and its expansion into areas heavily populated by Nubians (Blacks from Sudan) and Ethiopia (occupied by masses of Arab/Semitic peoples) that large numbers of these non-White peoples came to be prominent in Egyptian society, either as slaves or freemen.
THE NEW KINGDOM (THE THIRD KINGDOM) 1580-1085 BC The third (and last) great surge in Egyptian power came with the expulsions of the Semitic Hyksos. Adopting the horse and chariot, energetic and expansionist pharaohs set about consolidating Egypt and establishing an empire. Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Nubia and northern Sudan (the latter with large Black populations) were all conquered and incorporated into the Egyptian empire. The greatest expansionist king was Thutmose III (circa 1501 - 1447 BC) and a series of tall pointed stone columns (called obelisks) were built to commemorate his various campaigns. Only four of the obelisks survived the ages and strife of Egypt's history, and today they stand in Istanbul, Rome, London and New York, silent reminders of the greatness of a bygone age. The greatest pharaoh of this time was Amenhotep III (1411 - 1375 BC) who built Thebes up into the world's most magnificent city of the time. Amenhotep built many other huge structures, including the temple of Luxor at the city of Thebes. 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 Chapter 8: Part One: The Pre-Dynastic Era and the Old Kingdom 3500 BC - 2270 BC All material (c) copyright Ostara Publications, 1999. Re-use for commercial purposes strictly forbidden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
