The question of the race of ancient Egyptians was raised historically as a product of the scientific racism of the 18th and 19th centuries, and was linked to models of racial hierarchy based on skin color, facial features, hair texture, and genetic affiliations.[1] A variety of views circulated about the racial identity of the Egyptians and the source of their culture.[2] These were typically identified in terms of a distinction between the "Black African" (Sub-Saharan African) and Caucasian (including European and Middle Eastern) racial categories. Some accounts argued that Egyptian culture emerged from more southernly African peoples, while others pointed to influences from the Middle East, and yet others proposed that at least the upper classes originated from Europe.
Since the second half of the 20th century, anthropologists have rejected the notion of race as having any validity in the study of human biology.[3][4] Typological and hierarchical models of race have increasingly been rejected by scientists in favour of models of societal development based on geographical origin.
However, the question of the phenotypical characteristics (skin color, facial features, hair texture) and genetic affiliations of the ancient Egyptians remains a point of study, discussion, and debate,[5] especially in the domain of African scholarship. Recent DNA studies of mummies of the Ramesses dynasty and the Armana dynasty of the New Kingdom state that these dynasties carried the Haplogroup E1b1a, which is common in modern Sub-Saharan African populations.[6][7] However many experts in the DNA field dispute these conclusions, and claim instead that DNA sequencing from ancient material is unreliable and prone to contamination.[8]
