Roxana Cooper Wrote:
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> I think you mean there's no evidence that Yuya and
> Tuya *WEREN'T* native Egyptians.
> She certainly was. The evidence that her husband
> wasn't - apart from his mummy, (who looks
> uncannily like my Shephardic Jewish Grandfather
> btw) is the fact his name was spelled in
> more than one way, sometimes a sign that Egyptians
> were having a problem transliterating
> a foreign name.
I have seen the same "evidence", but it is still mostly speculation.
There is no hard evidence that says Yuya was anything other than a native Egyptian.
The spelling of the name only introduces the possibility of foreign ancestry, but
that isn't definite. But, the main thing I am concerned with is the idea that he
"looks" like a foreigner. That is a totally subjective observation, especially
given that Africans have a wide range of features that do not represent foreign ancestry.
Even the jet black southerners from Kush often had pointy noses and thin lips in
the Egyptian paintings and still do in many parts of Sudan and Egypt. Therefore, just
looking at a mummy, without a set of analysis of all the other mummies of the period
and CT scans showing their cranial dimensions and features, along with any other
corpses from the same period and area, you cannot really say that his corpse is not
like others from the area. Unless you can show me a scientific comparative analysis
of other persons from the same area, you cannot say that his height or "features"
are so different that they constitute him being of an Asiatic background. That is pure unscientific speculation in my book not thoroughly researched and verified fact. Which
makes such speculation bad because then people start parading it around as fact, when it has not been verified as such. That's all.
>
> Yuya was certainly fully assimilated so if he
> was of Asiatic descent he was accepted as an
> Egyptian. As no doubt were the Semitic named
> courtiers documented on monuments and tombs. The
> Hyksos were far more assimilated than the
> Ptolemies ever were and of course the
> 19th dynasty originated in the eastern delta.
He was only fully assimilated if we accept the idea that he was a foreigner assimilated into Egypt, which is not a verified fact. All we know is he was from Akhmim and was a commander of the King's Chariot troops and somewhat tall with a funny name. However, those things do not prove foreign ancestry or "assimilation". What about Yuya's name? That isn't typical
Egyptian either yet she is listed as a "native".
And lastly, the idea of the 19th dynasty being from the Eastern delta is a bit specious.
The 19th dynasty was started by generals from the 18th choosing someone from among the ranks that would be up to the task of pushing back the advancement of Asiatics and others on the borders with Egypt. The fortresses along the border and in the delta were mainly populated by natives, especially since populating them with Asiatics or people of mixed ancestry could produce the chaos of the 14th and 15th dynasties and second intermediate period. There is no way of knowing precisely where in Egypt these people were from and one cannot assume that they were just local people from the delta. Once again the idea of the 19th dynasty being Asiatic is more speculation. The focus of the 19th dynasty was repelling Asiatics, therefore they established garrisons and palaces there to be ready for Asiatic incursions as well as a way of projecting their power against their enemies. This is not something that was done to show a "kinship" with the people to the North.