Doug Wrote:
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> I understand you. However, if we are going to
> talk about ethnic identity based on Egyptian art,
> then it must be accepted that you are dealing with
> generalizations. This is one tomb and there are
> many others from the Old Kingdom onward that also
> have the same style from the Western Oases.

You have yet to show these, so I can't comment except to say that "egyptiansation" is not a "cookie cutter" sort of thing, as you imply. There is a prime example in the case of Huy (18th Dybnasty) where he is portrayed giving tribute to Tutankhamun as a Nubian, in classic Nubian dress, but as he grows in influence within the Egyptian court, his features change, and his dress changes to a more "Egyptian look." That is "egyptianisation".

Look Doug: I happen to know of representations of Libyans from the Old Kingdom, and they are portrayed with longish hair, one-side braided, with phallus sheaths. open tunics, and so on - that is, in classic "Libyan" representation. It's the dress that mainly defines Libyan "imagery", but in colouration, they were even painted as fairer than Egyptians even at that time.

> The point I am making is that all people to the West of
> Egypt were not depicted as lighter skinned whether
> they were Egyptians or not. It does not answer
> the specific question implied here as to how
> widespread populations similar to the portraits of
> the Libyans were to the West of Egypt.

You give a Third Intermediate example: You cannot generalise how Libyans, or Egyptians, etc., look because of both the time difference from New and Old Kingdoms, as well as the difference in the population makeup, which, as Goyon and Aufrere noted, was extremely diverse by that period.

You give an example in the Baennetyou Tomb of a family group who has lived in the community for generations. Combined with their desire to "look Egyptian" they may have actually intermarried into the surrounding populace, so who can say they are "the way Libyans looked"?

> Egyptian
> artwork is too generalized to give anyone enough
> data to say anything definitive one way or the
> other. I don't disagree that the generalization
> is sufficient to identify that such people existed
> to the West, but there is a large amount of land
> to the West and South of Egypt and it isn't clear
> how many of the people in these areas were
> accurately represented by such portraits from that
> time.

If I adopt your theory that "...Egyptian artwork is too generalized to give anyone enough data to say anything definitive one way or the other," then IMO, you cannot argue that Tutankhamun's mask "definitively" defines him as "black" as it is a "too general" image of a person to convey accurate information. This is, IOW, a contradiction of what you've said before.

The most can be said about the Baennetyou Tomb is that it is an example of "egyptianising" art - that is, where a known foreign family (by their name and lineage history) have chosen to portray themselves in the style of Egyptians.

This tomb says not single thing about how the family really looked, just as Tutankhamun's mask doesn't say a single thing about how he really looked because BOTH images are idealised and fit within the Egyptian artistic canon.

You are going to have to understand this, and stop making assumptions that skin colouring is definitively an example of the "racial" makeup of a person: that is simply biological fantasy.

Reference:

Davis, W. 1989. The Canonical Tradition in Ancient Egyptian Art. Cambridge New Art History and Criticism. N. Bryson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Iversen, E. 1955. Canon and Proportions in Egyptian Art. London: Sidgwick and Jackson.

Robins, G. 1994. Some Principles of Compositional Dominance and Gender Hierarchy in Egyptian Art. JARCE 31: 33-40.

Schäfer, H. 1986 (1974). Principles of Egyptian Art. E. Brunner-Traut. Oxford: Griffith Institute.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom