Dear Mark,

Some very good points. You are absolutely correct in noting, as have
others, that the ancient Egyptians were North Africans, related to all the
other speakers of the African sub-branch of Afro-Asiatic, the large
language family of the North Africans. As for the discussion about the
best portraits of the pharaohs, usually the pharaoh commissioned a master
sculptor to produce a model statue, on which all others were modelled.
Exceptionally, these models were updated, Senwosret III being the one king
who is depicted from youth to old age, faithfully. Another point, the
pharaohs might stem from different parts of the country. So, Dynasty 12,
as the Prophecy of Neferti states was founded by Amenemhat whose mother
was probably Nubian, with a southern Upper Egyptian father. So, that
dynasty featured dark complexioned kings, as indeed their statuary
reflects, with their Kushite features. Others though, like Dynasty 19,
originated from the extreme north, the northeastern Delta in this case.
There, from time immemorial, Semitic peoples had been filtering in. So,
it is not surprising to see Sety I or Ramesses II with Semitic features.
Also not surprising, the mummies of these two show that they were light
complexioned northern Egyptians, and Ramesses II possibly also had reddish
hair.

Most sincerely,

Frank J. Yurco
University of Chicago

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Frank Joseph Yurco fjyurco@midway.uchicago.edu