What Ancient Egyptians Looked Like...?

[john m roberts]

I'm alway puzzled by disputes about "what did ancient Egyptians look like?". Do people think that the Egyptian race was exterminated to the last individual and replaced by interlopers from somewhere else? Sure, there were Greek and Arab and Libyan and Nubian incursions through Egypt's long history, but probably not enough to affect the gene pool significantly. Ancient Egyptians probably looked pretty much like modern Egyptians, only with different clothes, hairdos and makeup. Now, the project of rebuilding of individual faces from mummified remains is interesting, but I notice that there is usually an urge, possibly unconscious, to give the features an Africanized cast in deference to modern prejudices. This is easily done with soft-tissue features that are not preserved by mummification: lips, eyelid conformation, noses (except for Ramses III's tremendous beak) and skin color.