Race in Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament

Copyright Council for

Soci~l

and Econom ic Studies

All Righu R..... rved. No pa .. ofth;. book may ~ reproduce
o."em~r

1993

c:..wr Pkluu: Bas·relidofTuthmosis III (1504·1 450), son ofTuthmoses II and Quee n Hauhe p. ut. who held back the Libyans. conquered Syrian and PalestiM, destroyed Kad"'h, and carried the frontien of Egypt to the Euph!
.')'5

Race in

An. D.C. 1991.

A.w-. Rosnqucred, and still mix their genes. II not a test of race, but in the course of history It has ;;_~~ to k.eep them separate, when thrown IntO contact and sometimes 10 cause them to

~

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:

the

of the

to learn

i

t

other

kinsfolk.. true of the rest o f tbe ~.~~.'''' Roman Empire of tbe West had _ observe the I...., but also to learn the language o f the_ dty, so that when the empire fell Latin was the commondike of Northern Africa, of Spain and Italy, of G.ul . nd _ TeulOns ... ho poured (nto the devastated provlnees soon to th e subject popula tions, and the model ]an-_ Franee and Spain and Italy were the ultimate result. At a_

_ _ _ _ -

_

later date the Northmen of Normandy and Southern Italy quickly forgot the language Ihey had brought wilh them and adopted that of their conquered vassals; while in Britain on the oontrary, the natives accustomed their lives to the speech of the Saxon or Scandinavian invaders or even of the French-speaking Normans (also of Scan dinavian descent) who followed them. In the East, Hebrew and Phoeni. cian, Assyrian and Babylonian, were all supplanted by the dialect of the Aramaean tribes of Syria and Northern Arabia; Aramaic, in its turn, was supplanted by the Arabic of Mecca after the triumph of MOhammedanism. The language of the ancient Egyptianssurvived for thousands of years in the semi-iSOlated valley of the Nile, until through military conquest and a fanatical belief in the unity of man under the rule of Allah, Arabicwas imposed on the Egyptian peoples, despite the long resistance made by those who resisted Moham_ medanism and kept the old Egyptian language, in the form of Coptic, as a ritual language used by Egyptianswho had adopted Christianity as a missionary religion under the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire. For more than twn tlnenl$, were

....aes

"""""....

An Ina>rporaling language Is spoken by Ihe Basques of Soulh.-em Europe. while t he larger part of Africa Is occupied by tribes wIIote 111. 1= are charlClerized by the use of prefixes. II II evident that be$ide$ "families of $peOCh." ln Ihe Strict.sense of tbe lerm. wbkb are a>nnected together genealo&ic:Jilly. there . re Il1o morpboklgical families o f speech. each of which blS .risen in • IICp&Bte Pf.rt o f Ihe world. The morphological ch.racter of a ~ Is, for reasons unknown 10 us, dependent on the ceograpb- • IcaJ and climalic oonditions oflhe oounn)' in which il originated. We_ IDlY therefore regard it IS, to a ce rtain extent, characteristic of race. _ A penon whose mother tongue is polysynthelic may be presumed to _ be of native American origin; the speakers of an agglutinative Iaquage which makes use of prefIXes is likely to oome from Central . Afriea. The different families of spee
his first·born, and Heth," all Ihal is meant is Ihal the city of Sidon, and the Hittites 10 wh.om reference is made, were alike 10 be found in the country called Canaan. It does nOI follow that there was any ethnological JUnship between the Phoenician builders of Sidon and the prognathous Hiniles from Ihe north. Indeed, we know from

modern research that there was none. But the Hitlite and Sidonian were both of them inhabitants of Canaan, or, as we Should say, Canaanites; they were both, accordingly, the children of Canaan, So, again, when it is said that "Elam and Assur" were the Children of Shem, it is to geography, and not to ethnology, that we must

look for an explanation. Assyria, Elam, and Babylonia, or "Arphaxad" as if seems to be called in the "ethnographical table," all bordered, at one time, one upon the other. They constituted the three great monarchies of the eastern world, and their three capitals, Nineveh, Susa, and Babylon, were the three centers which regulated the politics of Western Asia. They were portrayed as though they were brethren not because the natives resident therein claimed descent from a common father, but because they occupied the same quaner of the world. It is now clear in what light we are to regard the threefold - division of the known world, so far as it is portrayed in the tenth · chapter of Genesis. The three sons of Noah are each assigned a · separate place of settlement, Japhet in th e north, Ham in the soulh, ~ and Shcm in the center, and are accordingly regarded as the fathers · or ancestors of the nations and cities which occupied the regions · belonging to them. The northern nations are described as the children ofJaphet, the populations of the south are th e children of Ham; the populations of the center the children of Shem. In one case only was it necessary to group the same tribe under two different ancestors. The South Arabian tribe of Sheba spread far to the north, through the "sandy" · deserts of Havilah, and founded a kingdom which came into conniCf with Assyria in th e days of Tiglath-pileser and Sargon. It Is consequently named twice, once as a people of the south, once as a people of the center. Attempts have been made to explain the names of the

Tbe T,...th Chapter of Genesi.

51

tbrce sons of Noah as referring to the color of the skin. Japhet has_ been compared whh Ihe Assyrian ipptJlu "white," Shem with the ~ Assyrian SQ,.,U 'olive-coLored," while in Ham etymologists have seen_ the Hebrew Kha,., 'to be hot." But all such attempts are of very doublful value. It is, for instance, a long stride from the meaning o f ~ "heat' to that of 'blackness" - a meaning, indeed, which Ihe Hebrew word never bears. Moreover, 'the sons of Ham' were none of them black-skinned, even the inhabitants ofCush (situated on the coast ofSomalia, opposite southern Arabia, and probably peopled fromArabia). The Egyptian, like the Canaanite, belongs to the white race, _ his red sldn being merely the result of sunburn. The ethnologist, therefore, must be content to leave the sons of Noab to the historian or the theologian . He must start from the fact Wt Ihe Old Testament tradition considers them to have sett led in caeb of the three zones of the known world, and that the nations who Inhabited these zones in a later day were, according to the idiom of I Semitic language, their children and successors. It is with this interpretation that we have to deal. The th ree zones formed a sort of square. Theywere bounded on me nonh by the Caspian, the mountains of Armenia, th e Black Sea, I.Dd the islands of the eastern Mediterranean; on the south by the Indian Oeean and the highlands of Abyssinia: on the east by the Caspian and the mountains of Media and Elam; and on the west by the Ubyan desen westward of the Nile. The northern zone descended as far south as the island of Cyprus and the ranges of the Taurus; tbe central zone, included all Western Asia, except Canaan and Western I.Dd Southwestern Arabia. These later were comprised in the southern zone along with Egypt and the northern portion of the Sudan. To our modern notions such a world seems very limited. But, if we put China OUI of sight, it embraced aU Ihe civilized part of the earth's surface. The civilizations of India and of America had not as yet arisen; elsewhere, with the exception of the Indus Valleycivilizalion which is believed to have been inspired from Mesopotamia, all was darkness. It was in the valleys of the Nile and Ihe Euphrates Ihat the first civilized kingdoms of the world had grown up, and the first systems of wriling devised. SmaU as il may appear on our modern maps, Ihe world of Genesis was the cradle of ear ly culture, the field in whiCh Ihe seeds of science were first sown, and Ihe first harvests of human thought and invention were galhered in.

"

!bee in

An~;ent

El}'Pt.nd the Old TeoUoment

It was, moreover, a world which formed the meeting-place of many different races. II is true that the American Indians, South

Asians, AU$lralolds and Mongoloids were absent from it; but on the olher lIand representatives of many of the leading races of mankind were to be found there. More Ihan one variety oflhe Caucasoid race was present! Ihe pale-skinned, blue-eyed Ubyans, KabyJe and Riff, the darhr-mmpJexioncd Semites of Arabia and Assyria, the Peoples otlhc Sea, and the Egyptiansofthe Nile della and valley. There were also representatives oflhc original Caucasoid population of Sumeria, and also of the Hittites, HurTians and Mitanoi, Ihe latter three now known to have acquired an Indo-European aristocracy. Philistines entered from Europe. and al a later dale first Persians, then Greeks, followed by Romans. dominated the scene; while th e Upper Nile, beyond Egypt and Nubia, remained home to the Negroes. Truly it was a square of the earth's surface into which was crowded much that was to influence the later history o f mankind.

The

"

Egypti.n~

CHAPTER IV

THE EGYPTIANS The fertility of tile Nile Valley and its delta, and tile protection given to tllat valley by Ille deserts wlilell sllielded il 10 Ille Easl and Ibe Wesl, made it a relalively secure reposilory for Ihe invenlions of Ihe various civilizalions wbich developed in the Middle East. Furthermore Ihe wealth of Egypt (it was the Greekswllo gave it tile name of Egypt, the Egyptians themselves called it Kern;:, the "black land,. because of the unparalleled fcrtilily of the delta soil) caused Egypt to be, under strong government, a power in the area, and under weak government, a prey 10 ils neighbors. lis population has been estimaled al around five million, making il possible, when well-ruled, to maintain a massive army employing large numbers of mercenaries (since the Egyptian!eUahill showed little military inclination). BUI al olher limes ils wealth made it an allractive subject for plunder. As a result the history of Egypt is interwoven wilh Ibal oflhe Middle East, and Iha! of the earliest Israelis was closely interwoven wilh Ihat of Egypl. The Egyptians already enjoyed a rich and andent civilization when Ihe Israelites first appeared on the scene, choosing to ask for refuge in the cultivated lands of Egypt by harsh conditions of the Arabian semi-deserts. It was 10 Egypt that Abraham wcnl down 10 sojourn, and Hagar the handmaid of Sarah was Egyplian-oorn. Egypt forms the center of the hislory of Joseph, and it became Ihe house of bondage of Ihe children of Israel. In Goshen Ihey first grew inlO a nalion, and Ihe exodus out of Egypt is the starting point of Israelite history. Who were these Egyptians with whom the earlier records oflhe Old Testamenl are so deeply concerned? At firsl sight, il does not seem difficult to give an answer 10 the queslion. The andent inhabit ants of Ihe valley of the Nile have left behind Ihem numberless

Raee in Aneient Ej!:ypt and Ih.! Old T e.""ment

54

,

•

,

•

Figure !I: Four Early Egyplians portrayed al Ghiza . These da le from the IVth dynasty (26lh «nlury B.C.). Numbers 2 and 3 have fU lu res characICristic or the Egyptian kings of the first few dynasties, but Numbers I and 4 are Europoid in type. While the Ancient Egyptians.re loosely dl$sir.ed as Medilernncl n C.ucasoid .. Dr. Sayee be lieved that there may have been a blond element in tbe population. akin 10 the (then) blond Libyan. 10 thc:ir West, and also 10 the reputedly portially blond Amoriteson their Ea'i.

The Egyptians

55

portray the forms and features of the people who erected them. The museums of Europe are filled with the statues of Egyptian men and women, executed with marvelous skill and life-like accuracy, and the pt.inted walls of the tombs are covered with representations of the scenes of daily life. Moreover, the modern Egypcian, throughout a ....ge part of the country, still displays the physical, the mental, and the moral qualities of his anceslOrs. The Coptic Christian nalive, more especially, who has not 10 the same extent admixed with his Arab conqueror as has his Mohammedan brolher, often reproduces veryclosely the ancient type as revealed by the ancient wall paintings, by skeletal evidence and by mummified remains. While classical Greek and Roman writers oommenled on the relative darlrness of the Egyptians, we should remember that the Greeks and Romans of that were fairer than they are today, and lOday's pure-blooded Egyptian is no darker than the ordinary_ Spt.niard or South Italian of today. Professor Virchow was the first to suggest thaI the red which the Egyptian artists used to portray Egyplian men reflected their sun-tan, since the skin of their women wu painted pale yellow or even white. The women protectedthemselves from the SlIn; the men did not; hence the difference in the color of their skin in Egyptian portraiture.. As we approach the southern frontiers of Egypt, the color of the stiD becomes constantly darker. This is due to long oontinued intermixture with the dark-skinned Nubian§, who once ocx:upled the whole of this region. In a town like Edfu, where the Coptic populadon has kept itself oomparatively free from such intermixture, fair complexions are the rule, but we have only to step into the country to find the Mohammedan peasantry darkening from brick-red to a deep oopper-brown. The oombined effect of exposure to the sun and ofa strain of Nubian blood is often a color which is but a few degrees lighter than that of the Nubian himself. BUI although the pure-blooded Egyptian was a member of the white race, he was not, llke his Libyan neighbor, a blond. His hair_ and eyes are black. It is true that red hair, and more especially a red beard and moustache, are occasionally met with in modern Egypt.They are also found in anci ent Egypt. The mummy of Ramesses II makes it probable Ihat the oppressor of the Israelites had red hair. _ The Ancient Egyptians, somewhat like the modern f~/u'hi" or peasantsof today, were well-proportioned and muscular, with delicate

F(gllre 6: Two early Egyptian (Vth dynasty) portraits. from Ghiza, The feature. displayed here. e5pCcially in the formcr of the two beads, are distinctly Ellropoid, a nd the facialanglc corresponds 10 Ihat of \he Greek' of the Homeric period, • thouu.nd yurs later. The shape of the eye is • standardized form whlch for 50me rea50n IInknowt! \he Egyptian artists give to all rat _nd lhe Old TfltaOltC'llI Hgure 8: Scsostrus I (1928-1917 S.c.), secood king of the X Ulh

d)'lllSly. utended ~ian power into NUM and ea.blished • prri_ oon at Wid, Halr.. below"",ieh Ne · groes and Nubians ... ~ I>O(.~ 10 p .... ;,uo f.cypt. emcpt .. II .......

F;,ure 9: Bas-relid from lbebes of a .. EcPlian sc ribe reoordillJ Ncpo prisoners. Nole 11M: 1;,lIlIy curled IUI'ts o f hair on tile hudJ o f the children_ II il remarkable lha l through (he lI,illennia w-ry liUIe evidence of Negro blood is (""nd in Lhe featu"'l of E&Y!>ti .... dun", the dynallic period. iIIdie.loli", 11\.01 they maint.ai ... d • ",~iII l cule "YSlCm (until .,.,,,,,,,,ncd to

Islam) and did 100' absorb any ",Mel fro .. !bei, Nubian and NeJlO slaves.

61

o,oury

interments whicl:l point to the C%IsIence of another race

t 'lies that which we commonly mean by Emllan. In theseIlllllenIIcnts there was no trace of mummlflcation; the bodies were pIICCd in the lomb in a mode of burial which was prevalent among _ catalD oftlle In"tles orandeol Ubya, and il stands In marked OlDlrast10 die Egypllan manner of the disposal of the dead, and the icku . . wbich Ihls rested. In fIOnt of these were objects 50 essential in El&YPtian eyes to the repose of tile dead deposited along with the -

CIIXI*. This lends credence to the idea that the earliest Inhabllants oItbe Nile delta might have been related 10 the Ubyans who Jived ..........110 them.

-

Nevenheless, the tombs In question are sa.ueroo among those wIIIcb display aU the characteristics of Egyptian burial. The people 10

whom they belonged must therefore have lived side by side with the Bgptlans. though as yet they had nOI been affected by EgyptIan beUc& and praalces, at aU events In the matter of burial. A few cat\lries lalcr all the inhabitantS of Egypt: bury their dead alike. From th e raU of the Old Empire at the close of the Sixth Dycuty, the raela] type presented by the statues Ind mummies of BoP Is that o f the elIisting peasantry. The cerebral indices of aU the IWIw: inhabitants of the valley of the Nile, whether /tliMin or Copts. remain within much the same limit$. All these populatioJu I re, IIpC&kIng generally, straighthlired I nd orthogna tbous (non-propllbout); their relatively narrow noses project strongly, and their chins IllC well developed. There are no Significant differences between the ItuIls of the modern rural Egyptian peasants Ind that of the villagers of aocient dynastic Egypt. Mesoccphallc l nd dolichocephalic skulls are oommon, but none_ of the skulls are brachycephalic. Indeed, the rulers of the Ninetunth Dynasty - 10 which Ramesses II, ruler at the lime of the Israelite exodus, belonged - were distinguiShed by their marked dolichocepha - 111m. Rlmesses' mummy shows an lnde:!t 0(74 , while the face Is oval with I n index of 103. 'The nose Is prominent, but leptorrhine and aquiline, Ind tile jlws I re onhognalOOus. Hischln is broad, the neck . 1onc.1ike the lingers and nails. The great king seems 10 have had red hllr. The renowned Ramesses III, of the TWentieth Dynasty, was also doUcboccphalie, with an inde:!t of 73. But the monarchs of the EIgh· tccnth Dynasty were inclined to mesoccphalism, and lbotmes III, for

"

Race in Aaci.. nt EuPt.Dd the Old T _ _

c:nmple. the conqueror of Canaan, bd a skull with an InOc:x of 78.2 But when we lum \0 the monuments oftbe eartics! dynUlieswe

find evidence of some brachycephalism. Onc of tile Il'IOSI 51rWng rcli
c:il\eS. Indeed the word a/u , which signifies "city" in Assyrian - the firS(

of me Semitic languages to rome under the innucnce o f culture and civiliza tion - is the Silme IS tlie Hebrew ohd ' tent; and primarily DUnl, not the ciry of civili:ted life, bill the te nt of Ihe wandering DOmad. In Hebrew the word retained 1u old signifICation of'llome,' and when it is said that the Levitt of Bethlehem was told by his {atM:f-ln-law that be might "go ho me" (J udg. xix. 9). the CJtpression Ulerally mca ns "go 10 thy tenl." The 'house' of the primitive Sem ite was ROIh.ing more Ihan the Wllporary sheller he erected for himself in the desert; when he became acquainted wilh the palaCCll o f Akkadian Babylonia he had 10 borrow the non-Semitic term by wl1ich they were described, e-p U or 'great house,' and adapt it to his own organs of spee1~n frontie r wilh ....... I I the lime Ficu'" Z6 wU IUOrded.

" ...'" 28: 'llle be.... of two $c milel from lbe pl in lc d inseriplion . ' Seni. H assan. Both l ni 41.koCyeQ; bu l onoe is ohown with red boir. tbe o lb
98

Race in Ancient Etypl and the Old T<e1Ita ... enl

peoples who live around the Caucausus, which could also have included th e much-discussed Khazars. In short, whenever the jewish slock is still relatively pure, in the sense of the biblical stoell, the nose is usually prominent and somewhat aquiline, Ibe lips tend to be tbicker than tbose ofEuropoids, and the face oval. The skin is of a dull while, which tans ratber than reddens under exposure to the sun. There is usually, however, a good deal afroLor in the lips and cheets. The eyes are dark like the hair, which can curl somewhat in the region of the neck. Menially the Semites of hlstol)' have shown themselves to be clever and versatile, and over two thousand reaTS to have possessed a special ability in commerce and finance. Their memories are retentive, their mode of reasoning deductive rather than inductive. In - religion the Semites have always been distinguished by the simplicity of their belief and worship; in social mailers by their strong family - afTIx:tion and loyalty to their kinsmen. Another of their characteristics has been fondness of display, to wh iCh must be added the love of acquisition, and unwearied industry in certain pursuits, though with lillIe taste for agriculture. Intense 10 the point of fanaticism, they have proved themselves capable, when roused, of carrying on a bitter struggle in contempt of pain and death. Along with this intenSity of character goes an element of ferocity to which the Semitic Assyrian inscriptions give only too frequent an expression. Physically they have a strong and enduring constitution. This is true of both Arabs and Jews. Jews survived and multiplied in the medicvaltowns of Europe under the most insanitary conditions, and if we turn 10 the paSI we find the reigns of the Assyrian monarchs averaging an unusually long number of years. Diseases thai proved fatal to the populations among whom the Jews resided have passed them over, and like the natives of Arabia they resist malaria to a remarkable degree. It is in the Arabian region that the traits which characterize Ihe Semitic race and th e Semilic languages seem to have become fIXed and stereotyped. However, on the linguistic side there is a distant relationship between Ihe Semitic family of speech and the language of ancient Egypt. StruclUrally, it is true, there is a wide difference between them, and Old Egyptian shows no traces of the triliteralism which distinguishes the Semitic dialects among the languages of mankind. But thc fundamental forms and conceptions of Semitic and

Tbe Semite.

99

Old Egyptian grammar arc the same, many of the roots [n the two groups of speech agree together, and if is possible that future research may disclose a similarity between them even in th e department of phonology. The so-called Hamitic languages of Northern Africa also cxhibit resemblances to the language of ancient Egypt as we ll as to those of the Semitic family, and it is customary to regard Ancient Egyptian as a Hamitic language. We find the same double verbal form employed with the same double function as In Assyrian, and throughout the "Hamitic" languages the causative is denoted by • prefIXed sibilant as in Semitic speech. We cannot argue, however, from language to race, and though we shall see in a future chapter that the ancient Ubyans (as distinct from the modern Arabized Ubyans) had ethnOlogically no connection with the Semites, on the linguistic side there is a distant relationshIp between the Semitic family of speech and the Hamitic languages of .neient north Africa. Moreover, in several instances the Hamitic languages are spoken by tribes of Negro or Nubian origin, probably due to northern innuence, although racially there is a vast gap between Semites and Negroids. Similarly, the physiological characteristlcs of the Egyptians are very different from those of the Semite. Hisrory knows only of Semitic migrations from Arabia into Africa, which resulted amongst other effects in the foundation ofEthiopicor CUshlte kingdoms; it does not know of any ancient migration from Africa into Arabia, except in the last two thousand years as Negro slaves were shipped into the Middle East by Arab siavers. At present, therefore. we must be content with tracing the Semitic race 00 further than its Arabian crad le. There it assumed the features whiCh mark it off from the other races of mankind. We know indeed that it is a branch of the white race, and that its ancestors must consequently have come in some remote period of human history from the region in which the white race had its earliest abode. But within the white race there arc many races which the ethnologist Is unable to unite. They are like the separate families of speech which exist within the same morphological group of languages. Each race,like each family of speech, has its own distinct indivlduatitywhich it is the purpose of ethnology to define.

'00

Race in Ancient Elypl and the Old Testament

CHAYrER VII

THE PEOPLES OF CANAAN

One discovery made In Egypt consists of a number of clay tablets inscribed with Ihe cuneiform characters of Bat,lonia. They form a portion of the archives of Akhenaten and his father, and suggest Ihal In Ihe fift~nth century before our era a common medium of

diplomatic intercourse was the foreign language and complicated script of Babylonia. Manyofthe tablets afC iellersor despatches from Ihe Egyptian governors Bnd vassal princes of Canaan. The chief

centers of Egyptian authority were Gebal and Zemar, Megiddo and Khazi, or Gaza, near Shechem (I Cltr. vii. 28). Here Egyptian

governors of high rank were stationed. Elsewhere, for the most part, the nalive chiefs were permined to exercise authority in Ihe name of

the Egyptian king. In some cases an Egyptian govemorwas appointed by Ihe Side of them; in other eases the support of an Egyptian garrison and the occasional visit of an Egyptian 'Commissioner"were considered sufficient 10 secure Ihe loyalty of Ihe dislrict. Jerusalem, for example, was trealed in Ihe laller fashion. We learn from the lellers what was Ihe original signitication of the geographical term ·Canaan." It appUed only to a part of the country which was known as "Kinakhkhi." This corresponds more closely 10 Khna', Ihan to the Hebrew form Canaan, and signitied the region which e~tended from the neighborhood of Beirut southwards to the mountains of Jerusalem. It denoled "the lowlands" which sloped from Ihe sides of Lebanon to the sea, and comprised Ihe plain of Sharon. When Isaiah (~ix, 18) describes the Hebrew language as "Ihe language of Canaao" il is 10 Ihese southern Phoenicians that refereoce is primarily made. The country oco:.:upied by them was Ihe Kaft of the Egyptian monuments, in contradistinction to Zahi or Northern Phoenicia, as well as Khar or Khal, a name which has been compared wilh Ihal of Ihe Horiles (Hurrians) of Ihe Old Teslam ent. Immedialely norlh of Canaan was Ihe land of Amurru or the Amorites. II isonly in th is norlh region that the Amoriles are known

101

10 the writers of the Tel el-Amarna tablets and 10 the Egypt tals. '[be Amorites of Southern Palestine do not seem as yel to have made

melr name famous. There is no reference to them in the despatches of Ebed-Khcba, the priest-king of Jerusalem, who appears to have been a successor, if not in li neal descent, al all events in function, of Mclchizedi. It Is possible that the city he governed had nO! yet fallen

1n10 the hands of the Amorilc tribe of Jebusiles. Had such been the cue, we should have expected some reference 10 th.e name of Jehus. The Canaanite, then, was al that time primarily the Phoenician of the ooaSI whose oldest city was Sidon (Zidon), 'the town of the fishermen,' Tradit ion (Strabo 1, 2, 35; xvI, 3, 4, '1:1; Herodotus 1, I, vU. 89; Pliny, N.H. iv, 36) averred Ihalthe Canaanites had come from the neighborhood of Babylonia and the Persian Gulf, and this tradition is reinforced by the evidence of language. Thelanguage they !!pOke was a Semitic one, akin to that of Assyria. The Philistines, who illter seized Gaza and the Palestine coastline, had not yet arrived. Butlhe Canaanites did not long remain content with th e narrow strip of coast on which their first settlements were buill. While their IIhlps traversed the Mediterranean in searcll of the purple-fish, adventurous spirits made their way inlo the fastnesses of the Lebanon, and there built new cities. The neighboring inland populations began to pass under Canaanite supremacy, and possibly to inte rmarry with the Canaanites. In this way the names of Canaan and Canaanite came to be extended beyond their original frontiers, and "the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad." In Ihe days of the ISfaelitish conquest, Canaan included the whole country seized by the Twelve Tribes, and it and neighboring lands were inhabited by peoples of various origi n and history. Here and there, it is true, its limits are more strictly defined, and in Numb. xiii. 29, we are explicitly told: "the Amalekites dwell In the land of the south; and the Hillites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in Ihe mounlains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coasl of Jordan." The males o f Kaft or Canaan are usually represented by the Egyptians as having red skins. like themselves. Sir F1inders Petrie, however, notes that one chief of Kaf! Is depicted with yellow complexion, black eyes. and light brown hair. The yellow complexion of the chief could indicate that he was fairer tllan the others, or Ihat Ihe red tint usually assigned to the skin of the commoners was the result of exposure to the sun, as indeed was also the case wi th the _

102

Ficu~ 31: Head of. Phoenieiall from lbe 10mb of R.me __ 1II (XX lh dynasly. L2lb «DWry B.C.). The skiD is colored yellow aDd !he dRIS is purple; the Phoenicians were ramed for 1M production of lbe hi&hly valu~d P'''ple dye keenly UI&h' an.,. for

colon", doth.

Figurc 32: lind of • Canaanite from I Thcbao tomb, believed 10 repr • ..,nl a Phoenician from Tyrc Or Sidon.

TIoe People. of C.nu n

103

EIYPtians. We may, therefore, regard the Canaanite o f Kaft as the andent rcpresentatlve of the modern Syrian, so far n color Is eoocemed. He wn a member o f the whi le ucc, but o f tMt darker pcH1ion of Ihe white race wh ich has its seal on lhe shores of Ihe Mediterranea n, for in most cases his eyes and also his hair were pcH1rayed asblack. In lhe IOmbof Rekh-ma -Ra, I Theban prince who Uved In the ageof lhe Eighlccnth Dynasly, the Iflbule-bearersof!(aft bave I.mlformly black hair, with a long curl, or uther tress.. on either IIde of the face. The tribute-bearers were handsome men with regular features, and doubt less presented the same Iype of face as the Syrian o f loday. The lancr Is gencrally dolichocephalic and leptorrhine. The people of !(aft who arc painted o n the walls of Rekh-maRI'! lomh welf richly-embroidered kilts and embroidered buskins, .:HIIe of which have upturned loes. The lalter buskins resemble dosely the $hOC$ depicted on remains fo\Jnd In a prehistoric tomb near SpaTIa In Greece. Nothing is worn on the head UCCpt • si mple M et. Amon, the tribu te brough t from ){aft 10 Ihe Egyptian Icing are rings of predou$ met. l, al}(! vases with the hea.dsof animals, remindlag us of the 'owl-headed" vases disinterred by Sc::hliemann It Hlssarlik in the Troad. The coastal area o f presenl-day Lebanon WIS occupied by Scmilic Piloenicians. These we have illustrated here. SpeQal mention, however, should be made of o ne Canaanitc hcad from the time of Thothmes III . The fcatu res are those of the natives o f Punt, even to the short straight beard. The type is a handsome one, wilh high forehead, straight nose and thin lips. Its close resemblance 10 the Punile cypt raises many inleresling questions, and IncUnes us to Ihe belief that Lepslus was right in oonnCCling Ihe Phoe nicians, the Puni or Pani of Lalin wTiters, ..ilh the Punite! of Southern Arlbia. AI all events it Offers remarkable support for the ITldition which. brought the Phoenicians from the western shores and islands o f Ihe Persia n Gulf: Very distinct from the Phoenicians of Kart aTe Ihe ShlSU or Bedouin 'plu nderers" of the Egypt ian monumenl$. They were the scourge of the scllied populations of Canaan. We hear of them as marauding from the Egyptian frontier up to Ihe north of Palesline, ' the land of lbe Amorite,' where they were displaced in Ihe fifteenth century before OUT eTa by Ihe invading Hlllile. Th ey were properly

'04 inhabitants o f Iht desert woo perpetually hoYcrcd on the borders of tht ttdtiva lcd land, liking advantage of every opportunity 10 rape and plunder il. When Ihe tpYCmmenl was weak Ibelr wandering bands made Iheir w.y 10 IIIe very gates or lhe ellies, Ind hired their services to (:(Intending chiefs. AI limes some of them seu led in Ihe plains and

adopled vlllage-life, bUl Ihelf sava&e behavior penlsted. Idle, treacherous, avaricious, and cruel, they were regarded as OUIcast$ among the Olher races. The frontier-fortress of Kanana, which lias been Iden tified wilh Kllllrbel KaR'ln. $b: miles from Hebron, was defended against Sell I by the Shasu. It would appear also Ihat Ihey formed part of the garrUon of Hebron It Ihe time of the IsraeUtlsh Invasion, since Hebron Is stated 10 have been occupied by "Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, Ihe children of Anak,' and Slleshai means "the Shasu." Their

arms were Ibe spetr and the battle-Illc. Tht Shsu were shown as "sharp-featured; with sUglnly receding forellead$.. Their noses we re straight, pointed, and look towards the ground, the nostrils and lips are tbin. tbe eyebrows prominent, their skin is painted yellOW and the face is set in a tomewlUl full whisker and pointed beard. A moustache does not seem to have been worn. II is clear that thc Shasu arc the same people as the "Thirty-seven Asiatk:s" who brought collyrium to an Egyptian king o f the Twelfth Dynasty under the leadership o["a mountain chieftain" called Absha, and who are depicted on tbe walls of the tomb of Noferhotep at Bcni Hassan. The followers of Absha have pale brown or yellow skins with whiskers.nd bends similar 10 those of the Shasu, except that like the hair of the head th eir ~ards are painted black. Their features also are precis.:Iy the same as those wbich cha ractcrize the Shuu. Thc men wcar sandals and embroidered killS or.:lse blankel$ which leave the right shoulder bare. 1lIe women wear shoes and embroidered plaids, as wcll as a fillct round thc head. Two childrcn Ife represented carried In a pannier on the back of a Oonkey (see figure 26. on page 92). The pictu re has long excited interest, since it is in the sixth year of Usenesen II , the earliest record we possessor the Irrival in Egypt of Asiatic str.ngers. The Twelfth Dynasty flourished long ~fore th e days when Abraham or Jacob went down into Egypt, and in the procession of Absha an d his followers we may perhaps see a representation o f what a patriarchal caravan was llke. It soou]d ~

The Peoples of Can..n

105

noted that the name of Absha is SemilK:, parallel, in fact, wilh lhal of the Biblical Abishai. The features of the Shasu recall those of Ihe modem Bedouin. 1bey differ essenlially from Ihe features of Ihe 'Menli of Sali," Ihe lWIIe gi~n by the Egyptians not only to 'the hordes who in... aded E!r;ypI under tile Hyws,' but also to the nomad population of Ille Slnallic Peninsula and the Hauran. The Menli or "Shepherds" are strong-looking men, with hooked noses, rounded al Ihe point, wide DOStrils and full lips. The beard is long. and the whisker -covers allihe k:lwer part oflhe cheek. The type is Jewisb ralher Ihan Bedouin, and rocalls th e profiles of the tribule-bearers of Jehu on the Assyrian Black Obelisk found on the site of Calah and now in Ibe British Museum. Physiologically the Jew thus claims relationship with the Menti of the Egyptian sculptures and not with the Shasu. The Menli arc mentioned in the Egyptian insctiptlons as inhabiling Ihe Sinaitic Peninsula as far back as fhe lime of the Fifth Dynasty, and though the name gi... en to them is merely descripti ...e it seems to ha~ been confined to a particular race. Th e term Satl, it may be added, signifies ' ardlers,' and indicates the wcapon with which the Satl were armed. It WOuld seem from one of Ille Tel el-Amarna lellers that the Satl were tile same as the Suti ufthe Assyrian Inscriptions, wllo occupied the desert frontiers of Babylonia ' from tile rising 10 tile setting of the

sun.' The Amorllfl The Amorile is called Amar on tile Egyptian monuments, Amura in the cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amama. As has already been remarked, tile name was applied 10 Ille district whicll lay immediately to the north of Palestine, and included Ille sacred cily of Kadesb on the Oronles, which aflerwards became a stronghold orille Hittite. But we learn from the Old Testament that Arnorites were also to be found in Southern and Central Palestine, as well as on the eastern side of the Jordan. In tile days of Abraham they li... ed at Hazewn-Iamar on tile weslern shore of the Dead Sea (Gen. xi.... 5). and Ille Hebrew patriarch was confederate with the three Amorile brollle.., wllo inhabited the plain of Hebron. According to a more correct translation of Gen. xl...iii. 22, Jacob "took" SIIec::hem 'out of Ille land of the Amorite,' and the Hivile population of Gtbeon is staled 10 be Amorhe In 2 Sam. xxi. 2. Ezekiel declares (M 3.45) Ihal

"6

Race in Ancient Ellypl and the Old Teotament

Figur~ 33:

All E4:;ypliau portrayal oflbree> i\morilu.AltOOlIgb the

Amontes are generally described by UnguiSI! as ~aking J "West Semitic" language, gClleticaUy their origin is uncertain, sinC(: Egyptian artislS often portray them with fair bait, blue eyes, and mon: Europoid proli~~ than olher Semites.

Figure 34: Head of a Ca naanite prisone r of Ramessesll. This has been ~culalivI,

Rae .. in Anci""1 E,ypl ... d Ih .. Old Ten"me.,!

spies seemed to be btu grasshoppers (Numb. xiII. 33). Th e Amorite dan o f Anakim, who look refuge in the Philistine chies of Gaza, Galb, Ind Ashdod (Josh. xi. 22) were marked 0111 by their size from the rest of tile population among whom l!ley had Jellied. II Is possible thai I rderence 10 the bIondness of the Amori les

• is 10 be found in the Old Testament. The word khori in Hebrew _ means "while bread" from a root which signilles "'0 be while." As such, the most natural way of explaining Ihe name of the Horim or Ho rites, the prede«ssol'$ of the Edomil", in the mountains of Self, could be that It signifies ' the blonds.' We now know that Ihe names of tlte noblel orllle Horilesor Hurrian, were Indo-European names, and Ihis would lit well wilh this theory. It Is also difflCUlI otherwise

10 understand the recurrcoce of the term in dlstrlct5 with which the Horiles had nothing 10 do. ThllS we find that Caleb wu tlie !IOn of H UT ( I Ou. ii. SO). Ind liis brotlier was Ash-liur, "tlie min of Hur" (I Chr. ii. 24). As In tlie mountains of Nortliern Africa, so al!lO in tlie moun"in! of tlie later Edom tlie fair Amorite population of early - PaICS(ine DlIy liave found 115 surest strongliold against tlie Semitic - invaders. Th is blond population did not thrive in tlie hot climate of tlie pllin. This cou ld possibly explain tlie early disappearllKe of tlie race from the valley and delta oftlie Nile, ifit had ever existed tliere. The on ly tliing we know about the pre·dynastlc inliabitants o f the Nile delta was that Ihey were dolichocephalic, but that In the ea rly dynastic period some evidcnce of a more mesocephaUc nature is found. Cerlain ly the early Egyptian immigrants had no difficulty in securing these areas for themselves, and if thaI were the case, they would have effectively divided the African and Asiatic halves of the former blond inliabitants. as represented by Ihe Ubylns on one side and the Amorites on IlieOlher. Thallhiswould hIve happened in the Neolithic may be concluded from the fact that no trace of metal has been discovered In the early cromlechs of Northern Africa. The cromlechs, ronsisting of I cairn of stones approached by a short passage. or of a circle of upright blocks surmou nted by one or more horlzontal blocks, are cha racteristic of severa l rountries in which blonds were once seulcd. In Africa thcy are associated with skeletons which (eveal their origin. and similar dolmens Ire met with in those partS of Palestine, more especially on th e castern side o f the JOflian, wilh which the name of the Amoritcs is connected. Crom-

T_ People. of Can.a.o.n

"'

lechs of a like form exist In Western Spain and France, and even in Britain; and since the ancient Ubyan race, whose remains they cover In Africa, may t1aim 3 physiological relationship with the "red Celt: il Is permissible to consider them as possibly marking the former presen« of a widely distributed race to which the Amorites may have belonged. Cromlechs are not found in Europe easl of a line drawn through Dresden, but they occur again in Circassia. and as the Circassians were formerly known for their fair coloring. their Wi,}men being much prized by the Turks for their harems, It would be _ interesting to discover whether they, too, might reflect the earlier _ presence of a prehistoric blond Atlanto-Mediterranean race. More p:>$5Ioly, however, they are the survivors of a people related to the talr Scythians and other Indo-Europea ns who later held sway in that: .~.

In the first record we possess of their presence in history (Gen xiv. 7), Amoriles are recorded to the north oflhe Semitic Amalekites of Kadesh-barnea. They are thus in the close neighborhood of that fortress of Kanana, which was defended against the father of Ramesses II by blue-eyed Shasu, It thus becomes probable Ihallhe blond Shasu of Ihe Egypt ian monuments were an Amorite tribe of nomadic habIts who were on tbal account classed witb tbe · Plunderers" or Bedouin of tbe desert by the Egyptian scribes. At all events Ihe passage in Genesis shows that the non-Semitic Amo rites and the Semitic Amalekites were dislinct from one anmber. The Amalekites Wi,}uld seem to be included among the Menti of the Egyptian texts. The Ama leld tu

The Amalekites were usually regarded as a branch of tbe Edomites or "red-skins. " Amalek, like Kenaz, the faiher of the KenizzilCS or "hunters: was the grandson ofEsau (Gen. xxxvi. 12, 16). He thus belonged 10 Ihe group of Semitic nations known as Eoomiles, Ammonites, and Moabites, who stood in a rela lion of close kinship to Israel. They had preceded the Israelites in dispossessing the o lder inhabitants of the land and establishing thcm!relves in their place. The Edomites had partly destroyed, partly amalgamated with, Ihe Horites (of Mount Seir ( Deu!. ii. 12); Ihe Moabites had done the same to the Emlm, "a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim" (DeUI. ii. 10), while the Ammonites had extirpated and succeeded to the Reph aim or ' Glants,"who in that pan of th e country were termed -

'"

Race in Ancient EI1pt."" the Old THU ........

how~r, stood in closer relation 10 Isr.cl lhan its IWO more norlhcm neighbors. Esau hid been the brOther of Jacob and the children ohlle Edornileswerc

Zamzumrnim (DeuI.iI. 20: Gen. xiv . .5). Edom.

allowcd to ·cntcr ]nlo the oongreplKln o f the I..old in their third

gencntioo" ( DellI. xxiii. 8). Indeed, a large poniOa orlhe population of Southern Judah wlS of Edomite descent. Caleb, like Olhniel, wu • Kcnizzltc (Numb. xxxii. 12: Josh. KY. 17). and we [urn from the earlier chaplers of Ihe Book o f Chronicles tba' nol only the district sUffoundin& Hebron and KJrj'lh-sepl\cr, but Ilso • considerable ponton of the territo ry to the south of them was in the hands of Ca leb's descendants. Even Salma, "the father of Bethlehem," was the son of Caleb (I ChT. ii 51). Like the Israelites, the Edomites,

Moabites and Ammonites had adopted "the language of Ca naan"; Ihis had .Jreadybten Inferred from their proper names. and the disoovery of the Moahi te Stone with its insaiption in the dialect of Moab has con firmed Ihe Inference. Separale from the Edomilesor Amalekit es were the Kenitesor wandering ' sm lths." They formed an important Guild in an age when Ihe art or metaUurc- wu oonlined to a few. In the time o f Saul we hear of them as camping among the Amaleitites ( I Sam. xv. 6). while the prophecy of Salaam seems to imply that they had C$tablished th emse!vcs at Pel ra (Numb. nii. 20, 21). A portion o f Ihem "wenl up OUI of Ihe city o f palm· lrees with the children of J udah In to the wUdem ess of Judah" (Judg. i, 16), whil e ' Heber Ih e Ke nile pitched his tent' In the neighborhood of Kadesh of Naphtali (Judg. iv. II). II would even appear from lOr. ii. S5 that the Rechabites were of Kenile origin. The Kenites were, in fact, the travelling linkers of the old Orienta l world. Some of Ihe tribe had doubtless found thdr way intO Palestine before Ihe pcliod. o f the Israelliish Invasion. In an · aocount of an Egyptian \Ourist's adventures In thaI country in lhe · time of RamCSSe5 II, special menlion is made of the JrOlUmi lh who repa Ired the brok.en cha riot o f the traveller. The art o f working iron was o ne which required peculiar skill and strength, and the SCCfets it · InyolYcd were jealously presetved among certa in nomad families. As · culture advanced and Ihe art beeame more widely known and prac· Iiced, th e KenllC$ ceased 10 have Ihe monopoly of the trade, and degenerated Inlo mere nomads who refused to adopt a settled life. The ir vcry name came 10 disappear, and th eir stronghold in the southern de5ert was wasted by the armIes of Assyria .

n- people. or c....... The Kenlte5, it will thus be seen, did not constitute a race.

Of

even • tnbe. They were, I t most, I caste. But they h ad originlUy oocne. Uke the I$nelites or the Edomltes. from those N rren rezjons of Northern Aubta which were peopled by the Menti orthe Egyptian blKripdons. Raci.lly, therefore, we m.y reprd them .. Semites .lIied 10 tIK descendants of Abrah.m. While the Kenltes and AmaJeldtes were thus Semitic in their ortpn, the Hlvltes or "vi llagers" are spcdaJly associated with the Amoriles. It may be that they represent the mixed popu lation of Amorites and Ca naanites who Uved in the immediate vicinity of the " eat Amorite stronghold. We hear of the H lultes under Mount Hermon (JOSh. d . 3) 'that dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Bu.I.Hermon un to the entering in of Ham,th' (I ud" III. 3; 2 Sam. utv. 7). This was the a)untry of the Amorites aa::ording to the EcJpIian texts and the tablets of Tel el·Amlml. But we liso hear o f tbem furlher south, I t GiOOm (Josh. Ix. 7 ;xi. 19) and Shechem (Gen. DIllY. 2). which I re Cllled Amorite elsewhere (2 Sam. 2; Gen. iIIMti.. 22). Uke the Humans (the biblical Hurltes). therefore. they l1li)' bavt been predominanlly Amorite in race, acept that tile rulers of the Humans are now known to hive been Inao.Europc:a ns. The DlIfte does notlppcar in the Egyptian texts. Ind we hive no Egyptian porttalts of them

w.

hnizzlm and Rcphalm In Gen. "IN. 19·21 and similar passages of the Old Testament, where a list of the older inhabitants of Palestine Is given, mention is made of the Perlzzites. The Perizzites, lIowever, did not represent dtber I raee or I tribe. They were the people of the 'cultivated plain,' the .gricul turlsu of that pan o r the country which w.s capable of till.ge. like the IOOdern ftUalI ill of Egypt. They belonged accordingly to various 1lIce5 and Dltion.lities: th~re were lsradit!sb as well as canaanite and Amorite Periz:zim. The name was a descriptive one. like that of Kadomile or "eastern' which denoted the population on me east bank of the Jordan. The Replillm, woo are mentioned llong with the Perizzites, are more difficult to determine. The name is translated "GIants" in the Authorized Version of the Bible, but the only support for this is the ctp.ntlc sIze of tile Amorite Anakim in the Ph ilistine cltles who are SlId to have been tile desc~ndan ts of Rapha (2 Sam. xx i. 16-22). The

'"

Race in Anci ..... ElYpl.nd the Ol d Tel tamltnl

(2 K",I' IOU;' H : 1.. ;,,~ .... L~.

Abov.l 700._ c.)

Figure 35: An As$yri.on portrai t of ~allquisbcd Isradites paying homage to lhei, ~an overlords. The Assyri ... king & nnach"rib overran lite I..adil., territories but failed, ~ver, 10 la ke Jerusalem, which was (([lC I ~ly defended ~ Hc~ckiah(circa 700 D.C.). Long before lhe A$}'rian invasion, the bradites had ceased 10 be IIOmadic and, Iwving securcd the ·promised land: had made il the cemerof a small empire.

Figure 36: From Abu Simbel. The head of a Syrian prince repuld ly killed by Rame ..... II in single combat. This is One of tbe

few inslllnccsofEgyp lim muralswhicb ponray a (acewilh closed eye$, presumably 10 pbagus of Or,. the king of the Repbalm in Basllan II). proves nothing as to the site of the king hlmsel[ There (DeUI. are Iraces of the Rephaim in se'/entl pans of the Holy Land. On the ,outh-western si