>''why does ancient art depict egyptians as being
>lightskinned?''
>
>Egyptian artwork is larglety symbolic.

meaning? egyptians revere those who are lightskinned and have european features?

I think this issue
>has been beat to death on Okayplayer,and I am quit sick of
>it.

my apologies. but, i am interested in having my answer questioned by sources other than what i read in books.

I am a native born Egyptian from Aswan who know resides
>in Cairo. Without a doubt the pre-dyanstic Upper Egyptians
>were black and are still larely black to this day.

what about the denizens of lower egypt?

> Arabs did not enter Egypt untill 640AD,and I doubt any
>Arabs were present in Egypt during any time.

but persians dominated the area in 525-405 b.c.

>
> If you look at the artwork of the waset tombs
>you will see that the people are depicted as dark brown just
>like the people who live there today.

thank you.

>
> Black Egyptians in Upper Egypt stil exist to this day
>
>
>Except for his curly black hair, with its hint of African
>negro
>blood, he looked more Arabian than Egyptian; most
>of the
>men in the village were shorter, more heavily built, and had
>strong
>cheekbones, thick noses, and heavy jaws. Among their rugged
>faces,
>Shahhat's stood out as singularly expressive."
>The reader might conclude from such a description that
>Critchfield's
>initial attraction to Shahhat was due to the fact that his
>features
>were much less African than those of the majority of Upper
>Egyptians.
>Ironically, that is the attitude of some inhabitants of
>northern
>Egypt, who refuse to acknowledge Upper Egyptians as Arabs,
>and
>consider darker skin to be a negative trait. Such prejudice
>is the
>second challenge which faces Upper Egyptians, in addition to
>poverty:
>racism.
>Although I did take issue with the presumably inadvertent
>racial
>implications of Critchfield's observations, Shahhat, an
>Egyptian is
>an entertaining and vivid introduction to the richness and
>diversity
>of rural Egyptian life.
>Uzra Zeya is a program coordinator for the American
>Educational Trust
>specializing in Islamic affairs.
>Advise and Dissent and Shahhat, an Egyptian are available
>from the
>http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/598/li1.htm
>
>http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0390/9003045.htm


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