''why does ancient art depict egyptians as being lightskinned?''

Egyptian artwork is larglety symbolic. I think this issue has been beat to death on Okayplayer,and I am quit sick of it. 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.

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

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.


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