Dynastic race theory
The dynastic race theory was the earliest thesis to attempt to explain how
Origins
In the early 20th century, Egyptologist Sir
This came to be called the "dynastic race theory"
Versions of the Dynastic race model were adopted by scholars as
Decline
The dynastic race theory is no longer an accepted thesis in the field of predynastic archaeology. While there is clear evidence the Naqada II culture borrowed abundantly from Mesopotamia, the most commonly held view today is that the achievements of the First Dynasty were the result of a long period of cultural and political development.[11] Such borrowings are much older than the Naqada II period,[12] the Naqada II period had a large degree of continuity with the Naqada I period,[13] and the changes which did happen during the Naqada periods happened over significant amounts of time.[14]
Modern Egyptology largely maintains the view that "state formation occurred as a mainly indigenous process", although significant differences in morphology indicated migration along the Nile Valley also took place.[15] The Dynastic Race theory has been largely replaced by the theory Egypt was a hydraulic empire.
In Afrocentrism
In the 1950s, when the Dynastic Race Theory was widely accepted by mainstream scholarship, the Senegalese scholar
Revival
A version of the theory has been revived by some modern scholars, most notably
who have advanced reasons in support of a Mesopotamian origin of Dynastic Egypt in books such as Rohl's Legend-The Genesis of Civilisation and Rice's Egypt's Making.According to Rohl, "There is little evidence of kingship and its rituals very much before the beginning of the 1st Dynasty; no signs of the gradual development of metal working, art, monumental architecture and writing—the defining criteria of early civilisation. Much of what we know about the pharaohs and their complex culture seems to come into existence in a flash of inspiration."[21] Rohl believes the catalyst for this sudden development was the influx of a Mesopotamian "foreign elite" who made their way to Egypt by sailing around the coastline of the Arabian Peninsula into the Red Sea ultimately dragging their boats across the desert to the Nile. Rohl notes numerous pre-dynastic rock carvings found in several locations from Wadi Abbad to Abydos which is suggested depict large Mesopotamian style boats with crews of up to 75, some of which appear being pulled across land.[22] Rohl believes the most dramatic evidence to support this theory is the sudden introduction of distinctly Mesopotamian "niched-facade", also known as "palace facade", architecture found in several early Dynastic sites, most notably the large 1st Dynasty mastabas at Saqqara. A depiction of a building using this kind of architecture is also an integral part of the serekh, the early Egyptian seal of kingship, and is found before the 1st Dynasty as well in the Naqada III, or "Dynasty 0" period. He says, "It is highly improbable that such specialized building techniques were independently invented in two widely separated regions at the same historical period without cultural transmission.[23]
In addition to the evidence available to Petrie et al., proponents also point out similarities in the names of divinities and places in the religious beliefs of the two cultures, and in depictions of regalia. For example the primeval mound of the Egyptian first creation was called the Island of Nun, and was surrounded by the Waters of Nun, while the Sumerian name for the great temple in their original city of Eridu was Nun.ki—the 'Mighty Place'—and it was built on an island in the reed swamps. Several scholars have also noted that the name Osiris is a Greek pronunciation, and that the god would have been called Asar in Egyptian, while the Sumerian god of the Eridu area was also called Asar (the Babylonian
See also
References
- ISBN 0415186331.
- ^ Smith, Stuart Tyson. Redford, Donald (ed.). p28 (1 February 2001). "Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt - Volume 3".
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ISBN 0807845558.)
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link - ^ Zakrzewski, Sonia R. (2007). Population continuity or population change: Formation of the ancient Egyptian state. Highfield, Southampton: Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton.
- ISBN 0936260645.
- ^ a b Emery, W.B. Archaic Egypt, Penguin Books, 1987 0-14-020462-8
- ^ Derry, D.E., The Dynastic Race in Egypt, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol 42, 1956
- ^ Mary R. Lefkowitz, Guy MacLean Rogers, Black Athena Revisited, pg65
- ^ Early dynastic Egypt, by Toby A. H. Wilkinson, pg 15
- ^ Egyptian Civilization Its Sumerian Origin and Real Chronology, by L. A. Waddell
- ^ Early Dynastic Egypt (Routledge, 1999), p.15
- ^ Redford, Donald B., Egypt, Israel, and Canaan in Ancient Times (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 13.
- ^ Gardiner, Alan. Egypt of the Pharaohs (Oxford: University Press, 1961), p. 392.
- ^ Shaw, Ian. and Nicholson, Paul, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (London: British Museum Press, 1995), p. 228.
- ^ Sonia R. Zakrzewski: Population continuity or population change: Formation of the ancient Egyptian state - Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton (2003)
- ^ Epic encounters: culture, media, and U.S. interests in the Middle East – 1945-2000 by Melani McAlister
- ^ Heresy in the University: the Black Athena controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals. By Jacques Berlinerblau, pg 158
- ^ History of Philosophy (3 Vols. Set), by William Turner, pg 8
- ^ Legend – The Genesis of Civilisation, by David Rohl ::: http://www.davidrohl.com/dynastic_race_11.html
- ^ Egypt's making: the origins of ancient Egypt, 5000-2000 BC, by Michael Rice
- ^ Rohl, David M., Legend the Genesis of Civilisation (Arrow Books Limited, 1998), p. 253
- ^ Rohl, David M., Legend the Genesis of Civilisation (Arrow Books Limited, 1998), p. 253-302
- ^ Rohl, David M., Legend the Genesis of Civilisation (Arrow Books Limited, 1998), p. 332
- ^ Dictionary of Ancient Deities, by Patricia Turner, Charles Russell Coulter
- ^ Algaze, Guillermo (2005) "The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization", (Second Edition, University of Chicago Press)