The first point of importance which seems to us to be fully established is the stability
of the racial elements which are found. These seem to have been little influenced by
invasion and immigration, and preserve their identity in a remarkable degree in spite of
the fact that there must have been frequent crossing. It may be that the parent stocks
were reinforced from time to time by fresh accessions; and there is a certain amount of
evidence that this happened in some instances, though the facts before us do not allow us
to assume that these additions have had much permanent influence on the predominant
stocks. For we are bound to recognize the remarkable circumstance that the racial
elements just before the commencement of mediaeval history are practically the same that
they were in the earliest Chalcolithic age.
The evidence which has been adduced demonstrates conclusively that the ancient
population of Upper Egypt was not composed of a single race-stock, but even in the earliest
days was made up of diverse elements. This we regard as one of the most substantial
results of our inquiry, since it disposes at once of the long-continued dispute as to the
‘ Caucasian ’ or the ‘ African’ origin of f the Egyptian race/ It is unnecessary to go more
minutely into the arguments on which this opinion is based since they have been fully
elaborated in the text of the preceding pages. But the reader may be reminded that
whilst we were unable to classify the skulls according to cranial form, the appearance of
the fa cia l skeleton was such as to enable us to recognize two distinct groups, viz. one with
characteristics which are universally admitted to be negroid, and the other with characteristics
which, whatever they may be, are certainly non-negroid.
The reader may not only satisfy himself of the truth of these assertions by reference
to the measurements and the schematic diagrams, but may have ocular demonstration
if he examines the plates of photographs, which, be it noted, have not been specially
selected, but include virtually all the skulls which were available for graphic representation.
(Plates VI and VII.)
As regards the negroid element, the immediate proximity of Nubia to the geographical
area under consideration naturally suggests an influence from that quarter. The boundaries
of Egypt were early extended as far south as the first cataract, and campaigns against the
negroes are constantly mentioned in chronicles of every date. With the non-negroid stock,
however, the problem is more difficult. There are at least five directions from which it
might originally have entered the country, viz. North-West Africa, the sea-coast of the
Delta, the Sinaitic peninsula, the Red Sea at Kosseir, and Abyssinia. That is to say
that prima facie it might have been affiliated to the Berber-Libyan, to some other Mediterranean,
or to a Semitic stock, supposing that it did not originate from yet another
source as yet wholly undetermined. The question is one on which no definite pronouncement
can yet be made, since the physical characteristics of these races in ancient times
have not yet been satisfactorily determined. We must be content to have succeeded in
isolating this ethnic factor and must leave its precise identification as a subject for
future research1.
A natural but unjustifiable prejudice inclines the theorist to suppose that black men,
who in modern days have generally belonged to slave or subject populations, must
1 A s bearing on a controversy which is not yet extinct, it ma y be pointed out that the conclusions here arrived
at are quite destructive o f the Libyo-Egyptian theory in the form in which it was put forward b y the authors o f
Nagada and Balias. T h e foundation o f the theory was the idea that the archaic population differed from that o f
later times. W e have found that on the contrary the component factors were the same from first to last, and that
the negroid, which is certainly a non-Libyan element, is represented in its strongest form in the earliest periods.
necessarily have always held that position. But this was not the case in the most ancient
times in E gypt; for during the Predynastic periods at any rate the negroids, judging from
the character of their graves, were the social equals of the others. It is possible that the
non-negroids gained the upper hand in later times, and perhaps it may be significant that
the negroid factor is almost unrepresented amongst the males of the Royal Tombs of the
first two Dynasties. But it forms a sixth part of the high-class population buried at
Abydos in the Eighteenth Dynasty, so that evidently the negroid men held their own with
the aristocracy of that time; and again the relative proportions of negroid and non-negroid
are almost the same in the low-class population of Shekh Ali as among the nobility and
wealthy folk of Abydos.
Both races underwent certain modifications at various times. Some of these modifications
are progressive and may accordingly be regarded as evolutional changes. Thus the
negroid element in spite of occasional reinforcements, while it retained the characteristic
broad nose and broad face, had lost by Roman times a great deal of that prognathism
which is so marked a characteristic of the pure-blooded negro and which was very noticeable
in the earliest periods. The only other great progressive change is confined to the
female population and is concerned with a reduction of stature. From the paucity of the
material available it is difficult to decide whether the reduction was more marked in one
race-stock than in the other; but the fact is unquestionable that the femoral length,
and therefore presumably the stature, of the general female population steadily decreased
all through the history.
Besides these changes, which were more or less progressive, there were others of a less
stable and more transient kind. The least variable characteristics throughout are the
facial and the nasal indices, which we have seen to be the best features by which to
differentiate the two races. Obviously intermarriage slightly affected the two respective
stocks at various times, so that occasionally the negroid influence broadens the face and
nose of the non-negroid part of the population by a unit or two, and vice versa. But there
seems to be always a strong tendency to revert to the original types, and accordingly in
the Roman period, the latest with which we deal, the facial features of the two individual
race-stocks reappear each in their most pronounced form.
In contrast with the characteristics of the face, those of the cranium vary greatly.
The capacity and the cephalic index seem to be closely correlated, and a rise in the one is
generally accompanied by a rise in the other. In this connexion it may be observed that
it is cranial capacity alone which serves to distinguish the skulls of the superior social
classes from those of the inferior folk. This is particularly noticeable when the Abydos
specimens of the Twelfth to Fifteenth and the Eighteenth Dynasties are compared with
those of the same date from other sites.
If it is borne in mind that these particular differences in cranial capacity are due to
distinctions of class and standing it will be difficult to say that there has been a progressive
change in the cranial characteristics, with one exception, which is that, between the Early
Predynastic period and the First Dynasty, there is a steady rise in cranial capacity (to some
extent accompanied by a rise in cephalic index) to be observed both in the males and in
the females. Such evidence as is available does not suggest that this is due to increase
in stature; for though the femoral length of the First Dynasty males is apparently greater
than usual (in a series which is too small to admit of safe conclusions), that of the females
remains unchanged. We may therefore reasonably regard this increase in cranial capacity
as due to the influence of civilization and higher culture, which seems to have affected the