I came across an anthology of ancient writings published in the US in 1950s: Readings in the History of the Ancient World. The section on Ancient Eygpt contains a inscription from the Tomb of Uni, an old kingdom official detailing his military actions on behalf of the pharaoh. There are many references to combat against the “Negroes” of the Northlands, and “Sand-dwelling Asiatics”.
What are the original Egyptian terms that have been translated as these in the (1950s) English? Are they actually vaguely equivalent (albeit unpleasant to the modern reader) terms? Or does this translation owe more to the racial politics of early 20th century America than how the Old Kingdom Egyptians described ethnic groups.
They’re not really the same - the Egyptians were at various times either allied with, ruled by, conquering or ruling over their various neighbours, but the antagonism wasn’t racial, just somewhat xenophobic - if you weren’t Egyptian, you didn’t really count.
There’s the famous cane that was found in Tut’s tomb, with the traditional enemies of Egypt carved on the handle (i.e. under the Pharaoh’s grip): one Asiatic, one Nubian.
So does the term literally translate as “Nubian” (as in someone from Nubia), or is it (as the authors of that book suggest) an ethnic term referring to appearance of the people?
It means Nubian (or, at least, one kind of Nubian at first)- the name for the region came first, then was applied to the tribe that lived there - see that Wikipedia article for Medjay.
Note that the actual name Nubia waaaay postdates Dynastic Egypt, the area immediately South of Kemet was known as Kush…
If you google Hapshetsut Temple Relief you will find plenty of depictions of the Nubians and people from the Land of Punt (3 downs south of Nubia?). She sent her navy along the Red Sea out to bypass Nubia and see what lay below that. There’s some depictions of various African scenes such as houses on stilts.
This appears to show a well-known African pigmy body shape:
A large number of various temple carvings show various pharaohs in combat with and smiting their enemies of assorted ethnic extractions; Mesopotamians (Babylonians, Hittites, Persians etc.) easily recognized by their characteristic hats and beards. In other scenes these conquered kings bow down to the pharaoh. Of particular note is the depictin of one famous battle, where the carving depicts the pharaoh receiving the severed hands of enemies - he paid a bounty for each right hand. When he figured out he was being swindled with a few extra left hands, too - the next carving shows him receiving piles of genitals cut off fallen enemy…
Yes read the wikipedia entry…
When you read through the roles of the Medjay in Old Kingdom society, it may well be understood as Negro…
valuable serfs used for specific roles such as policing and guarding… tall strong , good, endurance…
the name then comes to mean Elite Guard… who are you employing in your guard ?if there are Negro’s there… to the north west, at the shore of the Med, then ?
