A review of "Genesis of the Pharaohs: Dramatic New Discoveries Rewrite the Origins of Ancient Egypt" by Toby Wilkinson.
When I
first saw this book, I thought it was a pseudo-scientific, sensationalist book
written by some Velikovskian. Its title and cover certainly conveys that
impression. Indeed, it might be quite deliberate. Toby Wilkinson presumably
wants to reach out to those who mostly read "alternative" books about
ancient Egypt. In reality, the book is solid science.
What makes the book interesting is that it refutes the idea that Egyptian civilization came from the outside, from the Middle East, read: not from Africans. This is known as the "Dynastic Race" theory. Recently, this theory has been popularized by pop musician-cume-maverick Egyptologist David Rohl. Wilkinson belongs to another faction within Egyptology, the one that has began to take the African roots of Egypt seriously.
According to Wilkinson, many aspects of Pharaonic civilization existed, at least in embryo, already during the pre-Dynastic period in Upper(southern) Egypt. Tribal rulers were burried in small, pyramid-shaped mounds. The boat and the cow were important religious symbols. We know from other studies that the Afro-asiatic ("Semito-Hamitic") languages originated in Ethiopia. This all points to an essentially African origin of Egyptian civilization. There is a continuity between the pastoralists roaming the Sahara, pre-Dynastic culture proper, and Dynastic culture. Mesopotamia had nothing to do with it.
Will Wilkinson's ideas stand further scientific scrutiny? True, archeology is by its very nature an inexact science. But personally, I believe he and others like him are on the right track.
Ancient Egypt might indeed have been "a Black thing".
What makes the book interesting is that it refutes the idea that Egyptian civilization came from the outside, from the Middle East, read: not from Africans. This is known as the "Dynastic Race" theory. Recently, this theory has been popularized by pop musician-cume-maverick Egyptologist David Rohl. Wilkinson belongs to another faction within Egyptology, the one that has began to take the African roots of Egypt seriously.
According to Wilkinson, many aspects of Pharaonic civilization existed, at least in embryo, already during the pre-Dynastic period in Upper(southern) Egypt. Tribal rulers were burried in small, pyramid-shaped mounds. The boat and the cow were important religious symbols. We know from other studies that the Afro-asiatic ("Semito-Hamitic") languages originated in Ethiopia. This all points to an essentially African origin of Egyptian civilization. There is a continuity between the pastoralists roaming the Sahara, pre-Dynastic culture proper, and Dynastic culture. Mesopotamia had nothing to do with it.
Will Wilkinson's ideas stand further scientific scrutiny? True, archeology is by its very nature an inexact science. But personally, I believe he and others like him are on the right track.
Ancient Egypt might indeed have been "a Black thing".
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