The generalisation that we were originally quite aryan is quite an unfounded one. Admittedly there were a lot of blondes and dare I say it gingers but jet black hair is an extremely celtic characteristic as well. The French involvement in the 11th century brought a lot of nobility over from France but actually the common people did not change very much at all. My earliest ancestor has a French name but it was Anglicised to the surname that I now have. As a nation we have Scandanavian, Italian, Germanic, French, Irish, Scottish and Spanish blood. In all fairness we are almost as much a mongrel race as Egypt or even modern day America.

The world is getting smaller after all!

[Skulls are more similar to those found in the Northern Sudan and less similar to those found in West Africa, Palestine, and Turkey. It seems that there has been some genetic continuity from Predynastic time through the Middle Kingdom, after which there was a considerable infiltration into the Nile Valley from outside populations. That the Egyptians by and large were dark is certain, and many must have been what we today call "black."]
--- http://www.catchpenny.org/race.html

This whole topic reminded me of a incident in High School, in social studies class. We had two visitors from Saudi Arabia one was light skined (a yellowish complextion) the other was what Afro-Americans call blue-black, the darkest complexion you skin can get. They approached the class and introduced themselves, they then mentioned that they are brothers. I looked around the class and just about everyone was scratching there heads except for the few Black ones and one Indian student (I went to a predominantly white High School). The students inocently and curiously asked how can they be brothers? They replied only you Americans ask that questions. Me myself, I have a person of every complexion in my family from almost white to very dark, so being a black person the 2 Saudis werent beyond my realm comprehension.

If Wesley snipes (dark), Aaliyah (light), Tisha campbell (light), and Martin Lawrence(dark), were in ancient egypt, most likley we would be arguing wither or not Aaliyah and Tisha campbell were white. However because of the complexion we would assume that Wesley and Martin were Nubians, its such and American mindset to try to catagorize solely according to color.

In closing its all a matter of perception, the fact is that the Egyptians were mixed, however mainly "Black/African" and "Arabic/Semites" and according to genitic research euopean ancestry accounted up to 4% to 8% of the genetic makeup of the people. The truth is its hard to except the facts when in the past there has been many lies and deceptions done in the name of politics and racisim. If someone told me that Jesus was really Chineese and I was raised thinking that he was Hawaiian and he was indeed Chineese I would have problems excepting it. Most people have been taught flat out that the egyptians were white Blond haired and Blue eyed Just read "Catcher in the Rye". Unfortunalty that is not true. If we all except the facts and broden our minds we will accomplish great things like the Ancient Egyptians whom did not have the disadvantage of the concept of race.

ciao Coolcochise!
I agree with you for most of what you wrote.....I wish to add few more things that I think important.... There have always been separation between the north and the south of Ancient Egypt under lots of aspects....the lotus flower and the papyrus are clear symbols of these identifications of this separation. The other thing is that it is important to consider that the northern side, the delta area, was subject to high levels of trade and changes between the people from the mediterranean area, so also "kind" of people belonging to other phenotype, from european side, greek and turkish and so on...it was already mixed....the Southern side was of course less involved, for geografical reasons: they were simply far....so the Nubian phenotype didn't change that much...(to shorten a little..)...
Cia'