Endnote 9 – Were the Ancient Egyptians Black or White?

Jean-Philippe Lauer, Saqqara (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976), p. 31 and pl. 15. Among the reserve heads (substitute portrait heads, intended to replace the mummy if it is destroyed) of Pharaoh Khufu’s relatives excavated from their tombs at Giza, one woman’s stands out with much stronger negroid features than those of her typically Egyptian husband, or of the other members of Khufu’s family. These heads are noted as very realistic depictions of their owners. See William Stevenson Smith, Ancient Egypt: As Represented in the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 6th ed. 1960), pp. 34–35, fig. 11; contrast with figs. 10, 12 and 13.