page_title: Black Egyptian hypothesis
section_title: Sculpture and the Sphinx
hierarchical_section_title: Black Egyptian hypothesis / Sculpture and the Sphinx
caption_attribution_description: Photo of a fragmentary statue of Queen Tiy. New Kingdom, circa 1355 B.C. Image taken at the Altes Museum, Berlin.
context_page_description: The Black Egyptian hypothesis states that ancient Egypt was a predominantly Black civilization, as the term is currently understood in modern American ethnic perception. It includes a particular focus on identifying links to Sub-Saharan cultures and the questioning of the race of specific notable individuals from Dynastic times, including Tutankhamun, the king represented in the Great Sphinx of Giza, and Greek Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra.
  The hypothesis is primarily adopted by Afrocentrists. while Asante maintains that Diop predates the term. Advocates of the hypothesis believe race is commonly used by historians, the black racial category was comprehensive enough to absorb the various phenotypes in Ancient Egypt, and "many of the most powerful Egyptian dynasties...one can usefully call black."
  Mainstream scholars reject the notion that Egypt was a black civilization; they maintain that, despite the phenotypic diversity of Ancient and present day Egyptians, applying modern notions of black or white races to ancient Egypt is anachronistic.
context_section_description: This debate is best characterized by the controversy over the Great Sphinx of Giza.  Scholars supportive of the Black Egyptian hypothesis reviewed Egyptian sculpture from throughout the dynastic period and concluded that the sculptures were consistent with the phenotype of the black race.
  Around 1785 Volney stated, "When I visited the sphinx...on seeing that head, typically Negro in all its features, I remembered...Herodotus says: "...the Egyptians...are black with woolly hair"..." Another early description of a "Negroid" Sphinx is recorded in the travel notes of a French scholar, who visited in Egypt between 1783 and 1785, Constantin-François Chassebœuf along with French novelist Gustave Flaubert.  A similar description was given in the "well-known book" by Baron V. Denon, where he described the sphinx as "the character is African; but the mouth, the lips of which are thick."    Following the 18-19th century writings, numerous scholars, such as DuBois, Diop, and Asante have characterized the face of the Sphinx as Black, or "Negroid". 
  The identity of the model for the Great Sphinx of Giza is unknown. Virtually all Egyptologists and scholars currently believe that the face of the Sphinx represents the likeness of the Pharaoh Khafra, although a few Egyptologists and interested amateurs have proposed several different hypotheses.
  David S. Anderson writes in Lost City, Found Pyramid: Understanding Alternative Archaeologies and Pseudoscientific Practices that Van Sertima's claim that "the sphinx was a portrait statue of the black pharoah Khafre" is a form of "pseudoarchaeology" not supported by evidence. He compares it to the claim that Olmec colossal heads had "African origins", which is not taken seriously by Mesoamerican scholars such as Richard Diehl and Ann Cyphers.
  Queen Tiye is an example of the controversy, as some such as American journalist Michael Specter and Felicity Barringer's 'revisionists' describe her sculpture as that of a "black African", while Yurco describes her mummy as having 'long, wavy brown hair, a high-bridged, arched nose and moderately thin lips."
caption: Queen Tiye; Grandmother of Pharaoh Tutankhamun
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