←back to thread

149 points A_D_E_P_T | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.235s | source
Show context
eddythompson80 ◴[] No.44450865[source]
I'll have to bookmark it for later to spend more time than just skimming, but I find 2 things interesting. The lack of any Egyptian archeologists on most interesting and significant findings about Ancient Egypt is one. The other is the seemingly strong conclusion that Ancient Egyptians did in fact move to Egypt from Mesopotamian which is pretty cool.

Egyptians don't like the notion that "they moved there from somewhere". They claim their own unique, uninterrupted, history and connection to the land as well as their civilizational independence from Mesopotamian, Asia Minor, Europe, and Africa.

It's also the same you rarely find Egyptian archeologists/scholars on scientific papers. While this might be a matter of ancient history and science to everyone, it's a matter of current day politics for Egyptians and especially the Egyptian government. The "findings" of the paper has to agree with the narrative built and proposed by the ministry of antiquities or they will literally charge whoever publishes it with a national crime.

replies(18): >>44451004 #>>44451019 #>>44451037 #>>44451074 #>>44451130 #>>44451245 #>>44451366 #>>44451932 #>>44452191 #>>44452447 #>>44452572 #>>44452575 #>>44453486 #>>44454027 #>>44454669 #>>44455890 #>>44458266 #>>44461002 #
prmph ◴[] No.44451019[source]
And where did the Mesopotamians move from? If you don't see the political context of the science then too bad.

Like, you know people till now take pride in the exploits and culture of their supposed ancient ancestors, never mind that for the the vast majority of people, there is no simple and direct line from some ancient illustrious people to them.

The latent political context is the assumption driving the research, that Egyptian culture had to have come from somewhere else, so let's go look for it. You see the same thing when evidence of cultural achievements elsewhere in Africa is unearthed.

Of course you will find a somewhere else, no matter how tenuous the connection, in which case my first sentence above comes into play: let's keep finding the somewhere else until we all get back to Africa, supposedly the birthplace of it all.

EDIT: Since this is being misunderstood, this what I actually mean: For some reason, this finding somewhere else is not applied consistently. Either we should keep finding the somewhere else for all cultures for as far back as we can, or else stop with this nonsensical subtext that just because a culture has some roots from elsewhere, so therefore it cannot have made innovations by itself beyond its supposed origins.

replies(3): >>44451080 #>>44451458 #>>44454617 #
1. Spooky23 ◴[] No.44454617[source]
One of the problems with modern discourse is everyone has a platform, myself included, and grievance and pride tend to make compelling narratives. There’s alot of quacking and noise.

There’s no dishonor in learning more and figuring it out. People babbling about stealing “dibs” from Africa are intellectually not really understanding what they are reading and applying their 2025 perspectives and problems to people hundreds of generations ago who had no conception of Africa, Europe and Asia as artifacts as we see them today.

Think about the situation on the ground. Egypt was the closest thing to Eden on earth. Mesopotamia was the birthplace, in the region if not the world, of the next level of urbanization and state power and economics. So yeah, no doubt through intermarriage, trade, teaching and migration the knowledge of Mesopotamia spread and influenced the Nile… and to great effect… the Egyptian civilization thrived for many centuries.