After someone made a lovely Wikipedia page on the mummy of Takabuti, saying that “Researcher Angela Stienne accused the investigators of wanting to prove that ancient Egyptians were white” here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takabuti  let me do a short thread as to what I meant & why it matters

The headline was “Shocking truth behind Takabuti’s death revealed”:
“The team (...) also show that her DNA is more genetically similar to Europeans rather than modern Egyptian populations.” https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/shocking-truth-behind-takabutis-death-revealed/

In response to this comment: “My results agree with previous studies about ancient Egyptians being more genetically similar to Europeans than modern day Arabs.”, there was widespread concern this the reporting could be misleading as to the diversity in origins in ancient Egypt.

When I was contacted by @MuseumsAssoc we had a long conversation where I pointed out the risk that these phrasings would be misunderstood as a general comment that ancient Egyptiens were more europeans. I didn’t deny the result of this study but lack of contextual grounding.

Why is context important? A LONG history of europeans claiming ancient Egyptians were white people.

In 1836 on Georges Cuvier: “He concluded that the Egyptians belonged to the same race of men as the Europeans.”

The Egyptian skulls he studied were contrasted with black bodies.

Cuvier: black people didn’t give “birth to the celebrated people who established civilisation in ancient Egypt and from whom one could say that the entire world has inherited the principle of law, science and perhaps even religion.”

Studies of Egyptian mummies are NOT NEUTRAL.