5,500-year-old mummy murder mystery revealed

[Still Waters]

Forensic scientists have moved closer to solving a 5,500-year-old cold case crime after new technology allowed them to study fatal wounds on the body of a famous mummy.

The corpse, known officially as the Gebelein Man, has been nicknamed Ginger due to his red hair and seen by millions of visitors to the British Museum.

http://www.telegraph...er-mystery.html

[Abramelin]

"It is not known whether Ginger’s murderer was ever caught."

I hope they find him, the b****** !!

[kmt_sesh]

Really interesting, Still Waters. I've been familiar with Ginger for years but had no idea he was murdered.

Where is CSI when you need it?

[JGirl]

i'm amazed it is so well preserved considering it was in a shallow grave

[Simbi Laveau]

Interesting . Wasn't Ramses a red head,which was considered heinous by the people ,initially ,as it was not part of the genetics of the locals or previous rulers ? Makes ya say hmmmmmmm.......

I wonder what the chronology of his life is,in relation to when Ramses ruled .

[kmt_sesh]

Interesting . Wasn't Ramses a red head,which was considered heinous by the people ,initially ,as it was not part of the genetics of the locals or previous rulers ? Makes ya say hmmmmmmm.......

I wonder what the chronology of his life is,in relation to when Ramses ruled .

Ramesses died in 1212 BCE. We can't be nearly as precise about the death of Ginger, a prehistoric man, but it was probably around 3400 BCE. This means the two men lived well over 2,000 years apart. Probably no connection there.

[freetoroam]

Chances are the murderer has fled the country by now. They had better inform interpol.

[Simbi Laveau]

Ramesses died in 1212 BCE. We can't be nearly as precise about the death of Ginger, a prehistoric man, but it was probably around 3400 BCE. This means the two men lived well over 2,000 years apart. Probably no connection there.

Ahh,that's what I wanted to know. Too bad .Could have made for an interesting royal murder mystery .

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

I can see it now:

"There's no statute of limitations ... *puts on sunglasses* on murder" YEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!

[LRW]

Another red haired mummy, hmm more fire to the argument that the ancient royalty in the region were fair skinned, light eyed and light haired and did not look like modern egyptians.

[kmt_sesh]

Another red haired mummy, hmm more fire to the argument that the ancient royalty in the region were fair skinned, light eyed and light haired and did not look like modern egyptians.

You are kidding, right? Please tell me you're kidding.

This is not the first time I've encountered this idea about the prehistoric mummy known as Ginger. However, the only place I myself have seen it mentioned—and I do not exaggerate—is on eurocentric, white-supremist websites. Obviously such venues are devoid of scientific and research value and are not to be taken seriously. They are as ill informed (if not more so, and more given to ignorance and hate) than afrocentric ideas.

I am not claiming you fall into this camp, LRW, but you're statement can be read in several ways. Most of them not favorably. Perhaps you wish to clarify?

But for the sake of historical veracity, pharaonic Egypt was an African civilization with a wide variety of ethnicities and races in its population. From the start it was a mix of very dark-skinned people and lighter-skinned people. In this case, however, "lighter-skinned" certainly does not involve white people such as Europeans. They would've been more on the order of the shade of skin one sees in modern Libya or among Palestinians and Syrians.

Mind you, most of our knowledge of this does not come from ancient records, inscriptions, or monuments. It mostly comes from the modern scientific studies of genetics and ancient migration patterns. It's perfectly clear most ancient peoples did not possess the ugly racial baggage that weighs us down today. In the case of ancient Egypt, for instance, they could not have cared less what color your skin was. All that mattered was the fact that you were Egyptian. In their mind, if you were not Egyptian, regardless of skin color or wider ethnic considerations, there was something simply inferior about you. The ancient Egyptians were xenophobic. In their language, which reflects their thoughts, words for "foreigner" intrinsically denoted someone not to be trusted. There are no words in their ancient language that can be identified as "black" and "white" that are familiar to us modern folk, in reference to people.

The Greeks were much the same way, if not more so. While they were always curious about foreigners and interested in learning about their customs and traditions, they still regarded foreigners as inferior. Our word "barbarian" comes from their descriptor barbaros for foreigners. It originally referred to the speech of foreigners, which sounded like "bar-bar-bar" to their Greek ears, but eventually became a derogatory word.

As far as the racial makeup of pharaohs, it can be tricky to identify in many cases. But not all. Seti I and his son and successor, Ramesses II, for example, most likely hailed from the north end of Egypt and were most likely of strong Semitic backgrounds. The features of their mummified faces seem to reflect this. They may have been fairly light skinned, and it's been demonstrated that in life Ramesses II had reddish-tinted hair. The great Tuthnmoside kings of Dynasty 18, on the other hand, hailed from the south end of Egypt and were most likely dark skinned. This would include some of the greatest conquerers such as Tuthmosis I and Tuthmosis III, the powerful female pharaoh Hatshepsut, the wealthy and powerful Amunhotep III, and of course the boy-king Tutankhmaun.

As far as Europeans go, the first we can confidently identify who interacted with Egypt were the Mycenaeans, the forerunners of the classical Greeks. This would've coincided roughly with the Egyptian New Kingdom, beginning c. 1550 BCE.

Egypt was a racial and ethnic mix from the very beginning, at all levels of their society. Eurocentric arguments to the contrary fall flat in the face of science. I've always held that one of the reasons Egypt was so successful as a civilization was its melting-pot population.