DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4863#0088
APPENDIX D
REPRESENTATIONS OF OLD AGE
(NOTE TO VOLUME I, p. 63)
THIS tomb affords an unusual number of examples of men having
an aspect that at times is strangely in contrast with the ordinary facial
type. Less marked examples in other tombs have passed without much
comment, but these, as well as some rather striking figures in the tomb
of Paheri at El Kab, have led some critics to suspect, or even feel confi-
dent, that we have to do here with a non-indigenous race or strain
(Petrie, Racial Types, No. 672; Rurchardt-Meyer, Darstellungen d. Fremd-
volker, Nos. 635, 786-790; Maspero, Struggle of the Nations, p. 58; Wres-
zinski, Atlas, 3o, 54). Wreszinski says, "They differ in feature so widely
from their Egyptian fellow-workmen that they cannot in any case be con-
sidered as belonging to the same people." He therefore regards them as
"Libyan slaves" or "inhabitants of the Delta, of Libyan origin." My first
inclination was in the same direction, but closer study showed me that the
impression of a strange physiognomy was a mistaken one, due solely to the
lack of hair, which not only revealed a flat cranium and bulging occiput,
but contrasted strongly with the steep brow, the thick hair, arched crown,
and beardless chin of the typical Egyptian. The profile remains the same,
and the special traits are no more than the signs of old age, viz., the dis-
appearance of the hair on the crown and forehead (where, however, a tuft
may survive), and an unusual growth of hair on the back of the head and
chin due to disinclination to personal tidiness. The dislike of the Egyp-
tian to long hair and the beard is probably much exaggerated by us, since
we follow pictures which set forth an ideal of attention to the person by
73
REPRESENTATIONS OF OLD AGE
(NOTE TO VOLUME I, p. 63)
THIS tomb affords an unusual number of examples of men having
an aspect that at times is strangely in contrast with the ordinary facial
type. Less marked examples in other tombs have passed without much
comment, but these, as well as some rather striking figures in the tomb
of Paheri at El Kab, have led some critics to suspect, or even feel confi-
dent, that we have to do here with a non-indigenous race or strain
(Petrie, Racial Types, No. 672; Rurchardt-Meyer, Darstellungen d. Fremd-
volker, Nos. 635, 786-790; Maspero, Struggle of the Nations, p. 58; Wres-
zinski, Atlas, 3o, 54). Wreszinski says, "They differ in feature so widely
from their Egyptian fellow-workmen that they cannot in any case be con-
sidered as belonging to the same people." He therefore regards them as
"Libyan slaves" or "inhabitants of the Delta, of Libyan origin." My first
inclination was in the same direction, but closer study showed me that the
impression of a strange physiognomy was a mistaken one, due solely to the
lack of hair, which not only revealed a flat cranium and bulging occiput,
but contrasted strongly with the steep brow, the thick hair, arched crown,
and beardless chin of the typical Egyptian. The profile remains the same,
and the special traits are no more than the signs of old age, viz., the dis-
appearance of the hair on the crown and forehead (where, however, a tuft
may survive), and an unusual growth of hair on the back of the head and
chin due to disinclination to personal tidiness. The dislike of the Egyp-
tian to long hair and the beard is probably much exaggerated by us, since
we follow pictures which set forth an ideal of attention to the person by
73