ABSTRACT
Ancient Egypt shows the essential characteristics of a state, having a strong sense of its own identity which was widely felt as an imagined community living within defined boundaries and recognizable through language and outward appearance. The sense of identity was reinforced by contrasts with strongly developed stereotypes of peoples living beyond, particularly in Nubia, Libya and western Asia (Sinai, Palestine and Syria). Yet although disparaged and regularly made the victims of invasion, they continued to enter Egypt, sometimes in large numbers. Once there, they were seen as useful, especially as soldiers and workers, and the way was open to assimilation. The chapter considers the uneven archaeological record of immigration to the Nile valley. It then takes up the debate as to whether we are right to think that the ancient world comprised different races and whether the ancient Egyptians were a black population. Physical anthropology offers ambiguous answers, and actually undermines the very concept that ‘races’ are a meaningful subdivision of humanity. The ancient Egyptians emerge as a heterogeneous people united and identifiable by being the bearers of a particular culture.
