Jesus of African Heritage. :)

Here we go some links :) Everytime I receive the WatchTower, I'm inspired by the content, yet, disappointed that the depiction of Christ is incorrect. :( If we are to raise issues of how he was crucified (on a stake and not a cross) then is it not valid to raise issues as to his depiction? IN fact all the depiction of his brothers and sisters? Some links to enlighten all for those who have not become aware of such information. :) Our knowledge is progressive. :)

http://www.africanbynature.com/eyes/openeyes_dreamingnonwhite.html

http://www.kloster-einsiedeln.ch/webseite/images/madonna3.jpg
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/revue.shakti/vnmarsat.jpg

http://www.vwvagabonds.com/CristoNegro.html
http://sunsite.utk.edu/lewis/lew34.jpg

http://www.velmajaywedding.com/zurich/barcelona/640x480/dscn0014.jpg
http://www.il-sestante.it/pagina_cronaca_roan.htm

http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/runoko.html What was the ethnicity of Jesus Christ, the Messiah?

By: Dr. Malachi Z. York

Have archeologist discovered the race of Jesus?

This is a very touchy subject because of the adverse racism that has been instilled in the hearts of many. The educational system has spent much time and effort in racial inferiority and racial superiority, but was it based on facts? Were the results the conclusion of research and confirmation? Well let?s see, because the British Broadcasting Channel, known as BBC, has distributed a VHS titled, ?Where Archeologist Uncovered Some Astonishing Facts.? But before we venture down that road, let me first establish that this article is not an attempt at racial superiority. In fact, for the 400 years that African Americans have been kidnapped from their land, taken into slavery and taught the European, Roman, Gentile version of Christianity, we have accepted without question that Jesus Christ was a Caucasian. His race didn?t matter to us. We loved him for whom he is. We proudly decorated our houses and our churches with the pictures made available to us. We wore the crucifix around our necks proudly even though the sculpture would go out their way to imply that he had straight to wavy, shoulder length hair like Europeans. We put up no fight or resistance because this was the Son of God, and we didn?t know any better because we didn?t control the media. We didn?t control the publications or the Bibles with pictures that depicted him as a European, and we were deprived of the education that would give us access to doing our own research. How were we to know that when you look at a group of African Americans called Negroes, and you saw all different types of features, that we were looking at different tribes clustered together sold and distributed throughout the land. We were given English translations of the Bible and watched it change year after year to new versions. So if the BBC with the Discovery Channel has uncovered this new evidence, needless to say, we think everyone should know. And the way Blacks willfully accepted Jesus Christ when he was White, our White Christian brothers and sisters should equally accept Jesus Christ now that Whites have discovered that in fact, he was a Negro. The video is available through the Discovery Channel E7008, and it?s entitled, ?Jesus: The Complete Story.? It runs for 2 hours and 36 minutes.

Many radical racist Negro groups have yelled that Jesus is Black and the KKK are advocates that Jesus was White. Research to date has yielded that the bodies of Mary of Magdalene, Martha, and Lazarus tombs have been discovered with their names, and a study has shown through DNA, the bone examination, that the people of the village of Magdella, where they lived were in fact Negroes. It doesn?t stop there, Acts Chapter 13:1 reads, ?Now there was in the church that was in Antioch certain prophets and teachers: as Barnabas and Simon that was called Niger?? The Greek word being used in this quote means Black-skinned. ?Niger? is from ancient Roman, which became Latin ?Nagra? used to this present day for Negroes as well as Moranos (Moors), meaning a Black person. So we find that Jesus? prophets, teachers, his own disciples, relatives, his associates like Mary of Magdalene, were Negroes. This led archeologists to begin to excavate in Judea, the city of Bethlehem mentioned in Matthew chapter 2 as the place where Jesus was born. And verse 2 states saying, ?Where is he that is born king of the Jews.? The word Jew did not come into existence until 1514 A.D. It is a transliteration for Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, twin brother to Esau, sons of Issac, son of Abraham, who was Asyerian from Asshur Genesis Chapter 10:6-14. Within that line of descendants, you find Asshur in verse 11; these were descendants from the sons of Ham, which means burnt black and has been verified to be Sudan today, a Negro Arab country. And Cush, which the Bible confirms is Ethiopia, is a Negro country today. And these were all one bloodline, one family coming from Adam and Eve through Seth through Enos and on down. It is clear that this was one group of people and they are still in existence today, and trace their family line back through the scriptures. Then they mention Mizraim, which we know is ancient Egypt. These ancient Nubians were also Negroids. Next, you have Phut, which is ancient carthage, became known as Libya and was ruled by a Negro pharaoh call Sheshek. These are facts that you can research. Evidence has been uncovered to prove these things beyond a shadow of doubt. And if we step out of the Bible into archeology, the oldest human bones discovered is Kenyapathicus, and that?s in the area that we just talked about - Sudan, Kenya, etc. As you trace the seed down to Noah, something strange happens in the Bible. Genesis 5:32 clearly tells you that Noah was five hundred years old and Noah begat (which means gave birth to) of course through his wife three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Man is only five hundred years old once in a lifetime. That is only for one year and let me set the record straight right here. I read Hebrew, so I am not depending on an English translation for my findings. In Genesis 7:6, it says Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters is upon the earth to confirm that they are talking about one year at a time. Why am I making this point? Because the confusers would have you to believe that Shem, Ham and Japheth born of the same father, Noah and mother Namah, gave birth to three different races of children. And that?s not true; they were triplets born in Noah? s 500th year of life. And God calls Noah perfect in his generation. Genesis 6:9 reads, ?These are the generations of Noah? The word for generation in Hebrew is hdlwt towldah to-led-aw? or hdlt toldah to-led-aw? and means genealogy or birth from the Hebrew root Yelad. This verse says that Noah?s genes had not been mixed, that it came straight down, and God says that he was perfect in his generations. So that was not a racial mixture at that point. It was still one pure holy seed and God noted it trying to protect the seed of the woman from the serpent as mentioned in Genesis 3:15- protecting her bloodline from the venomous blood from the seed of the serpent. The Hebrew word for ?seed? is Zira, and literally means seed as an offspring. So the Devil has an offspring and his seed will try to bite the heel of Eve?s seed. And God is protecting that Holy seed for a very special purpose. So as we go down from Noah through his sons, we find that Ham?s son Canaan received a curse in Gen. 9:25. Which we later find in Leviticus, chapters 13 and 14, was leprosy. But the other sons came under Shem. So now you have Shem, Ham and Japheth (triplets), three Negroes. That takes us to Genesis chapter 10 as mentioned earlier, where we find that the son Japheth had sons, and their sons mixed in and according to verse 5, to produce the Gentiles or Goyim. These are called the people of Javan, Japheth?s son. And when you look them up, you get Nwy Yavan yaw-vawn? Javan =? Ionia? or ?Greece?. So the Greeks according to the Bible are the original Gentiles or nation other than the holy seed or chosen people. This is your first mixture in of a foreign race into the Negro race, and they became known as Gentiles, which also means Heathens.

Genesis 10:6 picks up again, and puts you back in the hands of Ham, Sudan which is Africa; Cush which is Ethiopia, Africa; Mizraim is Egypt, Africa; Phut which is Carthage or Libya, Africa and then Canaan, who was cursed with Leprosy and found not in Africa but over in the Middle East. Numbers 12:9-10 tells you that God?s anger at Moses? sister, Miriam (who was a Negro), results in her having the curse of leprosy. Research into what Hanson?s disease is or leprosy will give an insight on what he looked like. The word breaks down into Lep Rosy. Now verse 8 says Cush (which is Ethiopia) begat Nimrod, who all theologians register as a Negro. Remember, this is only going to offend you if you?re a racist. Because as I said earlier, before all of these facts were uncovered, before we had access to learning the ancient languages for ourselves and traveling the world to see for ourselves, we as Black folk accepted a Caucasian Christ without question. Let me go on, this family continues on down through the Bible in an unbroken chain until David violates the law by marrying a Canaanite (Hittite), something strictly forbidden by God. In Genesis 24:3-4, he is being told to marry only in his own kindred. And then in Genesis 24:37-38, they use my father?s house. So Abraham was given laws by God not to marry the cursed seed of Canaan who had leprosy because this would damage the perfect genealogy, the perfect bloodline, the holy seed. But David violated that law and sinned by marrying out of his tribe. Nehemiah 13:27 says, ?Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives??

The results of David marrying this Hittite woman, Bathsheba, is the strange description as seen in Song of Solomon chapter 4, where his description changes from a Negro to a Middle Eastern Mulatto, being the Hittites were Caucasians and David, his father, was a Negro. Solomon?s description is: 1. thou are fair, your lock of hair is like goat. That means straight and wavy, not like a sheep, which means woolly and nappy. 2. lips like scarlet, that means reddish lips. Now in 5:10, the description goes on: my beloved is white and ruddy. Verse 14 says his belly is as bright Ivory. As you can see, David committed a sin of marrying amongst the Hittites (Canaanites), which is explained in the book of Ezra Chapter 9:1-2. So a holy seed was infected and could no longer travel down through Solomon. Solomon set up Jerusalem, but Solomon had an older brother named Adonijah (1 Kings 1:5), by David through a Negroid wife, Haggith and this Adonijah was denied his birthright and put in exile and set up the kingdom of Judea to preserve the holy seed, the tribe of Judah. Eventually, Solomon and his band forced the tribes that fell under Judah which were Dina, Asher, Dan, Benjamin, and Issachar, to migrate further down to Yemen up into Ethiopia and spread northward back into their original lands in Africa. Some of the tribal members stayed behind and set up Nazareth, Magdella, Galilee, to name a few of the lands, that to this day still have Negroes that have always been there. You can travel to the lands and see them yourselves.

Jesus was born of the tribe of Judah. Judah was and still are Negroes. Jesus said to his disciples that he was seeking the lost sheep of the House of Israel. The lost sheep, not the whole house of Israel, but those that were sent astray. In John 1:11, Jesus said he came to my own, but his own received him not. In Matthew 10:5-6, he told the disciples not to go into the way of the Gentiles. He would not heal a Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:22-24. Negroes today, know this! You are not Gentiles; you are the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You are from a holy bloodline that has been scattered all over the world. Your hair is like that of a sheep or a lamb. And in Matthew 25:32, Jesus said he separates the sheep from the goat. In Matthew 24:9, Jesus also said, you will be hated by all nations for my sake. Everybody seems to hate the Negro. Jesus said we are the salt of the Earth but we have lost our savour in Matthew 5:13. He said they will chase you out of the Synagogues, and they did in Matthew 10:17 and Mark 13:9. So our traditional Judaic religion of keeping the laws was replaced by a Roman Paulian version of Hellenism and we replaced our synagogues with the new word ?church.?

In Revelation 2:9 and 3:9, he said he knows the blasphemy of those calling themselves Jews (Judah) and are not. So there are those impersonating Judaism who are Europeans by descent. He also says, but there is many of us that do believe on him, and for them he gives the power to become the sons of God in John 1:12. And through him and his blood, and our genealogy we are made heirs to the kingdom of heaven in Romans 8:17. And we shall gather all nations, tongues, and kindreds, as it says in Revelation 7:9. So the gathering of the other people is on the first begotten of the dead, the lost tribe of Judah, the Negro.

Why do I say Judah is Negro? Because the bible uses the word Niger in Acts 13:1 for black. Jesus had a brother named Simon. Matthew 13:55 says, ?Is not this the carpenter?s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?? Verse 55 is asking about Jesus and it mentions one of his brothers being named Simon, who is called Niger in the Book of Acts 13:1. There is no question throughout the bible that the tribe of Judah were Negroes. Even Jeremiah (Jeremiah 14:2) ?Judah mourneth and the gates thereof languish; they are black until the ground and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.? The word for ground in Hebrew is Ura ?erets eh?-rets, and it means earth, as in the rich, black soil of the earth. As opposed to the hmda ?adamah ad-aw-maw? for ground, which is reddish, ruddy or edom.

Although many people may still believe that Jesus Christ looks like a Caucasian, the Bible describes him as a Negro, having brass burnt skin, woolly ?lambs? hair, that?s African features. The Book of Revelation 1:14-15 gives a description of Jesus, ?His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.? This description is no doubt speaking of Jesus, the son of Mary. Notice, Jesus is described as having hair like wool. Many people say ?white like wool.? This is talking about his hair texture. Also, we know for a fact that Jesus was crucified at the age of 36, and would not have white hair. So it meant wool for the texture of his hair, not the color. This is an afro. Jesus is also described as having fiery eyes and feet (skin) of burned brass. If you know anything about brass, you know that it is a combination of 50% cooper, which is reddish brown and zinc, which is dullish gray. This combination would produce a brownish color, and when burned, the brass would become a very dark hue. Many people will try to say that ?feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace? is not speaking of the complexion of Jesus. However, in Lamentations 5:10, it states ??skin black like oven.? You know by reading the next verse, 11 that this is describing the tribe of Judah, ??in the cities of Judah.? Revelations 1:15 says ?and his feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace ?? The Hebrew word for ?oven is rwnt tannuwr tan-noor?, which is defined as ?furnace, oven, fire-pot, (portable) stove.? So, an oven and a furnace is the same thing. Note in Lamentations, his skin is black, and the word oven is there for Judah; and note in Revelation, his feet are burnt like in a furnace and this is talking about or describing Jesus? image and skin. So this also confirms that Jesus? skin was Black, and this is exactly what the Discovery Channel and the BBC have uncovered and are making public.

Dr. Dan Bahaat, a Jew from the University of Bar Ilan, has discovered several documents of tombs inside the Great Church in Israel, which he was able to date back 2000 years to the time of Jesus, the Judean. Dr. Richard Neave, a medical artist from the Medical University of Manchester, is the world?s leading forensic pathologist, or reconstructer. He reconstructed the face of Jesus from the bones, which they found in a tomb in Jerusalem, in Bethlehem of Judea where the bible Matthew 2 said Jesus was born. Dr. Richard Neave took the skull of a person from the tribe of Judah, Jesus? own tribe from 2000 years ago. Many such skulls have also been discovered, that dates back to Jesus? time. Bones have been tested and verified to be first century.

The first thing they noticed was that the skull was more rounded than the present day inhibitors of Jerusalem, the people calling themselves Israelis today are not the original people from Israel. The round skull was the kind of face that you find in North Africa, Egypt. These are the features of Nubia in Sudan and Egypt. Those people you see in Egypt today are not the indigenous Negroids; they are Turks ?Caucasians.?

Dr. Mark Goodcar stated that Jesus had a short and curly afro, which is Negroid hair. The statements that are being said are not racism because these are Caucasians who are finding these facts. they, said them, and discovered these facts. He also stated that Jesus? hair was black and short, not long. In 1 Corinthians 11:14-15, it says, ?Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.? Paul wrote a letter to Corinthians stating that it is disgraceful for a man to have long hair. The picture you see on the cover (on the right) has a woman?s hairstyle. These were supposedly men who walked with Jesus. If Jesus did have long hair, then it would be deceitful for his men to preach differently. If Jesus did not have long hair, then it is clear the picture on the cover is not an accurate picture of what Jesus? looked like.

Rev. Dr. Tom Wright, a Caucasian theologian, also agrees that Jesus was a Black man with short, afro-hair and short, black beard. All of them agree that the many pictures of Jesus today are not the true likeness. He was dark-skinned with nappy hair, like all the original tribes of Abraham. Dr. Joe Zias, an archeologist, Dr. Gloria Moss, a historian, Dr. Sue Minter, a curator, and Professor James H. Charlesworth, Princeton theologian, were also featured on this tape, all agreeing to the facts on how Jesus of the Judea tribe looked.

Now that your archeologist have discovered the bones of Jesus? family, we are grateful for these new facts, but it doesn?t change how we feel about Jesus being the Son of God. However, the image of Jesus changes the visible image of the invisible God, as it says in Colossians 1:15. And Jesus said, ?he that seen me hath seen the father? (John 14:9). Go back to Genesis 6:3, when God says ?My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh??, and then further back to Genesis 1:27 and 5:2, ?God created man in his image and after his likeness.? And then when we look in John 1:14, it says the word was made flesh, which is Jesus, the word of God. By virtue of the fact that God said that Christ is the visible image, it means he can be seen with the physical eye. You can see his body; and to say, ?to see me is to see the father because the father dwells in me,? he?s talking about his physical appearance. It really doesn?t matter what race our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ belongs to, and being it was Caucasians who uncovered this information and made it public, it can?t be taken as racism.

In conclusion, we must worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). It says clearly in the Bible that no man has seen God (John 1:18), and that God is the father (Galatians 4:6), who art in heaven (Matthew 6:9), who is the most high God. There is a distinction between the unseen God (God the father) called the El Elyown (or the most high God, Psalms 82:6), and Jesus as the visible image of the invisible God and you being adopted sons of God (Galatians 4:5) and heirs to the kingdom of God (Galatians 4:7) when it comes (Revelation 21:1). There is a distinction being made. It is clear that there is a holy seed that is related to God through Jesus Christ and there?s an unholy seed related to the serpent through Lucifer (Genesis 3:15). And Christ called the unholy seed the goat or rams (Matthew 25:32) and he called the holy seed, sheep or lambs. So this is the time of the harvest and the holy seed, the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6), the tribe of Judah must be called. We are a visible image of our invisible Heavenly Father. Amen, a man.

Being Aware of False Images Museum

Falsifying images demeans, degrades and distorts history!

Image changing and skin bleaching of history

The attempt to erase ancient African history



On the top this ancient Kamite are represented on an actual wall relief, re-discovered in today's Egypt. The image on the bottom is a false image, an impersonation of the picture of the ancient African on the top.

Many books, television shows, movies, and websites fabricate
or show false images of ancient Africans, in this case the ancient Kamites (ancient Egyptians), some are just lies, others are images of Greeks and Romans who thousands of years later only imitated these Africans', appearances, mannerisms and actions.


Image provided courtesy of African By Nature

To express their spirituality many of the paints that the ancient Kamites (ancient Egyptians) used was water based, so the colors on the sculptures and wall paintings was usually washed off or faded by flooding or by age.

Many of the wall painting have been re-painted in modern times, in some case trying to re-create the original images. In other cases the gold images have been re-painted a lighter color.

The ancient Kamites (ancient Egyptians) used many colors to portray themselves and their African Gods in a spiritual way. Blue, green, gold and reddish brown on their monuments, sculptures, and wall paintings.

The colors the ancient Kamites used symbolically reflected their spiritual belief systems and were not reflective of their actual skin color. Blue and green also had great spiritual meaning.

The man in red represents the "blood of life" and the woman in gold represents fertility.


Image provided courtesy of African By Nature

Colors were also used by a number of other ancient and modern indigenous African peoples, today like the Masai or the Samburu, the Wodaabe of the Niger, and the Himba of Namibia and other indigenous African ethnic groups in the southern, central, northern, western, and eastern areas of Africa.

Like the Masai, Wodaabe, and Himba the ancient kmt or Kamites (the Greeks called them Egyptians) at times painted their bodies with red pigment, a very ancient African practice.

For thousands of years before this great civilization, Africans had been extracting ocher (or ochre) from the earth, a mineral oxide of iron that comes in a wide array of colors.




The original indigenous Berbers were the North African ancestors of the present day dark-brown peoples of the Sahara and the Sahel, mainly those called Fulani, Tugareg, Zenagha of Southern Morocco, Kunta and Tebbu of the Sahel countries, as well as other dark-brown arabs now living in Mauretania and throughout the Sahel, including the Trarza of Mauretania and Senegal, the Mogharba as well as dozens of other Sudanese tribe s, the Chaamba of Chad and Algeria."

The Westerners have chosen to concentrate on the most recent world of the Arab and Berber-speaking peoples and present it as if it is a world that has always been. "It is like comparing the Aztecs of five hundred years ago with the ethnic mix of America today," wrote Reynolds. "The story of when North Africa was Moorish and Arabia, the land of Saracens, has yet to be told."




Anthropologist, Dana Reynolds traced the African roots of the original North African peoples through a dozen Greek and Byzantine (neo-Roman writers) from the first to the sixth century A.D. "They describe the Berber population of Northern Africa as dark-skinned [modern Europeans call dark brown skin color, as black-skinned] and woolly-haired." Among these writers who wrote about the Berbers were Martial, Silius Italicus, Corippus and Procopius.

Saint Augustine was a dark-skinned Berber and many of the later Roman emperors would have trouble getting citizenship in some of today?s European states. - Professor Mikulá? Lobkowicz, the former rector of the Munich university and current director of the Institute of Central and East European Studies in Eichstätt.

There are those who say that the Berber is part of the African story of Ham, from the land of Ber, the son of biblical figure Ham.

The original inhabitants of Ireland before the Celts invaded were Berber people who stretch all the way from Saharan Africa to Western Ireland. In North Africa they are known as Berbers, the original people before the Arab invasion of North Africa, they were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as "barbarians," the Tuaregs of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, etc. are a Berber people. In Spain and Portugal they were known as "Iberians," which is the name of the Peninsula. In Ireland the Berbers are known as "Hibernians." The Celts and later invaders pushed them back to the West of Ireland, where you most commonly see the "black Irish" with black hair and brown eyes. The most popular recreational organization of Irish Americans is the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH).




The images that are shown in mainstream television, movies and in print are of the lighter skinned people that are also referred as Berber.

Modern north Africa has changed a great deal, from waves of invasions such as the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Germanic tribes, Arabs, Turks and the French have led to the amalgamation in the region.

The role of literally millions of enslaved Indo-Europeans and concubinage in the creation of admixed populations in cities like Tunis, Tripoli, Fez, Sale and Algiers are well documented. This is the formation of populations in north Africa today.

These now lighter skinned people do not call themselves African. In fact, the term "African" is a very demonized term to many, more than likely because of the modern European invasion into Africa, Europeans had to justify their behavior (some still do), and the term African is the object of ridicule and humiliation.

The term Berber is now a regional word to apply to these people that now share many common cultural ideas and customs.




Modern Africa's Sphinx. Some believe that Napoleon Bonaparte ordered his invading and occupying soldiers to shoot off the nose and lips of the Sphinx.




In 1798 Baron Dominique Vivant Denon drew what he saw of the Sphinx of Africa. Some believe that Napoleon Bonaparte ordered his invading and occupying soldiers to shoot off the nose and lips.




In May 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte left France with a military force of more than thirty-four thousand men. Their destination was Egypt. Along with the French army went 167 savants, the most prominent men of science, headed by the Baron Dominique Vivant Denon. After a series of victories had secured his position in Egypt, Napoleon founded the Institut d'Egypte and directed it to study the science, African history and antiquities of ancient and modern Egypt.

Later in that same year Denon accompanied General Desaix to Upper Egypt as the French pursued the Mameluke Murad Bey. Denon used this often dangerous time to sketch the monumental ruins. These drawings were later shown to Napoleon who, recognizing their importance, immediately commissioned the savants to measure and draw the monuments sketched by the Denon. This work formed the basis of the Description de l'gypte.

In the face of superior British forces, Napoleon's position in Egypt quickly deteriorated, but by this time Denon had returned to France and published his Voyage dans la Basse at la Haute gypte in folio in 1802. Voyage was so popular that it was translated into English in 1803 as Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt, running to forty editions. In the meantime the organization of the Description de l'gypte proceeded slowly under the direction of Edme Francois Jomard. A work consisting of more than nine hundred plates with accompanying text was published from 1809 in nine volumes of text, eleven volumes of plates and three volumes of grand format.

The Description broke new ground in thought and technique and heralded a new era for the archaeology of Africa's ancient Egypt. Considering the background of the savants it is not surprising that a scientific approach was taken in the representation and study of the ancient monuments.
The savants however continued to have difficulty representing hieroglyphs because the problem of translation had yet to be solved.

The Description and Denon's Voyages opened up a new world for European fantasy and
Europeans making Egypt an exciting, fashionable and profitable destination. While the Description was in preparation, Jean Franqois Champollion, later call by Europeans as the 'Father' of Egyptology, discovered the key to the decipherment of the hieroglyphic text on the Rosetta Stone unearthed by Napoleon's army in 1799. In the wake of this came a new awareness and understanding of Egyptian history.

Men of learning could now read the ancient language, allowing them to see past the monuments to the society and culture of ancient Egypt. After the expulsion of the French from Egypt, the invading British were able to satisfy their own fascination with Africa's ancient Egypt. Under the patronage of Henry Salt, the Consul General, and with a firm in from the Mameluke prince, a number of amateurs were able to explore the ruins. Perhaps the most extra-ordinary of these amateurs was Giovanni Battista Belzoni.

Belzoni had been born in Padua in 1778 but was in England by 1803 when he married. Being a colossus himself - he stood at 6 feet 8 inches - it is not surprising that Belzoni played the circus strongman for a time, though by profession he was an hydraulic engineer. He was contracted by the Muhammed Ali to construct irrigation works in Egypt, but when he failed he was assisted by Henry Salt who commissioned him to organize the transport of the massive basalt head of Ramesses II from Thebes to the British Museum. Belzoni tackled this task with a verve and enthusiasm which captured the imagination of the public and ensured the admiration of his patron.

In the following years Belzoni was to make a number of other discoveries, perhaps the most notable being that of the magnificent tomb of the 19th Dynasty Pharaoh, Seti I, father of Ramesses II. Having entered the tomb, Belzoni's hopes of treasure were dashed when it was found that the tomb had been robbed, some say probably in antiquity. Belzoni did, however, discover the spectacular alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I, later drawn by Joseph Bonomi in Samuel Sharpe's The Alabaster Sarcophagus of Oimenepthah I., King of Egypt (1864).

It is curious - and perhaps a reflection on the wealth of discoveries coming out of Africa at the time - that when Henry Salt offered the sarcophagus to the British Museum, the Trustees rejected it and it was sold to Sir John Soane.

On his return to London, Belzoni mounted an exhibition based on the tomb of Seti I which was a resounding success. The publisher John Murray encouraged Belzoni to produce his Narrative of the operations and recent discoveries within the pyramids, temples, tombs and excavations in Africa's Egypt and Nubia which consists of a volume of text and a volume of magnificent plates. Within the year the Narrative of the operations was available in English, French and German. Belzoni may have been vilified as a treasure hunter but there is no doubt that his enthusiasm and energy intensified the level of inquiry into Egypt's antiquity.

Not to be outdone by the French and English, the new Prussian King, Frederick Wilhelm IV, ordered an expedition to Egypt to research scientifically the ancient monuments and to collect antiquities. Karl Richard Lepsius was appointed by the King to lead the expedition which arrived in Egypt in 1842 and remained for three years. The expedition toured through Egypt and Nubia and introduced a new rigour to the excavation and recording of archaeological sites. Almost nine hundred illustrations, based on Lepsius's work, were published between 1849 and 1859 as Denkmiiler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien in twelve folio volumes.

Denkmtiler is the largest work of its kind and, along with Jomard's Description de l'gypte, continues to be an important record of ancient Egyptian antiquities and sites. The copy in the State Library of Victoria was presented by the King of Prussia himself to Redmond Barry in 1864. Barry had it bound in England for £150 before sending it to Melbourne.

Early in the nineteenth century Africa also attracted artists of the such as David Roberts who visited in 1838. Roberts portrayed Egypt's ruins with great romance and a touch of mysticism, but his work was often criticized for its unscientific and often inaccurate rendering. The now famous image of the "Approach to the Simoon" was labeled theatrical but when Roberts presented the image to Charles Dickens the latter thought it wonderful and inspiring.

The popularity of Roberts' work no doubt contributed to the European and European American
fantasies of Africa's ancient Egypt. "Egyptomania" of the time, a cult movement which influenced all including the poets Byron, Shelley, Keats and the satirist Horatio Smith. The following lines from Shelley's 'Ozymandias' were inspired by the colossal images depicted in Richard Pococke's Description of the East (1743-45):

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert...

From the multitude of drawings published between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, Europeans gained an insight into the society of ancient Egypt. With the advent of photography in the mid-nineteenth century the number of images multiplied exponentially. Du Camp, Abney, Frith and others opened a new world in which the viewer saw with clarity the grandeur and decay of that great African civilization. As Samuel Sharpe pointed out, drawings suffered from the inaccuracies of man but not so photography: Here we have all the truthfulness of nature, all the reality of the objects themselves, and, at the same time, artistic effects which leave us nothing to wish for.

Jesus of African Heritage. :)

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