Full-frontal portrait of pharaoh (3500BC)

...

Galan believes that it may have been a rough drawing carried out by an art student, or a sketch for a statue carving.

Marcel Maree, an Egyptologist at the British Museum in London, agrees with the second interpretation. "I'm sure it's a study for a carving of a statue," he told New Scientist, pointing to the presence of a red grid across the image. This device, still used by artists today, would have helped the sculptor transfer the image from the drawing on to the stone to be carved.

Maree also agrees with the Spanish team's dating and believes that the figure in the drawing is indeed Tuthmosis III. The portrait will go on display in Luxor Museum in the next few months.

New Scientist

Khoisan and Socrates

Richard Poe wonders whether Socrates had a "Khoisanid" nose.

Socrates

The Synthesis of Black Spark, White Fire

Richard Poe claims to be just a journalist explaining, synthesizing, and popularizing the work of many authors. Included in his list of authors are classicist Frank Snowden and Martin Bernal, author of Black Athena. But is Frank Snowden compatible with Martin Bernal? In Black Athena Revisited, Frank Snowden writes an article titled "Bernal's 'Blacks' and the Afrocentrists" in which he disagrees strongly with Bernal's theory. He quotes the opinion (ibid., p. 112) of David O' Connor approvingly:

"Thousands of sculpted and painted representations from Egypt as well as hundreds of well preserved bodies from its cemeteries show that the typical physical type was neither Negroid nor Negro."

Snowden uses the classical sources to show how Bernal distorts the meaning of Greek and Latin texts to prove his Afrocentric thesis. His conclusion (ibid., p. 127) does not mince any words:

"In summary, despite abundant textual and iconographic evidence to the contrary, Bernal and many Afrocentrists have used "black," "Egyptian," and "African" interchangeably as the equivalents of blacks/Negroes in modern usage. According to this misinterpretation, ancient Egyptians were blacks, and their civilization, an important art of the heritage of blacks of African descent, has been "covered up" by white racists... What will be the effect on future generations, black and white alike, if the present "mythologizing" Afrocentrist trend continues, and if the historical record is not rectified?"

In other words, Frank Snowden is diametrically opposed to Martin Bernal. Their views are incompatible. Yet, Richard Poe has managed to "synthesize" their views. How can one synthesize "A" and "NOT A"?

I am tempted to agree with Roland Joffe when he writes in his review of Black Spark, White Fire:

In terms of methodology, there is the typical conflation of history, archaeology, myth, and literature, all seamlessly and uncritically woven into a single narrative.

Indeed, my opinion of the "synthesis" of Black Spark, White Fire is similar. Certainly, journalists are in a unique position of synthesizing and popularizing science. James Gleick, author of Chaos: Making a New Science is a great example of that. Black Spark, White Fire unfortunately isn't.

Richard Poe Got a Positive Review

by a web author, and he is decidedly pleased about it. Here is the comment that I left to his self-congratulatory blog entry.

You must be pleased that you received a positive review. The expert who reviewed Black Spark, White Fire in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies certainly held a different opinion.

Whose opinion should one trust? Well, ideally one must examine (i) the Facts, (ii) the Reasoning by which one proceeds from Facts to Conclusions. As Aristotle said, all human beings are capable of Reason. But not all human beings are equally knowledgeable about Facts or equally rigorous in their application of Reason.

Hence, we are inclined to regard the opinion of experts more than that of non-experts. And here is the above expert's opinion:

"This study is as breathless, lopsided, haphazard, and misinformed as can be imagined. Written in an excited, journalistic style, the book has a nonlinear structure. Unlike an academic presentation, it has a decided story arc. The rhetorical posture of the book stands explicitly against that of conventional scholarship, an enterprise that Poe regards as part of the problem and not the solution. Poe is a unique contributor to Afrocentric literature in that he is white; unfortunately, he simply parrots scholars from that and parallel traditions, primarily Martin Bernal. (2) In terms of methodology, there is the typical conflation of history, archaeology, myth, and literature, all seamlessly and uncritically woven into a single narrative. Homer, Herodotus, Pausanias, the Parian marble, the Mit Rahina inscription, the Book of Enoch, and numerous other texts are read literally and harmonized effortlessly. There is also the typical paranoia, primarily about conspiracies to withhold knowledge (not unfounded concerns to African-Americans) and to deprive Africa of its glorious Egyptian past."

Update Interestingly, Jason Soon whose blog entry inspired Mr. Poe's exaltation is humble enough to admit that he doesn't know much about the subject. "I know that I don't know" as Democritus first put it. But Mr. Soon makes an even more important conclusion that needs to be repeated since it cuts straight into the heart of the matter:

It also makes a number of good points - for instance black Afrocentrists in the US are attacked for wanting to take pride in Egypt's achievements even if it is partly black because 'Africa is a big place' and US blacks are mostly from West Africa - but why shouldn't they if the descendants of Germanic barbarians of the far north of Europe can take pride in the achievements of older Mediterranean civilisations as being 'Western' and 'European'?

That is indeed the heart of the problem. But what is the solution? The solution according to Mr. Poe is that if we are tolerant of Germanics take pride in Greek accomplishments, so must we be of Negroid Africans taking pride in Egyptian accomplishments.

But that is not the only solution. A much better solution is for both Germanics and Negroid Africans to acknowledge that neither of the two had anything to do with the civilizations in question. Isn't it better to cure both these delusions instead of matching one (Germanic) delusion with another (Afrocentric) one?

Long Postscriptum: All kudos to the Germanics for their study, promotion, and extension of the classical heritage. They can rightly consider thesmselves as one of the spiritual heirs of Hellenism. African Americans too can decide to base their civilization on that of Egypt. If they do, they will have as much a right to be cultural heirs of Egypt, as Germans have of being cultural heirs to Greece. But, why should they choose to base their civilization on Egypt? After all, two centuries ago, Ancient Egypt was completely unknown to Negroid Africans and African Americans. They could just as easily have decided to become the cultural heirs of Sumer, or Japan, or even Greece. In fact, they are invited, at least by this Greek to become the cultural heirs of Hellenism if they choose to do so.

Badarians

Evidence of the Early Penetration of Negroes into Prehistoric Egypt

Eugen Strouhal

The Journal of African History, Vol. 12, No. 1. (1971), pp. 1-9.

"In Nubia, according to the analysis of physical anthropology, the original Europoid (Caucasoid) stock of the population was several times overrun by Negroid waves, flowing from the South. Negroes and Negroids penetrated to Egypt only sporadically, and their frequency, uneven according to time, place and the diagnostical knowledge of the investigator, has been estimated as 1 to 5 per cent. An increase in the number of Negroes was observed only in the New Kingdom, in connexion with the expansion of Egyptian domination to the south. From that time onwards, they were pictured as symbols of the south. The perfect portrayal of their morphological features shows that the Egyptian artists knew them very well."

"By the individual analysis of nasal measurements and indices of the first Badarian series in comparison with the mixed Europoid-Negroid series from Wadi Qitna in Nubia (fourth-fifth century AD), with the Europoid series from Manfalout in Upper Egypt (Ptolemaic period) and with a series of recent Nilotes, I came to the conclusion that the distribution of the Badarian skulls extends from the Europoid to the Negroid range."

"Of the total 117 skulls, 15 were found to be markedly Europoid, 9 of these were of the gracile Mediterranean type, 6 were of very robust structure reminiscent of the North African Cromagnon type. Eight skulls were clearly Negroid... We may conclude that the share of both components was nearly the same, with some overweight to the Europoid side."

"In some of the Badarian crania hair was preserved, thanks to good conditions in the desert sand. In the first series, according to the descriptions of the excavators, they were curly in 6 cases, wavy in 33 cases and straight in 10 cases. They were black in 16 samples, dark brown in 11, brown in 12, light brown in 1 and grey in 11 cases."

Egyptian Heads from the 4th Dynasty

Reserve heads in limestone from the Fourth Dynasty, probably during the reign of Khufu, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Notice the large eyes, prominence of the smooth oval face compared to the low forehead, fine straight nose, full non-everted lips. Only in the slightly bulging parietals does this head deviate from the Mediterranean type, although in profile view (not shown) it is apparent that it is dolichomorphic.

These two faces are only a few of the countless examples of the racial type of the Ancient Egyptians.

Greeks Praise "Black Spark, White Fire"?

Mr. Poe writes that:

Previously, Black Spark had aroused nothing but praise from Greeks -- specialists and non-specialists alike. Archaeologist Theodore Spyropoulos -- who has done 30 years of field work directly related to the prehistoric Greek cultures discussed in Black Spark, White Fire -- strongly endorses the book and believes it glorifies Greece rather than defaming it.

It is entirely possible that Greeks, specialists and non-specialists alike might praise "Black Spark, White Fire". Since it is a book about Greece, at least as much as it is about Egypt, it would be a good move to have it translated into Greek, so that we may obtain a more objective picture of how Greeks feel about such a book.

The works of Martin Bernal, on which Black Spark, White Fire is largely based, have not been met with praise in Greece. Indeed, as I have hinted before, they, as well as Afrocentrism in general, are dismissed as being part of US racial politics, rather than objective investigations into Eastern Mediterranean history.

Incidentally, Theodore Spyropoulos, the only Greek whom Mr. Poe submits as a supporter of his book, has not made (to my knowledge) any direct judgement or review of the book. Black Spark, White Fire involves much more than the question of whether the hill of Amphion is a pyramid or not, and whether it was built by Egyptians, or not.

Perhaps Greeks will one day come out with praise for Black Spark, White Fire. A Greek's praise would certainly look great in the back cover of the book, which contains at present the praise of: Molefi Kete Asante, author of Afrocentricity: The theory of Social Change, Martin bernal, author of Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985) , and Armstrong Williams.

Richard Poe (the end)

Richard Poe took my tongue-in-cheek comment about jinxing his site as the launching point of yet another comment on my ingratitude:

Mr. Pontikos, I have not heard you utter the words, "Thank you" for all the free publicity I am giving you, but I will nonetheless say, "You're welcome." That way, at least one of us will be practicing common courtesy.

Thank you very much Mr. Poe for all the publicity. While I am critical of your book and of your various writings, I acknowledge that unlike other individuals whom I have criticized, you extend the courtesy of linking to my criticism.

And, I'm truly sorry that the intent of my "jinxing" comment was ambiguous. I sincerely hope that you overcome your technical problems as soon as possible.

Update: This will be my last comment in this particular debate. I'm rather sorry that my posts in the Afrocentrism category got sidetracked to personal exchanges with Mr. Poe. Inasmuch as that is partly my fault, I apologize.

Richard Poe (again!)

Richard Poe has managed to divine that I'm a "Marxist":

I would be very surprised to learn that Mr. Pontikos is not himself a Marxist or at least a "socialist." Perhaps that is why Mr. Pontikos responded so cryptically to Unadorned's praise.

He managed to arrive at this conclusion, by the classic case of ethnic stereotyping:

that most Greek intellectuals are either Marxists or fellow travelers of one sort or another.

I hate to disappoint Mr. Poe, but I'm not in fact a Marxist. I'm not even a socialist. I'm just a regular old-style Greek patriot who draws his inspiration from our Hellenic, Roman, and Christian tradition, and not from misguided (pseudo-) intellectual movements such as Marxism, Fascism, Nazism, Liberalism, Conservatism, Libertarianism, etc.

I hope Mr. Poe will end these indirect hits (to the effect that "DP is a racialist", "DP is a white racialist", "DP is a marxist") and use his blog-space for something more meaningful.

Richard Poe (again)

Mr. Poe, rather than addressing specific points about his book, Black Spark, White Fire, has decided to go the Arthur Kemp route in addressing me.

For example, he accuses me of ingratitude because I didn't mention Gene Expression in my list of race-related websites below. Perhaps, Mr. Poe hasn't noticed that Gene Expression is in my permanent links at the right (->) and has been there for awhile. Maybe I should put a disclaimer in my messages, that "Dienekes Pontikos does not guarantee the quality, or completeness of this list. Dienekes Pontikos has no responsibility for any injury suffered by clicking on links of this list."

Mr. Poe continues to paint his little picture of me as a shady racialist, by observing that I linked to Legion Europa, and March of the Titans: a History of the White Race. Naturally, I don't believe that linking implies endorsement. Indeed, I take pride in linking both to Arthur Kemp's attacks against me, and to my responses.

Isn't it funny though, that Arthur Kemp paints me as a "white-hating race mixer", and Richard Poe paints me as a white-loving racialist?. Even Legion Europa disagrees with me as much as they do with the "Kempians".

Well, speaking for myself, I take great pride in having managed to tick off both Nordicists/White Supremacists (such as Mr. Kemp), racialist Pan-Europeanists (such as the folks at Legion Europa), and Afrocentrics (such as Mr. Poe).

It only helps confirm a point that I first made years ago, that the meta-historical narratives of the "Great Nordic Race", or the "Great White Race", or the the "Great Black Race" can temporarily put aside their differences when they are consistently confronted with reality: that the Ancient World was not built by any of these pervasive "Great Races", but rather by the specific peoples living around the Central-Eastern Mediterranean basin.

Richard Poe and the White Race

Richard Poe has been experiencing technical problems lately, that strangely coincided with my appearance in his forum. I hope I did not jinx it!

But, while we wait for Mr. Poe and his technical advisors to fix these problems, he has decided to respond to my earlier criticism. Unfortunately, his response fails to address most of the points in my criticism. Rather, since the first attempted "angle" of accusing me as a "defender of Greek racial purity" did not work, Mr. Poe has come up with a new angle:

Evidently, I mistook Mr. Pontikos for a different sort of man. I thought he was a man -- like me -- who promoted candid and forthright debate on issues of race and ethnicity. However, if Mr. Pontikos feels obliged to go to such extraordinary lengths as to deny the very existence of a white race in order to maintain his reputation and standing within whatever cultural, professional or intellectual milieu he inhabits, clearly he is living under severe, Orwellian political constraints of a sort which free men can envision only in their darkest nightmares.

I have explained to Mr. Poe that "white race" was used in the past as a synonym for the Caucasoid race. In order not to confuse my readers, I restrict myself from using it in that sense, because it conflicts with current American usage. I have no interest in the social definition of race that Mr. Poe uses. It is that definition that of course allows him to consider dark-skinned Caucasoids of north and east Africa as "black", implying that they belong to the same race as Negroid black Africans.

There are two dark-skinned people in the following pictures. I have no interest in how they would be considered socially in 21st century America. Biologically speaking, the top one is Negroid, and the bottom one is Caucasoid. As simple as that. I wonder how Mr. Poe would classify them.

Mr. Poe concludes his statement on "Pontikos and the White Race" as follows:

I will henceforth refer to you as "Dienekes Pontikos, the Web's preeminent defender of the notion that Greeks are just as Caucasoid as other Europeans."

Will that satisfy you?

The Greeks are just as Caucasoid as most Europeans, most Near Easterners, many Central Asians, a great majority of North Africans, a sizeable portion of Indian subcontinentals, all of whom are part of the Caucasoid race.

But, Greeks do not care much about being considered part of the Caucasoid race. We happen to be part of it, but that is not what forms our identity. Unlike most of the readers of Black Spark, White Fire, we feel no need to associate ourselves with a race (or an extinct civilization, such as Egypt) to bolster our self-esteem. Being Greek is all we really are, and it is more than enough.

Crete Closer to Egypt?

Richard Poe writes (Black Spark, White Fire, p. 269) that:

Some scholars have argued that the "cult of the double ax" came to Crete from Asia Minor and, before that, from Mesopotamia. These regions did have a cult of the double a. But, as Martin Bernal points out, Egypt is much closer to Crete, and it too seems to have used the double-ax cult.

Asia Minor is of course closer to Crete than Egypt, by a wide margin. Not only in absolute distance, but also one can island hop from Crete to the Anatolian coast. Indeed, the island of Crete was initially peopled from the direction of Anatolia.

Afrocentrics have never provided a good explanation as to why the alleged colonizers of Crete did not worship Egyptian gods and did not write in Egyptian hieroglyphics. My take: because they never existed.

Map of the Mediterranean

Richard Poe on the subject of "racial purity"

Richard Poe has recently repeatedly commented on my being the alleged defender of Greek racial purity. [Example 1, Example 2].

I was kind enough, the first time that he made this comment to correct him:

"Hardly. I am merely presenting information about Greek cultural and biological continuity, not purity."

Mr. Poe seems to have found the perfect proof of his allegations in my own writings:

"Greek model Corina Stergiadou is a typical example of a Mediterranean racial type from Greece. ... Ms. Stergiadou recapitulates to near perfection the Basic White racial type of the most ancient inhabitants of prehistoric Greece."

This, he finds as an example of:

"Mr. Pontikos defends Greece from any and all commentators who dare suggest that any significant portion of the Greek race might be less purely "white" than he would like it to be.

Whatever "whiteness" means to Mr. Pontikos, he obviously wishes the Greeks to be recognized as being in full and unimpeachable possession of it. To wit:"

However, this only reveals a certain level of ignorance on the part of Mr. Poe than it does of my wishes for Greeks to possess "whiteness". Mr. Poe uses the writings of the late J. Lawrence Angel, so surely he knows (?) that Basic White refers to a particular morphological type devised by Angel to separate tendencies of Greek skeletal material, and not the alleged "white race". And, Angel himself was quick to point this out:

"Types are entirely aribitrary creations from sorting of individuals. Genetically determined traits will recombine and re-form in each new generation largely at random so that types cannot express these new individualities adequately, only schematically. At best they give a preliminary overview of change."

In fact, Mr. Poe might be interested in informing his readers that Angel also considered a substantial part of the Egyptian skeletal material as belonging to the same Basic White type, although he did admit that some of it went beyond it towards a Negroid direction. And, the Linear Basic White (a.k.a. Robust Mediterranean) can also be found in James Mellaart's The Neolithic and the Near East where it represents one of the main racial elements present in the ancient Near East during the rise of the food producing economy.

Erudition is of course not necessary for a journalist. But, my writings (hopefully) aim at achieving a level of precision in the use of terminology, which was obviously lost on Mr. Poe. One would have expected better on someone who wrote several hundred pages trying to convince his readership that a certain race was responsible for the Egyptian "spark" of civilization.

Finally, anyone who has followed my writings is fully aware that I do not recgonize the existence of a "white" subdivision of the Caucasoid race. Older anthropologists (such as Angel, whom Poe admires) routinely used "white" as a synonym for Caucasoid.

However, I recognize that the US social definition of "white" differs from the racial/biological one of Caucasoid. This ambiguity allows for the genre of scholarship revolving around whether or not the Ancient Egyptians were "white" or "black" in the American sense. In fact, they were dark Caucasoids, unrelated either to "white" or "black" Americans who invest so much effort to prove either of these cases. For this reason, I choose not to use white as a synonym for Caucasoid.

PS: Lest I forget, the Greeks are not literally pure, because they do have negligible amounts of non-Caucasoid admixture, amounting to ~1-2% like most other Europeans.

A response to Poe

In response to Poe's blog entry

Mr. Poe, there is a difference between a "critical review" and a "negative one". I'm sure you know what the difference is.

As to announcing my review before receiving my copy of your book, you have also pointed out that part of your book can be read online, e.g., at amazon.com.

While Mr. Poe waits for my review of his book, he is invited to comment on a number of inaccuracies contained in his book and presented here:

Readers of Mr. Poe's book should also be nefit from reading a scholarly review of his work, which appeared in the Journal of Near Eastern studies [via the RADG]. An excerpt:

"This study is as breathless, lopsided, haphazard, and misinformed as
can be imagined. Written in an excited, journalistic style, the book
has a nonlinear structure. Unlike an academic presentation, it has a
decided story arc. The rhetorical posture of the book stands
explicitly against that of conventional scholarship, an enterprise
that Poe regards as part of the problem and not the solution. Poe is
a unique contributor to Afrocentric literature in that he is white;
unfortunately, he simply parrots scholars from that and parallel
traditions, primarily Martin Bernal. (2) In terms of methodology,
there is the typical conflation of history, archaeology, myth, and
literature, all seamlessly and uncritically woven into a single
narrative. Homer, Herodotus, Pausanias, the Parian marble, the Mit
Rahina inscription, the Book of Enoch, and numerous other texts are
read literally and harmonized effortlessly. There is also the typical
paranoia, primarily about conspiracies to withhold knowledge (not
unfounded concerns to African-Americans) and to deprive Africa of its
glorious Egyptian past."

I had unfortunately decided to write my review before I was aware of the above review being published, which contains many of the points I wanted ro raise. However, the 80 chapters of Mr. Poe's book contain much that I would like to comment on, and I will, at my convenience.

In their own words (Greeks on Egypt)

Afrocentrics always talk about how the Greeks themselves admitted that they had borrowed civilization from the Egyptians. Cultural borrowings (both ways) doubtlessly did occur in the Ancient Mediterranean. But you will not learn, by listening to Afrocentrics at least, that in this respect, many Greeks were simply repeating what they heard in Egypt; or that the Egyptians of the mid-1st millennium BC might actually want to augment the prestige of their ancient history; or that Greek thinkers chastised their compatriots for being too gullible in believing these Egyptian tales. E.g., Diodorus Siculus I.29 [my emphasis]:

By many statements like these, spoken more out of a love of glory that with regard for the truth, as I see the matter, the Egyptians claim Athens was their colony because of the fame of the city. In general, the Egyptians claim that their ancestors sent forth many colonies to many parts of the inhabited world, due to the pre-eminence of their old kings and the size of their population; but because they give no precise proof at all for these statements, and because no historian worth believing gives credence to them, we have not thought that it is worth noting their sayings.

Does it all sound familiar? The Afrocentric debate was settled two thousand years ago, yet the modern-day Afrocentrics, in the role of stand-ins for Ancient Egyptians, continue to make claims with no precise proof at all which are rejected by historians worth believing.

Coming in 2003: Racial Type of the Ancient Egyptians

Excerpt:

"A bitter war is raging, about the unlikeliest of questions: What was the racial type of the Ancient Egyptians? By examining the portraiture, ancient literature, skeletal remains, and living descendants of this remarkable people, we may quickly determine that the Egyptians have always been much what they are today: a people of white to brown skin, dark wavy, or curly hair, and mainly Caucasoid facial features. This essay will present (again) all the evidence supporting this rather obvious conclusion, deconstructing the dubious assumptions of those who imagine that the Ancient Egyptians had affinities with non-Mediterranean Europeans or black Africans. The motive of those who propose such fantastical theories is to make a political point about early civilization and its initiators, to serve the (perceived) interests of modern-day ethno-racial groups. Our goal is to show that Egyptian civilization is the creation and heritage of the Egyptian people and to determine the actual racial components of this people."

Black Athena, Afrocentrism, and the History of Science

These are the conclusions from Robert Palter's Black Athena, Afrocentrism, and the History of Science, in Black Athena Revisited (eds. Mary R. Lefkowitz and Guy MacLean Rogers), pp. 255-256:

1. The Egyptians never invented a mathematical astronomy in the sense that the Babylonians and Greeks did.
   
2. Egyptian mathematics never approached the depth of understanding revealed in the most advanced Babylonian mathematics, which was in turn far surpassed by the Greeks, so that it is difficult to see how the peak Egyptian achievements - even generously extrapolated to hypothetical results lost to us - could ever have led to Greek mathematics with its clear conception of rigorous demonstration and its characteristic methods of formulating and solving problems.
   
3. Although there seems little doubt that the Greek doctors enlarged their pharmacopoeia with Egyptian drugs, other types of influence of Egyptian medicine on Greek medicine are more difficult to document; and certain radical differences between the two medical traditions are very striking.
   

In other words, the Afrocentric notions of what might have been does not find any suppor in what actually was.

Richard Poe and the Etymology of Europe

Richard Poe proposes an imaginative etymology of the word "Europe" in his book Black Spark, White Fire. Rather than accepting the common rendering of the word as wide-faced, or wide-eyed, he believes that it is a Phoenician word from imaginary Phoenician colonists of Greece.

In fact "Europe" is a perfectly good female Greek name (cf. Antiope, Merope, Kalliope, etc.) Richard Poe can't believe that the Greeks would call an entire continent after a woman. But then again, place-names are not always chosen as rationally as he thinks they should be chosen. For example, America is named after an Italian who had little to do with discovering it. Africa is named after the Afri a North African tribe. The Greeks gave some pretty imaginative names to their colonies, e.g., Pythikoussai in Italy has "monkey" (pithekos) in its name, while Mycenae has "mushroom" (mykes).

Poe's second argument is that Hesychius, a 5th c. AD lexicographer gives Europe as the "land of the West". Using common sense, it would be easy to see why he would do so. Europe is indeed the land of the West (from a Greek, or Eastern Mediterranean perspective) and that is how it would be defined in a dictionary.

Poe also gives as a fact, not only that Europe is from a Semitic root via Phoenician, but that the Greek word erebos (=darkness) is also Semitic from the same root. But in reality, erebos is derived from the PIE noun *h₁reg^w-os meaning "darkness". Such simple facts are not to be found in Poe's work though, for they would ruin the overall suspension of disbelief on which the entire work is based.

Richard Poe and the Mediterranean Pond

One of the many errors found in Richard Poe's popularized Afrocentrism magnum opus, "Black Spark, White Fire". Page 4:

Dependent on its fish and trade routes for their way of life, the cultured peoples whom the Mediterranean nurtured never wandered far from its shores. "We live around the sea," said Sokrates, "like frogs around a pond."

But, of course, Socrates is speaking about the Greeks, whose colonies laced the Mediterranean coasts (including Egypt, cf. Naukratis), not about random circum-Mediterranean peoples. Poe does not allow details like this to obscure his story arc, which involves the unprecedented notion of Egypt as a naval power (!)