Ancient Egyptian Phenotype

[Vandemonian]

What did ancient egyptians look like? Especially, how did the Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom differ from Cyrus' Persians, or Alexander's Greeks, or Caesar's Romans?

I absolutely love the maps you have up at "Distribution maps of autosomal admixtures in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa," and while I can't link to them, they suggest that modern people in those areas are all extremely similar, except that the Egyptians lack any West European Hunter-Gatherer ancestry. But modern and ancient peoples are, of course, not the same. I understand that modern Copts are a reasonable stand-in for the descendants of old Egyptians, and looking at pictures of them, they seem a heterogeneous bunch (probably because I'm getting many non-Coptic people in my searches).

Were the ancient Egyptians most physically similar to Persians?

 

[Angela]

What did ancient egyptians look like? Especially, how did the Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom differ from Cyrus' Persians, or Alexander's Greeks, or Caesar's Romans?

I absolutely love the maps you have up at "Distribution maps of autosomal admixtures in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa," and while I can't link to them, they suggest that modern people in those areas are all extremely similar, except that the Egyptians lack any West European Hunter-Gatherer ancestry. But modern and ancient peoples are, of course, not the same. I understand that modern Copts are a reasonable stand-in for the descendants of old Egyptians, and looking at pictures of them, they seem a heterogeneous bunch (probably because I'm getting many non-Coptic people in my searches).

Were the ancient Egyptians most physically similar to Persians?

I would think that's unlikely, although it would depend on the era and perhaps whether the person was from the Nile Delta or near Nubia.

This would seem to show that Egyptians of this period considered themselves darker than Canaanites (3rd figure from left).

 

[ToBeOrNotToBe]

It's interesting that Egyptians were so much darker than the Canaanites, I mean you'd classify that as completely different races from first glance. Those Canaanites look like modern Ashkenazim by the way and are much lighter than modern Levantines, but other depictions show them as more "yellowy White" in colour like Ralph Nader (great guy btw):

It's also interesting that Libyans were so damn White, they look as close to Atlantic Euros as you can get. Of course you still see isolated Berbers who are very pale so this depiction was probably accurate for the time. Zinedine Zidane for reference, much paler and even ginger/blonde examples exist though:

 

[Alyan]

We already have sculptures in the Old Kingdom showing Egyptian appearance:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Statues_of_the_Egyptian_5th_dynasty

 

[ToBeOrNotToBe]

We already have sculptures in the Old Kingdom showing Egyptian appearance:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Statues_of_the_Egyptian_5th_dynasty

View attachment 10879
View attachment 10880

They're darker than Levantines, perhaps that's the whole "poor people working in the Sun" thing, like with the Minoans. I remember recently some old tomb got excavated and the skin colour was more like the Canaanites (around 2500 BC).

 

[Angela]

That may just be because they're women. It seems to have been a convention that women, who stayed indoors more, were painted lighter than men, who would have been outdoors, hunting, training, etc. The darker skin was more "manly" I suppose.

 

[Vandemonian]

Yes, I recall there was a stylistic convention to paint men ruddy and women fair. Unfortunately many of the images around are either of that stylistic nature, or else are secondhand renderings of murals and drawings rather than actual images generated by the Egyptians themselves; I'm told they may not be accurate. The sculptures are interesting, but even here it's difficult to take clear messages; Berlin_Dersenedj_01.jpg looks inhumanly brachycephalic, for example.

Turning to my personal library, I note Cavalli-Sforza (1994, p. 172) has genetic data on modern Egyptians clustering closely with Libyans and Tunisianans. If we take this distance as 1, the Egyptians' distance to Berbers and Beduins is around 2, to Cushtic Ethiopians around 5, and to Bantu and West Africans around 13. I also note that Egyptian is Afro-Asitic, like other Middle Eastern and North African languages, implying a common genetic origin; Egyptians were probably similar to both Persians and Libyans.

The first useful study I found beyond Cavalli-Sforza was "International Anthropometric Study of Facial Morphology in Various Ethnic Groups/Races," by Farkas (2005). The results found that most facal characteristics were identical between Egyptians and north American Whites (NAW) but "both face height and lower face height were very significantly smaller" and "most intercanthal and biocular widths were significantly greater than those in NAW, and eye fissure length was significantly smaller." It is not clear where the 60 Egyptian subjects came from, or how representative this is of ancient Egyptians, but if you're interested, this one is probably worth downloading.

Finally, after some frustration searching the usual scholarly articles, I stumbled upon an old book in Smithsonian Institution, by Hrdlička, A. (1913), "The natives of Kharga oasis, Egypt." Although I can't link to it directly, I'm pleased to say that it is readily available for download online, and is an absolute treasure trove, containing over 100 pages of detailed phynotypic measurements on Egyptians. Here is the conclusion:

_________________

The Kharga Oasis Egyptians are people in general of somewhat subnormal physical development, due principally to long lasting defective nutrition. The majority of the people are as yet but little mixed with the negro.

Those who are not mixed with the blacks, show a fairly uniform physical type. This type is characterized by medium brown skin, horizontal brown eye, black and straight hair (with a tendency to wave when longer), black, straight, wavy or slightly curly and often scanty beard, moderate stature, dolicho. to mesocephalic and medium high head, oblong and meso. to orthognathic face, mesorhinic nose, rather long and narrow ear, and moderately proportioned chest, pelvis, hands and feet. They give somewhat higher pulse and respiration than the average in whites, but perceptibly lower temperature, and decidedly lower muscular force.

The type of the Kharga natives is radically distinct from that of the negro. It is according to all indications fundamentally the same as that of the non-negroid Valley Egyptians. It is in all probability a composite of closely related northeastern African and southwestern Asiatic, or "Hamitic" and "Semitic" ethnic elements, and is to be
classed with these as part of the southern extension of the Mediterranean subdivision of the white race.

Judging from the mummies of the Oasis inhabitants from the 2.5 centuries A.D., exhumed at El Baguat, the type of the present non-negroid Kharga natives is substantially the same as that of the population of the Oasis during the first part of the Christian era. The nature of the population of the Oasis in more ancient times can only be determined by skeletal material from the ancient cemeteries.

______________________

Although Kharga lies in Upper Egypt, bordering Kush, and may thus have been exposed to more gene flow than many Egyptians in Lower Egypt and the Nile Delta, who would have in turn been exposed to more admixture from North Africa, the Middle East, and Southern Europe, it is nevertheless satisfying to see the author compare the results to mummies from the early Christan era and note no important differences. I am betting that these findings can be applied to Egyptians all the way back to the Old Kingdom.

 

[Ygorcs]

If you allow me some personal marketing, lol, I have written extensively on this topic in the Quora platform some days ago: https://www.quora.com/If-juxtaposed...-are-discussions-fruitless/answer/Ygor-Coelho

To sum it up, in my opinion Ancient Egyptians had ancestry and skull/facial features most closely related to the modern North Africans and Southwest Asians, and if those 3 ancient Egypians' DNA makeup is to be believed, they were pretty close to some modern Bedouin tribes of Arabian origin. I think Egyptians were mostly the result of a mix of North African natives (maybe some as of yet unsampled population roughly between the Iberomaurusians and the Natufians), Levant_Neolithic and Iranian_Chalcolithic people, also with some minor but non-negligible Subsaharan ancestry (something like ~10-15%, which is high enough to darken some part of an already brown-skinned population). In my opinion, though, it's quite likely that, since we know that there was ongoing positive selection for lighter skin in Europe and much of the Middle East since the Neolithic, the earliest Egyptians were darker-skinned even if their genetic structure was already mostly very similar to that of the later medieval/modern Egyptians, and not because of any "Subsaharan ancestry/phenotype". Maybe Egyptians just depigmented less than some of the Libyan Berbers (I wonder if those that were most in contact with Egyptians still had higher Iberian_Neolithic or more broadly EEF ancestry than the later majority of Berbers) and Canaanites. In my opinion, then, the Ancient Egyptians should look pretty close to many modern Egyptians, who don't look much different at all from the most realistic, least stylized Egyptian sculptures (the only caveat is that the Ancient Egyptians should've looked darker-skinned than these Egyptians, though not all of the modern Egyptians, because Egypt has quite a lot of pretty dark-skinned people). For Egyptian women, you have to consider that nowadays most of those with naturally curly hair straighten it, so you should imagine them with naturally very wavy or curly hair (though ancient Egyptians also depicted women with straight hair).

The great Egyptian singer Oum Khoulthoum

Rami Malek

Mohamed El-Baradei

Bassam Youssef

Masa Amir

 

[Ygorcs]

That may just be because they're women. It seems to have been a convention that women, who stayed indoors more, were painted lighter than men, who would have been outdoors, hunting, training, etc. The darker skin was more "manly" I suppose.

There's absolutely there, often in the same sculpture or painting the women are unquestionably white, whereas the men are very brown-skinned.

But sometimes men are also depicted in lighter skin tones:

In my opinion Egyptians concentrated many different populations that were living in Northeast Africa before the full desertification of the Sahara and received quite a lot of foreign influxes, added to the fact that even their earlies Afro-Asiatic ancestors were probably themselves pretty mixed (if the Iberomaurusian some 3000-4000km km to the west of the Levant were 2/3 Natufian-like Eurasian and 1/3 Hadza-like I imagine that heavily mixed people would be even more common around Egypt in the Mesolithic). So they probably had a range of skin colors and phenotypes roughly as a middle-ground between Berbers/Maghrebis, Levantines, Nilo-Saharan (Sudanese) and Cushitic (Northeast Sudan/Horn of Africa). That's what I can take from their paintings and sculptures, which do not show always the same kind of look.

 

[Vandemonian]

If you allow me some personal marketing, lol, I have written extensively on this topic in the Quora platform some days ago

Thank you very much! I love that image of Bassam Youssef.

 

[halfalp]

Zidane is a very bad proxy to represent ancient Lybians phenotype because he is Kabyle, and Kabyle people have often light features. As for Ancient Canaanites resembling modern Ashkenazim... Pretty sure the best proxy for Ashkenazim would be something Armenian-Babylonian.

 

[ToBeOrNotToBe]

Zidane is a very bad proxy to represent ancient Lybians phenotype because he is Kabyle, and Kabyle people have often light features. As for Ancient Canaanites resembling modern Ashkenazim... Pretty sure the best proxy for Ashkenazim would be something Armenian-Babylonian.

Not at all, despite the Armenoid influences for the most part Ashkenazim are slender Mediterranids. And yes the Kabyle people are light, but those Libyans depicted look Welsh!

 

[Vandemonian]

I have written extensively on this topic in the Quora platform some days ago...
To sum it up, in my opinion Ancient Egyptians had ancestry and skull/facial features most closely related to the modern North Africans and Southwest Asians, and if those 3 ancient Egypians' DNA makeup is to be believed, they were pretty close to some modern Bedouin tribes of Arabian origin. I think Egyptians were mostly the result of a mix of North African natives (maybe some as of yet unsampled population roughly between the Iberomaurusians and the Natufians), Levant_Neolithic and Iranian_Chalcolithic people, also with some minor but non-negligible Subsaharan ancestry (something like ~10-15%, which is high enough to darken some part of an already brown-skinned population). In my opinion, though, it's quite likely that, since we know that there was ongoing positive selection for lighter skin in Europe and much of the Middle East since the Neolithic, the earliest Egyptians were darker-skinned even if their genetic structure was already mostly very similar to that of the later medieval/modern Egyptians, and not because of any "Subsaharan ancestry/phenotype". Maybe Egyptians just depigmented less than some of the Libyan Berbers (I wonder if those that were most in contact with Egyptians still had higher Iberian_Neolithic or more broadly EEF ancestry than the later majority of Berbers) and Canaanites. In my opinion, then, the Ancient Egyptians should look pretty close to many modern Egyptians, who don't look much different at all from the most realistic, least stylized Egyptian sculptures (the only caveat is that the Ancient Egyptians should've looked darker-skinned than these Egyptians, though not all of the modern Egyptians, because Egypt has quite a lot of pretty dark-skinned people). For Egyptian women, you have to consider that nowadays most of those with naturally curly hair straighten it, so you should imagine them with naturally very wavy or curly hair (though ancient Egyptians also depicted women with straight hair).

Ygorcs, I've read the post you mentioned on Quora, finished the 1913 article "The Natives of Kharga Oasis," along with a few articles I found elsewhere, and I'd like to form a careful response to this post of yours. Although it's clear that you're remarkably well educated on the subject, I do think there is good reason to doubt your claim that ancient Egyptians had "very wavy or curly" hair.

Firstly, "The Natives of Kharga Oasis" has:

The hair is as a rule black, and in those who are not mixed with the negro it is generally straight or approaching straight. It runs thus in 88 per cent of the men examined ; in 6 per cent it was black and distinctly wavy ; in 5 per cent black with a tendency to curl ; and in 1 individual it was dark brown and straight. In women, where the hair is much longer (many of the men clip the hair short or even shave the head), it is, so far as could be observed, generally more or less wavy, with occasional tendency to curl ; in children it is straight, wavy or slightly curly. The Coptic mummies at El Baguat showed in general hair that was black and straight to moderately wavy. A decidedly curly hair in Kharga natives was as a rule found associated with thick lips and other negro features. It appears, in fact, as if the tendency to curly hair was one of the most lasting effects in the progeny of one-time negro admixture.

We do have some mummies with hair that is at least wavy:



But when I find pictures of Coptic people - who, are said to be representative of the original Egyptians, but, if anything, are likely more admixed with Africans today than 3000 years ago - they don't have curly hair.





What strikes me as most likely is the idea that, to the extent that we can speak of a unified Egyptian physical type, it would be essentially Middle Eastern, rather dusky in comparison to the Ancient Greeks or Romans, with dark, wavy hair. Curly hair might not be uncommon in Upper Egypt, because of African admixture there. But in Lower Egypt, where such admixture would have been rare, and because the influence from north of the Mediterranean Sea would have been slightly stronger, hair would range from straight to wavy, and could occasionally show light brown or even auburn color. (Given the findings of mummies, hairstyles would also show a fascinating array of variation, from heads shaven to cope with lice, to elaborate wigs, extensions, and coiffures.)

Lastly, I tend to agree with you on your discussion of their skin tone. Specifically, I think skin in most cases would be dark due to not only to the darker ancestral skin colors which prevailed before the lightening effects of agriculture, but to the year-long absence of clouds and precipitation in North Africa. However, as much of the period artwork suggests, women might plausibly have had fairer skin than men, even ranging towards modern European tones in a few cases, if they took pains to avoid the sun.

 

[Ygorcs]

Ygorcs, I've read the post you mentioned on Quora, finished the 1913 article "The Natives of Kharga Oasis," along with a few articles I found elsewhere, and I'd like to form a careful response to this post of yours. Although it's clear that you're remarkably well educated on the subject, I do think there is good reason to doubt your claim that ancient Egyptians had "very wavy or curly" hair.

Firstly, "The Natives of Kharga Oasis" has:

The hair is as a rule black, and in those who are not mixed with the negro it is generally straight or approaching straight. It runs thus in 88 per cent of the men examined ; in 6 per cent it was black and distinctly wavy ; in 5 per cent black with a tendency to curl ; and in 1 individual it was dark brown and straight. In women, where the hair is much longer (many of the men clip the hair short or even shave the head), it is, so far as could be observed, generally more or less wavy, with occasional tendency to curl ; in children it is straight, wavy or slightly curly. The Coptic mummies at El Baguat showed in general hair that was black and straight to moderately wavy. A decidedly curly hair in Kharga natives was as a rule found associated with thick lips and other negro features. It appears, in fact, as if the tendency to curly hair was one of the most lasting effects in the progeny of one-time negro admixture.

We do have some mummies with hair that is at least wavy:

View attachment 10929

But when I find pictures of Coptic people - who, are said to be representative of the original Egyptians, but, if anything, are likely more admixed with Africans today than 3000 years ago - they don't have curly hair.

View attachment 10930

View attachment 10931

What strikes me as most likely is the idea that, to the extent that we can speak of a unified Egyptian physical type, it would be essentially Middle Eastern, rather dusky in comparison to the Ancient Greeks or Romans, with dark, wavy hair. Curly hair might not be uncommon in Upper Egypt, because of African admixture there. But in Lower Egypt, where such admixture would have been rare, and because the influence from north of the Mediterranean Sea would have been slightly stronger, hair would range from straight to wavy, and could occasionally show light brown or even auburn color. (Given the findings of mummies, hairstyles would also show a fascinating array of variation, from heads shaven to cope with lice, to elaborate wigs, extensions, and coiffures.)

Lastly, I tend to agree with you on your discussion of their skin tone. Specifically, I think skin in most cases would be dark due to not only to the darker ancestral skin colors which prevailed before the lightening effects of agriculture, but to the year-long absence of clouds and precipitation in North Africa. However, as much of the period artwork suggests, women might plausibly have had fairer skin than men, even ranging towards modern European tones in a few cases, if they took pains to avoid the sun.

Hi, I agree with most of your points. About skin color, I have no doubt most of them were not black and not white either (of course there must've been variation, Egypt is right at a genetic crossroad due to its own geography), but brownish-colored just like most modern Bedouins and Arabians if you let them live under heavy sun exposure. But they are clearly much more depigmented than blacks, especially the majority of the indigenous blacks just south of Egypt (Sudan), who tend to be among the darkest peoples on earth, even for Subsaharan African standards. I also think they were mostly Middle Eastern, more specifically Southwest Asians, more similar to present-day Arabians and Bedouins, so just like most of them they probably had wavy or curly hair. The Ancient Egyptian paintings and sculptures often suggest quite wavy or curly hair when they're not wearing wigs, which is very often, of course, lol. The frequent use of braids and dreadlocks possibly also reinforces that many of them had curly or very wavy hair. Don't forget that nowadays a lot of women use all kinds of products and chemical or physical processes to straighten their hair. I even read a BBC report on a "curly hair freedom" movement going on in Egypt among some women, who have grown tired of straightening their hair and want to show it as it is naturally. Therefore I think those pictures of modern Coptic woman might be a bit misleading, as that is not their natural hair phenotype. In my opinion, it's likely that the majority of them have moderately to heavily wavy hair, or curly hair (but notice here, I'm not talking about woolly/kinky hair typical of Subsaharan Africans, but about curly hair). Here some Egyptian women with their natural hair. None of them has really woolly Subsaharan-like hair, but curly hair:

 

[halfalp]

Hi, I agree with most of your points. About skin color, I have no doubt most of them were not black and not white either (of course there must've been variation, Egypt is right at a genetic crossroad due to its own geography), but brownish-colored just like most modern Bedouins and Arabians if you let them live under heavy sun exposure. But they are clearly much more depigmented than blacks, especially the majority of the indigenous blacks just south of Egypt (Sudan), who tend to be among the darkest peoples on earth, even for Subsaharan African standards. I also think they were mostly Middle Eastern, more specifically Southwest Asians, more similar to present-day Arabians and Bedouins, so just like most of them they probably had wavy or curly hair. The Ancient Egyptian paintings and sculptures often suggest quite wavy or curly hair when they're not wearing wigs, which is very often, of course, lol. The frequent use of braids and dreadlocks possibly also reinforces that many of them had curly or very wavy hair. Don't forget that nowadays a lot of women use all kinds of products and chemical or physical processes to straighten their hair. I even read a BBC report on a "curly hair freedom" movement going on in Egypt among some women, who have grown tired of straightening their hair and want to show it as it is naturally. Therefore I think those pictures of modern Coptic woman might be a bit misleading, as that is not their natural hair phenotype. In my opinion, it's likely that the majority of them have moderately to heavily wavy hair, or curly hair (but notice here, I'm not talking about woolly/kinky hair typical of Subsaharan Africans, but about curly hair). Here some Egyptian women with their natural hair. None of them has really woolly Subsaharan-like hair, but curly hair:

The third somehow looks like some Nefertiti Statue, especially in the eyes part.

 

[Vandemonian]

In my opinion, it's likely that the majority of them have moderately to heavily wavy hair, or curly hair

Then why did the study author I quoted above (The Natives of Kharga Oasis) state The hair is as a rule black, and in those who are not mixed with the negro it is generally straight or approaching straight?

Poking around, there does indeed seem to be a general consensus that modern Egyptians have curlier hair. (Here's an example.) Frankly I have no problem with this being absolutely true. Yet people who went out to the Kharga Oasis for the purpose of measuring and recording what they found, noted that among natives unmixed with Sub-Saharan Africans, straight hair was more common than curly hair. Granted, it's only one study, but I see no reason to doubt their conclusions regarding hair texture any more than their conclusions on the natives' resting body temperature or heart rate.

It seems much easier to explain the common curliness of modern Egyptians by pointing to Sub Saharan admixture - I've known many people who would pass as European, except for curly hair which came from an African grandparent or great-grandparent. Such admixture could have existed even in the Old Kingdom, particularly in Upper Egypt. But how many in the Ancient Nile Delta had any such admixture?

DNA from Ancient Egyptian Mummies Reveals Their Ancestry
Despite repeated conquests of Egypt, by Alexander the Great, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Assyrians — the list goes on — ancient Egyptians showed little genetic change. “The other big surprise,” Krause said, “was we didn't find much sub-Saharan African ancestry.”
The remains came from Abusir el-Meleq, an ancient Nile community in the middle of Egypt...
If you ask Egyptians, they'll say that they have become more European recently, Krause said. “We see exactly the opposite,” he said. It was not until relatively recently in Egypt's long history that sub-Saharan genetic influences became more pronounced. “In the last 1,500 years, Egypt became more African, if you want,” Krause said.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_history_of_Egypt
[A]ncient Egyptian individuals in their own dataset possessed highly similar mitochondrial profiles throughout the examined period. Modern Egyptians generally shared this maternal haplogroup pattern, but also carried more Sub-Saharan African clades. However, analysis of the mummies' mtDNA haplogroups found that they shared greater mitochondrial affinities with modern populations from the Near East and the Levant compared to modern Egyptians...
A study by Krings et al. (1999) on mitochondrial DNA clines along the Nile Valley found that a Eurasian cline runs from Northern Egypt to Southern Sudan and a Sub-Saharan cline from Southern Sudan to Northern Egypt.

 

[Angela]

Plenty of people without any African ancestry have curly hair or at least very wavy hair, including a lot of Europeans. You don't see it as much nowadays because people blow dry it straight as that's the fashion. Just watch Game of Thrones and see how many naturally curly headed British men there are. The hair on the women is blow dryed or you'd see they have it too. Why the heck would it have to be connected to SSA ancestry in anyone, including Egyptians?

In practically every other era of history Euorpeans have tortured their hair to get it to curl. I doubt they were copying SSA people.

This looks natural to me.

[/IMG]

This doesn't:

I actually think this is fake. In Little Women there's all this talk that the rage was for "frizzled" curls and the tongs were left on the hair too long in trying to get that effect, and burned the "curls" right off. Catastrophe!

Real "SSA" hair is different: different texture, extremely coiled, in some cases it won't even grow. I would agree that most Egyptians don't have hair like that. With most very wavy, almost curly hair, if you sleep on it or even braid it, it straightens out most of the curl. That's what used to happen to me. I would have to wet it again in the morning to get the curls to come back. In more ancient times people used to put sweet smelling oil in their hair.

Nicole Kidman before she totally changed herself. SHe could have used a good conditioning.

 

[matty74]

What's the relation between the Coptic Christians and the ancient Egyptians?

 

[Vandemonian]

Plenty of people without any African ancestry have curly hair or at least very wavy hair, including a lot of Europeans....Why the heck would it have to be connected to SSA ancestry in anyone, including Egyptians?

Check the study I keep referencing: The Natives of Kharga Oasis. (It really is a splendid read if you're interested in Egyptology, with details not only on the people but on their labyrinthine village.) A sample of 150 unmixed Egyptians in the early 20th century were found to have straight to wavy hair. It isn't that they couldn't have curly hair without African ancestry, simply that they didn't.

What's the relation between the Coptic Christians and the ancient Egyptians?

The Copts are evidently the most direct descendants of Ancient Egyptians surviving today, though they could have evolved somewhat in the intervening millennia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_history_of_Egypt#Copts
cientists... associate the Coptic component with Ancient Egyptian ancestry, without the later Arabian influence that is present among other Egyptians.

https://copticliterature.wordpress....nguishable-from-that-of-the-muslims-of-egypt/
Copts share the same main ancestral component than North African and Middle East populations (dark blue), supporting a common origin with Egypt (or other North African/Middle Eastern populations). They are known to be the most ancient population of Egypt and at k = 4 (Fig.3), they show their own component (dark green) different from the current Egyptian population which is closer to the Arabic population of Qatar.

 

[MOESAN]

Not at all, despite the Armenoid influences for the most part Ashkenazim are slender Mediterranids. And yes the Kabyle people are light, but those Libyans depicted look Welsh!

stereotype.
Kabyles are fairer than the surrounding people of Maghreb. They are more variated concerning pigmentation than other N-African people, but for European standards, they are not fair, just a bit fairer as a mean than the darkest among European Mediterranean regions people; what can be said is they lack neat brown skins, and that they present a lot of middle European hues for skin, hairs and eyes, and some light hues at individual level, what is very high for these regions, but this doesn't prevent them to show very often dark colours for every category. You can see some rare golden very light brown hairs, more seldomly middle blond hairs (I saw some of them, as a French man), but it's far to be the rule. More stricking, they show(ed?) 14% of freckling, and 4% of red hairs according to scholars, what is high there! Among Berbers too you have also less dark people among the Shawi of Aures Mountains, and at a lower rate, Rifians of N-Morocco and people of Eastern Tunisia, to believe some scholars. But a mean fair pop, nope.
Concerning ancient Lybians, their depictation is surely a stereotype too, but as surely based on some kind of reality: it seems that this trend toward less "darkness" has been more common some time ago among Hamitic people.
Not very interesting, but to be clear with facts.
Concerning features, Coon has already made some works on ancient Egyptians.