Classify Roman era Egyptian

[Smeagol]

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fayum-22.jpg

http://davidderrick.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/fayum.jpg

[Smeagol]

Bump.

[Sikeliot]

Has eyes like me.

[ABest]

He would easily fit in modern Egypt.

[Amun]

He would easily fit in modern Egypt.

I agree. I don't think that Romans lift huge genetic shift among Egyptian population. I think this guy looks fairly Egyptian.

[Gospodine]

This isn't really a Roman-era Egyptian. The Roman Province of Egypt ended in 390AD. After that it was Byzantine until 650AD when the Arabs invaded. And the Byzantines heavily persecuted Egyptian Christians. By that point Ancient Egyptian culture had all but dissipated.

The Fayum Mummy Portraits are from the Coptic Period between 300AD - 800AD.


I agree. I don't think that Romans lift huge genetic shift among Egyptian population. I think this guy looks fairly Egyptian.

No they didn't but keep in mind the Fayum Mummy Portraits are of the elite of early Christian Egyptian society who married very selectively, many of whom took Greek/Byzantine or Roman spouses as part of their conversion to Christianity; and many of them are indeed of Roman or Greek origin stemming from Ptolemaic and later Roman aristocracy.

Also, it's detectable as to how realistic the portraits really were. Like many paintings from classical antiquity of noblemen and the bourgeoisie, they are heavily romanticized and idealistic.

This guy to me, looks like a more typical modern Egyptian face:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Fayum-22.jpg

[ABest]

The Fayum Mummy Portraits are from the Coptic Period between 300AD - 800AD.

Wrong. Their production started in the 1st century BC and lasted until the 3d century AD.

Their production declined by the 4th century AD, but they exerted an undeniable influence on Byzantine art.

It's also important to note that the Fayum mummy portraits represent a small part of the highly prestigious panel painting tradition of the Classical world. It's just that many paintings have been destroyed or lost. Classical panel painting from the Greco-Roman world as a whole directly influenced Late Antique and subsequently Byzantine panel painting.

[Terror Terror]

He looks Southern European from Turkey to Sardinia.