In spite of the evidence against scientific race, both Egyptologists and Afrocentric scholars often continue attempts to define the Egyptians as members of an essentialist racial category, usually attempting to link them either to a supposed "Caucasoid" or "Negroid/Africoid" phenotype. Such models imply that the founders of pharaonic Egypt came from sub-Saharan Africa, western Asia, or Europe/Trans-caucasus. While there was some immigration from all these areas, physical anthropology has demonstrated the fundamental continuity of ancient and modern Egyptian populations. The evidence also points to linkages to other northeastern African peoples, not coincidentally approximating the modern range of languages closely related to Egyptian in the Afro-Asiatic group (formerly called Hamito-Semitic). These linguistic similarities place ancient Egyptian in a close relationship with languages spoken today in northeastern Africa as far west as Chad and south to Somalia. Archaeological evidence also strongly supports an African origin. A widespread northeastern African cultural assemblage, including distinctive multiple barbed harpoons and pottery decorated with dotted wavy line patterns, appears during the early Neolithic (also known as the Aqualithic, a reference to the mild climate of the Sahara at this time). Saharan and Sudanese rock art from this time resembles early Egyptian iconography. Strong connections between Nubian (Sudanese) and Egyptian material culture continue in the later Neolithic Badarian culture of Upper Egypt. Similarities include black-topped wares, vessels with characteristic ripple-burnished surfaces, a special tulip-shaped vessel with incised and white-filled decoration, palettes, and harpoons, The presence of formative pharaonic symbolism in the Lower Nubian A-Group royal burials at Qustui has led Bruce Williams to posit a common Egyptian-Nubian pharaonic heritage, although this notion has been much disputed. Other ancient Egyptian practices show strong similarities to modern African cultures, including divine kingship, the use of headrests, body art, circumcision, and male coming-of-age rituals, all suggesting an African substratum or foundation for Egyptian civilization (rather than diffusion from sub-Saharan Africa, as claimed by some Afrocentric scholars).
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