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HEBREW FLYER
THE IDENITY OF THE BIBICAL HEBREWS REVEALED
Archeology, Phrenology, forensic anthropology.

objects found at the Fosse temple at Lachish (British Museum

For centuries, the identity of the ancient Israelites has been virtually unknown. Now in the last
couple decades, scientific methods have developed to give a more cohesive identity. What did they
ancient Israelites look like? were they phenotypically European, Asian or African? In this article I'll
focus on the Israelites of the Bronze Age, Chiefly kingdom Of Judah City of Lachish.

The Canaanite city of Lachish is first mentioned in ancient historical texts in the el-Amarna letters 3
from the 14th century BCE. Ancient Lachish, or Tell ed-Duweir, is located on the modern road map of
Israel, roughly halfway between Askelon and Hebron and 30 miles south west of Jerusalem. As you
round a bend of the approach road the impressive mound hits the eye, rising some 63 feet above the
surrounding fields. The levelled crown covers an area of 20 acres. The part of ancient Israel that the
fortress had dominated, is now named after the city the Lachish region. Lachish was one of the
most powerful and important cities in ancient times, particularly in the period of Israels kingdom
(1020-500 BC).

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Ancient City of Lachish

Lachish is first mentioned in the Bible at the time of the Divinely
ordained invasion of the land of Canaan by the Israelites, led by
Joshua 1220-1200 BC). The Israelites had already taken the cities
of Jericho and Ai and had also reached an agreement with the
inhabitants of Gibeon. Some of the Amorite rulers, when they
heard about the advancing armies of Israel and the pact they had
already made with the Gibeonites, were rightfully scared. We read
that Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of
Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir
king of Eglon, saying, Come up to me and help me, that we may
attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the
children of Israel (Joshua 10.3,4).

The city of Lachish was destroyed by the

Assyrian army during Sennacherib's
campaign against the Kingdom of Judah
in 701 BCE. The destruction was total;
the buildings were burned to the ground
and the inhabitants exiled. The Assyrian
campaign, during the reign of King
Hezekiah, and the encampment of the
Assyrian army at Lachish are described in
detail in the Bible. (2 Kings 18:14-17; 2 Chronicles 32:9) The
conquest of Lachish is depicted in monumental stone reliefs found
at Sennacherib's palace at Ninveh, providing a rare contemporary
"photograph" of the battle and conquest. These relief-images of
the Assyrian attack have been confirmed by archeological evidence
at the site: the attack on Lachish was launched from the
southwest; the attackers built a siege ramp against the slope of the
mound, which according to calculation contained some 15,000
tons of stones and earth! The ramp was covered with plaster to
allow the Assyrian battering ram to be moved up to the city wall
and breach it. The city's defenders constructed a counter-ramp
inside the city, thus raising the city wall, which forced the
Assyrians to raise the height of their ramp in order to overcome
the city's new defenses. The fierceness of the battle is attested to
by the remains of weapons, scales of armor, hundreds of
slingstones and arrowheads. The actual sling stones and arrow
heads used in the siege of Lachish(top).

The Siege of
LACHISH

Assyrian King Sennacherib

left reliefs of his war against
Lachish on his palace wall at
Nineveh. The following
photos are portions of that
relief now displayed in the
British Museum. Many
Judeans were taken into
captivity. Other begged for
mercy in the hilly Shephelah
of Judah.

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Archaeology, and forensic Anthropology

The 701 BCE Time Capsule of Lachish
No ancient Judean DNA samples have ever been formally published, but
we do have a time capsule of data from 701 BCE found at the Judean city of
Lachish in the form of a mass grave that was excavated there.

A large, mass burial was found dating to the 701 BCE Assyrian siege and
conquest of Lachish when the Assyrians conquered and brutally murdered
the civilian population and exiled the ruling class. The excavator (J.L.
Starkey) observed that the skeletons were likely secondary burial (i.e. the victims died somewhere
else, decomposed, and were re-buried here) and piled in a disorderly fashion, sometime after their
deaths at the hand of the Assyrians during their conquest of Lachish. Starkey estimated that 1,500
individuals were buried in this mass grave. From these skeletons, 695 skulls were sent to London,
England for analysis. The bodies were those of men, women, and children the Judean civilian
population of Lachish from 701 BCE or 2710 years ago.

What is relevant to our discussion here is that the skull types of these Judeans were found to be
most similar to ancient Egyptian populations. In other words, these Judeans would have looked like
ancient Egyptians. The relationship between Egypt and the Semitic region of the Levant is one of the
most well documented facts in the archaeological record of the region. Further, the Hebrew-Semitic
peoples themselves most likely originated from the general region of Egypt based on analysis of the
linguistic structure and history of languages, with Semitic belonging to the Afro-Asiatic group which
includes Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, and possibly Omotic. Thus, the evidence we
have from archaeology in the form of excavated skeletons supports the connection between the
ancient Hebrews/Judeans/Israelites and the ancient Egyptians.
It appears from some of the most perfect Egyptian mummies now remaining that the features of the
ancient Egyptians much resembled those of the present-day Negroes, which is a proof that the latter
must have been originally nearly related to the former. The language, or languages, therefore spoken
in these regions bore a great affinity at first to the Egyptian, Arabic, and Ethiopic, and may at this
time probably be impure dialects of them." The above would seem sufficiently conclusive to the
Author, who has already shown the reckless intermarriage of the Jews with the Egyptians, that in so
doing they laid the early racial foundations for the NegroJudean peoples whom we so readily receive
among us as merchant princes, social leaders and financiers, yet who, if history is to be believed, are
as much the offspring of the early Negroes as the less fortunate man of color who is compelled to bear
the humbler burdens of our day (Slavery).
EXCERPT FROM: ARTHUR TALMAGE ABERNETHY. THE JEW A NEGRO. PAGE 101

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The first report on the Lachish skulls included a thorough examination of pathology, metrics, artificial deformation, and epigenetic affinity. Utilizing craniometrics, Risdon (1939) concluded that the
group was very similar to dynastic Egyptian material. In fact, he stated that the entire population was
of foreign origin, representing descendants of a group derived primarily from Upper Egypt. This
conclusion was subsequently supported by a craniometric study by Musgrave and Evans (1981). Keita
(1988, p. 377) likewise examined the skulls metrically, omitting those that were either artificially
deformed, female, warped, split, [or] juvenile, using only those measurements that he believed were
consistent population discriminators. He concluded that the group was fairly heterogeneous, having
close relationships to North African, Egyptian, and Nubian groups, thus lending support to an
Egypto-Nubian presence (Keita, 1988, p. 388).

Skulls from Judea

The skulls from Judah, southern Israel, come from the settlements of Lachish, and En Gedi.
Lachish was an important around 700 BC (measurements of Lachish skulls are taken from data in
Analysis of Crania from Tell Duweir Using Multiple Discriminant Functions by SOY Keita,
American Journal of Physical Anthropology (AJPA) 75 (1988) p375- 390).
"GLOGERS RULE STATES THAT AS ONE MOVES FROM COLDER TO WARMER CLIMATES THEY WILL FIND AN
INCREASE IN OUTER COVERING MELANIN IN NATIVE RACES WITHIN A WARM- BLOODED SPECIES"

Maximum skull breadth, horizontal circumference and biauricular breadth are measurements which separate Africans
from Europeans in the Howells world- wide database. They are identified as strong indicators of warm- and coldadaptation by a world- wide study of 2009. All three indicate either a sub- tropically- adapted Afro- type population in
Safed and Lachish or a mixed population with a major Afro- type component. A reasonable inference, following Glogers
Rule, would be that the people of Judah had heavily pigmented skins that complimented their sub- tropical. Their heavily
pigmented skin is an obvious indicator of their warm- adaptation

In 1972 Berry and Berry published an extensiv e study comparing the discrete traits of populations
from Africa, Europe and Lachish. Below we have combined the results with those of Rightmire
(1972), where the data is available, and shown the results:
Highest Nuchal Line Present
Medieval Scotland

Percentages
36%

Pre- dynastic Egypt

16.2%

Prehistoric Nubia

13.3%

Ashanti

16.7%

Lachish

16.7%

Conclusion: Frequency of Lachish skulls is closest to pre- dynastic Upper Egyptians

and Nubians .

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Lambdoid
The lambdoid suture (or lambdoidal suture)
is a dense, fibrous connective tissue joint on
the posterior aspect of the skull that connects
the parietal bones with the occipital bone. It
is continuous with the occipitomastoid
suture.

Lambdoidal Ossicle present

Medieval Scotland
Norway, Oslo

Percentage
47.5%
40%

Prehistoric Nubia

44.6%

Ashanti

25.9%

Pre- dynastic Egypt

31.6%

Lachish

29.8%

Conclusion: Frequency of this trait in Lachish skulls is closest to pre- dynastic Upper
Egyptians and Ashanti . They are most distant from Prehistoric Nubians and northern Europeans.
The Prehistoric Nubians are, interestingly, closer to the northern Europeans for this trait.

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epipteric bone
a sutural bone occasionally present at the pterion or junction of the parietal, frontal, greater wing of
the sphenoid, and squamous portion of the temporal bones.

Epipteric Bone Present

Medieval Scotland
Norway, Oslo
Prehistoric Nubia

Percentage
18.5%
18%
14.9%

Sotho

8.1%

Zulu

6.1%

Rwanda

8.2%

Ashanti

6.2%

Pre- dynastic Egyptians

6.7%

Lachish

9.5%

Sotho n. (pl. same or -thos) 1a member of a group of peoples living chiefly in Botswana, Lesotho, and northern South
Africa. 2 the group of Bantu languages spoken

Conclusion: Frequency of this trait i n Lachish skulls is closest to Sotho South Africans and Tutsi
Rwandans . They are most different from northern Europeans.

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SOURCES
THE ANCIENT BLACK HEBREWS VOL II THE
FORENSIC PROOF SIMPLY EXPLAINED GERT
MULLER
The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance Between
Hebrews and Africans in 701 BC
By Henry Aubin
Judahite Burial Practices and Beliefs about the
Dead
By Elizabeth Bloch-Smith
Ke-ir Netsurah
By Israel Ephal
Classification and Human Evolution
edited by Sherwood L. Washburn
Tell el Hesy (Lachish), Hyksos and Israelite Cities
By William Matthew Flinders Petrie
A Primer of Old Testament Archaeology
Brill Archive
Scripture and Other Artifacts: Essays on the Bible
and Archaeology in Honor ...
edited by Philip J. King, Michael David Coogan, J.
Cheryl Exum, Lawrence E. Stager
The Oxford Guide to Ideas & Issues of the Bible
edited by Bruce M. Metzger, Michael David
Coogan

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