the ancients recognized that these peoples differed in pigmentation and took considerable pains to record observed differences. Ethiopians may have looked alike to Philostratus but not to most Greeks and Romans. Even Philostratus himself described Memnon as not really black because the pure black of his skin showed a trace of ruddiness. When Statius spoke of red Ethiopians, he was perhaps revealing the accuracy of the Roman's knowledge of the Ethiopian type. Negroes of red, copper-colored complexion are known among African tribes (1970, p. 3).  
This summarizes the historical intrusion of the word 'Moor' and its derivations (moreau, morien, Maurice, morisco, etc.) into European vocabulary before and after 1492, when the Moors were expelled from Christian Spain, which came to identify the African as a black or tawny Moor. The word 'tawny' implies a lighter colour, although some scholars associate this word with whiteness. Interestingly, as early as the sixteenth century, both secular and religious public festivals re-enacted the Reconquest by Christian Spain, particularly during Christmas, by portraying the Moors as black in Tortosa, and using the terms 'Moor' and 'black' interchangeably (Ruiz, 2012, pp. 38-39).  
It is thus recognized that people have skin colour of differing gradations which can be described as black, brown, dark brown, light brown, dark, and so