Ancient Japan would fit nicely into your elf theme.

You do realize that you're going to be called racist when you publish something that implies a given ethnic group is not human...right? Just about every primordial civilization does have descendants, and picking some random culture to rewrite is not a great look.

@AlexP "Should meet, as well as possible, the racial traits defined below:" Clearly I don't expect humans to actually have magic in the real world.

@user49466 Thanks for your perception but I am not really concerned. Also, I don't see how me calling...as in my example, the gaul's orcs is going to make me sound racist...that logic doesn't follow.

Unfortunately the question as worded is great for defining a narrow answerable goal but doesn't leave room for my thought about the Drow being behind the Nazi party.

@Ash Yeah the timeline thing...hrm...if you could work a middle of Europe culture/tribe group as your answer an addendum explaining how one tribe (the drow) were behind the rise of Nazism would be stellar...so you CAN do it but they'd have to have infiltrated modern Germany...and how hard can that be?

@James - what kind of "Elf" are looking to represent? As I read through your list, I say "okay, that's a human trait; that's a human trait; oh, wait, there's another human trait"... How should we distinguish Elf from Man?

What about the Tuatha de Danaan (Children [tribe] of Dana) of Irish mythology? The Irish legends talk about magic, but review of stories suggests a celtic invasion of a slightly more technically advanced settled tribe the previously held Ireland, with refugees from the tribe surviving several generations into the celtic settlement.

@pojo-guy feel free to write up an answer if you feel they fit the bill.

@James a proper answer would take more time than I have now. For your purposes, does "magic" include bronze age interpretation of late medieval/early renaissance level technology and improvements in sanitation?

Do you mean RACES, or SPECIES? Were Denisovans and Neanderthals a race, or a species?

@JustinThyme Based on the DNA evidence, they were races rather than species.

the problem is most of your criteria are things that don't exist in hte real world like greatly extended lifespan ir its derivatives. I suggest you trim those out of your criteria and you will have a much easier time finding an answer.

@pojo-guy Why Race Is Not a Thing, According to Genetics

@JustinThyme "race" is easier to say than "a large group of people with readily identifiable cosmetic commonalities due to geographical isolation"

@pojo-guy So are all people with a cleft lip members of an identifiable race?

@elemtilas There is a link in the question to another question that outlines the traits of the different races in my world if you are curious how they differ from stock humans.

@John No thanks. My criteria are what I want to know about. Those answering would need to identify how a particular group's traditions/culture/activity can help explain the traits I have for elves. Clearly we didn't have 300 year old magic slingers in the real world...but there are stories that led primitive humans to believe in magic, perhaps a complete technological mismatch. So some tribe that we believe was technologically ahead of its time could be used for my elves (as an example)

@JustinThyme In the fantasy world the word race is often used to discuss the different creature types, elves, orcs, humans, etc.

Which pretty much means that you want us to super-impose 'creature type' definitions to real world races?

@James - like I said, those are basically lists of common human traits. So I ask again, what kind of Elf are you looking for? In other words, what does it mean to be Elf? I mean: tribalism? Look at your average gang of thugs! Are you saying that Latinos or Blacks should be equated with Orcs because of MS13 or whatever?

I'm sorry, James, but the essential concept here smacks of a very deep & weird kind of racism. Just call em Irish & have done with! They fit all your criteria to a perfect T!

@JustinThyme an honest question, but I don't think birth defects count as race. They are not a function of selective breeding in an isolated population.

@pojo-guy That is precisely my point. The list of characteristics of the OP for 'Elves' are, except for magic and longevity, characteristics that are spread throughout all human 'races', not just a characteristic of a particular race/culture/horde/tribe. Unless the OP characterizes 'Elves' by some criteria that is used to define a 'race/culture'/horde/tribe', or actually defines his terms 'race/culture/horde/tribe' to fit his criteria, the question is ill defined.

@JustinThyme Agreed - but it sounds like what he is looking for is a historical population that is misinterpreted as a elvish "race", rather than a "race" in the traditional sense of the word.

@ pojo-guy ' For example: The Huns were actually Orcs.' Not LIKE, not misinterpreted as, but WERE. Therein is the crux of the matter.

Moderator note: There's a lot of discussion in comments about whether mapping fantasy "races" (more like species) to extinct human tribes/nations is racist and thus inappropriate on this site. I don't see racism for a couple reasons: (a) some of these fantasy species would be considered to be superior to humans so it's not an insult, (b) we can't identify the human races 'cause they're gone per the question, and (c) it's really about identifiable groups not races. But I'm sensitive to the complaint, so I'm going to make some edits that I hope will help. Discussion -> chat/meta please.

@MonicaCellio thanks