Cleopatra wasn't black.
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eby205 — 20 years ago(December 03, 2005 02:27 PM)
First of all, very little is known for certain about Cleopatra. She was definitely of Macedonian descent. Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and died at the age of 33, after which his general divided up his territory, and Ptolemy I got Egypt and started the Ptolemaic line. Cleopatra MIGHT have had some Egyptian blood in her; while generally the Ptolemies married their sisters, this was not always the case. However, it is extremely unlikely that Cleopatra was even slightly Egyptian, since Alexandria had a very large and very affluent Greek community under the Ptolemies. Contemporary depictions of herin busts, coins, etc., show a woman with bulgy eyes, a crooked nose, and a long neck (she was, after all, very inbred).
Despite her Greek descent, she was the first of the Ptolemies to speak colloquial Egyptian, and she clearly identified herself as Egyptianshe believed that she was a reincarnation of Isis (not unusual for Egyptian kings, who all identified themselves with Horus/Osiris and Amun-Re).
And really, no one knows whether the ancient Egyptians were white or black or Middle-Eastern. Previously to the Ptolemaic period, the Nubians (who were black) had invaded Egypt and served as kings for a short time, before being ousted by the Libyans (who were white). But technically both Nubians and Libyans were Egyptians, so ancient Egyptians' skin color really depended on where you were in Egypt. -
babydolphin8 — 20 years ago(December 20, 2005 08:05 AM)
The modern Egptians are direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians. The population only became Arabised in the 13th and 14th centuries etc adopting the muslim faith and the Arabic language just as the modern Iraqis are descentants from the Ancient Babylonians, Akkadians, Assyrians, Sumerians and the Lebanese from the Ancient Phoenicians. The ancient populations of the near east- from the tigris and euphrates to eastern meditteranean seaboard, just south of Anatolia- complextion was from dark to light brown with black straight or woolly hair, they were diffently not Caucasian Germanic/Nordic types so perpetuated by the Eurocentric film and television industry for so long. I remember the BBC did a historical documentary on Jesus as part of their promotion on the Radio Times they had an artist depiction of what an 1st century AD Jew/Hebrew would look like or what would Jesus look like we was bronzed-brown skin pigmentation with straight black hair not an European Caucasoid type.
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sexyonika21 — 17 years ago(October 26, 2008 08:31 PM)
this is only a recent thing the ancients never had ideas about black or white especially those from the medtereran sea who were olive brown skin color both egyptians and greek alike. and eventually the ptomely dynasty mixed they did mixed it was once in a while but they did. never listen to white historian who think white are supeior and never listen to a black historian who think blacks are superior. the ancients really did not have race and all that racism thing this a fairly recent idea about 500 years
it's better to love and lose to love than not to love at all -
psteve321 — 17 years ago(October 28, 2008 05:28 PM)
this is only a recent thing the ancients never had ideas about black or white especially those from the medtereran sea who were olive brown skin color both egyptians and greek alike. and eventually the ptomely dynasty mixed they did mixed it was once in a while but they did. never listen to white historian who think white are supeior and never listen to a black historian who think blacks are superior. the ancients really did not have race and all that racism thing this a fairly recent idea about 500 years
it's better to love and lose to love than not to love at all
No they didn't mix and what is recent is Afrocentric false claims in trying to make white Europeans like the Ptolemies into 'blacks or mixed' just because they ruled over an 'African' country. NEWSFLASH: ROYALS NEVER MIX WITH NATIVE POPULATIONS. I suggest people actually read some credible history on this Dynasty. THIS is what the real Cleopatra looked likedoes she look like she 'mixed' or 'black'? No because she wasn't. The Ptolemies looked down their noses at native Egyptians and black Africans and neither did they intermix with them to produce heirs to their thrones who they believed only true Hellenic Ptolemeis were worthy to rule over them and native Egyptians as well as black Africans were not true Hellenic Ptolemeis.
http://www.wc.pdx.edu/cleopatra/cleopatra_vii.jpg
Both set of Cleopatra VII grandparents and her parents were of the Ptolemaic bloodline, in other words EUROPEANS. Ancient busts and coins of Cleopatra depict her Caucasian ancestry, not mixed. Aside from birth marriage and death records of the Ptolemies, ancient artifacts and coins that clearly show the Ptolemies were of 'white' European origins, other evidence that Cleopatra and the Ptolemies had zero African blood in them is the fact that Cleopatra's FULL sister Berenice's show she was fully of EUROPEAN Caucasian origins and given Ptolemiac birth records show us that she was Cleopatra's FULL sister, meaning they both had the same mom and dad, well there is another nail in the coffin of those pseudo Afrocentric trying to turn Cleopatra into something that she was not, meaning this is more evidence that Cleopatra had zero African blood in her. Oh and this is how Bernice, full sister of Cleopatra, looked. Notice the European 'white' facial characteristics, no black admixture to them:
http://www.margheritacampaniolo.it/archeo/ptolemaic[1][1].gif
http://www.margheritacampaniolo.it/archeo/berenice[2].jpg
http://www.narmer.pl/dyn/ima/berenike2.jpg -
sexyonika21 — 17 years ago(October 29, 2008 05:33 PM)
ok you right i just spoke to a historian and he said cleopatra was greek but he did say the people around the meditterran were of a light olive brown to dark olive brown skin. race and racism he said is a recent thing the ancients were not racist as we put it today and yes the ptomilies did mix but cleopatra and bernenice were fully white and yes dynasty to do mix when very rarely but they do once in a while
it's better to love and lose to love than not to love at all -
Divinequeen14 — 20 years ago(January 07, 2006 10:00 PM)
I'm really not here to debate this but, personally I like the image that Michelangelo portrayed. It captures african and european at once, the hair of caucasians, the physical features of africans, and it is probably the most realistic depiction of her, maybe not realistic but it has what everyone wants her to be which is either white, or black, either way she was a successful queen.
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oscarthecouch — 20 years ago(January 18, 2006 12:34 PM)
She was not black. Also Egypt at that time was not even part of Africa. Egypt was its own thing and was mostly composed of greeks and jews. When you traveled down the Nile for about 7 days (their time) you would run into Africa proper where the citizens were black.
![http://www.margheritacampaniolo.it/archeo/ptolemaic[1][1].gif](http://www.margheritacampaniolo.it/archeo/ptolemaic%5B1%5D%5B1%5D.gif){kind=link}
![http://www.margheritacampaniolo.it/archeo/berenice[2].jpg](http://www.margheritacampaniolo.it/archeo/berenice%5B2%5D.jpg){kind=link}
