How could Cleopatra been black...?

Question

How could have Cleopatra been black when she came from a macedonian dynasty that conquered Egypt along with Alexander the great ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemaic_dynasty

Answer 1

She couldn't. But don't tell anyone because they get real agitated when you steal away their stolen hero's.

Answer 2

There are quite a few generations in between there. In those intervening years there was quite likely some other ethnicity bred into the line. I doubt the Ptolemaic line was even remotely pure blood Macedonian after even two generations. Alexander's empire was not very long lived and his descendants probably ended marrying locals to father heirs. Eventually those Macedonian traits would have been largely bred out of the line.

Answer 3

It's almost impossible... One thing is that she's from a Macedonian dynasty and another that there are a few preserved images of Cleopatra, like her bust, and we can see that she rather doesn't have features typical for black people.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Cleopatra_Bust.jpg

Answer 4

Cleoparta was not black. Ancient and modern Egyptians are not black either. They are caucasoid and genetically linked with Europeans and Middle Easterners. Black people were never native to North Africa, only the sub-saharan. Egyptian people get pretty upset when they hear these far out 'Afrocentric' claims. Also, only a very small amount of Egyptians have mixed with blacks over the centuries and almost all live at the south of the country.

Answer 5

She was probably mixed race. Macedonians did marry Egyptians, and a tan Macedonian and black Egyptian could have a child that looks black no problem.

Answer 6

While Cleopatra was of Greek Ptolemaic decent, we have no idea who her mother or grandmother were, it is conceivable she may have had some black ancestry.

Answer 7

Simple, she wasn't. She's such a strong historical figure that different races try to claim her. Alot like white people with Jesus.