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I've heard this argument before as well. I think it can be summed up like this: No, there is no evidence that Cleopatra VII was black and no, there is no evidence that she wasn't. Yes, there is a 50/50 chance one of her ancestors (paternal grandmother) was a Nubian slave but that would give her 25% African blood and 75% Greek/Macedonian. Her family was famously xenophobic and considered their Egyptian and African subjects very much beneath them - certainly in terms of marriage. It's certainly possible she had African blood and it might have given her a darker appearance than, say, the average Roman, but there is no conclusive evidence for that.
Egyptians themselves at the time were not African or black - they were a Semitic race with similar features and language.
I'd rather the role go to someone more authentic also, but agree, not black - Greek. I just googled modern Greek actresses and there seem to be plenty. (I just discovered Jennifer Aniston's father is Greek...)
There are/were plenty of Greeks that have/had a hair color other than black or dark brown as well as have/had a light eye color. They are called Celtic Greeks in some circles. The Celts were primarily originally a dark haired,milk white skin,light eyed people just like the Greeks were.
Nubian Cleo wasn't. I recall seeing somewhere that her family didn't even deign to learn the Egyptian tongue till her father's or grandfather's rule. They thought of themselves as Greeks, not Egyptians.
Apparently according to accounts Cleopatra VII was the FIRST of the dynasty to learn Egyptian...
Even Egyptian archaeologists acknowledge Rameses II and Seti I had red hair. It really is not a matter of dispute.
"Egyptians used a material called henna (used for nails and lips, too) to dye their hair red. Scientific studies show that people used henna to conceal their gray hair from as early as 3400 BC. Henna is still used today. There is a body of evidence from paintings that depict the existence of people with red hair, such as the 18th Dynasty Hunutmehet. She had distinctive red hair mentioned by Grafton Smith."
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