What did the Ancient Egyptians look like?

[Confederate Norway]

So you're telling me the people who were probably the ones who were for a black person playing the little mermaid, who was white, are upset about a Jewish person playing the role of someone who is a POC? Wow, who would have guessed!

Now for what ancient Egyptians looked liked, I know there were hieroglyphs that had dark skinned people, but there were also ones depicting white people, and tan people (people who were middle eastern looking). It is most likely ancient Egyptians would of been both white, black, and middle easterns, with there of course being bi-racial Egyptians also.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

So you're telling me the people who were probably the ones who were for a black person playing the little mermaid, who was white, are upset about a Jewish person playing the role of someone who is a POC? Wow, who would have guessed!

Now for what ancient Egyptians looked liked, I know there were hieroglyphs that had dark skinned people, but there were also ones depicting white people, and tan people (people who were middle eastern looking). It is most likely ancient Egyptians would of been both white, black, and middle easterns, with there of course being bi-racial Egyptians also.

So basically Egypt today. Man that was such a hard mystery to solve yall. It took decades for us to finally figure out that Egyptians look like Egyptians. Someone let the outrage mob know.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

It just reminds me of how Rami Malek as allegedy 'white washing' when playing as an Egyptian pharaoh despite the fact that his parents are Egyptian.

yeah

Or perhaps they mean only 'proper' Africans are black, while also seeing no double standard when a black person identifies as Irish.

The real cultural appropriation would be passing over an actual Egyptian actor for a black one to play the Pharoah.

[SD_Film Artists]

It just reminds me of how Rami Malek as allegedy 'white washing' when playing as an Egyptian pharaoh despite the fact that his parents are Egyptian.



Or perhaps they mean only 'proper' Africans are black, while also seeing no double standard when a black person identifies as Irish.

The real cultural appropriation would be passing over an actual Egyptian actor for a black one to play the Pharoah.

Ssssh, they'd be a PoC so it's all ok /s

[Borderlands of Rojava]

The real cultural appropriation would be passing over an actual Egyptian actor for a black one to play the Pharoah.

Ssssh, they'd be a PoC so it's all ok /s

Gotta love being arab or latino. You're a PoC when folks need you to be one and white when folks need you to be one.

[Hoytscla]

So you're telling me the people who were probably the ones who were for a black person playing the little mermaid, who was white, are upset about a Jewish person playing the role of someone who is a POC? Wow, who would have guessed!

Now for what ancient Egyptians looked liked, I know there were hieroglyphs that had dark skinned people, but there were also ones depicting white people, and tan people (people who were middle eastern looking). It is most likely ancient Egyptians would of been both white, black, and middle easterns, with there of course being bi-racial Egyptians also.

So basically Egypt today. Man that was such a hard mystery to solve yall. It took decades for us to finally figure out that Egyptians look like Egyptians. Someone let the outrage mob know.

While the title suggests otherwise, the discussion is not about what the average Egyptian looked like, but what Cleopatra looked like. Somewhere between Central-European and South-European, if I read the relevant replies correctly.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

So basically Egypt today. Man that was such a hard mystery to solve yall. It took decades for us to finally figure out that Egyptians look like Egyptians. Someone let the outrage mob know.

While the title suggests otherwise, the discussion is not about what the average Egyptian looked like, but what Cleopatra looked like. Somewhere between Central-European and South-European, if I read the relevant replies correctly.

I mean its about both. Cleopatra was clearly very southeast European in appearance and even the average Egyptian wasn't exactly Charlie Murphy.

[Lost Memories]

Considering most Israelis are of mainly or entirely Eastern and Central European descent and like Gabot look visibly European, and Cleopatra would likely have looked at least moderately brown-skinned, and the history of Egyptian history being whitewashed, I’d say the anger is justifiable.

Well, the Ptolemaic dynasty wasn't natively Middle Eastern, either. They were from Greece. You know, Eastern Europe.

When talking about ancient or classic history (that is, before christ, or around that time) the distinction between europe, africa and asia is faulty, there was no neat split back then.
Europe didn't even exist as a concept back then, the idea of the continent being distinct only came around the time of Charle Magne, before then it was the mediterranean sea the center of civilization for that area.

Egypt was one of the main "nations"(kingdoms or the likes) around the mediterranean sea, they, like the others, were involved in trade with each other, all the populations around the mediterranean sea were mixed and related. Which means, something between current time greek people and arabs.

[Genivaria]

Yeah the 'Black Egyptian' hypothesis is ethnic supremacist garbage and needs to be called out as such.
As far as Gal Gadot playing Cleopatra goes I don't really see why not, I enjoyed her performance in Wonder Woman (though some of her lines in Justice League were cringy)

[Genivaria]

So you're telling me the people who were probably the ones who were for a black person playing the little mermaid, who was white, are upset about a Jewish person playing the role of someone who is a POC? Wow, who would have guessed!

Now for what ancient Egyptians looked liked, I know there were hieroglyphs that had dark skinned people, but there were also ones depicting white people, and tan people (people who were middle eastern looking). It is most likely ancient Egyptians would of been both white, black, and middle easterns, with there of course being bi-racial Egyptians also.

So basically Egypt today. Man that was such a hard mystery to solve yall. It took decades for us to finally figure out that Egyptians look like Egyptians. Someone let the outrage mob know.

Yeah there are actually people who will accuse modern Egyptians of being 'invaders'...in Egypt.
Yeah....

[Borderlands of Rojava]

So basically Egypt today. Man that was such a hard mystery to solve yall. It took decades for us to finally figure out that Egyptians look like Egyptians. Someone let the outrage mob know.

Yeah there are actually people who will accuse modern Egyptians of being 'invaders'...in Egypt.
Yeah....

Genetic studies linking modern Egyptians to ancient Egyptians: like 100

Genetic studies linking black Americans to ancient Egyptians: 0

[Albionist Great Britain]

So you're telling me the people who were probably the ones who were for a black person playing the little mermaid, who was white, are upset about a Jewish person playing the role of someone who is a POC? Wow, who would have guessed!

Now for what ancient Egyptians looked liked, I know there were hieroglyphs that had dark skinned people, but there were also ones depicting white people, and tan people (people who were middle eastern looking). It is most likely ancient Egyptians would of been both white, black, and middle easterns, with there of course being bi-racial Egyptians also.

So basically Egypt today. Man that was such a hard mystery to solve yall. It took decades for us to finally figure out that Egyptians look like Egyptians. Someone let the outrage mob know.

I’m mostly certain most or at least half of Egypt is primarily of descent from Arab invaders that came with the spread of Islam. This comes after centuries of intermixing between natives and other peoples of the Mediterranean and the surrounding region, so really there’s not much if anything left of the original Egyptians AFAIK. But Cleopatra herself was largely Macedonian so she’d look like a Greek IIRC, so I don’t see any reason why a person of colour in particular should play the role, less so if they’re unreasonably far from what we know about Cleopatra’s features and looks. Plus you can easily find a role for a POC to play given how diverse Egypt was.

But overall I will always personally prefer historical accuracy over this kind of controversy.

[Ethel mermania]

Short and swarthy.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

So basically Egypt today. Man that was such a hard mystery to solve yall. It took decades for us to finally figure out that Egyptians look like Egyptians. Someone let the outrage mob know.

I’m mostly certain most or at least half of Egypt is primarily of descent from Arab invaders that came with the spread of Islam. This comes after centuries of intermixing between natives and other peoples of the Mediterranean and the surrounding region, so really there’s not much if anything left of the original Egyptians AFAIK. But Cleopatra herself was largely Macedonian so she’d look like a Greek IIRC, so I don’t see any reason why a person of colour in particular should play the role, less so if they’re unreasonably far from what we know about Cleopatra’s features and looks. Plus you can easily find a role for a POC to play given how diverse Egypt was.

But overall I will always personally prefer historical accuracy over this kind of controversy.

Thats not what the genetic studies suggest. They show that modern Egyptians are mostly indigenous in origin.

https://medium.com/@aiminguyen7/its-tim ... 4fd0866e96

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Short and swarthy.

They also walked weird.

[Imperialisium]

Ancient as in the extinct ethnicity that Ramesses, Khafre, and others belong too?
Fair to Olive Skin (likely darker the more one traveled away from the Nile Delta), a number of them had Reddish hair taken from Mummies during the Old and Middle Kingdom Periods (but most likely had dark hair), and sampling from genomes gave them a strong similarity to Ancient Anatolians, Southern Europeans (namely Ancient Iberians), and neighboring Sinaitic peoples to their East. It is unclear exactly what they looked like other than computer projections based on limited sampling from Mummified remains in various points of decomposition, or their art which is also in various states of decay.

It is important to note that even by the Roman period the Egyptian population was seeing great influxes of non-Egyptians. Many Persians, Greeks, and Romans had lived in Egypt by the time Rome fully absorbed it into the imperium. Following the Islamic Conquests there was also great influxes of Arabs and other Middle Eastern groups. Modern Egyptians are very much an admixture or Hodge-podge of various ethnic groups.

As for Gal Gadot bantering over a Semite playing what was an Ancient Macedonian? I mean not many big name Macedonian or Northern Greek actresses out there...The people casting probably were like, "Recognizable name and face? Sort of look exotic? Good enough."

[Thermodolia]

Eh, Islam did destroy a lot of cultural practices and languages when they came in, something not even the Greeks or Romans did.

Coptic for example is only spoken by a couple Coptic Church members now, even though it used to be the main language of the place.

Well, the Greeks and Romans didn’t out of fear of being overthrown. The erosion of Ancient Egyptian culture was quite gradual and mainly of free will (especially at the beginning of Muslim rule). Much of it was because as people accepted Islam, they got rid off practices non-compatible with Islam.

That’s absolute bullshit

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Ancient as in the extinct ethnicity that Ramesses, Khafre, and others belong too?
Fair to Olive Skin (likely darker the more one traveled away from the Nile Delta), a number of them had Reddish hair taken from Mummies during the Old and Middle Kingdom Periods (but most likely had dark hair), and sampling from genomes gave them a strong similarity to Ancient Anatolians, Southern Europeans (namely Ancient Iberians), and neighboring Sinaitic peoples to their East. It is unclear exactly what they looked like other than computer projections based on limited sampling from Mummified remains in various points of decomposition, or their art which is also in various states of decay.

It is important to note that even by the Roman period the Egyptian population was seeing great influxes of non-Egyptians. Many Persians, Greeks, and Romans had lived in Egypt by the time Rome fully absorbed it into the imperium. Following the Islamic Conquests there was also great influxes of Arabs and other Middle Eastern groups. Modern Egyptians are very much an admixture or Hodge-podge of various ethnic groups.

As for Gal Gadot bantering over a Semite playing what was an Ancient Macedonian? I mean not many big name Macedonian or Northern Greek actresses out there...The people casting probably were like, "Recognizable name and face? Sort of look exotic? Good enough."

They're mad a black person wasn't cast in the role.

[Arlenton]

I always figured they looked like Arabs. They were in North Africa and their hieroglyphs seem to look like that.

[Ifreann]

If it happens I might formulate an opinion, but I'm sure the opinions of someone with some kind of connection to the Zulu people would be more relevant. Like, you know, a Zulu person. The Zulu people, unlike the Ptolemaic dynasty, do still exist. Maybe someone could ask King Goodwill who he thinks should play his great-great-great-granduncle.

But perhaps consider that the liberal "colour blind" view of race is not actually a very useful one. The society we live in is not one that has overcome and abolished racism.

Because they're making a movie about Cleopatra with historical accuracy in mind, and historically-acurately-speaking Ancient Egyptians weren't black, much less Cleopatra - who is a Greek, I would have thought that they would cast a person representative to the Ancient Egyptian skin tone, Gal Gadot included. There is no relations between this and "painting the history black or white or brown or blue or purple or green, etc." The filmmakers had historical accuracy in thought when they cast the actress. That's pretty much the end of it, and I agree with them.

To each their own opinion.

Yeah, I'm sure the very famous Gal Gadot was cast because of her skin tone and not because her name on the poster will help make sales.

[Kowani]

I always figured they looked like Arabs. They were in North Africa and their hieroglyphs seem to look like that.

...You realize hieroglyphs predate Arabic by millennia, right?

[Farnhamia]

Because they're making a movie about Cleopatra with historical accuracy in mind, and historically-acurately-speaking Ancient Egyptians weren't black, much less Cleopatra - who is a Greek, I would have thought that they would cast a person representative to the Ancient Egyptian skin tone, Gal Gadot included. There is no relations between this and "painting the history black or white or brown or blue or purple or green, etc." The filmmakers had historical accuracy in thought when they cast the actress. That's pretty much the end of it, and I agree with them.

To each their own opinion.

Yeah, I'm sure the very famous Gal Gadot was cast because of her skin tone and not because her name on the poster will help make sales.

Is this the movie where Kenneth Branagh plays Herculius Poirotius?

[The Two Jerseys]

Short and swarthy.

They also walked weird.

And lived in condos made of stone-a.

[Farnhamia]

They also walked weird.

And lived in condos made of stone-a.

*chuckles in Egyptian*

[Borderlands of Rojava]

I always figured they looked like Arabs. They were in North Africa and their hieroglyphs seem to look like that.

Their style was different though. They had a thing for bowl cuts and they appeared to be clean shaven, whereas Arab men tend to get fades and grow out their facial hair.