Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultralight
Cleopatra was Greek but the closest living relatives to those people who founded the ancient Egyptian kingdom are today to be found in horn of africa.
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Indeed, in order to understand ancient Egypt, one should also learn about the cultures and peoples of the Sahara and the Horn (
these (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/2183271100/in/set-72157603646908778/ - broken link) guys
look (http://www.flickr.com/photos/boaz/164594985/ - broken link) like
they come out of some hieroglyphics).
But all too often people seem to overlook that
modern (http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/2930327283/ - broken link) Nile country
inhabitants are the
closest descendants of the ancient Nile country inhabitants in terms of ancestry and culture.
And to add my 2 cents to the topic, Cleo is known to be of Greek speaking Macedonian descent.
The ancient Greco-Romans noted the physical characteristics of the various peoples they interacted with and if Cleo was dark skinned, it would have been noted.
PS: Berber is of the Afrasan family of language which most likely originated somewhere between the Nubian Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa (
p. 35) or further east in the Sahara (
p. 66-67).
In terms of physical anthropology, both metric (due to long term evolution in a particular environment,
p.139-140) and non-metric (due to descent rather than environment,
p. 148-149, 152-154), Saharan, Nile Valley and Horn Africans are more similar and related to each other than to any other group.
It should be noted that the veiled Berbers of the Sahara speak not only a language with less Arabic influence, they also maintained a form of ancient Libyan writing (
p. 208-209).
The veiled Saharan Berbers in terms of biological traits,
compare very well with some of the oldest prehistoric (Capsians) and historic (Garamantes) peoples of Northwestern Africa (p. 206) and with northeastern Africans (
p. 146).
The Berbers (albeit this term like Columbus's Indians, was not a term these people used as a common name but it stuck anyways) are an African people like other northern and eastern African peoples like the Nile Valley and Horn peoples.
Of course they have absorbed various non-African peoples and many have used Canaanite (Phoenician, though this is again a term applied to peoples that did correspond to what the people called themselves), Latin, Greek and Arabic as their primary language throughout history, but this does not negate their (and this goes for the Nile peoples as well) African and specifically Saharan and Horn African origins.