Archaeologists Say Cleopatra Was of African Descent
Archaeologists recently announced that the famous Eqyptian queen Cleopatra, traditionally thought to be Greek, was likely of African descent.
Upon studying the remains of Cleopatra's sister Princess Arsinoe, researchers discovered that the bones indicated her mother had what they called an African skeleton, BBC reported.
"That Arsinoe had an African mother is a real sensation which leads to a new insight on Cleopatra's family and the relationship of the sisters Cleopatra and Arsinoe," Hilke Thuer, the Austrian scientist who made the discovery, told BBC.
Thuer said it was astonishing to think of the ancient women as real people, not just mythical figures.
Cleopatra was the lover of the Roman general Mark Antony. Historians believe that a strong sibling rivalry between the sisters may have led Cleopatra to order Antony to murder Arsinoe.
"When I stood in the lab and handled the bones of Cleopatra's blood sister - knowing that in her lifetime she touched Cleopatra and perhaps Julius Caesar and Mark Antony as well- I felt the hairs go up on the back of my neck," Thuer told BBC. "Suddenly these giant figures from history were flesh and blood."