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Comment by curioussam | Hacker News Reader

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Cleopatra was a Ptolemaic Greek descendant in a family so obsessed with blood purity that they married brothers to sisters to avoid mixing with 'native' Egiptians. You make the call.

Why would they?

She was of Greek origin, a descendant from Alexander’s general Ptolemy.

Her family had been in Egypt for 250 years, that's a long time for genetic admixture. Otoh, Continuing the tradition established by previous Egyptian dynasties, the Ptolemies engaged in inbreeding including sibling marriage, with many of the pharaohs being married to their siblings and often co-ruling with them.

  Ptolemy I Soter (305–282 BC)
  [... 20 people ...]
  Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (51–30 BC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemaic_dynasty

Edit to append a topical story:

Birmingham native and civil rights activist Angela Davis, known as a part of the Black Power movement of the early 1970s, was shocked to learn that she is descended from a passenger on the Mayflower, one of the first settlers in America.

https://www.al.com/life/2023/02/civil-rights-activist-angela...

>Her family had been in Egypt for 250 years, that's a long time for genetic admixture

But Egyptians themselves weren't black either. There was one black dynasty from Kush, but "indigenous" Egyptians themselves weren't black.

It is, and it's not impossible there was some, but we have pretty decent records of her ancestry, we know the Ptolemys were shocked by the idea of intermarrying with the local population, and we have busts and paintings and coin profiles of her, so we have evidence of what she looked like as well as pretty much anyone from that era.

You can see several of these here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra

The part about sibling marriage is just so weird to read nowadays. When did humanity first figure out that inbreeding might be a bad idea?

> When did humanity first figure out that inbreeding might be a bad idea?

I suspect it was prior to recorded history.

did you forget the "/s" or is it a serious question?

There were black pharaos (current sudan conquered and ruled egypt)

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