Cleopatra May Have Had African Ancestry

It seems that Cleopatra, often thought to have had Greek – Caucasian ancestry, may also have had African ancestry. I know – Elizabeth Taylor didn’t look African at all in Cleopatra. But keep in mind that she was just an actress, playing the part (rather well, by the way).

The remains of her sister, Princess Arsinoe, were found in a tomb in Ephesus, Turkey. Those remains seem to reveal that the siblings had a part-African background. It is believed that Cleopatra ordered her Roman lover, Mark Antony, to murder her. I guess that’s called “sibling rivalry.”

Upcoming BBC Documentary presenter and archaeologist Neil Oliver has said: “It was like a splash of cold water in the face to be confronted by them as human beings. 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. Suddenly these giant figures from history were flesh and blood.”

The documentary will examine events in Cleopatra’s life, including her affair with Caesar, the murder of her two brothers and her pact with Mark Antony to murder Arsinoe.

If you have access to BBC television, you may view “Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer” at 9 pm on BBC One on Monday, March 23.

Read more about the upcoming documentary in the March 15, 2009 edition of The Telegraph.

Also see an article in the Times Online – complete with a picture of what Arsinoe may have looked like.