CLEOPATRA WAS A BLONDE - (terrific brief history of Egypt's rich past; optimistic democratic future)

TO THE POINT.COM ^ | MARCH 24, 2005 | DR. JACK WHEELER

[shrinkermd]

Do people really pay to read Jack Wheeler? The most outstanding physical characteristic of Egypt is the Aswan Dam. Burst this with a bomb and 20 feet of water spreads over the populated areas of Egypt. That is why they have been so nice and accepting of our largess. Also, the population of Egypt has almost tripled since the early 1900's. That is the problem for which no one has a solution. Trying to live in the desert is almost psychological impossible and economically unfeasible. I cannot see a simple political solution to their problems.

When I was last there they were pot shotting the cruise ships on the Nile. Hurt a few but killed their tourist business. Smart people!

[bannie]

this founder civilisation was destroyed by a catastrophic flood,

So...are their genetics wiped out?

(Love learnin' stuff!!!)

[StormEye]

"Cleopatra spoke seven languages, and was the only Ptolemid who spoke and read Egyptian. Her father or grandfather was called the "Flute Player", and was a nasty piece of work. Everyone forgets her brother, husband and co-ruler (He was about 13). Caesar had him murdered after deciding Cleo was the horse to ride (in a manner of speaking). Surprisingly, Octavian let her be buried with Antony (who had betrayed his wife, Octavian's sister) with Cleopatra. Not surprisingly, he murdered her son (allegedly by Caesar) Caesarion."

What loving people.
They were so kind to each other back then.

[rrrod]

I spent a few years in Egypt and its a basket case. Heavy socialist( Ba'athist lite). If I had to guess, Id say look for a lot of violence there in the near future.

[blam]

"So...are their genetics wiped out?"

No. We are them. The Caucasians and Mongoloids probably split from a common ancestor and that was probably the Jomon - Ainu people. The oldest (undisputed) Mongoloid skeleton ever found is only 10,000 years old.

Here's another 'take' from Dr Robert Schoch (Geologist/Geophysist):

Dr. Schoch’s Recent Book :

Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The True Origins of the Pyramids

From Lost Egypt to Ancient America

A startling and dramatic new view of our ancient past ...

By Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., with Robert Aquinas McNally

We associate pyramids with ancient Egypt. But pyramids are not uniquely Egyptian ‑- and therein lies a great mystery. Pyramids and pyramid‑like structures can be found all over the globe, built by cultures that span vast distances of geography and time. They appear in the ancient African kingdom of Kush, along the Nile ... in Mesopotamia and Sumeria ... in England and Ireland ... in India and throughout Southeast Asia ... in ancient China ... in Peru's coastal and Andean regions ... in the ancient Olmec and Mayan realms of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador ... in pre‑Columbian Illinois... and elsewhere. How can it be that a form as distinctive as the pyramid was built in such widely separated locales? Was it merely coincidence? Or was there another force at work?

In “Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The True Origins of the Pyramids from Lost Egypt to Ancient America” (a Tarcher/Putnam hardcover, 2003, $24.95 U.S./$37.50 Canada), Boston University professor Robert M. Schoch ‑- one of the world's preeminent geologists in recasting the date of the Great Sphinx ‑- suggests that there was, indeed, another force at work. In his eye‑opening new book, Dr. Schoch argues that these far‑flung pyramids share a common ancestor long lost to history: a primordial pyramid‑building civilization that once navigated the seas and spread its way of life around the globe.

Meticulously researched and dramatically written, “Voyages of the Pyramid Builders” lays out, step by step, a fascinating new theory of how the Old World and the New World met:

Evidence that the Egyptian pyramids at Giza (or portions of them) and certain associated structures were built earlier than conventionally believed.
The significance of the striking similarities between pyramid cultures in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, despite the long distances of land and sea between. The rituals, beliefs, and stories that underlie the pyramids.
How ancient peoples emigrated from the Old World into the New World.
How pyramid builders entered the New World from the west and influenced the rising civilizations of Central and South America.
How the pyramid builders sailed.
A theory that ancient peoples may have migrated across vast distances in response to catastrophic encounters with comets.

The possible existence of a lost pyramid‑building civilization in the period before 3,500 B.C., the generally accepted date for humankind's earliest taste of civilization.

What it means to know that the high civilizations of our planet may have been interconnected for much longer than we imagined.

“Voyages of the Pyramid Builders” also includes a special appendix, "Redating the Great Sphinx of Giza," in which Dr. Schoch provides his most recent and persuasive evidence that the Sphinx is much older than we think. For anyone who is interested in ancient Egypt, past cultures, prehistory, early migrations, paradigm shifts, and the origins of civilization, “Voyages of the Pyramid Builders” is a groundbreaking reinterpretation of how we understand our ancient past.

Robert M. Schoch, a full‑time faculty member at the College of General Studies at Boston University since 1984, earned his Ph.D. in geology and geophysics at Yale University. Dr. Schoch has been quoted extensively in the media for his work on the Sphinx, and he was featured on the Emmy‑winning documentary “The Mystery of the Sphinx,” hosted by Charlton Heston.

Robert Aquinas McNally is a writer and poet whose early education in classical Latin blossomed into a lifelong fascination with ancient civilization and mythology.

[tupac]

I first learned the fact of who and what Cleopatra was in my freshman history class. I wonder how they know that she was blonde though? Don't the Greeks come in many different shades of hair colors?

[x]

I guess "blonde" means "light haired" and not black- or red-haired. True, undyed "blonde blondes" aren't so common in the world as a whole. In some places, anyone whose hair wasn't black might be regarded as a rarity worthy of note. Some Greeks would qualify as blond(e)s in Egypt who wouldn't pass muster in Scandinavia. It's the same way in India. Color differences get exaggerated. It is worth noting though, that the "Macedonians" in those days were rather a different people from today's Macedonians, and it's said that even the Greeks were changed by intermarrying with later Slavic arrivals. This has been a very touchy topic though.

[KarlInOhio]

Nobody knows for sure what Cleopatra looked like, although some coins suggest she was large and dumpy.

Large, dumpy, blonde and thinking she was born to rule? That sounds like Hillarypatra.

[Continental Soldier]

Very interesting post, but it sure strayed a long way from that 'blonde' siren, Cleopatra. :)

[GreyFriar]

Ping.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

he was a Macedonian Greek, with hair as blonde as Alexander’s.

Really? Actually the Greeks loved blond hair but very few of them had blond hair. Very doubtful that Cleo was blond.

[Publius6961]

The Sphinx isn’t the Sphinx – that’s a Greek word the Ptolemies gave it, meaning “bound together” as the statue of a Pharoah’s head with the body of a lion. The real name is shesep-ankh-Atum, the Living Image of the God Atum.

This explanation ignores a very vexing problem. Since we have no knowledge of what spoken ancient egyptian sounds like, or will ever have any way of knowing, all modern "names" for ancient people and things is a guess. They had no vowels, such that any one of these names can me re-written as many ways as there are permutations of vowel substitutions.

[happyathome]

Modern Greeks are a lot more slavic and mediterranean than ancient greeks were. Due to lots of barbarian invasions after the collapse of Rome. Besides, the Macedonians were a different racial group entirely, and could have been blonde. And anyway contemporary historians attested to Alexander being blonde.

Only thing I don't agree with in the original post is that in 300 years it is impossible that there wasn't some interbreeding between the Ptolemies and the local Egyptians, so Cleopatra could have been dark afterall.

[bannie]

:)

THANK YOU!

[gesully]

Egypt is still a backwater.

[SedVictaCatoni]

In the time of Alexander's father, a Macedonian named Aristotle was Plato's greatest student

Aristotle wasn't a Macedonian. He was born at Stageira, which was a colony of Andros situated in Chalcidice. Andros was a Greek city, and a member of the Delian League.

[wardaddy]

So were are we headed?

[SedVictaCatoni]

Only thing I don't agree with in the original post is that in 300 years it is impossible that there wasn't some interbreeding between the Ptolemies and the local Egyptians, so Cleopatra could have been dark afterall.

It is not at all far-fetched that the Ptolemies never interbred with the native Egyptians. The Ptolemies were so concerned with purity of blood that they quite frequently practiced intermarriage within the royal family. Cleopatra's first husband, for instance, was her brother.

[FreedomCalls]

Nobody knows for sure what Cleopatra looked like

There are busts of her made when she was still alive.