In my uni "Roman civilization" class we studied ancient Egypt and my professor shut down a student who said that the ancient Egyptians were black or looked like modern day Arabs.

He said that most ancient Egyptians were in fact of Macedonian descent and were white.

This seemed confusing to me. My whole life I was raised to believe ancient Egyptians look sort of like modern day Egyptians (arab/dark featured) but then online I got told that they were in fact black...and now my professor tells me that they were white I am so lost.

I honestly think that they were "mixed".

What do you think/know?

Cleopatra was white. I believe older generations were not though.

Arabs are caucasian tho

During Ancient times (Moses and the Pharaoh era) they were black. White people skin couldn't handle the sun rays. Plus people back then thought white skin was a curse since it means you had a skin disease called "Leprosy". We may never know.

I believe their skin were brown/orange kinda like the skin of the Aborigines of America.

Cleopatra was white because she was greek but egyptians themselves are arab so i dont think they classify themselves as being black or white.

when we think of white, we think about europe and when we think of black, we imagine sub-saharan africa which they (egyptians) are neither.

need i remind people that skin complexion and ethnicity are not the same thing. Some one can look black but in reality be polynesian

The modern Egyptian Copts are the closest descendants to the Pharoahs.



There was a general trend that lower class and enslaved people were darker skinned based on ancient art. Obviously there are exceptions.

Mte

Arabs are white too tho?

Let's ask the anthropologists rather then the ATRL users

It was a multiracial society but the original rulers were white. If the oldest relics are anything to go by.
Well Cleopatra wasn't Egyptian?

What an egyptian back then would look like is similar to a modern day copt egyptian, they didn't mix with modern day egyptians based on religious ground. Besides many dynasties ruled Egypt some where white other blacks, Egypt had "nubian" pharaons too.

Aside from maybe Tutankhamun, she's the most famous "Egyptian" so that's why I referenced her.

I don't know where to start.

It's not even a race debate, it's a specie one. Humans developed and civilised to and from this historic time in history, it would simply matter on the time in which you're referring to.

Actually Arabs came from the east and destroyed the Egyptian culture
Just like they conquered modern Turkey from Greece

Black
.

They're Africans. Blacker than black.

i know in the US, they are considered white but i wasnt sure about how they are viewed elsewhere. Alot of arabs where im from dont want to be considered white and want their own category on the US census. So if you consider arabs to be white (which i also do) then ancient egyptians were white