“Cleopatra was not black!”. Zahi Hawass, angry at the documentary made by Jada Pinkett Smith

The documentary portrays Queen Cleopatra as a black woman.

Egypt’s former antiquities minister, Zahi Hawass, famous for his career as an archaeologist and frequent appearances in documentaries about the history of Ancient Egypt but criticized for his sympathy for dictator Hosni Mubarak, described the documentary as full of “falsified facts”.

The trailer was released by Netflix on Thursday, April 13. The documentary will be broadcast on the platform from May 10, in which the actress Adele James will play the role of the queen.

The director claims that historical experts appear in the documentary.

On the other hand, most of the YouTube commenters criticized it, firstly for portraying Cleopatra as a black woman, secondly for portraying her as a warrior, which is totally false, for that in the Hellenistic world, women were forbidden to get their hands on weapons and armor (only the goddesses Athena and Artemis were allowed according to their statues).

There were women in the role of commanders and fighters in exceptional cases in Germany during the wars with the Romans, in Gaul (today’s France), in the Pontic area, with the Sarmatians and Scythians, but also in the Greco-Roman area in case of revolts, sieges and civil wars, with women having the role of logistical support for men.

But there were no women actively participating in the professional armies of the Greco-Roman world, training with the weapons of the time and wearing armor.

Queen Cleopatra, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was born in 69 BC. and died in 30 BC. in Alexandria, when he committed suicide by poison after the Romans led by Octavian Augustus occupied Egypt.

She fell in love with the Roman dictator Julius Caesar who made her the sole ruler of Egypt after defeating her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, then married the general Marcus Antonius who gave her part of the Roman Empire.

Hawass commented on the documentary that has sparked public criticism in Egypt (the Egyptians forbid the denigration and falsification of the history of their country, not only of the Islamic religion as in other Arab countries) for describing the Macedonian-born queen as North African with dark skin, saying: “It’s completely false.”

Hawass added that in recent years there has been a trend led by African Americans who claim that the Egyptians were black Africans, and that African Americans are actually the direct descendants of the Egyptians, while the Egyptians who populate Egypt today are actually Arabs who illegally occupied their territory in the 7th century.

The Egyptologist emphasized that such statements are completely false.

African civilization has nothing to do with Egyptian civilization, said Hawass, pointing out that African civilization did not dominate Egypt until the 25th dynasty, during the era of the Kingdom of Kush, that is, at the end of ancient Egyptian civilization.

And Cleopatra was of Macedonian origin, being a direct descendant of King Ptolemy I Soter, who was born in Pella.

The Ptolemies were incestuous because they married their sisters, the Cleopatras, to keep their blood pure.

Hawass pointed out that Egyptian temples contain drawings of Egyptian kings. These sketches are representations of men striking their enemies.

The enemies are represented as either Africans, Nubians, Libyans or Asians and all look very different ethnically from the Egyptian kings.

Although the skin color and race of the Egyptians is still disputed, Egyptologists point to the noses of the statues of pharaohs and queens as being pointed, being specific to the Caucasian race rather than the Africanoid one (although in some academic circles, the concept of race is currently banned).

„Netflix is ​​trying to cause confusion to spread false information that the origin of Egyptian civilization is African”a continuat Hawass.

Hawass calls to take a stand against the Netflix platform, accusing it of propagating false history, the Egypt Independent publication also writes.

From 1969 to 1975, Hawass was inspector of antiquities for archaeological expeditions – the Yale Expedition to Abydos and Abu Simbel between 1972 and 1974.

He was also an antiquities inspector for Giza between 1972-74.

Starting in 1987, he held the position of “Director General of the Giza Monuments”, which includes the sites of Giza, Saqqara, Memphis, Dahshur, Abusir and Oaza Bahariya.

He taught Egyptian archaeology, history and culture at universities in Egypt and the USA between 1988 and 2001, notably at the American University in Cairo, the University of California, Los Angeles and Alexandria University.

He published many works and analyzed the mummies of the pharaohs Ramses III and Tutankhamun, identifying their cause of death.

As Minister of Antiquity, he opposed vandalism during the revolution Arab springs and defended the dictator Hosni Mubarak until he resigned.