In traditional history books they write this about the appearance of the Egyptians: “The first prehistoric people who inhabited these lands belonged to the Mediterranean race. They were slender, even thin, with slightly elongated heads and dark curly hair. Later they mixed with nomadic tribes that came from Palestine. This is how the ethnic type of Egyptian arose: of medium height, with a large head, strong bones and especially strong wrists and ankles.
Representatives of this original type are still found today among peasants in remote areas of Egypt. “The physical type of the Egyptian was formed as a result of thousands of years of mixing of various tribes forced into the Nile Valley. The Egyptians were tall, had a dense figure, broad straight shoulders, wide face, thick straight nose, low forehead. They had dark skin, blue-black straight hair and thick eyelashes, black almond-shaped eyes. What is the main evidence for us of what the ancient Egyptians looked like?
1. Images on the walls of temples and tombs. 
“We know very well what the Egyptians of the dynastic period looked like. Many painted flat reliefs present them to us as people of average height, broad shoulders, slender, with black straight hair (often a wig); in accordance with tradition, images of Egyptian men are always painted in brick color, women - yellowish. ”
There is one caveat to this quote. It is obvious that the portraits of Egyptians that we find in tombs and on the walls of temples are mostly idealized. Artists and sculptors followed only a certain canon of image, developed at the dawn of Egyptian civilization and held for thousands of years: hence the accepted image of women with light skin and men with darker skin, but this does not mean that this was actually the case. Further, regarding straight hair: Egyptians were usually depicted in wigs or with shaved heads, so it is difficult to judge what kind of real hair they had from frescoes and sculptures.
Faces and figures were also standardized, although artists and sculptors sometimes deviated from the canons, depicting, for example, full bellies and elongated heads, or faces that were more realistic.
But still, the frescoes can give us a certain image of the ethnic type of the Egyptian. It appears in comparison with the images of Egypt’s neighbors, which we also often come across on the walls of temples and tombs.
There are also numerous images of representatives of the tribes and peoples that the inhabitants of the Nile Valley most often encountered. We see the Egyptians' western neighbors - the light-skinned, blue-eyed Libyans; their eastern neighbors, immigrants from Western Asia - tall, with yellowish dark skin, a convex nose and abundant facial hair, with the same characteristic beards; Southerners, inhabitants of Nile Ethiopia, or Nubia, appear dark purple. Black, curly-headed representatives of the Negroid tribes of South Sudan can be found on the reliefs.
The following figure clearly illustrates this: This figure clearly shows the skin color of the Egyptians - bronze-golden and classic black hair color. That is, we can assume that they were neither white nor black, like their neighbors, but were something in between in skin color. In most frescoes, Egyptians are depicted with exactly this “brick” skin color. Even if it is canon, I don't think it came out of nowhere. 
2. Evidence from historians
How did representatives of other nations see the Egyptians? We can learn this from the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus. There is a mention of their appearance in his “History”.
Herodotus compares the Egyptians, Ethiopians and Colchians. He suggests that these peoples are related, based on the fact that they are similar to each other. Herodotus writes that both are dark-skinned (μελαγχροες) and curly-haired (ουλοτριχες).
Here is this passage that mentions the Egyptians:
After all, the Colchians are apparently Egyptians: I understood this myself even before I heard it from others. Having become interested in this, I began to ask [about this relationship] both in Colchis and in Egypt. The Colchians retained clearer memories of the Egyptians than the Egyptians did of the Colchians. However, the Egyptians told me that, in their opinion, the Colchians trace their origins to the soldiers of the Sesostris army. I myself came to the same conclusion because they are dark-skinned with curly hair. However, this still does not prove anything. After all, there are other peoples of the same kind. The following arguments are much more compelling.
We see that the images of the Egyptians and the memories of Herodotus in general outline match. This is how most people imagine them.
3. Sculptures
In connection with the belief that preserving the image of the deceased makes him immortal, the Egyptians made, in addition to canonical idealized sculptural images, either completely or partially realistic portraits contemporaries. As a rule, these are portraits of august persons. They give us a more specific picture of the external appearance of the Egyptians.
Plaster mask of an elderly man, possibly Eie ( Egyptian Museum, Berlin)
Plaster mask. Akhenaten. (Egyptian Museum, Berlin)
Queen Hatshepsut (a very interesting detail - she was depicted everywhere with such a nose)
Scribe statue.
These seem to be the most realistic sculptures. The faces are very interesting, it’s even difficult to say what race they belong to.
4. Reconstructions based on mummies
Computer reconstruction using the skulls of mummies also helps us see the appearance of the ancient Egyptians. Of course, it does not convey facial features one hundred percent, but it is still quite reliable. Here's what we managed to dig up on the Internet: as a rule, these are facial reconstructions famous rulers Egypt.
Tutankhamun:
(in profile it is clear that he has a slightly elongated skull. This is how he was depicted both on frescoes and in sculpture. His father Akhenaten and his daughters had the same elongated skulls, which led many mystification lovers to believe that Akhenaten’s entire family – ALIENS….)))))
here's another one famous person-Akhenaton’s wife Nefertiti (however, scientists argue about whether the mummy from which her portrait was restored belonged to Nefertiti or someone else) 
Cleopatra (though she is not exactly Egyptian, but still one of the famous rulers of Egypt)
CT image of the skull (left) and a recreation of the artisan Harva (right)
5. Descendants of the ancient Egyptians
Well, finally, their descendants can give us an idea of the ancient Egyptians. Most believe that the direct descendants of the Egyptians are Copts. Copts are the Christian population of Egypt. “Copt” actually translates as “Egyptian”.
Copts differ from other residents of Egypt in appearance - they are very careful about the purity of their blood and take only Coptians or Europeans as wives. Therefore, they retained the ancient Egyptian straight profile. They make up about 7% of Egypt's population and live side by side with the Muslim majority, and call God Allah. And churches in Egypt stand almost next to mosques.”
It is almost impossible to distinguish Copts from Arabs on the street. At least at first glance. However, there are differences. First of all, they can be distinguished by the tattoo on their right hand. In general, Copts are more attractive. Let no one be accused of chauvinism, but it is so. Arabs are rougher and “plumper”. Copts, on the other hand, have more noble and refined facial features. There are many very beautiful Coptic girls. Well, the spitting image of Nefertiti! As picture: 
And yet we do not think that only Copts can be considered direct descendants of the pharaohs. One Coptic priest said about the modern population of Egypt: “We are all Copts, only some are Christians, and others are Muslims.” We think that the current population of Egypt is alien and consists of Arabs. Apparently, we think this way because today's Egyptians practically do not speak the original Coptic language, which was the successor to the Egyptian language itself. But consider that indigenous people Egypt was so displaced by the Arabs that most of it simply disappeared, which would be untrue.
Gustave Le Bon in his book “The Civilization of the Arabs” writes about the Arabs of Egypt:
“Modern Egyptian Arabs are the product of interbreeding between the local population and the Arabs who conquered Egypt in 640. under the leadership of Amru. While Arabs by language and religion, modern Egyptians are not Arabs by blood. By virtue of the anthropological laws mentioned above, the conquering element was soon dissolved in the larger element represented by the conquered population.
The intermediate elements soon disappeared, so that the modern settled inhabitant of Egypt is essentially the son of the Egyptians of the pyramidal times. This can be seen in his figure, his broad shoulders, thick lips, prominent cheekbones, and his similarity to the characters depicted on ancient monuments.”
At the heart of worldview ancient Greeks beauty lay. They considered themselves beautiful people and did not hesitate to prove this to their neighbors, who most often believed the Hellenes and over time, sometimes not without struggle, adopted their ideas about beauty. Poets classical period, starting with Homer and Euripides, heroes are depicted as tall and fair-haired. But that was the ideal. Besides, what did a person of that time understand to be tall? Which curls were considered golden? Red, chestnut, blond? All these questions are not easy to find answers to.
When the geographer Dicaearchus from Messene to the State University c. BC e. admired the fair-haired Thebans and praised the courage of the fair-haired Spartans, he only emphasized the rarity of fair-haired and light-skinned people. From numerous images of warriors on ceramics or wall paintings from Pylos and Mycenae, bearded men with black curly hair look out at the viewer. Also, the priestesses and court ladies on the palace frescoes of Tiryns have dark hair. On Egyptian paintings where peoples living “on the islands of the Great Green” are depicted, people appear short, slender, with lighter skin than the Egyptians, with large, wide open dark eyes, with thin noses, thin lips and black curly hair. hair.
This is an ancient Mediterranean type that is still found in the region. Golden masks from Mycenae show some faces of the Asia Minor type - wide, with close-set eyes, fleshy noses and eyebrows converging at the bridge of the nose. During excavations, the skeletons of Balkan-type warriors are also found - with an elongated torso, a round head and large eyes. All these types moved throughout the territory of Hellas and mixed with each other, until, finally, the image of the Hellene was formed, which was recorded by the Roman writer Polemon in the 2nd century. n. e: “Those who managed to preserve the Ionian race in all its purity are quite tall and broad-shouldered men, stately and fairly light-skinned. Their hair is not entirely blond, relatively soft and slightly wavy. The faces are wide, high cheekbones, thin lips, straight noses and shiny eyes full of fire.”
The study of skeletons suggests that average height of Hellenic men was 1.67-1.82 m, and for women 1.50-1.57 m. The teeth of almost all those buried were perfectly preserved, which should not be surprising, since in those days people ate “ecologically clean” food and died relatively young, rarely surpassing the 40th anniversary.
Psychologically, the Hellenes were Quite a curious guy. In addition to the traits inherent in all Mediterranean peoples: individualism, hot temper, love of debate, competition and spectacle, the Greeks were endowed with curiosity, a flexible mind, and a passion for adventure. They were distinguished by a taste for risk and a thirst for travel. They set out on the road for her own sake. Hospitality, sociability and pugnacity were also their qualities. However, this is only a bright emotional cover that hides the deep inner dissatisfaction and pessimism inherent in the Hellenes.
The split of the Greek soul It has long been noted by historians of art and religion. The craving for fun, the desire to taste life in all its fullness and transience were intended only to drown out the melancholy and emptiness that opened up in the Hellene’s chest at the thought of the immaterial world. The horror of realizing that earthly life- the best that awaits a person was unconsciously great. Further, man’s path lay in Tartarus, where thirst-dried shadows wander through the fields and only for a moment acquire a semblance of speech and reason, when relatives bring funeral hecatombs, pouring out sacrificial blood. But even in the sunny world, where man could still enjoy himself while he walked the earth, hard work, epidemics, wars, wanderings, longing for his native places and the loss of loved ones awaited him. The wisdom gained over the years of struggle told the Hellene that only the gods taste eternal bliss, they also decide in advance the fate of mortals, their verdict cannot be changed, no matter how hard you try. This is the conclusion from the most popular myth of Oedipus, endowed with philosophical significance.
Oedipus was predicted that he would kill own father and marries his mother. Separated from his family, the young man returned to his homeland many years later and unknowingly committed both crimes. Neither his piety before the gods nor his just rule as king of Thebes overturned predestination. The fateful hour has come, and everything destined by fate has come true. Oedipus gouged out his eyes as a sign of the blindness to which man is doomed by the immortal gods, and went off to wander.
Nothing can be done, and therefore rejoice while you can, and taste the fullness of life that flows between your fingers - such is the internal pathos of the Greek worldview. The Hellenes were fully aware of themselves as participants in a huge tragedy unfolding on the stage of the world. The civil liberties of the policies did not compensate for the soul's lack of freedom from predestination.
So, Hellene- laughing pessimist. He becomes sad at a cheerful feast, he can, in a fit of momentary gloom, kill a comrade or loved one, or, at the will of the immortals, go on a journey, not expecting anything for his accomplished feats except the tricks of the celestials. If a person is lucky enough to live at home with a nice family, he will hide his happiness without showing it off, for the gods are envious.
Nowadays, few people know what the “average” resident actually looked like. Kievan Rus. Scientists have reconstructed its appearance bit by bit, relying on data from chronicles, modern anthropological research and images surviving from the Middle Ages.
Pedigree of the Russians
Resident Traits medieval Rus' determined by the genes of the peoples from which they came. The ancient Slavic state could boast of exceptional diversity in this regard. Whoever lived on the territory of the Kyiv state and passed through its lands in different periods! Among them were Slavs, Polovtsians, Huns, Scythians, Tatars, Sarmatians, Khazars. Intersecting and mixing for centuries, all these ethnic groups formed appearance a person who is considered to be a typical representative of the population of Kievan Rus.
The oldest settlements discovered by archaeologists on the territory of modern Ukraine belong to the Trypillian culture (about three thousand years BC). Having examined the remains of the people living then, anthropologists found that they were practically no different from the modern inhabitants of Asia Minor. The average Tripoli man had a rather elongated face, a long hooked nose and a strongly sloping forehead. Anthropologists classify this appearance as a “Bascoid” type. During the Neolithic, it predominated in European and Mediterranean territories.
Ukrainian scientists call the Trypillians the direct ancestors of the medieval “Rus” and modern Ukrainians. Russian historian Alexey Sobolevsky believed that Trypillians and Pelasgians (ancestors of the Scythians and Cimmerians) are the same ethnic group. Most scientists insist that the inhabitants of Rus' descended from peoples who came to this territory much later. The connection between the ancient Trypillians and the Kyivians of the 7th - 15th centuries has not yet been proven.
Ukrainian historians Ivan Lysyak-Rudnitsky and Mikhail Grushevsky call the Ant tribes the ancestors of the latter. In their opinion, the Ukrainian-Russian culture was formed on the basis of the Antes culture approximately in the 4th-6th centuries. It became the basis of Kievan Rus, and then the Galician-Volyn state.
Scythian tribes and their descendants
The scientific community calls the Scythians the true ancestors of the inhabitants of Rus'. Mikhail Lomonosov was firmly convinced of this. The largest Scythian settlements were once located on the lands modern Ukraine and Russia. The Russians inherited the tradition of greeting dear guests with bread and salt from the Scythians.
The latter even dressed the same as the Ukrainian Cossacks: they wore trousers, embroidered caftans and shirts, leather belts, etc. More precisely, based on the Scythian national costume The form of the Zaporizhian Cossack was created later.
The Sarmatians are also considered distant relatives of modern Ukrainians. Mentions of them are periodically found in Slavic chronicles. Population Ancient Rus' was very similar to representatives of both of these peoples, wore the same costumes and hairstyles, the men had long beards. Geneticists who examined ancient burials found that the Scythians belonged to the Indo-European - and not Iranian, as previously thought - anthropological type.
Anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov recreated the image of the Scythian Amazon horsewomen for his contemporaries. Their remains were brought to the surface in the north of the Caucasus, near the city of Mtskheta. It turned out that Scythian women were no different from Slavic women. They had approximately the same facial features. Their long hair the beauties braided them into braids and then placed them in a crown over their foreheads.
Descriptions of contemporaries
The most valuable material on this topic can be found in the life stories of the people themselves who lived in Rus' during the Middle Ages. For example, they indicate that wearing a beard was mandatory for every adult man. The 11th century Judgment Charter even lists penalties for cutting a beard. The bishop had to pay 12 hryvnia. The prince could even lose his life for such “sacrilege.” Later sources preserved information that people were not executed for shaving their faces, but simply fined.
On the hryvnias of Kievan Rus, rulers were always depicted with a beard. The Baghdad traveler Ibn Haukal (10th century), who repeatedly visited the Slavic lands, described how sensitive local men were to facial hair. They combed and curled it, even dyed it with natural dyes (saffron).
Around the same period, the Byzantine Leo the Deacon left verbal portrait Svyatoslav Igorevich. The historian described the prince as a proportionally built man of average height with a shaved skull and a long mustache. The chronicler noted that the ruler’s head was decorated only with a drooping forelock, which was a symbol of belonging to a noble family.
Svyatoslav did not have a beard, but had an “excessively long” mustache. The prince's eyes were blue, his hair was thick, and his nose was snub-nosed. Some scholars believe that Leo the Deacon's writings were mistranslated. In fact, the phrase “barba rasa” meant a sparse beard. Historian Sergei Solovyov clarifies that the prince’s forelock hung not on one, but on two sides.
Another Arab writer and traveler, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, sincerely admired the beauty of the Slavs. He believed that such stately and harmoniously built people could not be found anywhere else. Ibn Fadlan described the inhabitants of Rus' as beautiful white-skinned giants with blond hair. At that time, the population was dominated by Polans, and they were indeed taller than all their neighbors.
Anthropologist Valery Alekseev believed that the Polyansky elongated thin-walled skull was inherited by the Great Russians. Ukrainians and Western Slavs have larger and more massive skulls.
Much mixed
Most geneticists and anthropologists point out that the modern Ukrainian ethnic group is extremely heterogeneous. Residents of the Carpathian region are very different in appearance from Ukrainians from the north of the country. Approximately the same story happened in Ancient Rus'. Academician Tatyana Alekseeva, based on the results of studies of all discovered Slavic burials, concluded that the population of Kyiv and neighboring cities in the early Middle Ages was very mixed.
The scientist compared the people of Kiev and the ancient Germans and found very little in common between them. Alekseeva believes that even if the Normans ended up serving in the princely army, they constituted an absolute minority. Such a quantity could not significantly affect the gene pool of Kievan Rus and at least somehow determine the appearance of its average resident.
But in the latter there were a lot of Mongoloid features, which is easily explained by constant contacts with nomadic tribes arriving in Rus' from the south. These conclusions were made, in particular, based on studies of burials in Kanevka and Zlivki. The population of Kyiv and other large cities was more “motley” in terms of anthropological features, while rural residents communicated less with foreign guests and were more similar to each other in appearance.
The very description of Prince Svyatoslav confirms how strong the influence was on the genes and culture of the population of Rus' Turkic peoples. In many historical documents, the ruler Slavic state is described as having a shaven head, with a long drooping mustache and wearing trousers. He directly borrowed this hairstyle and manner of dressing from the steppe nomads of the Mongoloid race.
Kiev diplomacy also played a huge role in shaping the external appearance of the Russians. According to the then-current tradition, princely daughters were married not only to Europeans, but also to the sons of eastern khans. Russian princes themselves often married Polovtsian girls, as a result of which their descendants had Mongoloid features. Such marriages, in particular, were concluded by princes Vsevolod Vladimirovich and Svyatopolk Izyaslavovich.
Reconstruction of the external appearance
Mikhail Gerasimov, based on a number of data, restored the portrait of Andrei Bogolyubsky. The latter was born the daughter of a Polovtsian khan in marriage to Yuri Dolgoruky. Gerasimov described Andrei’s appearance as gravitating towards the North Slavic type, but with a clear Mongoloid structure of the skull and facial bones. Children born in dynastic marriages, with light eyes and curly hair, had Turkic drooping eyelids and other features of their Polovtsian ancestors. This is exactly what Andrei Bogolyubsky looked like.
3D technologies have made it possible to recreate the appearance of people who lived a long time ago based on their remains. Scientists have recently reconstructed the appearances of a Peruvian queen from the forgotten Moche kingdom, an ancient Greek “griffin” warrior, medieval Scottish highlanders, an ancient Egyptian aristocrat and another ancient Egyptian woman, as well as a victim of Vesuvius. The publication “My Planet” talked about these reconstructions.
Señora de Cao is the ruler of the Moche people.
Scientists in Peru have used 3D printing to reconstruct the face of a powerful ancient ruler known as Señora de Cao. The woman was found to have an oval face with high cheekbones, a look characteristic of many modern Peruvians.
She was a member of the Moche nobility who lived in northern Peru 1,700 years ago. The tattooed mummy of the “Señora” was discovered in 2006 in the ruins of the Huaca Cao Vieja pyramid near the city of Trujillo. Her legs and face were tattooed magical symbols snakes and spiders.
Researchers had previously established that the woman died at the age of 20, possibly in childbirth or as a result of complications during pregnancy. The rich decoration of the grave suggested that Senora de Cao was a powerful priestess or even a political leader.
"Griffin Warrior" who died 3500 years ago.
Scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa) using computer modeling have reconstructed the appearance of the “griffin warrior” who died in 1500 BC. e.
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The burial of a warrior was found in Greece in 2015 during excavations ancient city Pylos near the ruins of the legendary palace of Nestor, who led a contingent of Greek military forces in Homer's Iliad. Special attention Of the things found, I was attracted by an ivory tablet with an image of a griffin. In this regard, archaeologists called the found man a griffin warrior.
Restoring the warrior’s appearance was not an easy task; in the end, experts saw a man 30-35 years old with a wide beautiful face, “square” jaw and powerful neck.
Items found in the tomb suggest that the person buried belonged to the elite.
Ancient Egyptian official.
An international team of researchers has reconstructed the face and brain of a 3,500-year-old Egyptian mummy, discovering unique technique embalming.
Before “resurrecting” the mummy, scientists believed that it was once the Egyptian dignitary Nebiri, who lived during the reign of Thutmose III (1479−1425 BC). Nebiri became famous two years ago when he was given an unusual diagnosis - the oldest case of chronic heart failure. In life he was a man with a prominent nose, a wide jaw, straight eyebrows and moderately full lips.
A young but ancient Egyptian woman.
Scientists from the University of Melbourne (Australia) reconstructed the appearance of a girl based on the head of a mummy kept in the collection of the University of Melbourne Museum.
The girl received the name Meritamon, meaning “beloved of the god Amon.” Scientists believe she died between the ages of 18 and 25. The Egyptian woman's height was about 162 cm: she was quite tall for women of those times.
Meritamon's teeth were severely damaged during her lifetime, suggesting that she lived when sugar became popular in Egypt. However, it is possible that honey is to blame for the deplorable condition of teeth. The girl's body was wrapped in linen bandages, suggesting the high status of her family.
In addition to problems with teeth, Meritamon also suffered from other diseases, which drove her into the coffin, if one can say so about the ancient Egyptians. Scientists have discovered signs of anemia, presumably caused by malaria pathogens, which affected the inhabitants of the Nile Delta in ancient times.
Currently, scientists do not rule out that the Egyptian beauty may be about 3,500 years old.
Killed during the eruption of Vesuvius.
Scientists have recreated the face of a 50-year-old resident of Herculaneum (near Pompeii), who died as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. To reconstruct the face, it was necessary to photograph the skull more than 150 times using a 3D camera with different angles. The lack of teeth in the skull seriously complicated the matter; scientists used images of dentures from a virtual volunteer donor with similar skull data.
Medieval warriors from a Scottish crypt.
Scientists have reconstructed the appearance of four Scots who lived in the Middle Ages in a village on the island of Cramond near Edinburgh. The bodies were buried in one crypt. Researchers believe that all four were related and had noble origins.
The appearance of four people so far has been restored: two men and two women.
According to the analysis, people lived back in the 6th century. DNA analysis also showed that representatives of different generations of the same family were buried in the crypt.
Researchers are inclined to believe that all the dead were warriors. One of the women died as a result of serious head injuries, and two men also died from their wounds. Judging by the place and method of burial, the dead were of noble birth.
Several reconstructions of the appearance of famous historical figures are also known.
Tamerlane
On June 22, 1941, the expedition of the Russian anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov (1907−1970) opened the grave of the Samarkand conqueror Tamerlane, after which a long study began. Superstitious people consider this fact barbaric and the cause of the Great Patriotic War, but Gerasimov himself saw this as luck, and considered the reconstruction of Tamerlane’s image to be his best work.
Cleopatra
IN mass consciousness Egyptian queen Cleopatra - beautiful woman Caucasian race. However, Egyptologist from the University of Cambridge Sally Ann Ashton claims that by the time she came to power, Cleopatra’s family had already lived in Egypt for 300 years, which means that Egyptian and Greek blood was mixed in her, and her skin tone was dark. The basis for the three-dimensional reconstruction was the surviving ancient images of the Egyptian queen and an analysis of her genealogy. The computer-generated image of a dark, friendly woman does not really fit in with the image of the fatal beauty who was the lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
Nicholas the Wonderworker
Scottish anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson, a professor at the University of Dundee, recreated the appearance of St. Nicholas, who is revered in Russia as Nicholas the Wonderworker, and in the West is considered the prototype of Santa Claus.
The following stereotype is popular regarding the differences in appearance between ancient and modern Greeks:
Greeks supposedly were there before All are fair, with regular facial features. That's what it says in ancient Greek poems. And the fact that now they are completely different is the consequences of the Turkish conquest.
"Recent genetic research Greek populations provided evidence of statistically significant continuity between ancient and modern Greeks." (Wikipedia).
The myth about fair-haired people is explained very well on the Greek forum:
Thanks to user Olga R.:
“The Greeks were never a “homogeneous” ethnic group. From ancient times, they were divided into two tribal groups: the Ionians (Achaeans) and the Dorians (within these groups there were also subgroups, but this is not relevant to the subject of our conversation). These tribes differed from each other each other not only in culture, but also in appearance. The Ionians were short, dark-haired and dark-skinned, and the Dorians were tall, fair-haired and light-skinned. The Ionians and Dorians were at odds with each other, and both tribal groups mixed completely only in Byzantine times. this is not entirely appropriate: in geographically isolated areas - for example, on some islands - a relatively pure Ionic or Doric type can still be found.
The Greeks of the Black Sea region (Ponti-Romans, Azov Rumeans, Urums, etc.), like the rest of the Greeks, are also very heterogeneous: among them there are both pure Ionians and Dorians, as well as a mixed type (the Black Sea region was populated for many centuries by people from different regions of Greece). Therefore, some Greeks in Ukraine may well differ from some Greeks in Greece - but, of course, not all and not from everyone. For example, if you go to Crete, you will find there as many “white and curly” Greeks as you like (most Cretans have retained the Doric type of appearance)."
“Then where did such a “classical” Greek image come from and take hold?
Thanks to the "Western European artists of the 17th-19th centuries. They depicted the ancient Greeks as similar to themselves, their loved ones - that is, to the Germans, Dutch and other Western Europeans. Hence the "stereotype" (not at all based on historical data.
“White-haired blonds are also, of course, called “ξανθοι” (what else can you call them?) But if you hear or read this word in relation to a Greek, it means light brown hair.”
"Homer describes Odysseus as a typical Ionian: dark and black-haired."
"...The fact is that appearance ancient greek gods was, as it were, a symbol of their essence - that is, it depended not on how the admirers of these gods looked, but on the “properties” of the gods themselves. So, Apollo's golden hair is a symbol of the Sun. Athena's "gray" eyes are actually not gray, but "owl": A8hna glaukwphs (the interpretation of this word as "gray" appeared because the ancient Greek word glaux - "owl" - was confused by modern translators with the word glaukos - - “gray” or “blue”). The owl was a symbol and one of the incarnations of the goddess Athena; many scholars believe that Athena was originally the goddess of death and was worshiped in the form of an owl (a typical Neolithic image of death and burial). By the way, there are images of Athena with the head of an owl."
What is it? Where did the sculptures with “Greek profiles” (i.e., with the absence of the bridge of the nose) come from? Where did the descriptions of golden-haired people come from? Let's even say that it was blondes who were mentioned. Well, the gods can do anything! They must be different from mere mortals by definition. The absence of the bridge of the nose seemed to hint at such an origin. On the contrary, scoundrels and commoners were depicted with prominent eyebrows. It's a question of symbols. Greek art wasn't realistic at all.
Tnm, if you look at the busts of philosophers and imagine them in natural colors. And it’s even easier - check out the pictures everyday life, where simple collective farmers are depicted - on a red-figure vase painting. Or even like gods, but in the clothes of mere mortals:
Classic Mediterranean type! Curly dark hair. And the profile, initially stylized to resemble the canon, later becomes more and more realistic.
The Italians, who never knew the Turkish occupation, look approximately the same. They have a different theme: the earliest Romans looked like the northern French of today. And then the blood of slaves from the Middle East was mixed in. Well, maybe. But this does not deprive them of classification among the “true Aryans”:
Moreover, southern Italians (i.e., residents of Naples and Sicily) are in many ways descendants of Greek colonists.
This is what the inhabitants of these regions looked like in ancient times:
And most importantly, look carefully at these faces. They can be dark-skinned and brown-eyed. But common origin, one way or another, it is felt. Here's Despina Vandi, for example:
And here is a Greek collective farmer from the film “The Day When All the Fish Floated Up.” Isn’t that an ancient Greek bust of a philosopher?):
Yes, no matter how many times I looked at all sorts of Greek mosaics, vases, frescoes - all curly.
Why were the Achaeans and Dorians at war? How was this expressed? Ancient Greece, this is essentially a bunch of policies, city-states, warring and collaborating, was the population in them homogeneous and consisted of one type or not?
Why is it that fair hair is a cool sign (as far as I know, most of the gods were fair-haired), but large brow ridges are not?
Answer
Sorry for not answering right away. Pre-holiday chores, sir)
In fact, here ordinary story, when a nation is formed, over time, gradually from different ethnic groups, closely related, and sometimes not so closely related. The fragmentation of a single civilization at different stages is also natural. The Achaeans created the Mycenaean civilization in the 2nd millennium BC. The fight against Crete, where the evil Minotaur is, and the war with Troy are from that era. The Dorians, although they spoke a similar language, lived to the west for a long time, and compared to the Achaeans, they almost climbed trees.
The Bronze Age Catastrophe has arrived. Due to difficult conditions, the Dorians invaded the borders of the mentioned power. Part of the Achaeans had to be evacuated, where they joined the “peoples of the sea” who pirated in the Mediterranean.
At first it looked almost like an invasion of barbarians in animal skins. But during the Greek “Dark Ages” the conquerors assimilated some of the achievements of the conquered, mixed with them, and, coupled with their progressive energy and the achievements of the advancing Iron Age, eventually gave life to what in our understanding is classical Ancient Greece.
In total, four branches played a role in the formation of the ancient Greek ethnos: the Achaeans, Dorians, Ionians, and Aeolians.
Some kind of memory was preserved locally. The people of Athens remembered that they used to have a great civilization, and that they were mainly descendants of the Achaeans. The Spartans were Dorians at their most pure form. The Ionians eventually ended up in the east - in Asia Minor and on the adjacent islands. There, apparently, there were very significant connections with the already existing local population. Due to mixing with which, the Ionians, presumably, acquired their characteristic southern appearance.
Of course, there were differences on the ground. Even in our time, for example, we distinguish between northern and southern Russians. There are different dialects. In Greece to this day, depending on the region, either the Dorian or the Ionian type prevails. According to the records of one knowledgeable guy known online, known simply as the Greek (he even starred in one of the “Dinner Party” programs), the indigenous population of the country is now, in the majority, of the European type, but repatriates from the CIS countries are usually Ionians.
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