'Black' Africans and the Ancient Greeks

[kurtcagle]

1. Minoans, Canaanites, Mycenaeans and the Black Phoenicians.

It's worth noting that the Minoans were likely originally sea-faring Canaanites from the early third millennium that ended up settling in Crete, the Peloponnesian islands, and Rhodes before making their way West and South, while the Mycenaeans were more than likely originally Scythians. Given that the Carthaginians (the Phoenicians) combined a mercantile empire with occasional sea raids (such as the ones that hit Egypt in the period between 1150-1250 BC) it is likely that the Phoenician "empire" likely was "swarthy", especially once they colonized Carthage in the late ninth century. The Mycenaeans may very well have been blonde-haired and blue-eyed, though the Minoans were most certainly not, and even after the invasion of Crete by the Mycenaeans in the 16th century BC after the eruption of Thera, it is likely that the Aegean Greeks likely were not that dissimilar in appearance to present-day Greeks.

It's also worth noting that the Etruscans were likely also a Phoenician colony. The Etruscans were generally described as darker-skinned and more than likely may have also been not that distinct from the Graeci, supposedly Hellenic peoples who lived on the northern shores of the Ionian Sea (and where the Roman word for Greek comes from). A Phoenician colony from Rhodes or Crete most likely would have been speaking Hellenistic Greek by that point, but would also likely have been fortified by ships coming from Carthage (where the Phoenician colonists interbred with the Berbers for centuries, eventually leading to the Moorish invasion of Spain in the first Millennium AD), and ultimately the Black Irish.

And yes, neo-Classical History has a lot to answer for.