Those who remember the ridiculous “Black Athena” saga of a few years ago will find echoes of it in this silly story, entitled “Cleopatra’s Mother was African.” I’ll leave aside the ethnography and will just pause to point out that any conclusions about the bones of Arsinoe IV prove absolutely nothing about Cleopatra VII Philopator or her mother, because Arsinoe’s mother was probably not Cleopatra’s mother. Cleopatra’s mother was probably Cleopatra V Tryphaena, the sister of Cleopatra Philopator’s father, Ptolemy Auletes, who disappears from history shortly after the birth of Antony’s Cleopatra. While it is possible that another different Cleopatra (VI) may have been the famous Cleopatra’s mother, it seems sure that Arsinoe and another two brothers (another two Ptolemies) were children of the Flautist by a different mother. Ptolemaic familial arrangements are, as might be obvious from this quick summary, famously vexing to understand, but this claim adds a level of further confusion that is best described as unhelpful. It appears even Mary Beard agrees with my objection. See also Rogue Classicism, which speaks somewhat to the ethnography.