Isn’t there some DNA evidence that ancient Egyptians had less sub-Saharan African ancestry than current Egyptians?
I take it that would mean ancient Egyptians were lighter skinned than current Egyptians.
The influx of Sub-Saharan genes only occurred within the last 1,500 years.
They found that the ancient Egyptians were most closely related to the peoples of the Near East, particularly from the Levant. This is the Eastern Mediterranean which today includes the countries of Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/were-the-ancient-egyptians-black-or-white-scientists-now-know
Current Egyptians are Arabs, not the ancient kind. The Egyptians did not use white paint to portray people, and the colors they used were to show status. They did use dark paint for black Africans.
There are tomb murals which show quite a variety of skin color, from a few pale pink to deep black, but most figures look like they have the deep copper skin color of a typical modern Egyptian farmer or fisherman.
Didn’t the Greeks rule Egypt for a long time?
Many Indians are nearly as dark-skinned as some blacks, but their DNA is Caucasian, lacking any sub-Saharan African component. The tomb paintings in Egypt don't appear to show pale skinned people.