Numidian Queen

This would be a queen of ancient Numidia, a civilization in northwestern Africa that covered parts of what are now Algeria and Tunisia between 202 and 40 BC (they should not be confused with the Nubian people of Sudan further east).

I couldn’t find any primary sources showing how Numidian women would have dressed, and of course modern North African fashions are heavily influenced by the Islamic Arab culture which arrived into the region well after Numidia’s annexation by the Romans. That left a lot to my imagination when depicting my subject. Her funnel-shaped hairstyle is inspired by those worn by women of the Mangbetu people in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *