To the ancient Greeks, the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa were known collectively as Ethiopians, literally ‘those with burnt faces’. Theirs was a fabled land connected to the Greek world in myth. For example, there is the Ethiopian princess Andromeda, rescued by Perseus, and Memnon, who led the Ethiopians in the Trojan War. –Black-figured amphora. Greek, […]
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Category: Royalty
Princess Sit Hathor Yunet aka Sithathoriunet
Beautiful ancient wig with hair ornaments. I’m sure this will inspire some beauty gurus, especially women of color around the world to design their next personal custom wig creation for their YouTube videos. This is an ancient craft that is still practiced in today’s society. Found were remains of several boxes filled with jewelry and cosmetic […]
Braided Ancient Egyptian Wig
Queen Nefertiti, who lived during the fourteenth century b.c.e., was known for wearing dark blue wigs, and festive wigs were sometimes gilded, or thinly coated in gold. The wig hair often stuck straight out from the skullcap, creating large, full wigs that offered wearers protection from the heat of the sun. Most often black, wigs were […]
Queen Arawelo / Araweelo
Did this African Queen exist in ancient times or is this a legend? Once upon a time, in Somalia, there was a kingdom ruled by a strong and beautiful queen. The Queen’s name was Ebla Awad, but everybody knew her as “Queen Arraweelo.” The Queen came to power around AD 15 after a long war between Somali clans. […]
Ancient Wunmonije Bronze Heads
Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria Dating from the 12th to 15th centuries A,D. The Wunmonije heads at the British Museum in 1948. Published in Drewal (H.J.) & Schildkrout (E.), Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria, 2009: p. 4, fig. 2 Professor John Picton and metallurgist Paul Craddock discuss the meaning and the making […]
16th century ancient ruins of Ouara in Chad, Africa
The ruins of Sultan Ibn Abdel-Kerim Djame’s palace date back to the 16th century. They include a large wall mural; the residences of the Sultan, his concubines and the princes’ wives; and a watchtower. Ouara (or Wara) is the former capital of the Ouaddai Empire lying near Abéché in eastern Chad. It has been deserted […]
Queen Nefertiti
An Egyptian queen renowned for her beauty, Nefertiti ruled alongside her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten, during the mid-1300s B.C. Little is known about the origins of Nefertiti, but her legacy of beauty and power continue to intrigue scholars today. Her name is Egyptian and means “a beautiful woman has come.” Worship of the Sun God Nefertiti and […]
Head of a Statue of a Queen
Some people think it’s Nefertiti or one of her daughters Meritaton or Anchesenpaaton? Although the eye liner and lipstick are faint in color, I still love ancient make-up. Simply beautiful. Head of a statue of Queen Merit-Aton? Dynasty 18. C.1340-1335 B.C. Quartzit. From Amarna. Gift of James Simon, 1920. Egyptian Museum in the Altes Museum. Berlin, Germany. […]
Queen Dowager Rosalie Gicanda
Queen Gicanda was the wife of Rwandan Mwami (King in the Kinyarwanda language) Mutara III of Rwanda. After her husband died in mysterious circumstances in 1959, the Rwandan monarchy lasted only two more years, under the leadership of Mwami Kigeli V of Rwanda and then coming to an end in 1961. This Queen looks similar to Princess Emma Bakayishonga. […]
African Descendants Around The World
“A picture is worth a thousand words” is an English idiom. It refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image or that an image of a subject conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a description does. Pakistan In pictures: Pakistan’s indigenous African community news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia […]
King Negus Negash Najashi of Abyssinia, Africa
Negus is an Amharic word for King. The Negus was the Christian king of Abyssinia in the seventh century. Negus is a royal title in the Ethiopian Semitic languages. It denotes a monarch such as the Bahri Negus of the Medri Bahri in pre-1890 Eritrea and the Negus in pre-1974 Ethiopia. The title has subsequently been used to translate […]
Queens in ancient and medieval times?
The book also list historical achievements of great women. This edition includes over 100 images, 18 maps, a 15 page chronological table, index, and bibliography. I love the blue & gold earing or maybe it’s part of her headress? – Sola Portrait Head of Queen Tiye with a Crown of Two Feathers, c. 1355 B.C.E., […]
The Deffufa Temples in Kerma, Nubia, Sudan at least 9,500 years old?
Ancient Architecture and urban planning by the Africans. One of its most endearing structure was the Deffufa, a mud brick temple which ceremonies were performed on top. It is 18 meters tall and comprises three stories. The deffufa is a unique structure in Nubian Architecture. Three known deffufa exist. The Western Deffufa at Kerma, an Eastern […]
Queen Gudit/Yodit of Ethiopia, Africa
The fall of the Aksumite kingdom of Ethiopia toward the end of the 10th century A.D. was attributed to a queen who invaded from the south. This queen is said to have laid waste to the city of Aksum and the countryside, destroyed churches and monuments, usurped the throne from the ruling Aksumite king, and […]
QUEEN: Maharani Bamba Duleep Singh aka Bamba Müller
Her Father Ludwig Muller was a German banker and her mother Sofia was Abyssinian, Ethiopian, African. She was born on July 6, 1848 in Cairo, Egypt. The Maharaja Duleep Singh fell for her charm & beauty, within 5 months they married at Alexandria in Egypt, on 7 June 1864. Both of them wore European dress apart from Duleep, who […]
Ancient African Elites in India
Its construction was financed by the African nawab Sidi Surur II, formerly an officer. The large, fortress-like structure erected on a knoll was the palace of the Nawab. It was built around 1707. The walls and floors of several rooms were decorated with colored glass. About 4,000 Africans built the fortress of Colombo in the late 17th […]
Nubian Hathor found at el-Kurru, Sudan
Headed Magic Crystal Amulet 743-712 BC From the Napatan Period, reign of Piye (Piankhy), found at el-Kurru, Sudan. The crystal ball amulet is surmounted by a gold head of Hathor crowned with disc and horns. The ball is bored vertically and has a gold disc at the base on which it stands. This probably used […]
The mummy of Sachiny found near Aswan
The mummy of a woman who lived during ancient Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty has been discovered in the Tombs of the Nobles near Aswan. ASWAN, EGYPT—The mummy of an important woman named Sachiny from ancient Egypt’s Middle Kingdom has been discovered, according to a report in Egypt Independent. A team headed by archaeologist Alejandro Jimenez found the […]
The Pyramids at Meroë, Sudan
Meroë, the royal necropolis of the southern capital of the kingdom of Kush near Bejrawia . The steep-sided pyramids were built over the burial chambers of the rulers. During the blue evening light with the presence of a few stars, a single camel and rider stands in front of two of the pyramids at Meroë […]
Tomb of the Nubian King Tantamani
Quote: Our time is almost up and our two hour visit inside these two ancient tombs has come to an end. Uncle Ali waits patiently outside the gate of the Tomb of the Nubian King Tantamani (Tawentamani) at el-Kurru, which was originally excavated beneath the pyramids that are now partially collapsed. This tomb is completely […]
Queen Qalhata’s tomb in Sudan
Receiving the ‘breath of life’, Queen Qalhata’s tomb, at El Kurru in Sudan. This tomb is rarely visited and the frescoes on the wall are in much better condition than inside the Kings tomb next door. In the Queen’s chamber we see her being given the breath of life by the god – she lies […]
Queen Hetepheres Throne
Queen Hetepheres I was a Queen of Egypt during the 4th dynasty. Few wooden artifacts from ancient civilizations survive due to the material’s vulnerability to decay. However, Harvard University’s Giza Project team was able to bring Egyptian wood craftsmanship to life with an ambitious undertaking: reconstructing an elaborate chair that once belonged to Queen Hetepheres. […]
Empress Taytu Betul
She was a (c.1851–1918) formidable Queen and Empress of Ethiopia. An astute diplomat determined to resist imperialist designs on her country, she increasingly opposed any negotiations that would result in the loss of Ethiopian territory. When diplomacy gave way to war, she rode out at the head of her own army, at her husband’s side. -Portrait […]
Princess Kouka
The daughter of a sheikh from the African Sudan Princess Kouka arrives in London, 1937. After starring in the Jericho movie with Paul Robeson, she was in several Egyptian films and went by simply as Kouka. She played a character named “Gara” in a movie with Paul Robeson. It was released in 1937 and called “Jericho” […]
Empress ‘Adélina Lévêque Soulouque’ of Haiti
Adélina Soulouque (b. c. 1795-after 1859), née Lévêque, was Empress Consort of Haiti from 1849 until 1859, as wife of Faustin I of Haiti. Adélina was the daughter of Marie Michel Lévêque, a Haitian of mixed-race heritage. She had a long-term relationship with Faustin Souloque for many years. It was only in December 1849 that […]
Tutankhamun’s gold funerary mask & real head shape
Tutankhamen was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom or sometimes the New Empire Period. He has since his discovery been colloquially referred to as King Tut. What is behind the mask of Tutankhamen? The inscription on the shoulders and the back of the […]
Nubian King Tantamani from Sudan
The very name Nubian (nub) actually means gold. Meet Uncle Ali-For over 25 years he has been the key holder for the gate of the Tomb of Tanutamani, and he will guide us through the royal burial chambers belonging to King Tanwetamani (Tanotamun) and Queen Kalhata at El Kurru, a few kilometers south of Karima, […]
Empress Zewditu of Ethiopia, Africa
Zewditu (also spelled Zawditu or Zauditu) was an Empress of Ethiopia from 1916 to 1930. The first female head of an internationally recognized state in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the first Empress regnant of the Ethiopian Empire perhaps since the legendary Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, her reign was noted for the […]
Princess Emma Bakayishonga of Rwanda & the $2.4 million Watussi Woman artwork
Watussi Woman is a sublime portrait of a noblewoman in the court of HM Mwami Rudahigwa III, monarch of the Watussi in the territory of Ruanda-Urundi, then part of the Belgian Congo. In an extraordinarily fortuitous development, the identity of the sitter has been confirmed as Emma Bakayishonga in Rwanda in 1942. Famous for her […]
Robert Bauval’s findings on the Giza Pyramids & Sphinx
Bauval was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to parents of Belgian and Maltese origins. He attended the British Boys’ School in Alexandria (now El Nasr Boys’ School) and the Franciscan College in Buckinghamshire, England. He left Egypt in 1967 just before the Six-Days War during the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser. He has spent most of […]