Aksum and the Northern Horn of Africa

Abstract

Rich and varied sources are now available for reconstructing the past in Africa’s northern Horn. Results of archaeological investigation are supplemented from inscriptions, coinage, and from accounts by Graeco-Roman historians and visitors (including Byzantine ambassadors), while historical linguistics and studies of oral tradition (some of which was later recorded in writing by Ethiopians themselves) are also informative. Until the mid-20th century, most of the knowledge that was readily available came from sources that focused on external connections; this bias has often also prevailed more recently, but a more local emphasis now sees cultural development in the northern Horn as an essentially indigenous process in which adaptations to diverse external influences were constantly made. This continuity is apparent in several areas. The region’s subsistence economy has long been based on domestic plants and animals that include varieties first domesticated in the Near East and North Africa as well as others that originated in the northern Horn itself. The dates of their local adoption are not yet known, but it is probable that some of these species have been exploited since at least the 2nd millennium BC. It is against this backdrop that may now be viewed the appearance, around the 8th century BC, of societies whose elite sections followed fashions displaying strong affinities with those known in neighbouring areas, most notably in southern Arabia. Among these elements were the first stone inscriptions yet recognised in the Horn of Africa, figurative sculptures and dressed-stone architecture, as well as religious paraphernalia. It is noteworthy, however, that many aspects of the domestic architecture, pottery and other non-elite artefacts continued stylistic and technological traditions that had been established in the region long previously. These conclusions are confirmed by detailed study of the relatively small number of stone inscriptions that have been recovered. Although the script was one that is known to have developed in southern Arabia during earlier times, with few exceptions the Semitic language shows local differences from that employed on the other side of the Red Sea. These observations have led to a re-interpretation that emphasises the indigenous element in the majority population of the northern Horn during the last millennium BC, while noting that – as has often been the case in many regions both before and since – the elite sought to reinforce their position by emphasising exotic foreign accoutrements. This dichotomy, however, was short-lived; the distinctiveness of the elite diminished and greater cultural uniformity seems to have prevailed by about the 6th century. The word DMT, otherwise unknown, occurs in unvocalised inscriptions of this period; it has been interpreted as the name of a unitary kingdom at this time, but doubt has recently been cast on the existence of such a polity. The last half-millennium BC is poorly understood. It is only for the restricted area where the future capital of Aksum subsequently arose that details of archaeological research have yet been published, and epigraphic evidence also is tantalisingly sparse. Excavations directed by Rodolfo Fattovich Archaeology International No. 15, 2011-2012, 29-32 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/ai.1502