An important aspect of the Aksumite kings' responsibilities was the conduct of military campaigns, the main theme of almost all the Aksumite royal inscriptions which have survived (see Ch. 11: 5). The significance of this element for the kings is emphasised by Ezana's identification in the pagan period as the son of Mahrem, whose parallel in Greek was the war-god Ares. In most of the inscriptions we are given a fair amount of detail about the campaigns which the Aksumite rulers conducted throughout the Aksumite sphere of influence. Similarly, the South Arabian inscriptions mentioning Habashat and Aksum deal with Ethiopian military activities on the east side of the Red Sea. We therefore have a considerable amount of information about the Aksumites' methods and tactics in warfare. It is very probable that the Aksumite system of controlling subject peoples through their own rulers had the effect of encouraging these to try the strength of their overlords at each succession or other crisis. This might explain the `revolts' which occurred at places apparently quite near to the centre of the kingdom. The inscriptions and coins often use the word `peace', but we gather that the `Pax Aksumita' was, if not apparently seriously challenged, in need of continuous repair.
The Aksumite inscriptions are rather stereotyped in style and content, being the official records of the campaigns. In general, they commence with the reasons for the campaign; these included damage to a trading caravan, DAE 10; rebellion of vassal kings or tribes, DAE 4, 6 & 7, Geza `Agmai; and a combination of rebellion and a plea for assistance from subjects under attack, DAE 11, Anfray, Caquot and Nautin 1970. Other reasons, implied in a general way by the Monumentum Adulitanum inscription, but certainly important, were the need to deal with such questions as frontier security, piracy in the Red Sea, and the security of land routes for trade.
After the justifications for war, the inscriptions next recount any diplomatic efforts towards achieving a peaceful settlement (DAE 11) and, these failing, there finally came the decision to make war.
The next stage in the inscriptions is the account of the campaign itself. Details are supplied as to the routes and encampments, provisioning, the strategy, the troops or regiments used at different phases of the campaign, and the eventual inevitable victory. Geographical information abounds, though it is often difficult to place on the modern map, and the enemies or allies and their environment are also sometimes the object of a brief description.
Finally, the results of the campaign are noted. Men, women, and children killed or captured, and plunder in the form of animals and goods, are all proudly recorded with meticulous figure and word accounting. Any settlements are noted, usually expressed as `giving laws' to vassal kings and sending them back to their territories after payment of tribute. In some cases the settlement involved retaining land, property and prisoners or transporting tribes to new lands by force. Offerings to the gods, or later the construction of Christian sanctuaries, are the usual acts of gratitude to the deity after these campaigns. Accounts of these form the closing part of the inscriptions. The setting up and consecration of the inscription itself, apparently often as part of a throne, manbar — Monumentum Adulitanum, DAE 10, DAE 11 (two thrones, one in Shado in Aksum, the other at the confluence of the Seda (Blue Nile) and Takaze (Atbara)) — seems to have been a customary ceremonial act to mark the victory. The inscriptions often terminate with a formula which curses anyone who defaces them. The trilingual inscriptions, (actually written in two languages, Greek and Ge`ez, using three scripts, Greek, Ge`ez and Epigraphic South Arabian) were designed to present the kings' deeds to the local and foreign populace in the best possible light. Two different versions of the Beja campaign inscription of Ezana, in both cases `trilingual', were set up in different parts of the capital; unless we are missing duplicate copies of other inscriptions as well, this presumably indicates that Ezana was particularly proud of his victory over these people, and also wanted to emphasise his subsequent treatment of them.
Kaleb's inscription (see below) in the South Arabian script alludes to events in Himyar. Another, Ge`ez, inscription carved in alabaster was found at Marib in the Yemen (Kamil 1964; Caquot 1965). This latter inscription was fragmentary but was of exceptional interest as being only the second Ge`ez inscription ever found there (the first was on an alabaster lamp, Grohmann 1911). The inscriptions may mention Kaleb's famous Himyar war against king Yusuf, but what details are known about this campaign come from outside reports.
The military establishment was undoubtedly one of the key institutions of the Aksumite monarchy, and as such was closely associated with it. The king himself was the commander-in-chief, but royal brothers and sons, and perhaps other relatives, were frequently put in charge of campaigns when the king was occupied elsewhere. The semi-sacred character of the monarchy may have been one of the bases of its domination, but the control of its military arm by members of the ruling family must also have been a source of strength and security. It is possible that the brothers of Ezana who were in theoretical charge of the Beja campaign described in the inscription from Geza `Agmai (Bernand 1982) and in DAE 4, 6 & 7 (Ch. 11: 5) were in fact very young at the time (Munro-Hay 1990), and that experienced military leaders accompanied them. Nevertheless, credit for the victory went to the royal brothers under the supreme authority of the king.
There seems to have been at least one remarkable war-leader king (Ezana), though the achievements of Gadarat earlier in the third century could hardly have been accomplished without some military skill. Kaleb, too, managed to organise a major overseas expedition, and to win an initial success even if the results were, in the long run, negative (see Ch. 4).
The Aksumite army was organised into sarawit (sing. sarwe), groups or `regiments' of unknown numerical strength, each with a name (possibly a provincial district name, or a `tribal' name, see Ch. 7: 5), under their own commanders or generals. The generals of these groups were referred to in the inscription DAE 9 by the title nagast, the plural of negus or king, exactly the same as the word used in the royal title negusa nagast, king of kings, in the same inscription. This indicates the importance of their office, and was possibly a reminiscence of the former sub-kingdoms now part of Aksum. The troops were presumably levied as needed, though there must surely have been some kind of `Praetorian Guard' at the capital for ordinary guard duties about the palace, treasury and the king's person. In mediaeval times such troops were designated by the name of the part of the palace which they guarded. If the troop-names were related to provinces, perhaps the local rulers had to send contingents on demand to their overlord in Aksum. Sergew Hable Sellassie (1972: 95) suggested that the troop-names referred to function, identifying commando, elephant-fighter, and infantry units.
The inscriptions speak of specific troops being sent on certain missions, and thus have preserved several of these Aksumite troop or `regiment' names. It may transpire that these names are reflected in the `Bisi'-title of the kings, as one or two have a close resemblance to those of individual kings. The `regiment' names known include Hara, Halen, Damawa, Sabarat, Hadefan, Sabaha, Dakuen, Laken, Falha, Sera, Metin, Mahaza; they have been referred to by different modern authors as detachments, Truppe, armies, corpi di militzia, colonnes, and troupes, all translations from the Ge`ez word sarwe. Unfortunately, as yet we do not have the Greek translation of this from any of the inscriptions. From the known `Bisi'-titles of Aksumite rulers we can find parallels as follows: Halen for Halen; Hadefan for Hadefan; and Dakuen for Dakhu.
When on campaign, encampments were set up, possibly in some cases in recognised military stations or garrisons, or traditional muster-points. Certain provisions were requisitioned where necessary from the enemy's country. Others were brought on beasts of burden or by human portage. Mention is made of the water-corvée, and the provision of water must have been particularly important when the campaigns reached the more arid areas. Camels were certainly used in transport, and are sometimes specified among the plunder taken.
There is no hint as to the size of the regiments or the armies, but in various inscriptions the dead and captured are noted as follows; DAE 11 — killed 758, prisoners 629; DAE 10 — killed 705, prisoners 205; Kaleb inscription; killed, more than 400 men (figure lost for women and children). Fifty of the captives in DAE 10 were given to Mahrem as an offering. In the sixth century Arabian war, the historian Procopius says that the Ethiopian army sent by Kaleb to the Yemen to punish the usurper Abreha and his supporters for the deposition of Sumyafa` Ashwa` consisted of three thousand men; a figure the more convincing for its relative modesty. This army in fact turned against Kaleb, and remained to support Abreha (Procopius, ed. Dewing 1914: 191). Later Arab writers elevate the numbers of men sent to the Yemen to 70,000 men under Aryat (Guillaume 1955: 20, after Ibn Ishaq). Tabari (Zotenberg 1958: 182) agrees with this figure, mentioning that Dhu Nuwas (Yusuf Asar) had 5000 men at San`a; he then says that the najashi sent another army with 100,000 men under Abreha. After Abreha's rebellion the najashi sent another 4000 with Aryat's second mission, and on its failure began to assemble yet another army to punish Abreha. The numbers of men in these armies, swelling as the story develops, are certainly highly exaggerated, and only Procopius' information seems credible; though of course there is always the standard explanation that the lower figures represent the real fighting strength, and the higher the whole mass of non-combatant dependents. The inscription of Yusuf Asar Yathar (Rodinson 1969) claims that he took 11,000 prisoners, but even if the figure is a true one, many of these must have been from Arabs fighting against the king on the side of the najashi.
Military equipment is shown on certain stelae at Aksum. The so-called `Stele of the Lances' is now known to be part of Stele 4 (after the DAE notation), whose apex is to be found elsewhere in the town (Chittick 1974: 163); on it two spears, one with a long blade and one with a shorter blade, were depicted. The Ethiopian slave Wahsi, one of the first of his countrymen to embrace Islam, was famed for his skill with the spear. Ibn Ishaq's comment here is interesting, in that he specifically mentions that Wahsi could "throw a javelin as the Abyssinians do, and seldom missed the mark". Wahsi himself, questioned later at his house in Homs, mentioned that at the time when he killed Hamza, the prophet Muhammad's uncle, in battle, he was "a young Abyssinian, skilful like my countrymen in the use of the javelin" (Guillaume 1955: 371, 376). He also killed the false prophet Musaylima with his javelin after Muhammad's death. It seems from the reports about Wahsi's career that spear-fighting was an Ethiopian speciality at the time.
Illustration 58. The reverse of the so-called Stele of the Lances (part of no. 4), depicting a round shield.
No personal armour has yet been found, nor are there any surviving representations of soldiers, except from one most unusual source. In the Musée des Tissus, Lyon, there is a brightly coloured woven textile fragment, apparently of Egyptian manufacture of the sixth century, which, it has been suggested, is a copy of a Persian textile based on an original fresco (Browning 1971: 176). Grabar thought it might be either imported from Persia or made in a factory in the Roman empire after an Iranian model (1967: 326). It came from the excavations at Antinoë, and is thought to represent a battle scene from one of the Yemeni (or Aksumite — Grabar, 1967: fig. 382) wars of the time of Khusrau I. A seated potentate, possibly the Persian king himself or perhaps his viceroy, is enthroned, seated in a hieratic pose holding his sword, point downwards, watching a contest between Persian warriors and black and white troops. The Persians are shown mounted or on foot, fully clothed with tunic and trousers, and armed with bows. Their adversaries wear only a small kilt, and what seems to be a sword-belt diagonally across one shoulder; a black warrior, who seems to be a captive tied by a rope to a Persian horseman, has his broad-bladed, flat-ended sword slung behind his back. The white warriors are long-haired, like the Persians and earlier Yemenis as depicted on their coins and in sculpture, and one holds a small round shield. This textile may provide the only picture we have of an Aksumite soldier, albeit fighting in the Yemeni wars outside Aksumite control.
The Periplus (Huntingford 1980: 21-2) lists certain weapons among the imports into the Aksumite region. Iron (sideros) used for spears is specified, the spears being used for hunting elephants and other animals as well as for war. Swords are also in the list, and iron and steel figure as raw material.
Tomb finds at Aksum have revealed iron weapons, including tanged spear-heads which closely resemble those on the Stele of the Lances. Iron knives or poniards, probably originally with bone or wood handles, were also found, and, from Matara (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXIV, 1), came a handle of bronze decorated on each side with bosses formed by the heads of large nails. The Aksumite kings depicted on the coins sometimes hold a spear (or, in Aphilas' case — Munro-Hay 1984: 50 — what is apparently a sword), and spears and shields are mentioned in the description of the Byzantine embassy to Ethiopia by John Malalas (see Ch. 7: 2). A few arrow-heads, but no swords as yet, have been found during archaeological excavations in Ethiopia.
Although there is as yet no direct evidence, one would suppose that horses were known and used in warfare; some of the regiments could perhaps have been cavalry forces. That horses were valued possessions in at least one of the lands under Aksumite hegemony is shown by the burial of horses, in elaborate silver and jewelled harness, at the tombs of the `X-Group' monarchs at Ballana (Kirwan 1973). In later times in Ethiopia favourite chargers were of such importance that a leader could be named after his horse; one suggestion even relates the `Bisi'-title of the kings to their horses (Pankhurst 1961: 30, n. 68).
The use of elephants for Kaleb's state chariot, and the report (Photius, ed. Freese 1920: I, 17-19) of one of the Byzantine ambassadors, Nonnosus, that he saw some 5000 of them grazing near Aue (sometimes identified with Yeha (Bent 1896: 143-7), but probably further to the north-east; see Ch. 3: 1) on the Adulis-Aksum route, make it possible that they could have been used for military purposes, though Kosmas notes that the Ethiopians rarely trained them (Wolska-Conus 1973: 354). Camels would have been used in desert warfare, and two camel-riding spies were captured by Ezana during his Noba campaign. Camels, as well as donkeys or mules, may have been employed as transport animals.
There are numerous occasions when ships and shipping are mentioned in Aksumite contexts. The various expeditions and trading ventures overseas would suggest that Aksum was mistress of a fleet of some kind. Though there is no really clear statement to that effect in the local sources, a fleet is mentioned in the Monumentum Adulitanum inscription, and other inscriptions (DAE 2, Marib inscription; see Ch. 11: 5) also refer to expeditions by land and sea. In the case of the Adulis inscription, concern for the sea-lanes and the coastal defence of the country, as well as land routes, is manifested. The king cites the area from Leuke Kome to the Arabian kingdoms as one area of operations, then on the Ethiopian side he established the Solate people to guard the coasts. The Periplus (Huntingford 1980: 20) notes that ships anchored cautiously at the island of Oreine since, in the past, the anchorage which was to become Adulis' harbour, Gabaza, had proved dangerous because of raids from the local people. This could not have been tolerated later, when the port's function as a gateway to trade had grown more important, and the Periplus may indeed refer to a period when Aksum was still consolidating its position on the coast.
Some of the commentators on Kaleb's expedition to the Yemen allude to ships, and even to the shipyards of Adulis/Gabaza (Munro-Hay 1982: 117; Sergew Hable Sellassie 1972: 132-3). Perhaps the most interesting comment of all came from the sixth-century historian Procopius, who not only stated that Kaleb — whom he called Hellestheaios, his version of Elle Atsbeha — collected a fleet of ships, but also described Ethiopian and Indian ships. He mentions that
"all the boats which are found in India and on this sea (the Red Sea) are not made in the same manner as are other ships. For neither are they smeared with pitch, nor with any other substance, nor indeed are the planks fastened together by iron nails going through and through, but they are bound together by a kind of cording. The reason is not as most persons suppose, that there are certain rocks there which draw the iron to themselves (for witness the fact that when the Roman vessels sail from Aelas into this sea, although they are fitted with much iron, no such thing has ever happened to them), but rather because the Indians and the Aethiopians possess neither iron nor any other thing suitable for such purposes. Furthermore they are not even able to buy any of these things from the Romans since this is explicitly forbidden to all by law" (Procopius, ed. Dewing 1914: 183-4).
The Aksumite technique whereby ships were made by binding with ropes, not by using nails, which is also mentioned by the Periplus as existing on the East African coast (Huntingford 1980: 29), lasted until recently in the Somali, Hadrami, and East African coastal regions, where such `sewn boats' were common. Procopius' information is a very good indication that when he speaks of Kaleb's fleet he was actually referring to Aksumite ships rather than others simply using Aksumite ports. It cannot be said what proportion of goods might have been shipped in Aksumite vessels, but as a trading nation with a maritime outlet of great importance, and later on an empire to administer overseas, it is certain that Aksum's merchant fleet or navy was a useful, even vital, part of the apparatus of commerce and government.
Since a very large part of the information we have about the Aksumite rulers comes from their inscriptions, it seems useful to give English translations of the most important of these. The published versions are very varied; and it is admittedly not easy, given the damaged state of some of the inscriptions, and the uncertainty of meaning of certain words in others, to see what precisely is meant, or where a new train of thought has begun. These translations, then, cannot be thought of as in any way definitive. Even so, something of the mood of the Aksumite inscriptions still comes over in these translations, and there are many interesting details. A number of early Ethiopian inscriptions were published by Drewes (1962), and others by Schneider in various volumes of the Annales d'Ethiopie. These are not repeated in this section, but have been quoted where appropriate in other chapters. A Recueil des textes antiques de l'Ethiopie, a very much needed compendium, is also in preparation (Bernand 1982: 106). The label DAE indicates the number given to those inscriptions published by the Deutsche Aksum-Expedition (Littmann 1913, IV), and some of Ezana's inscriptions were also published by Littmann in 1950.
This much-damaged inscription was found at Abba Pantelewon near Aksum. Greek. It has neither name nor titles preserved, but appears to be an Aksumite royal inscription of the pre-Christian period. The translation is from Sergew Hable Sellassie 1972: 69.
. . . in this space . . . and he orders(?) to be repaired . . . it and the other side of the sea . . . unconquerable (god) of the Aksumite . . . the first and only(?) . . . in distant (and) big . . . an infantry . . . I have dedicated . . . to unconquered Ares of Aksumite. . . .
This anonymous inscription only survives in the copy made in the early sixth century AD by Kosmas Indikopleustes at Adulis (Wolska-Conus 1968: 372-8).
. . . and after I had commanded the peoples near my country to maintain the peace, I entered valiantly into battle and subdued the following peoples; I fought the Gaze, then the Agame and the Siguene, and, having conquered, I reserved for myself half of their lands and their peoples. The Aua and Singabene and Aggabe and Tiamaa and Athagaous and Kalaa and the Samene people who live beyond the Nile in inaccessible mountains covered with snow where tempests and cold are continuous and the snow so deep that a man sinks up to the knees, I reduced to submission after having crossed the river; then the Lasine, and Zaa and Gabala, who inhabit very steep mountains where hot springs rise and flow; and the Atalmo and the Beja and all the people who erect their tents with them. Having defeated the Taggaiton who dwell up to the frontiers of Egypt I had a road constructed going from the lands of my empire to Egypt.
Then I fought the Annine and the Metine who live on precipitous mountains as well as the people of Sesea. They took refuge on an inaccessible peak, but I besieged them on all sides and captured them, and chose among them young men and women, boys and virgins. I retained also their goods.
I defeated also the barbarian people of Rauso who live by the aromatics trade, in immense plains without water, and the Solate, whom I also defeated, imposing on them the task of guarding the sea-lanes.
After I had vanquished and conquered, in battles wherein I personally took part, all these peoples so well protected by their impenetrable mountains, I restricted myself to imposing tribute on them and voluntarily returning their lands. But most peoples submitted of their own free will and paid me tribute.
I sent an expedition by sea and land against the peoples living on the other side of the Erythraean Sea, that is the Arabitas and the Kinaidokolpitas, and after subjugating their kings I commanded them to pay me tribute and charged them with guaranteeing the security of communications on land and sea. I conducted war from Leuke Kome to the land of the Sabaeans.
I am the first and only of the kings my predecessors to have subdued all these peoples by the grace given me by my mighty god Ares, who also engendered me. It is through him that I have submitted to my power all the peoples neighbouring my empire, in the east to the Land of Aromatics, to the west to the land of Ethiopia and the Sasou; some I fought myself, against others I sent my armies.
The 8th to 10th century manuscripts in which this inscription is preserved have some explanatory glosses about some of these names; thus Gaze apparently means the Aksumites, still called Agaze, the Siguene are the Suskinitai, the tribes near Adulis are called the Tigretes (the earliest mention of Tigray?), the Tiamaa are the Tziamo and Gambela, the Atalmo and Beja are the Blemmyes, the Taggaitai (Tangaitai) are also called Attabite.. and Adra..s, the Sesea are tribes of Barbaria, the Solate are those living by the sea in Barbaria, called the Tigretai of the coast in Barbaria, and Sasou is the furthest part of Ethiopia, beyond which lies the ocean and the Barbareotes who traffic in incense (Huntingford 1989: 43).
Inscription attributed to Ezana, but possibly of his predecessor Ousanas (Ella Amida?) Bisi Gisene. For a note about the problems in attributing this text, see Schneider 1987: 615.
. . . Ella Amida, Bisi ..s.m, king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Saba, Salhen, Tsiyamo, Bega and of Kasu, king of kings, son of the invincible Mahrem. He departed on campaign to re-establish his empire and put it again in order. Those who obeyed him, he spared; those who resisted him, he put to death.
He came to `LBH and there came with presents SWSWT king of the Agwezat with his people, and he received his submission and he was made subject. Then he sent him away to return to his country.
Then he arrived at FNSHT and there arrived with his people and presents the king of Gabaz, SBL and he received his submission and he was made subject. Then he sent him away so that he could return to his own country. Next he came to HMS, and there came all the tribes of Metin, and he received his submission and let them return to their own country. And he improved the roads and subdued the country?
And he provided safe conduct on the road for the bringing of tribute together with provisions for men and women, and gave food to his four armies in enemy country? At the camp where he installed himself, he assured provisionment by requisitions imposed on the enemy. He fought with them, and held a muster (of his troops) in the field and completed their complement (?).
Then he came to ..mo, and he received its (his?) submission; he came also to MTT and fought it (him?) and he reduced MTT with spilling of blood.
Apart from an unvocalised Ge`ez graffito on one of the pyramids of group A (no. 19) at Meroë, reading `. . . son of Julius . . . all the world . . .' (Lepsius, R., Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Aethiopien 1913, abth. VI, bl. 13, 1), and another on a wall of temple T at Kawa (Laming-Macadam, M. F., The Temples of Kawa, I, The Inscriptions, London 1949: 117-8), these inscriptions are the only ones found on Meroitic territory. New versions have at last succeeded to those of Sayce (1909 and 1912).
. . . king of the Aksumites and Himyarites . . . immediately attack those who
rival . . . did not submit contrary . . . kingdoms(?) to them, and I destroyed the . . . the
said ones, heading for this place . . . originating from another ten . . . with the king as
far as . . . most of all in Sue . . . chiefs and all their children . . . I came immediately . . . to
your homes . . . besides the fruit (tribute) . . . copper . . . years 21 (or 24?). . . .
As a good example of the difficulties of these inscriptions in their broken and
worn state, the interpretation by Hägg (1984: see also his forthcoming note
in Meroitic Newsletter) is contrasted; it appears to fit well with the usual
phraseology and content of Aksumite inscriptions.
of Axum and Himyar . . . [son of the invincible god] Ares. When [the people of] . . .
disputed . . . I conveyed from . . . (?) and I pillaged the . . . (?) having arrived here . . . is
produced, and another (or (women) of noble birth and another) . . . together with
the king as far as . . . most (things) in the . . . generals and children . . . I went against
[the?] at once . . . I shall [?] to you . . . subject to pay tribute . . . a bronze
[statue?] . . . 21 (or 24).
. . . of Ares . . . having arrived here I sat down . . . giving [as a recompense? . . .] . . . [to Ares] this throne.
DAE 4. Greek, from the three-script versions DAE 4, 6 and 7.
The Campaign against the Beja; (I). Aeizanas, king of the Aksumites, the Himyarites, Raeidan, the Ethiopians, the Sabaeans, Silei (Salhen), Tiyamo, the Beja and Kasou, king of kings, son of the unconquered god Ares. Since the people of the Beja rose up, we sent our brothers Saiazana and Adefan to fight them. When these had taken arms against the enemy, they made them submit and they brought them to us with their dependents, with 3112 head of cattle, 6224 sheep, and beasts of burden. My brothers gave them meat and wheat to eat, and beer, wine and water to drink, all to their satisfaction whatever their number. There were six chiefs with their peoples, to the number of 4400 and they received each day 22,000 loaves of wheat and wine for four months, until my brothers had brought them to me. After having given them all means of sustenance, and clothed them, we installed these prisoners by force in a place in our land called Matlia. And we commanded again that they be given supplies; and we accorded to each chief 25,140 head of cattle.
In sign of recognition to he who engendered us, the unconquered Ares, we have raised statues to him, one of gold, one of silver, and three others of brass, to his glory.
DAE 6 and 7 are written respectively in the epigraphic South Arabian and unvocalised Ge`ez scripts, and are more or less the same as DAE 4 in content. The dedications at the end are to Astar, Beher and Mahrem (DAE 6), and Astar, Meder and Mahrem (DAE 7). The land of Matlia is referred to as Dawala-BYRN in these versions (according to Littmann; Schneider (1984: 155) reads the phrase as "the land MD, a region of our country", supported by the as yet unpublished new version noted below), and both also end with a curse formula against anyone damaging the inscription and the record of extra gifts to Mahrem.
Three more versions of the same inscription as above (DAE 4, 6 and 7), also in Greek, epigraphic South Arabian, and unvocalised Ge`ez scripts, translated by Bernand 1982.
Greek.
The Campaign against the Beja (II). Aeizanas, king of the Aksumites, Himyarites and Raeidan, the Ethiopians, the Sabaeans and Silei, Tiamo and the Beja and Kasu, king of kings, son of the invincible god Ares. When once the Beja tribe revolted, we sent our brothers Sazanan and Adiphan to make war upon them, and when they came back, having made them submit, they led them to us with their entire horde and their animals, 3112 cattle, 6224 sheep and 677 beasts of burden, feeding them with cattle, wheat, wine, mead, beer and water to satiety, during four months, amounting to 4400 people, provisioned each day with 22,000 loaves, until I had changed their residence. These people who had been brought to us, after having granted them all that was necessary for them, having clothed them and changed their residence, we established them in a part of our territory called Matlia and ordered that they be further provided there, giving to each kinglet 4190 cattle, so that the six kinglets had 25,140 cattle. As a thank-offering to the invincible Ares who begat me, we consecrated to him a statue of gold, one of silver, and three of bronze. I have consecrated this stele, and dedicated it to Heaven, the Earth, and the invincible Ares who begat me. Should anyone wish to damage it, may the god of Heaven and Earth lead him to ruin, and his name cease to exist in the land of the living. In gratitude this has been consecrated for well-being. Furthermore we have consecrated to the invincible Ares a COY'ATE and a BEΔIE.
The deities mentioned are named by the Ge`ez and South Arabian script versions as Astar, Beher and Mahrem; Beher here is definitely associated with the earth (Ch. 10: 1). These versions render the last but one line as a formula not dissimilar to the coin-mottoes which seem to have begun with Ezana's Christian issues (Schneider 1984, 1987), and the Ge`ez version also adds the extra line found in the Greek version; And as we have erected (this stele), let it be propitious for us and for our country forever. And we have offered to Mahrem a SWT and a BDH; both terms of unknown meaning.
The name and most of the titulary are restorations, and the inscription could be differently attributed; the pagan epithet and the vocalisation, however, make Ezana a likely candidate for it.
The Campaign against the Agwezat. [Ezana, son of Ella Amida, Bisi Halen, king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Saba, Salhin, Tsiyamo,] Beja and of Kasu, king of kings, son of the invincible Mahrem.
The Agwezat took the field and arrived at Angabo. There came to meet us Aba'alkeo, king of the Agwezat, with his tribe, and he brought tribute. And, when later we arrived at `Alya the camp in the land of Atagaw, we obtained camels and beasts of burden, men, women, and provisions for twenty days. But the third day after our arrival, since we recognised the perfidy of Aba'alkeo, we delivered the Agwezat who had come with their king to pillage; and those whom we plundered we bound, and as for Aba'alkeo, we left him naked, and chained him to the bearer of his throne (or, after Huntingford 1989: 53, Aba'alkeo king of the Agwezat we did not leave, but we bound him (also) along with the bearer of his throne; or, after Schneider 1984: 159, this passage means that only Aba'alkeo was not put in chains). We then ordered the column Mahaza and the commanders of the columns to march night and day. Then they sent the column Mahaza and the column Metin, and they were ordered to go and fight the Agwezat. Then they went to . . . and arrived at Asala? and came to Ereg? and took what they found. And they left by the pass of Asal and . . . river Nadu (or, Huntingford 1989: 53, And they went to the place of assembly . . . and reached `Asala (?); and they came to Ereg and . . . and went out by the slope of Asal and . . . river Nadu), and killed all those whom they met.
From there they came to the territory of Agada where they killed and captured men and beasts. Then they sent the troop Daken and ordered it to go by Se`ezot and from the east . . . they retired . . . and the carriers of water brought water (or, Huntingford 1989, and they turned by Tabenya and descended where the water falls). And the three columns Daken, Hara, and Metin rallied at Ad(ya)bo. . . . Then they sent the column Hara and ordered them to go towards Zawa..t.
The Afan Campaign. [E]zana, son of Ella Amida, Bisi Halen, king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Saba, Salhin, Tsiyamo, Beja and of Kasu, son of the invincible Mahrem.
The Tsarane, whose country is Afan (Huntingford 1989: 55, suggests Awan), attacked and annihilated a merchant caravan. And we went to war against them, and we sent columns, those of Mahaza, Daken and Hara and we ourself followed and camped at the place of encampment of the troops at `Ala (Huntingford 1989: 55, Alaha) and from there we sent out our troops. And they killed some of the Tsarane, and captured others and took booty. We vanquished Sa`ene and Tsawante and Gema and Zahtan, four peoples, and we seized Alita (Huntingford 1989: 55, Alitaha) and his two children.
And 503 men of Afan and 202 women were put to death, in all 705. Men and their women (Huntingford 1989: 55, belonging to the baggage train) were made prisoner, 40 men and 165 women, total 205. The booty comprised 31,900 (Huntingford 1989: 55, 31,957) head of cattle and 827 beasts of burden.
And he (the king) returned in safety with his people and raised a throne here in Shado which he put under the protection of the gods Astar, Beher and Meder. And should anyone remove or displace it, let him and his race be exterminated; let him be extirpated from these lands. And he brought a thank-offering to Mahrem who begot him, 100 head of cattle and 50 captives.
The `monotheistic' inscription; there have been many speculations about the form of the dedication of this inscription, some authors attributing it to a monotheism not specifically Christian. This complication seems unnecessary when what seem to be the Greek and South Arabian script versions (below) are considered. It may rather reflect an uncertainty as to how to refer to the Christian god in the earliest Christian period of the country.
The Noba and Kasu Campaign. By the might of the Lord of Heaven who in the sky and on earth holds power over all beings, Ezana, son of Ella Amida, Bisi Halen, king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Saba, Salhin, Tsiyamo, Beja and of Kasu, king of kings, son of Ella Amida, never defeated by the enemy.
May the might of the Lord of Heaven, who has made me king, who reigns for all eternity, invincible, cause that no enemy can resist me, that no enemy may follow me!
I set forth by the might of the Lord of the Land and I fought at the Takaze and the ford Kemalke. Here I put them to flight, and, not resting, I followed those who fled for twenty-three days during which I killed some everywhere they halted. I made prisoners of others and took booty from them. At the same time those of my people who were in the field brought back captives and booty.
At the same time I burnt their villages, both those with walls of stone and those of straw. My people took their cereals, bronze, iron and copper and overthrew the idols in their dwellings, as well as their corn and cotton, and threw them themselves into the river Seda (Blue Nile). Many lost their lives in the river, no-one knows the number. At the same time my people pierced and sank their boats which carried a crowd of men and women.
And I captured two notables who had come as spies, mounted on camels, by name Yesaka and Butala, and the chief Angabene. The following nobles were put to death: Danoko, Dagale, Anako, Haware. The soldiers had wounded Karkara, their priest, and took from him a necklace of silver and a golden box. Thus five nobles and a priest fell.
I arrived at the Kasu, fought them and took them prisoner at the confluence of the rivers Seda and Takaze. And the day after my arrival I sent into the field the columns Mahaza, Hara, Damawa? Falha? and Sera? along the Seda going up to their cities with walls of stone and of straw; their cities with walls of stone are Alwa and Daro. And my troops killed and took prisoners and threw them into the water and they returned home safe and sound after terrifying their enemies and vanquishing them thanks to the power of the Lord of the Land.
Next, I sent the columns of Halen, Laken? Sabarat, Falha and Sera along the Seda, going down towards the four towns of straw of the Noba and the town of Negus. The towns of the Kasu with walls of stone which the Noba had taken were Tabito(?), Fertoti; and the troops penetrated to the territory of the Red Noba and my peoples returned safe after taking prisoners and booty, and killing by the might of the Lord of Heaven.
And I erected a throne at the confluence of the rivers Seda and Takaze opposite the town with walls of stone which rises on this peninsula.
And behold what the Lord of Heaven has given me; prisoners, 214 men, 415 women, total 629; killed, 602 men, 156 women and children, total 758, and adding the prisoners and killed 1,387. The booty came to 10,560 head of cattle and 51,050 sheep.
This appears to be the beginning of the Greek version of the above inscription DAE 11. If these were somehow arranged on a stone throne, the rest may have continued on another part. On the reverse is the South Arabian script version (below).
In the faith of God and the power of the Father, son and Holy Spirit who saved for me the kingdom, by the faith of his son Jesus Christ, who has helped me and will always help me.
I Azanas king of the Aksumites, and Himyarites, and Reeidan and of the Sabaeans and of Sileel and of Khaso and of the Beja and of Tiamo, Bisi Alene, son of Ella Amida servant of Christ thank the Lord my God, and I am unable to state fully his favours because my mouth and my mind cannot (embrace) all the favours which he has given me, for he has given me strength and power and favoured me with a great name through his son in whom I believed. And he made me the guide of all my kingdom because of my faith in Christ by his will and in the power of Christ, for he has guided me. And I believe in him and he became to me a guide. I went out to fight the Noba because there cried out against them, the Mangartho and Khasa and Atiaditai and Bareotai saying that `the Noba have ground us down; help us because they have troubled us by killing'. And I left by the power of Christ the God in whom I have believed and he has guided me and I departed from Aksum on the eighth day, a Saturday, of the Aksumite month of Magabit having faith in God and arrived in Mambarya and there I fed my army.
This appears to be the third version of the DAE 11 text, and is important in that it ends (on one of the sides) with a cross, similar to that found on the coins attributed to this period just after the conversion of Ezana. It lacks a name, but the content and style allowed Schneider (1974, 1976) to suggest the attribution. His suggestion is backed up by the fact that this inscription is on the back and one side of the Greek version, which stops at a higher level, where it is supposed that the seat on the throne on which it was inscribed intervened.
This damaged inscription has been translated by Schneider (1974), who also translated what little was possible of the W`ZB inscription below. It chiefly relates a campaign against the Agwezat and Hasat.
The Lord strong and brave, the Lord mighty in battle. By the power of the Lord and by the grace of Jesus Christ, the son of the Lord, the victorious, in whom I believe, who has given me a strong kingdom by which I dominate my enemies and trample underfoot the head of my adversaries, who has guarded me since infancy and established me on the throne of my fathers . . . , I trust myself to Christ so that all my enterprises might succeed, and that I may be saved by him who pleases my soul? With the help of the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Kaleb, Ella Atsbeha, son of Tazena, Be'ese LZN, king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Saba, Salhen, and of the High Country and Yamanat, and the Coastal Plain and Hadramawt and of all their Arabs, and the Beja, Noba, Kasu, Siyamo and DRBT . . . of the land ATFY(?), servant of Christ, who is not defeated by the enemy.
With the help of the Lord I fought the Agwezat and HST. I fought them, having divided my troops . . . (here follow some troop names) my country and with . . . march day and night . . . kill . . . Agwezat . . . iniquity? and I sent the Atagaw and the (more troop names?) they killed the HST and I followed with . . . peace . . . refuge . . . by the might of the Lord . . . made captive . . . there, their country with their offerings . . . thousand . . . and the cattle which they had taken . . . return . . . carry on the back . . . and the number killed of the Agwezat and the HST was men 400 . . . women and children I . . . the total . . . captives, men, women and children 4.. total of the killed and captives was . . . and the booty of cattle . . . hundreds, camels 200. This the Lord gave me . . . make war . . . Himyar . . . I sent HYN SLBN ZSMR with my troops and I founded a maqdas (church) in Himyar . . . the name of the Son of God in whom I put my reliance. . . . I built his GBZ and consecrated it by the power of the Lord . . . and the Lord has revealed to me his holiness? and I shall remain on this throne . . . and I have set it under the tutelage of the Lord, creator of heaven and earth, against he who should destroy, pluck up, or break it. And he who would tear up or destroy it, let the Lord tear up. . . .
Drewes (1978) suggested that lines 34-7 of this inscription actually mention HYWN', or Hiuna, known from the Book of the Himyarites; his translation reads `He (God) gave me a great name, that I might wage war against Himyar. I sent HYN (..)BN ZSMR with my troops and I founded a church in `QN'L (. . .) the name of the Son of God, in Whom I believe. I constructed its gabaz and I consecrated it by the might of God. . . .'
Ge`ez.
. . . Zadagan and has fallen . . . (s)ons and his two brothers a(nd) . . . ? and their land . . . while . . . till the (sun) set . . . they return. . . .
Vocalised Ge`ez, attributed to Kaleb (Kamil 1964; Caquot 1965; Müller 1972). `and he shall exalt you' . . . I passed through the port of Zala? . . . I fought with their army . . . as the Psalm says . . . `his enemies shall flee before your face' . . . making prisoners and taking booty . . . he chased the gentiles before . . . aboard ship . . . its coast which God had delivered to me . . . and half my army . . . my army descended by the opening . . . half of my army descended. . . .
Pirenne and Tesfaye (1982) published some new ideas about this and another fragment from Marib — see also Müller 1972 — and an inscription from the Himyarite capital Zafar in which the designation `Angebenay' appears, which they conjecture to signify Kaleb. Igonetti (1973) has also published the Zafar Ge`ez inscription as follows;
and he authorized . . . the faith of the Father . . . 'Angabenay . . . Christ . . . in Greece . . . and they arrived. . . .
This inscription is very difficult to read (only Huntingford 1989: 65-6 seems to have attempted it — his translation is that used here — though Schneider (1974) published a preliminary analysis), but some useful phrases can be distinguished.
Wa`zeb, king of Aksum, and Himyar, and Dhu-Raydan, and Saba and Salaf (= Salhen) and of the Beja, and Kasu, and Siyamo and WYTG(?), Bisi Hadefan, son of Ella Atsbeha, servant of Christ.
and my troops fought . . . I fought . . . with the army and soldiers . . . I will kill your enemies and I will fight against your enemies . . . my God . . . the troops under my orders. . . . God will fight for you, and you shall keep you peaceful . . . by the power of the Lord I entered their country. . . . I found them fleeing, refugees in their fortress the name of which is DGM . . . I lived within the enclosure of the fortress . . . they occupied the entire camp and the fortress . . . all nations compassed me about, in the name of the Lord I have vanquished them . . . having been killed then? and for that? I sent . . . the troops HDQN and S.RT and SBH and DMW and `GW. . . . O Lord, fight against them who make war against me, take hold of shield and spear and stand up to help me; let them be dust before the wind, that the angel of the Lord chase them, and it is said in the Psalms, I will pursue my enemies, and capture them. You gird me with strength in battle, and You make all those fall who stand up against me and You make my enemies turn their backs on me, and it is also said, the right hand of the Lord doth valiantly, the right hand of the Lord has exalted me . . . and praise Your holy name . . . the troops which I had sent submitted and killed and prayed and took captives . . . safe and sound, by the power of the Lord, and I set up a throne in methm? . . . WYT(L); and I returned safe and sound with my troops, by the power of the Lord; and I lived at ZWGS and they found refuge there in a place uninhabited by the combatants . . . our county? and a battle? en route and for that I sent in expedition the troop Hara . . . and they killed, and took captives and booty, by the power of the Lord, and returned safe . . . and that which the Lord gave me at the time of the first expedition and at the time of the last expedition . . . prisoners, men . . . women and children . . . ; killed, men . . . women and children . . . all the `gd of the WYTL submitted in offering their presents. . . .
DAE 12.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I have written this, hatsani Danael, the son of Dabra Ferem. There came . . . hatsani Karuray . . . attacked him . . . and I swore that . . . 608 foals. And I captured 10,000 oxen and 130 steers . . . and our servants, who always . . . I summoned them . . . and there were none who did me good, except 30 people, all . . . they returned and went to KSL (Kassala?) and did not leave me? . . . the proclamation that they should go, and those who went for the giving of presents. And I surrounded those who came to Kassala . . . and they plundered? the Barya. Booty, 103 steers . . . and 200 sheep . . . and curse them forever. And they said to me, `Your land, woe'. As I heard these words, I marvelled, and . . . they were doing; my translators advised them, and I went out. And as they showed themselves unfriendly to me, they attacked? . . . and I made a judgement against them . . . and I fought them and captured massive booty: 17,830 foals, 10,030 oxen, and I captured 30 tribes.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I, hatseni Danael, son of Dabra Ferem. When the people of Wolqayt devastated the land of HSL, and came to Aksum, I expelled them and was harsh to them and killed them and captured 102 foals and 802 cattle. And I made the people go . . . and the equipment, and from here I made them enter the country of Ablas . . . whose name is Maya Tsaltsal, and I plundered 10,000 sheep . . . 3000 cattle . . . and I went while my people were raiding and taking captive. And they returned home when I entered, day . . . our entry before . . . booty . . . we waited in the enclosure . . . I plundered it. . . .
And the king came, and desired to rule over me, while I was in Aksum, in the manner of his father, like a poor man (?). When he had taken booty, he came to Aksum. But I came out, and my enemy was frightened (?), I took the newcomer captive: before blood was shed, I subjected the king of Aksum and dismissed him to administer Aksum as the land of my dominion; and he was released (?). And . . . I sent into the field. . . .
From the very uneven choice of excavation areas at Aksum and other Aksumite cities, we have inevitably a view of Aksumite everyday life which favours the upper echelons of urban society. Palaces, mansions, large and important tombs, and churches contain the remains of objects from these élite groups, whilst the living equipment of their lesser urban contemporaries (not to mention country-dwellers) has not often been found. Exceptions are possibly Adulis, where the excavators seem to have found smaller houses, though it is possible that these too belong to the outer buildings of a mansion, and at the sites E2 and F (the latter near a church) at Matara. As yet, the results of these excavations are only known through the brief preliminary report of Francis Anfray (1974). The series of rooms found by Paribeni (1907: plan, fig. 37) at Adulis contained so many gold coins that they hardly seem to have been occupied by the humbler echelons of Adulite society.
However, in spite of this emphasis on the richer groups, certain elements of material culture cross the social boundaries to some extent. Pottery (excluding luxury types) is a good example of this, whilst glass and much of the decorative metalwork can be expected mainly from the élite contexts. To some extent coinage may have been universally used, though obviously gold would have been unlikely to reach the peasant or ordinary artisan in much quantity. By analogy with better-known ancient civilisations, it seems that the copper coinage would have been the common market-exchange medium where barter was not practised, and thus could move freely on many levels, whilst the more valuable coins moved less and were perhaps chiefly employed for major long-distance trade or storage of wealth.
Both fine and coarser ceramic wares have been found in very large numbers (see the various excavation reports in the Annales d'Ethiopie; Anfray 1966; Wilding in Munro-Hay 1989). These were made in a pottery tradition which seems to be particularly Aksumite and to owe relatively little to either the pre-Aksumite period or to foreign influences (but see below). The commonest types are fired to colours between orange and almost brick red, and there are also black or grey wares from different periods. Some less usual wares are brown, or red-brown. Chronologically, it seems that the red wares are typical of earlier Aksumite times, the brown coming later in perhaps the fifth century, while the black wares typify the post-Aksumite period (except for the black pottery with incised decoration which was found in the earliest excavated levels at Adulis, which seems to belong to an earlier tradition — Paribeni 1907: 448, 547). Aksumite grey wares vary in date, the finer specimens in earlier shapes being perhaps examples of the prevalent red wares which had not been correctly fired in the kiln, and the coarse large grey pots with rough geometric decoration being of late or post-Aksumite date. A much rarer type is called purple-painted ware, since areas of the surface are decorated with paint of an almost brownish-purple colour, and a mat-impressed ware has also been found which may owe its origin to influences from the Nile Valley, where such decoration was common. These various wares were often burnished, painted, incised or otherwise decorated. A very common and characteristic decorative style has been called the `Classical Aksumite' style. This employs lightly impressed designs, mainly vertical corrugations, combined with small ovoid impressions arranged in a staggered fashion like footprints, sometimes filling diamond-shaped panels. The corrugations and certain of the shapes of the vessels may owe something to metalwork originals. Other decorative motifs included all sorts of appliqué designs; crosses, crescents, small ridges and the like, as well as more ambitious ones consisting of little pottery hands clinging to the rim of a bowl and linked by swags, or depicting modelled birds perched on frilled rims (de Contenson 1959: pl. XVIII; Wilding in Munro-Hay 1989). Some pots and bowls received stamped impressions on the bases or inside, often of very elaborate forms based on the cross and other motifs. Particularly common on the red-brown bowls were little incised or stamped crosses or palmettes (see for example Paribeni 1907; fig. 60). Other incised decoration was also common, lines and panels predominating, but including many different styles of cross and even sometimes roughly incised inscriptions.
It may be suggested that some of the shapes, mainly hole-mouth bowls and round-bodied flasks or jars, owe their origin to the `African' side of Aksum, while the ledge-rimmed or ring-based bowls owe more to the pottery styles of the Roman world. Such a range of influences affecting Aksumite pottery is to be expected considering Aksum's particular position, but should not be over-emphasised; the overall style of decoration seems certainly to have been a local inspiration. Differences in the pottery found at such sites as Adulis, Matara, and Aksum, typifying three different regions of the country subject to different influences and developments, are not well understood, but for the time being a western and eastern `provincial' style seem to be recognised (Anfray 1973i; Michels, in Kobishchanov 1979: 26).
Some tomb vessels, largely in the red wares, seem to have been created with some very specialised use in mind. Bowls containing modelled images of two oxen yoked together, `foot-washer' bowls, with, in the centre, a kind of platform (occasionally two), sometimes with a runnel for water, conceivably for painting henna on to the feet, stem bowls, bird-shaped vessels, tripod jars, and strainer jars are among these (Chittick 1974: fig. 19k, pl. XIIIb, pl. XIIa, pl. XIIc, pl. XIIb and fig. 19c, and pl. Xiib illustrates all these types). Another unusual pottery type is the human-headed ointment (?) jar. The necks of these round-bodied jars (Chittick 1974: pls. XIIb-c, XIVb; Leclant 1959: pl. III-IV bis; de Contenson 1959: pls. XV-XVII), accessible from the top through a narrow opening, depict women with a hair-style in which the hair turns out sharply at about chin level. There are several differences in detail, some with zigzags representing the strands of (plaited?) hair, others with a sort of cap on the top of the head. Earrings are sometimes shown, and on the whole one gains the general impression of a coiffure somewhat like that of the women of Tigray even today. Plaited hair, lying close to the head at the top, but allowed at the base to frizz out freely, is a style which can still be seen in preparation by the hairdressers during market days in Aksum nowadays. On one example from the Tomb of the Brick Arches at Aksum, part of the globular body of the pot survived, and bore an arm painted in yellow paint on one side. Interestingly, pots of the same general type, though with different hairstyles, were collected relatively recently in the Azande country of south-western Sudan by Sir Harold MacMichael (Horniman Museum, London; 30.12.50/1-2).
Illustration 59. Profile view of a painted head from a jar from the Tomb of the Brick Arches at Aksum.
Illustration 60. Only one of the human-headed jars found in the Tomb of the Brick Arches was still almost intact, and traces of one painted arm could still be seen.
Painted decoration on pottery might consist of crosses in various colours, plant motifs, or panels filled in in different ways. Red, black, and white were popular colours, and there was a purplish paint in use in later Aksumite times (Chittick 1974: pl. XIVc). The ordinary shapes included, very frequently, globular-bodied jars with more or less long and thin necks, sometimes very close to the typical coffee-pot used even now in Ethiopia and the Sudan, where their round bases rest on rings of plaited straw or other fibres. Bowls, either round or ring-based, were also very much used, together with beakers, and many types of handled jars, cauldrons, storage vessels and the like.
Imported amphorae are also not uncommon, and were employed for various purposes after their original contents had disappeared. Some were cleverly used to form a sort of water supply-pipe to a baptismal pool near a basilica at Matara (Anfray 1974: 757-8, and pl. IV, 2); others served as coffins for the burial of babies at both Adulis and Matara (Anfray 1974: pl. II, 1; Paribeni 1907: 452, 480); and a third use was as furnaces or ovens. At Adulis several examples of the latter were found, and also other types of vessel employed as ovens or for industrial purposes; Paribeni suggested that some examples from Adulis were employed in liquefying tar and in gold-working. His excavations at Adulis revealed what was apparently a gold-workshop, with amphorae and ashes in association with a collection of gold rods, earrings, and two elaborate bejewelled crosses with chains; in a different place a stone mould for making jewellery was found (Paribeni 1907: 453, 483-6 and figs. 20-21, 461, fig. 7). Many of the amphorae may have come from Alexandria (Paribeni 1907: 455). Some bore incised or painted identification marks at shoulder level, and they were sometimes sealed with terracotta discs, plastered over, with an identification mark stamped or painted on top (Paribeni 1907: 456, 520, 522, 524, figs. 4, 39, 41, 43, 59).
One very specialised imported vessel found at Adulis was a flask stamped with a design showing the Egyptian St. Menas between two kneeling camels; such vessels are supposed to have held water from a spring near the saint's tomb in Egypt (Paribeni 1907: 538, fig. 54), and this one may have been brought to Adulis by a pilgrim.
Among imported pottery types were a number of lamps. While at Aksum lamps tended to be of a very simple open type, probably local, Adulis produced a wider variety including some closed lamps with moulded decoration which certainly came from the Roman empire, probably Egypt (Paribeni 1907: 499, fig. 28; 518, fig. 38). Others, perhaps local, consisted of small double or single spouted jars (Paribeni 1907: 460-1, fig. 5; 522-3, fig. 42; 526, fig. 45).
Most of the pottery shapes were evidently designed for eating, drinking, storage and cooking, but the more unusual ones perhaps served for special purposes like personal hygiene, cosmetics, or ceremonial occasions. Some may have been for ritual use, or made as specifically funerary goods to serve the dead in some way. This might account for the apparently long use of certain types; they could have been fossilised designs essential to some funerary purpose, though not in general outlasting the fourth/fifth-century change to Christianity.
A row of very large `pithoi', presumably for grain storage, was found in a building of Aksumite date whose ruins were found during excavation between the old and new cathedrals of Maryam Tseyon (de Contenson 1963: pls. VII, XII, XIIIa). Other pithoi came from Adulis, and one example was pierced with holes round the neck to attach it to the body; evidently these were unlikely to have carried liquids (Paribeni 1907: 462).
Aksumite pottery, with the exception of such imported categories as the amphorae for wine and other commodities, was mostly locally made, without the use of the potters' wheel — though Paribeni (1907: 548) thought that the rough locally-made pottery of Adulis was made on the wheel. The style and decoration evolved, although, as we have said, some basic outlines of shape can be paralleled from both Nubia and the Roman empire, was unique to the Aksumite region.
The coarser wares included two types of stoves (Chittick 1974: fig. 21), presumably for cooking with charcoal obtained from the local woodlands, now vanished. The remains of ovens or kilns have also been found at Aksum (Anfray 1968: fig. 22) and Matara, in the latter place together with pottery on a habitation floor (Anfray 1974: pl. V 2-3; 1963: 99 and pl. LXXX). Pottery groups left in place were not infrequent at Matara, and these and collections of pottery from tomb-groups should eventually allow us to date the different styles more precisely (Anfray 1963: pls. LXXV, LXXVIIa).
The Aksumites seem to have imported certain blue or green-glazed wares, which have been found at Aksum, Adulis and Matara, perhaps from the Persian Gulf region. At Aksum and Adulis only sherds were found, but at Matara a complete pot was preserved (Anfray 1965: 6; 1974: 759, fig. 6). The Aksumites also used faience vessels apparently of local manufacture, their friable sandy bodies covered with a turquoise-blue glaze. One example found was an exact imitation of the fluted pottery bowls with little handles, and this product in typical Aksumite style seems to confirm that the faience was from a local workshop (Chittick 1974: pl. XIVe).
Miscellaneous pottery objects have also been found. A few animal figures (aside from those which stood in the animal-figure bowls already mentioned) are known, and the figure of a dove impressed with a cross came from Adulis (Paribeni 1907: 528, fig. 48). Pottery discs, plain or pierced, which may be gaming pieces or loom-weights for weaving, are commonly found. Numbers of little pierced crosses and cones in pottery were excavated, most commonly at the Enda Sem`on site at Aksum, but also at Matara (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pls. LXV, 3; LXVI, 1). Their use is unknown. A few dice of pottery, marked with dots to indicate the numbers, came from Matara (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXVI, 4; Anfray 1968: pl. 5). From Matara also came the steatopygous figure of a woman, of seemingly prehistoric type, but found in an Aksumite level (Anfray 1968: fig. 13); another example came from Adulis (Paribeni 1907; 486).
It may be imagined that the more expensive imported wines and the better-quality local mead were consumed from some of the vessels included among the rich range of glassware found at Aksum (Morrison in Munro-Hay 1989) and Matara (Anfray 1968: fig. 16). This was probably mostly imported, though some types may have been made locally; as previously noted, there was an unusual incidence of exotically-coloured or decorated glass from the Aksum excavations, representing types unknown elsewhere at the moment. Glass from habitation sites is generally very fragmentary, but is naturally best preserved in tomb deposits. A set of stem goblets decorated with a swagged design, and smaller beakers with restricted necks were found together in one tomb, with the owner's best crockery and sets of iron tools (Chittick 1974: pl. XIVa). Since such glass seems to indicate a quite luxurious level of living, perhaps the tomb-owner was a prosperous merchant. In another tomb, much richer, possibly even royal, was found a large purple stem goblet, a purple flask with a long neck, and fragments of an engraved glass bowl with an inscription in Greek (Chittick 1974: fig. 22). Glass lamps, presumably oil-fed, together with the bronze chains which would have suspended them, came from one of the mansions. It is unlikely that glassware, at least imported glassware, percolated very far down the social ladder, as it was not only brought down the Red Sea from Egypt or Syria, or perhaps in some cases from Persia to the east, but then transported by land into the interior of the country by the merchant caravans. This troublesome journey must have made it an expensive commodity by the time it arrived at Aksum. The Periplus (Huntingford 1980: 21) mentions several sorts of glass as being imported into Aksum from the Roman world. One, imitating a type called murrhine, may have been coloured glass resembling agate or similar semi-precious stones (Schoff 1912: 24, 68), or perhaps murrhine describes a type of mosaic glass made by the so-called millefiore or mosaic-glass technique in which slices from rods of coloured glass, forming faces and other patterns, were fused together. Examples of this glass, apparently not made after about the end of the 1st century AD, have been found at Aksum (Morrison, in Munro-Hay 1989).
Illustration 61. Mosaic or millefiore glass fragments, dating to a relatively early period (1st century BC - 1st century AD), came from the Aksum excavations. Photo BIEA.
Some of the jewellery worn by the Aksumites was of glass, chiefly bangles and beads. One necklace, its beads found scattered across the chambers of the Tomb of the Brick Arches, consisted of glass globes overlaid with thin gold leaf, in turn covered with a thin layer of glass. Ear-plugs and possible gaming pieces have also been identified from among the large number of glass items excavated.
In what seem to be rooms belonging to one of the mansions excavated in the Addi Kilte district of Aksum the remains of many purplish breccia bowls were found (Chittick 1974: fig. 25), lathe-turned and finely made. They appear to have been smashed and incorporated in the rubble make-up for a plaster floor in a room later destroyed by an intense fire; none were recovered complete. The shapes ranged from a squat flat-based bowl to a stem cup. They were probably part of the luxurious equipment of some prosperous Aksumite. Nothing like them is known from elsewhere in Ethiopia (though a few fragments of marble plates were found at Matara; Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXVII, 3), and they may have been imported. A number of basins of marble and alabaster were found at Adulis, some of impressive dimensions; a few were decorated with relief carving (Paribeni 1907: 458, 491).
The metal equipment used by the Aksumites seems to fall into two categories. In the first, items of luxury, such as jewellery, costly boxes, small decorative objects, bowls, and figures in the round appear in gold, silver and bronze, or combinations of these metals. Appliqué plaques in bronze, decorated with enamelling, glass inlay, or gilding, for fixing onto wooden boxes or furniture, are especially notable. Among figures in bronze, two (of three) Graces, an ibex, lion figures, and two dogs (or leopards?) have been found, all of small size (Chittick 1974: fig. 23; Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXVIII; de Contenson 1959i: pl. XIX; 1963i: pl. XIVa-b). A lion-head figured on a bronze vase-handle at Adulis, and also on two examples of bronze door furniture found among the ruins of one of the churches there; on one of the latter the lion holds a ring in its mouth (Paribeni 1907: 462, 530, and fig. 53). The Periplus (Huntingford 1980: 21-22) mentions that brass and bronze were imported, the first for use as money, the second for drinking-cups, cooking-pots and armlets and anklets for women. Four bronze bowls or cups found at Addi Galamo seem to be of Meroitic origin (Caquot and Drewes 1955: 41, & pl. V). A low three-legged bronze vessel with a flat handle in the shape of an ivy-leaf, supported below by a ring handle, came from Adulis; though rather shallow, it may have been used for drinking wine (Paribeni 1907: 500-501, fig. 29).
Very little gold and silver has come to light at Aksum, in contrast to the treasure of Matara (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXIX and figs. 12-13), or the gold-worker's hoard from Adulis (Paribeni 1907: 483ff), but enough to show that some Aksumites could afford gilded bronze ornaments, silver bowls or silver-overlaid objects, and gold jewellery. One tiny gold nail was found in the Tomb of the Brick Arches, perhaps the remains of an attachment to a casket. Some silver and gold objects `made in the design of the country' are mentioned as imports by the Periplus (Huntingford 1980: 21). In the Tomb of the Brick Arches a bullet-shaped silver amulet case was found lodged among the stones of a blocked doorway (Chittick 1974: fig. 24a). A number of gold beads, earrings and pendants of different types, from Aksum, Kaskase, and a few other sites, have been published by Giuseppe Tringali (1987).
Much of this material, not surprisingly considering Aksumite trade contacts, has a generally Eastern Mediterranean appearance. From earlier, pre-Aksumite sites such as Yeha, Sabea, and Hawelti came bronze `identity-markers', open-work plaques sometimes in the shape of animals, and sometimes including letters, possibly forming the owner's names, in the Epigraphic South Arabian script (de Contenson 1963ii: pls. XLIIb, LIIIa). Such sites also produced bronze tools (axes, sickles, knives) of a type different to the later Aksumite ones, and including some curved tools (chisels?) resembling the bronze object bearing an inscription of king GDR from Addi Galamo (de Contenson 1963ii: pls. L, LI). A very interesting, but unfortunately very tiny, fragment of a bronze plaque from Adulis bore traces of two Sabaean letters.
Matara produced a bronze `polycandilon' with four chains holding a circlet with six holes for candles, and a bronze pot which contained the Matara treasure of gold crosses, coins and chains (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXVIII, 7; LXIX, 2). From Adulis, appropriately, came parts of Roman bronze balances (Paribeni 1907: 539, fig. 55; Anfray 1974: pl. II, 2) and numerous different weights, some marked with Greek letters (Paribeni 1907: 562-3). Perhaps the most magnificent bronze object so far found in Ethiopia is a lamp from Matara (Anfray 1967: 46-8; 1968: pl. 5). The lamp seems to be formed from a bronze imitation of the lower jaw of some animal (a boar?) — though it has also been described as a conch — set on a circlet of arcaded pillars like those of the Aksumite royal crown. From the back rises a leaping dog, which is trying to seize a fleeing ibex.
In the second category of metal objects come the tools, weapons, and other objects in iron (Munro-Hay 1989). Sickles, knives, chisels, saws, axes, tweezers, hinges, spear and arrow heads, hooks or staples, and other unidentifiable objects have been found. Much of this represents the basic equipment of the artisan or soldier; the peasant might have had a spear or a knife or two, or an iron reaping hook (one was found in a tomb), and there are obvious examples of military equipment. Some iron rings found at Matara (Anfray 1963: pl. LXXXI) apparently binding a prisoner in his cell (his skeleton was also found), recall Ezana's boast that he had chained the king of the Agwezat with his throne-bearer (Ch. 11: 5, DAE 9). The Periplus (Huntingford 1980: 21-2) mentions a number of iron tools and weapons among the imported goods from the Roman world, while from India (Ariake) came iron and steel as a raw material.
Paribeni (1907: 461, 486, 492) noted small tesserae of lead, possibly for use as tokens in commercial transactions, and other formless fragments of the same material, from Adulis, and he also found traces of lead pins used for fixing metalwork to carved schist plaques (Paribeni 1907: 506-7, fig. 32).
A very large number of stone tools are noted by various excavators at Aksum and other sites. They generally seem to be smallish scrapers, made of such materials as agate, chalcedony, and obsidian (Munro-Hay 1989; Anfray 1963: pl. CXIb). Probably they were used to treat some other material, such as skins, wood, or ivory. Paribeni (1907: 450) noted that the obsidian and other utensils found at Adulis did not mean that the levels from which they came were of great antiquity; he suggested that perhaps such implements continued in use among the poorer elements of the population long after metal tools were made or imported, and either this or some specialist use as suggested above doubtless explains their presence in a number of contexts at Aksum (Munro-Hay 1989; Puglisi 1941). Larger axes of polished stone were found also at Matara, one made of serpentine (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXIV, 4; LXV, 2).
All sorts of grind-stones or polishers, and a variety of stone mortars, come from Aksumite sites, doubtless used for grinding everything from grain to eye-paint and spices (Anfray 1963: pl. CXIIb-c; Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXVII, 4). A lava specimen from Adulis was found complete, with an upper and lower stone, the former furnished with a pivot, the latter with a hole for the pivot and two lateral holes for wooden handles to assist in the rotation (Paribeni 1907: 498: fig. 26).
Only one little leather object, somewhat of the shape of the stelae-tops at Aksum (Chittick 1974: fig. 24c), and a few fragments of ivory, including possible gaming pieces from Adulis and part of a decorated ivory vase from Matara (Paribeni 1907: 454, 486; Anfray 1963: pl. CXIa), now remain to testify to these industries. Bone appears to have been used for knife-handles, in one case decorated with bronze nails (Paribeni 1907: 480). Tiny fragments of ostrich eggshell from Adulis (Paribeni 1907: 454, 458, 517) may hint at its use, perhaps in one of the forms still seen in Ethiopia — cut into discs and pierced as beads, or used entire to decorate roof-finials, particularly on churches. Shells were used as decoration, at least at Adulis, where they were easier to obtain. They were probably sewn, as in relatively recent times, onto cloth or skins (Paribeni 1907: 485-6), and one example even bore an inscribed word in Greek letters (Paribeni 1907: 490). Fragments of coral (and even sponge) were also found at Adulis, as well as a large piece of amber (Paribeni 1907: 517, 519, 524, 528).
Wood from Aksumite times is rare, but is known as a building material, and was also probably used for furniture. In the Tomb of the Brick Arches at Aksum traces of wood were found on glass-inlaid bronze plaques, which seem to have come from a wooden chest, and the coins of king Armah depict a tall-backed chair or throne, perhaps made of carved or turned wood. There must have been other Aksumite wooden furniture, as well as structural elements in buildings, such as pillar shafts, capitals, doors or shutters, or roof-panelling such as at Dabra Damo. Traces of some of this ancient work may still survive in some of the old churches of Tigray and other provinces of Ethiopia, but what little has been found is very hard to date.
The language of the Aksumite kingdom was Ge`ez (Ethiopic), a Semitic tongue assumed (but not proven) to have an ancestry in old South Arabian. Ge`ez, possibly deriving its name from the Agwezat or Agazi tribal group, is now a dead language except for its use in traditional Ethiopian Orthodox church rituals and in some specialised circumstances, such as poetry. It was written in characters descending from the same parentage as the script now called Epigraphic South Arabian, but more cursive in form; the modern Ethiopian alphabet is the only survivor of this script today. Its development required that certain letters employed in dialects of South Arabian were omitted and others added as necessary. A number of early texts and graffiti from Ethiopia are themselves in a cursive form of the old South Arabian script (Drewes 1962). Time and the influence of the Cushitic languages of Ethiopia (Agaw or Central Cushitic being the most important) both helped in the transference from the original language to Ge`ez.
The arguments advanced for the origins of the Ge`ez script would fill a small book (Ullendorff 1955; 1960: 112ff; Drewes 1962: Ch. V; Drewes and Schneider 1976). Some have seen it as a development from the monumental South Arabian script, others as related to the contemporary cursive scripts found in both Arabia and Ethiopia; the mechanics of the change, the experts have suggested, could have been through either intentional or accidental alteration. The script could have been inspired by an early importation, or even by a more recent inspiration subsequent to the period of the earlier inscriptions.
A fair number of inscriptions have been found dating from pre-Aksumite times and written in the epigraphic South Arabian script, at such places as Yeha, Kaskase and Hawelti-Melazo. Some of these employ a form of the language which is apparently more or less pure Sabaic, while others, though contemporary, show linguistic features perhaps indicating that they were carved by Ethiopians (Drewes 1962; Schneider 1976i). The use of the South Arabian script continued on into Aksumite times (or was revived then?) and as late as the reigns of Kaleb and W`ZB monumental inscriptions were still written in a version of this script, but using the Ge`ez language.
This innovation was employed on the inscriptions, and doubtless on whatever (not so far discovered) papyrus, parchment or other impermanent medium the Aksumites kept their records. It was not generally adopted on the coins, whose legends remained unvowelled, except for very rare and partial vowelling on the coins of one or two later kings, until the end of the series. However, even without the vowelling, the coins provide a very interesting sequence from which the changes in the styles of the letter-forms can be ascertained from the third to the seventh century (Munro-Hay 1984iii). This information, combined with inscriptional material, is one way of tentatively dating newly-discovered Ge`ez documents. However, such palaeographical work is still in its infancy, and lacks sufficient numbers of documents which can be reliably dated to make it an efficient tool at present. Early inscriptions closely resembling South Arabian ones have been dated according to the palaeographical studies of Pirenne (1956), but again there might be a case for readjustment (Schneider 1976i).
In a recent (unpublished) paper, Roger Schneider has commented on some fascinating anomalies in Ge`ez writing on Aksumite inscriptions and coins (see also Drewes 1955; Hahn 1987). The existence of one vocalised letter on certain silver coins of Wazeba, a predecessor of Ezana, may well indicate that the process of vocalisation was under way before Ezana, though the unvocalised Ge`ez inscription of Ezana (DAE 7) has made it commonly accepted that the development of vocalisation occurred during his reign. Littmann (1913, IV: 78), Drewes and Schneider all suggest deliberate archaising; some of the letters, apart from lacking vowels, are of forms very much more ancient than those current for Ezana's time. This is not just over-elaborate academic discussion. For whatever reasons Ezana had this done (and Drewes suggests perhaps a desire to emphasise the links with South Arabia, or perhaps to point to the ancient origins of Aksumite royal power), it is of interest that almost no kings of Aksum in the subsequent centuries introduced vowelling on their coins, or when they did, it was only on a letter or two; and this long after vocalisation must have been current on other media.
Preceding the common use of Ge`ez, Greek was the chosen official language of the inscriptions and coins. This was evidently largely orientated towards foreign residents and visitors, and can hardly have been understood by more than the smallest section of the ruling class and merchant community. There must also have been a body of more or less learned men who acted as scribes in preparing the drafts of the inscriptions, perhaps priests or a special corps of clerks. Greek remained the language of the coins, particularly the gold, until the end of the coinage, but its quality degenerated quickly. Coins datable to the fourth and fifth centuries already show errors in their Greek legends.
A few inscriptions were drafted in several versions; Greek, and in Ge`ez in two redactions, the first in the Ge`ez script, the second in the South Arabian script. Use of this `pseudo Sabaean' seems to have been mere vanity, perhaps trying to equal the tri-lingual inscriptions set up by the Sassanian kings of Persia, since there can hardly have been any real reason for rendering a Ge`ez inscription into the South Arabian monumental script. Presumably a native speaker of Ge`ez would be able to recognise the gist of the text, the letters, though differently oriented and more rectilinear, being still recognisable; but a Ge`ez version was also supplied. A visiting South Arabian would have understood the script but not the language. The South Arabian script might perhaps have retained something of a sacrosanct aura, as the ancient vehicle for dedicatory inscriptions, so that it was felt that a version in that script fulfilled the requirements of tradition; but that seems a little far-fetched as an explanation by the time of Kaleb and W`ZB.
When king Kaleb of Aksum received Greek-speaking ambassadors, he employed an interpreter to translate the letters from the emperor; but this may have been due to the formalities of court protocol rather than of necessity (Malalas, ed. Migne 1860: 670).
It can hardly be doubted, from the evidence of survivors such as the `proto-Ge`ez' inscriptions of Matara, Safra, and Anza, and the series of royal inscriptions, that there was a fair body of written material in Ge`ez extant in Aksumite times, though examples found to date cannot in any way compare numerically with the sort of material surviving from most other ancient civilisations. Small inscriptions have been found on vessels of stone and pottery (Littmann 1913: IV; Drewes and Schneider 1967: 96ff; Schneider 1965: 91-2; Anfray 1972: pl. III). One, on a rock on Beta Giyorgis hill overlooking Aksum, seems to be a boundary-marker reading `Boundary between (the land of) SMSMY and SBT' — either the names of the owners, or of the parcels of land. Future archaeological missions will almost undoubtedly reveal more of these minor inscriptions. Abroad, Ge`ez inscriptions are known from Meroë, Socotra (Bent 1898), and South Arabia.
A later manifestation in the development of letters in Ethiopia was the translation of various literary works from other languages such as Greek, Arabic and Syriac into Ge`ez, with concomitant effects on the language itself.
Of Aksumite literature we know virtually nothing except that between the fifth and seventh centuries the Bible and other works began to be translated into Ge`ez (in some cases by Syrian/Aramaic speakers, thus absorbing certain additions to the vocabulary of the Ge`ez language). Traces of the early biblical translation survive in the form of quotations in some of the inscriptions.
The Ge`ez royal inscriptions themselves show an accomplished use of the language, and well exploit the propaganda medium provided by them. The earlier use of Greek for monumental inscriptions may have been an important factor towards the `stylistic confidence' shown by the Ge`ez inscriptions, and this may not in fact reflect a long literary tradition (Irvine 1977). Zoskales, an early Aksumite ruler, was an educated man who spoke Greek, and the royal example, as well as the influx of Greek-speaking merchants, doubtless encouraged the spread of learning which resulted in the use of Greek for even the national inscriptions and coinage. One feels that there must have been a certain amount of literacy in the country for the kings to take such care with the inscriptions and the coin legends with their mottoes (Ch. 9: 4). A ruler like Ezana, educated under the influence of Frumentius, who later returned to be installed as Ethiopia's first bishop, would surely have been able to speak and read Greek, and been well aware of the advantages of such propaganda media in both foreign and local circles.
Very occasionally, there are other indications of literacy, like the inscription left by a presumably Aksumite Ethiopian, Abreha, in the Wady Manih on the road to the Egyptian port of Berenice. Its interpretation is, as usual, not quite clear, partly from uncertainty as to the significance of certain words, partly due to its condition (the last three lines are almost completely illegible). Sergew Hable Sellasie's version reads "I Abreha, man of Aksum, spent the night here [and] came believing in the might of the Lord of Heaven Aryam, with my son". Littmann read it as "I am Abreha Takla Aksum and I stayed here. [I] came [protected] by the power [of the Lord of the Sublime] H[eaven] with my son". Ullendorff suggested "I Abreha am the founder of Aksum" (or, "founder of the [Church of] Aksum") "and have my domicile there" (Sergew Hable Sellassie 1972: 109; Littmann 1954; Ullendorff 1955). Schneider (1984: 158), after discussing the state of the text as it is preserved now, concluded, perhaps wisely, that after "I Abreha" `the rest is speculation'. However, the inscription is of interest since it is unvocalised and apparently of the early fourth century AD; it confirms that the name Abreha was in use in Ethiopia at the same period as the mysterious Abreha and Atsbeha of Aksumite legend. Another unvocalised inscription from Dabra Damo, associated with crosses, reads simply "I prayed" (Littmann 1913: IV, 61).
A more mundane inscription, on a pot found at Aksum, reads "he who breaks it, pays!" (Anfray 1972: pl. III).
In late Aksumite times the inscription of the hatseni Danael was carved on
one of the statue bases in the city (Ch. 11: 5); this is, with the funerary
inscription of Giho, daughter of Mangesha, from Ham (Conti Rossini 1939;
Cerulli 1968: 18-19), one of the latest inscriptions we have. At Ham Conti
Rossini also noted archaic Ethiopian inscriptions, probably simply names of
travellers like those from a grotto at Qohayto, together with Aksumite pillars
and other objects. The funerary inscription reads;
"Giho, daughter of Mangasha, died in the month of Tahsas, the 27th day,
at dawn, the day before the vigil of the Nativity, a Wednesday, being the
year . . . Ella Sahel. But as it is written `Man born of woman is of few days'
as it is written in the Gospel `He who has eaten my flesh and drunk my
blood shall not taste death, and I will raise him at the last day'; and as is
written in the Prophet `The dead shall be raised, and those who are in the
tomb shall live'".
Sergew Hable Sellassie (1972: 198), read the middle lines as "on the eve of
Christmas on the day of Wednesday. And died a year after we had (conquered?)
our enemy Ella Sahel". Conti Rossini suggested a date of the 7th or 8th
century for this inscription. Monneret de Villard (1940) noted that the shape
of the tablet on which the inscription is carved resembles the typical Meroitic
altar of offerings, and thought that Giho's name was also Meroitic in origin;
since such a funerary inscription is so far unique in Ethiopia but not
unknown in Nubia, perhaps it does show some influences from there. It has
been suggested that `Ella Sahel' refers to a king of that name who appears in
the king-lists, but the reading of the sentence is obscure (Schneider 1984:
163).
The later Ethiopian love of stories of the miracle-filled lives of saints, and the wonderful tales of old, may have had some literary reflection as early as Aksumite times, helping to both develop and preserve them. The compilation of the chronicles of the kings, as in mediaeval times, may have been an Aksumite custom, as illustrated by the preserved inscriptions. But if so the only traces we have of them are the Ge`ez king lists repeated in later times, with a few glosses about exceptional events. The patent inaccuracy of the lists, and the non-appearance of most known Aksumite rulers, show that only a very little was transmitted to later ages about Aksumite history, and presumably any such ancient chronicles perished during one of the periods of unrest from late Aksumite times.
There can be little doubt that the art of making parchment and keeping records or literary works by the use of parchment scrolls (as in the Nubian kingdoms later), or larger flat pages (as in Ethiopia in the mediaeval period) could have been practised in Aksumite times, and one day we may hope to find something of the sort in, perhaps, one of the Aksumite tombs. Records of government business and commercial transactions, as well as religious and other works, were certainly kept from early times, but the climate of Ethiopia does not have the dryness which has preserved so much perishable material in Egypt and Nubia. Most of the surviving Ethiopian parchment books are of relatively recent date, but there remains the hope that some earlier works may one day be discovered.
No Aksumite painting, beyond that on pottery, has survived, and much of the decorative material which has been found is of uncertain provenance. Some of it may have originated in Egypt or Syria, or even South Arabia. Surviving metal-work objects, such as small images of an ibex, the Three Graces, and a pair of dogs, or glass-inlaid bronze box fragments (see Ch. 12), may have been foreign work imported into Aksum. No large statues have yet been found of the Aksumite period — though possibly one of the gold, silver and bronze statues mentioned in the inscriptions, to which some of the granite plinths still existing at Aksum probably once belonged, may have survived the desire to melt down its metal, and be still awaiting the excavator's pick. The only truly Aksumite art-form we yet know of (apart from some plastic modelling on pottery, and some carving on flat surfaces and in the round) is architecture (see Ch. 5: 4) and the limited imagery of the coinage (Ch. 9).
In view of the later liking for elaborately-painted walls in the churches, it may not be too surprising to find, one day, paintings on the plastered walls of one of the tombs, palaces, or churches, like that reported to Muhammad by his wives (Muir 1923: 490; Sergew Hable Sellassie 1972: 186, n. 30; Lepage 1989: 52). Muhammad was apparently involved in a strange scene with some of his womenfolk, who had tried to help him as he lay dying by feeding him an Abyssinian remedy consisting of Indian wood, a little wars seed, and some olive oil. Muhammad then made them all swallow it as well. "After this, the conversation turning upon Abyssinia, Um Selame and Um Habiba, who had both been exiles there, spoke of the beauty of the cathedral of Maria there, and of the wonderful pictures on its walls. Overhearing it, Mohammad was displeased and said `These are the people who, when a saint among them dieth, build over his tomb a place of worship, and adorn it with their pictures; in the eyes of the Lord, the worst part of all creation. . . ."
Of uncertain date is the carved lioness, over 2 m long, on the rock of Gobedra, near Aksum (Littmann 1913: II, 73), but carved stone lion (or bull) heads (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXVII, 5-6) were often used as water-spouts on Aksumite buildings, and were still so employed in Alvares' time (Ch. 10: 5). The much larger rock sculpture of a lion at Kombolcha in southern Wollo may be an Aksumite creation (Gerster 1970: 25, pls. 9-10), or perhaps dates from the post-Aksumite period. Carving on shell (an ibex from Aksum; Munro-Hay 1989) is attested as well, but not necessarily of local production. If, as suggested above, parchment or papyrus books or scrolls were used in Aksumite times, the art of calligraphy or even the beginnings of the illumination of such books may also have a long history.
Illustration 62. The figure of a lioness carved on a rock at Gobedra, near Aksum.
Illustration 63. Drawing of a bronze coin (d. 17mm) of king Israel of Aksum showing a Greek cross in a ring of dots.
Illustration 64. Drawing of a silver coin (d. 16mm) of king Wazena of Aksum, showing a Greek cross framed in an arch rather similar to the design on the silver coin of Armah, fig. 16.
Illustration 65. Drawings of a silver coin (d. c. 17mm) bearing the monogramme AGD, showing a gold-inlaid cross under an arch, and two silver and two bronze issues of king Ioel (d. between c. 12 and c. 14mm respectively), depicting the cross in various forms; in a circle, as a hand-cross, and in the Latin and Greek styles.
The liturgical music used even today, preserved both by memory and a system of musical notation (Buxton 1970: 154ff), is attributed to the deacon Yared, who lived in the reign of Kaleb's son Gabra Masqal, in the sixth century. He is said to have so improved the dull chants of his time, that in a performance before Gabra Masqal both chanter and king were so absorbed that the king's spear, on which he was leaning, pierced Yared's foot without either noticing. There is much legendary material about Yared, but nothing yet preserved goes back further than the fifteenth century. The only early comment which mentions music is in Malalas' account of a Byzantine embassy, when he states that some of the Aksumites surrounding Kaleb when he appeared on his elephant-drawn car were playing the flute (ed. Migne 1860: 670). However, it is not unlikely that the Aksumites may have had some of the musical instruments which are familiar today in Ethiopia, such as the drum (beaten before kings and nobles, and a sign of rank, at least from mediaeval times), the tambourine, the sistrum (tsanatsil), the one-stringed violin (masinqo), or the begena and krar, the larger and smaller types of Ethiopian harp or lyre.
We have remarkably little information about the stratification of Aksumite society, but some suggestions can be made using indications from archaeological and other evidence. Mobility between classes, inheritance, marriage status or other family arrangements are all at present quite outside our knowledge. Polygamy can perhaps be assumed by analogy with later custom, but there is no actual evidence. Later Ethiopian law followed the Fetha Nagast, `The Law of the Kings' written in Arabic by a Copt in the mid-thirteenth century, and translated into Ge`ez perhaps in the middle of the fifteenth century (Tzadua 1968), but inscriptions like that of Safra show that there were earlier legal codes in use (Drewes 1962).
We do not know if there was any prestige derived from being an `Aksumite' (as in the case of the extra privileges bestowed on a Roman citizen), rather than a member of one of the other communities which made up the kingdom. A distinction between Ethiopia/Habashat and Aksum itself is implied when the kings are referred to by South Arabian inscriptions as `nagashi of Habashat (Abyssinia) and Aksum'. It has been noted elsewhere that the tribes such as the Agwezat, presumably part of Habashat but not Aksumites, retained their identity for a long while as a distinct people; but after a while any such Aksum/Habashat dichotomy may have blurred.
Social class may well have been based on the ownership of land, perhaps entraining more or less feudal commitments down the scale, but there is little reliable evidence to affirm this from the Aksumite period. Copies of land-grants to individuals and institutions are preserved (Huntingford 1965), but no originals survive from Aksumite times. Huntingford notes, however, that there is a good possibility that the early charters might be genuine transmissions; they all include Christianised sanction clauses which resemble those on the Aksumite inscriptions (Ch. 11: 5, Geza `Agmai, DAE 10, DAE 11, Kaleb inscr.). If this is true, although all the examples given are grants to Maryam Tseyon cathedral, we can imagine that individuals might have been similarly rewarded by the kings with estates and villages to support their rank, and that land-registers of some sort were maintained. The only actual `land-grant' we know of from Aksumite times is that of king Ezana to the six Beja chieftains (Ch. 11: 5, DAE 4, 6 & 7, Geza `Agmai); and this is exceptional being a forcible removal of a population. However, it does illustrate that the king possessed land to bestow, as we might expect from the Monumentum Adulitanum's statement about conquered peoples; "I reserved for myself half of their lands and their peoples. . . ."
Slaves, perhaps largely prisoners of war or criminals, are alluded to occasionally. Kosmas seems to imply that the majority of those at home and in the hands of foreign merchants came from Sasu and Barbaria, roughly the western Sudan and south-eastern Ethiopia or Somalia (Wolska-Conus 1968: 378). Such unskilled basic tasks as field work and rough quarry work, hauling, and domestic work could be expected for them. Exceptions would be prisoners of some special quality, like Frumentius and Aedesius, destined for tasks of greater responsibility, who probably were not actually considered as slaves. Procopius speaks of `slaves' (δονλοι) in the Aksumite army in Arabia, but these seem to have been allowed to remain in Arabia, and were included among those who later rebelled against Sumyafa` Ashwa` (Esimiphaios), which leaves their actual status unclear (Procopius, ed. Dewing 1914: 189).
Ultimately, life in Aksumite times, as today, was based on the work of the peasant toiling in the fields. Ploughing with oxen, sowing, clearing, reaping, and threshing would have occupied his day, and very likely the land he worked was part of another's estate from which he could take only basic subsistence products for himself. Shepherding the flocks and herds, and tending vegetable and fruit gardens, would have been other countryside occupations. We have no information about land-tenure systems in Aksumite times, though gifts of land by the king to the gods or to the church are mentioned, the former in inscriptions, and the latter in both inscriptions and land-charters. Those of the latter which claim to be of Aksumite times are all in reality much later, but may preserve some genuine information (Huntingford 1965). Possibly the prisoners offered to the gods were destined, if not as human sacrifices, to work on such lands? It is also not known whether the peasants were free, or tied to the land. Probably the houses of such people, as today, were constructed of perishable materials, and contained little besides essential tools, skins for clothing and bedding, a few storage vessels, (including wooden or basketwork ones?) and perhaps one or two extras for the richer peasant. Such houses may have been round, like a clay house-model from Hawelti, or perhaps, in more prosperous circumstances, of the type found by de Contenson at Mazaber in the Hawelti-Melazo region (de Contenson 1963ii, pl. XXXVIIb-c; 1961iii: 44). The latter was a stone dry-walled house with the typical Aksumite steps or rebates in the wall, consisting of two rooms only, altogether about 9 m in length by about 4 m wide. Its only remaining contents were sherds from a few pottery vessels and fragments of household objects in bronze (a pin-head and a hook).
In the central area of the towns, and in country mansions, the landowners and rulers of the dominant class would have led a rather more pleasant way of life, surrounded by households comprising slaves and servants living in the outer wings of their houses where the domestic offices probably were. The great distinction among the élite residences appears to have been one of size, and, as one might expect, the largest were the metropolitan palaces. We can approximately divide the buildings into two groups, the very large `palaces' and the lesser `villas' or `mansions', and these may reflect two echelons of the Aksumite élite; the rulers themselves, and the nobility and great officials.
In the central pavilions of these structures we might expect to find the reception rooms, and, upstairs perhaps (Buxton and Matthews 1974), the main living quarters. The quality of the fittings would have varied with the rank of the owners, from the monarchs to perhaps different grades of noble or official. From tomb finds we can furnish these with gilded and decorated furniture, with vessels and other equipment of gold, silver, bronze, glass, and stoneware. To this we can probably add certain more costly furs and fabrics, perfumes and incense, carved wood and ivory work, and luxuries of the table both local and imported. Such establishments may have employed a number of specially-skilled retainers, such as musicians and singers, artisans of various sorts, clerks, accountants, bailiffs or stewards. We can imagine a fairly considerable population for the larger dwellings and dependencies; for example, Matara Tertre B had over thirty rooms in its outbuildings, the Dungur mansion, with its several courtyards, contained about fifty rooms, while Ta`akha Maryam had probably around eighty.
The Aksumites belonging to the last three categories above are those for whom we can envisage burial in the main cemeteries at Aksum. Tomb architecture, and the stelae, have already been discussed (Ch. 5: 5 & 6); it can be assumed that only the upper echelons of society could have had a built tomb or one of the larger rock-cut types. In the royal cemetery the dead were probably buried with considerable amounts of valuable gear, and with the full panoply of ceremony, sacrificial offerings, and the like. The dead of high rank were laid in stone coffins, and, surrounded with their equipment, were either sealed up forever, or to wait for the next member of the family to die if they were in multiple tombs. So far among the tombs discovered, only that of the False Door seems to have been an individual tomb. Very likely the dead were dressed in their best clothing and decked with their jewellery, but no intact burial assemblage in one of the larger tombs has yet been found. Stone coffins were visible in the partly-plundered Tomb of the Brick Arches, but no-one has yet penetrated into the inner chambers, where some of the burials still perhaps lie undisturbed since the robbery which scattered other occupants' possessions across the floor of the outer rooms.
The tomb excavated by the BIEA in the Gudit Stele Field, though it was only a simple excavated chamber marked by a rough stele, seems from its contents to have belonged to someone in the better-off social strata. However, it contained only pottery, glass and iron tools (though some valuable items may have been taken by robbers), whereas the only partially cleared Tomb of the Brick Arches, situated in the main cemetery but still a modest tomb in comparison to some of the really large ones, contained objects of every kind, including precious metals. Such a gap probably expresses the differences between the third and fourth categories discussed above, and indicates how the ruling class compared with even the next grade of their subjects in terms of material wealth.
Some tombs contained multiple burials with only a few personal items of jewellery, or the occasional pot or glass vessel (Shaft Tomb A at Aksum; Chittick 1974: 171). These seem to date to the Christian period, and probably the old customs requiring a mass of funerary equipment died away after the spread of Christianity. Tombs of persons of rank, such as the so-called Tombs of Kaleb and Gabra Masqal, and the tomb at Matara Tertre D (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pls. XLIV-XLV), were still very well-constructed, but contained less space for equipment. All these tombs, and that of the False Door, have been open for centuries or were so badly robbed in antiquity that nothing can now be said about their possible contents; only the stone sarcophagi remain in some of them, and even these are often smashed into fragments.
Rather lesser tombs were found in and around the building at Tertre A at Matara (Anfray 1963); they may be contemporary with the building, but are more likely to have been installed after its abandonment. There were six, either built of stones or simply dug into the earth, and roofed with stone slabs. Occasionally they yielded some pottery, and some contained three or four bodies. Information about the burial of newly-born or very young children comes from both Adulis and Matara. In these places, imported amphorae, formerly used for the conveyance of wine or oil from abroad, were used as miniature coffins to bury children in the houses of their parents. The necks of the amphorae having been broken off, the body was put inside, and the top closed by a stone lid (e.g. Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. L, 1). The custom of burying children thus was not uncommon in the contemporary Roman world.
The discovery of two skeletons thrown into the pit at the base of Stele 137 at Aksum, and the fact that among the platforms and in some tombs were found animal bones, either burnt or not, may indicate that certain sacrificial ceremonies were enacted during funerals or dedications of stelae (Munro-Hay 1989). Possibly the animal bones and charcoal were the remains of a funerary or celebratory meal. If Drewes (1962: 41) is correct in his interpretation of the Safra inscription A, we have there details of the offerings on the occasion of certain acts connected with death and burial. These seem to consist of the completion of an excavated tomb; the occasion of a funerary ceremony; the immolation of a cow; and a gathering at the tomb. The inscription is apparently of the third century, and the rites mentioned by it may have been the same as those enacted at the necropolis of Aksum, resulting in the occurrence of animal bones and their burnt remains in and around the tombs.
The long period of occupation of the city of Aksum evidently had a profound effect on the surrounding countryside, from which it drew the materials of subsistence. Some of the processes set in train can be inferred from the present state of the land, and consideration of the various factors involved. The local industries, including the manufacture of glass, faience, brick and pottery, and metal-working, all needed wood or charcoal for their furnaces. Charcoal was probably in further demand for cooking, and heating when necessary, and wood was used for furniture and other equipment as well as house-building. These activities slowly robbed the surrounding hills of their covering of trees — which, however, survived in a few enclaves on the Shire plateau to be noted by Butzer (1981), — and exposed their topsoil to degradation and erosion. The expansion of the population, probably adequately coped with at first by enlarging the food catchment areas by improved roads and transport facilities for goods into the city, and more intensive cultivation on the surrounding lands, eventually subjected these to overcropping. The pressure on the land would have shortened the rotation period of the crops, land which should have lain fallow for longer being pressed into use too soon. The subsequent lowering of the fertility level of the land again resulted in degradation and erosion, leaving an exhausted soil in the proximity of the city and the immediate countryside. Difficulties in maintaining the food-supplies may have been a significant factor in removing the capital elsewhere. A certain amount of recovery may have been possible in some areas around the town, since the fertility of the hinterland of the much smaller town of later times was noted by travellers a thousand or so years later. Alvares simply mentioned that `its countryside . . . is sown in their season with all kinds of seed' (Beckingham and Huntingford 1961: 159). Others noted wheat, wine and vegetables growing at Aksum (Frate Rafaello Francescano, 1522; de Villard 1938: 60), a poor crop of fruit (Bruce 1790: III, 132), or, rather better, `a vast plain richly cultivated with many sorts of grain and near the town grass-plots and meadows' (Plowden 1868: 391-2).
Illustration 66. A scene near Aksum taken in 1974; a farmer ploughing in the Gudit Stele Field to the west of Aksum. Photo BIEA.
We cannot be sure for the Aksumite period, but among the natural disasters which in later times reduced the agricultural and animal yield in Ethiopia, cattle plague (Ch. 4: 8.3) and locusts are noted. For example, Alvares observed the desolation caused by the `multitude of locusts . . . and the damage which they do' (Beckingham and Huntingford 1961: 132). It is not inconceivable that, apart from the steady decline caused by overuse of the land, one or both of these may have occurred to emphasise the need to remove the capital to some better provided region.
The work of the geomorphologist Karl Butzer (1981) has suggested that the climate of northern Ethiopia may have changed for the worse just after the Aksumite period. The measurement of the Nile flood levels, recorded in Egypt, indicates that after a long period of excellent rainfall, more erratic precipitation ensued; this seems to have been after the abandonment of the city. However, if the land had reached a state of advanced degradation during the late Aksumite period, even the heavier rains, though theoretically ideal for the growth of the crops, would have contributed to the erosion on the slopes above the city and in the surrounding fields. What had been an advantage before had become another element in the vicious circle of the decay of the resources. It was the material brought down by the run-off caused by the rains from the hillsides that began to cover the buildings in the town as they were abandoned and fell into ruin. Butzer's figures suggest that until about 750AD floods were high in Egypt, then poorer with very low levels from the mid-tenth to late eleventh centuries, the period when the kingdom, after the invasion of the queen of the Bani al-Hamwiyya, had decayed almost to the point when the Zagwé dynasty could take over (Ch. 4: 8.3). The low-water levels after 730, in part following the spring rains in the Aksumite region, were already averaging below normal. It may be going too far to say that insufficient `little' rains (the March to May rains) combined with erosion caused by the action of strong June-September rains on the denuded land both to shorten the growing season and remove the topsoil. Nevertheless, climatic factors may have had their part to play in the abandonment of Aksum.
There are several hints that things began to go wrong in the Aksumite state in the later sixth and the early seventh century. Kaleb seems to have lost both prestige and an expensive war during his contretemps with Abreha, though after his death some sort of peace was patched up. The invasion may have been too costly a gesture for Aksum at the time, and the outlay in men and money must have had a deleterious effect on Aksumite power at home. Possibly the great plague of the 540s (Procopius; ed. Dewing 1914: 451ff), said to have emerged from Pelusium in Egypt, also had some effect on Aksum, as it did on the Roman world from the Mesopotamian provinces to Gaul, and across to Persia. The general political and commercial climate after first the Yemen and then Jerusalem and Alexandria fell to the Persians must have much damaged Ethiopia's trade in the Red Sea, and accordingly its prosperity.
To an unknown extent, troubles at the centre must have generated the hope in the outlying parts of the kingdom that it was time to essay another trial of strength with the Aksumite rulers, and revolts may have occurred which further weakened the kingdom by cutting off certain internal resources and routes (see below). For example, the Beja tribes, some of which had been crushed by Ezana long ago, later became independent of the najashis (see al-Ya`qubi's comments; Vantini 1975: 71-3) and may have caused trouble to their theoretical overlords for some time before. The Agaw who later came to power with the Zagwé dynasty may also have been involved in the unrest.
Anfray, working at Adulis, found a thick layer of ashes over some structures, and deduced that the town's end had been brutal (1974: 753). Some historians have thought that the town was destroyed by a Muslim expedition in 640AD, but the Arab records regard this expedition as a disaster; and it seems unlikely that it was even aimed at the Ethiopian kingdom itself, but rather against Red Sea pirates (Munro-Hay 1982i). Increasing Ethiopian inability to keep the sea-lanes free may, however, have encouraged the Arabs to occupy the Dahlak Islands later on, probably in 702AD (Hasan 1967: 30). A certain Yazid b. al-Muhallab was exiled there by the khalifa `Umar in 718/9AD. In spite of this, later Arab historians mention Dahlak as part of the dominions of the najashis.
For any ideas about the political situation in Ethiopia at the end of the Aksumite period, we rely on very tenuous information. One of the chief sources for the history of Ethiopia between 615-6 and 630AD are the recorded traditions about the life of Muhammad and his followers, the hadith. A note of caution must be sounded before accepting these tales, but Muslim historians were themselves very conscious that the hadith were sometimes suspect, and insisted as well as they could on accepting only those with an impeccable isnad or chain of reliable sources right back to the original teller of the story. Umm Salama's tale (see below) about a revolt in Abyssinia passed through two informants before it was written down by Ibn Ishaq.
If the compilers of the hadith are to be believed, the ruling najashi at the time of the prophet was a man of justice and equity, called Ashama ibn Abjar. Abu Talib composed a verse (Guillaume 1955) for this najashi to encourage his support for the Muslims against the Quraysh, who were preparing bribes for the king and his commanders (shums);
`Does the Negus still treat Ja`afar and his companions kindly,
Or has the mischief-maker prevented him?
Thou art noble and generous, mayst thou escape calamity;
No refugees are unhappy with thee.
Know that God has increased thy happiness
And all prosperity cleaves to thee.
Thou art a river whose banks overflow with bounty
Which reaches both friend and foe'.
The najashi Ashama ibn Abjar died in 630AD and was, according to Ethiopian tradition, buried at Weqro, about 65 miles to the southeast of Aksum (Taddesse Tamrat 1972: 34-5). If we can accept this tradition, the royal cemetery at Aksum may have been out of use by that date. Interestingly, but of uncertain significance, what seems to be a late tomb of someone of very high rank was found by Anfray and Annequin at Matara (1965; Tertre D). Both Ethiopian and Arab traditions mention the shift of the capital away from Aksum, assigning it to various reigns or periods (Sergew Hable Sellassie 1972: 203; Taddesse Tamrat 1972: 35ff).
The najashi Ashama, again according to the reports of the Arab writers (Guillaume 1955: 153) purportedly from the mouth of Umm Salama, one of the wives of Muhammad, had to face two revolts in his own country, which help to confirm the general feeling of unrest at this period also expressed by the coinage mottoes. The story, related by Ibn Ishaq, who died in the late 760s, is that Ashama had to fight a rebel leader across the Nile. This must have occurred sometime after the second hijra to Abyssinia in 615-6 (Muir 1923: 86), and before 628, when the exiles returned, since Umm Salama said that it happened while they were in the country. The Nile lay between the two parties, and the battle was fought apparently on the west side of the river, since the Muslim messenger, al-Zubayr, had to swim across on a water-skin to find out the outcome. The najashi was victorious, but later had to deal with another attempt at revolt, this time to do with his religion — perhaps in reality this episode is a piece of Muslim propaganda; (Guillaume 1955: 154-5). These stories, after that detailing the difficulties in the succession (Guillaume 1955: 153-4) indicate that the najashi's reign was not an easy one. In 630 there was military activity against Abyssinians who had combined with the people of Jidda against the Muslims. Muir (1923: 436) noted that the nature of this combination was not clear, but suggested that the najashi might have been by now disappointed to find that Muhammad no longer supported Christianity; this is not likely, in view of the fact that the prophet is said to have prayed for the najashi after his death in 630, and presumably this incident, if of any official nature, is to be attributed to his successor in that year.
There is one internal clue to the end of Aksum as a power centre; the inscriptions of a certain hatsani (ruler, or perhaps at this time merely commander or general) Danael, found on one of the ancient granite pedestals at Aksum (Littmann 1913: IV, nos. 12-14). The title hatsani is that which became the usual one (with negus or najashi) for the kings of Ethiopia, sometimes rendered as hadani, hatse, atze, etc. Apart from Danael's inscriptions, it first appears in Ethiopia as a royal title in the Zagwé king Lalibela's land-charters. From the inscriptions, it appears that Danael was engaged in military campaigns, and not only another hatsani, Karuray(?) but a `king of Aksum' is mentioned. It appears that among other military activities the Wolqayt people had attacked the land of Hasla, and then gone on to Aksum. Danael claims to have expelled them and killed and captured a number of men and animals. Other campaigns may have led him to fight the Barya, and to the Kassala region — but the reading of the texts is very uncertain (Schneider 1984: 163). In the inscription DAE 14, which is better preserved than the others, it appears that Danael forced the king of Aksum himself into submission, making him in effect a tributary ruler. Whatever the exact political alignments of the time, Danael was able to set up his (badly carved) inscription on an Aksumite statue base.
Several explanations of the situation are possible. The inscriptions could even allude to the time of Ashama, with the people of Wolqayt from over the Takaze being repelled by Danael in support of the king of Aksum; if this is the case, the najashi must eventually have triumphed after almost successful attempts by Danael to seize power. Later in the same reign, between 615 and 630, the old capital at Aksum would have been finally abandoned as the eponymous centre of the Ethiopian kingdom. If the tales about the splendours of Aksum's cathedral told to Muhammad by his wives (see Ch. 13: 3) are true, they may indicate that the exiled Muslims were actually at the court in Aksum after 615, during the city's last days as a capital. The next recorded permanent capital was that of the najashis or hadanis who ruled from Ku`bar, the city mentioned in the ninth and tenth centuries by Arab writers (see Ch. 4: 8).
Illustration 67. At the cathedral of Maryam Tseyon, a priest exhibits the crowns and other objects dedicated by former emperors.
Whatever the case, with the Arab take-over of the routes and many of the destinations of Aksumite trade after the preliminary Persian incursions into Arabia and the eastern Roman world, the `Aksumite' Christian kingdom changed its policies and bowed to events. The trade with the Mediterranean world had decayed and even the Red Sea route itself, when the Abbasid shift of the capital to Baghdad after 750AD had emphasised the role of the Persian Gulf, became much less important, not reviving until the Fatimids were able to police and develop it in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Aksumite cultural heritage (now bound firmly with Christianity), though no longer directed by a king of Aksum from Aksum itself, but by a hadani or najashi from elsewhere, continued its southward expansion, gradually retiring from the north and the coast over the centuries. The process seems to have been gradual, since Arab writers long refer to the size and wealth of the najashi's realm, and certain regions, though occupied by Muslims, still remained tributary. In the later tenth century the state may have almost succumbed to `Gudit', enabling the Agaw Zagwé eventually to seize control; but even then the churches of Lalibela, attributed to the Zagwé period, still indicate a strong continuity with the Aksumite cultural tradition.
This final chapter is based on a talk given by the author to the Society of Antiquaries of London in October 1987, designed more or less to coincide with the publication of the report on the excavations undertaken for the BIEA by Dr. Neville Chittick at Aksum from 1972-1974. Chittick's untimely death in 1984 prevented him from writing a fuller account than his Preliminary Report of 1974, but this task was undertaken by the present author, and has now been published (Munro-Hay 1989). Since the last major book on Aksumite archaeology appeared before the First World War (Littmann 1913), new studies based on archaeological excavation are long overdue. In addition, the architectural, numismatic, chronological and general cultural information revealed by Chittick's excavations has radically changed the impression gained of Aksum and its civilisation through previously published material, and it is evidently useful to recapitulate some of the main points here. Some of this material has been mentioned in previous chapters, but is here described all together within the context of the two main archaeological campaigns of 1973 and 1974.
The BIEA excavations which Chittick directed were on a large scale, and there was a great deal of information to sift through. The result is that we have not only a much clearer picture of many facets of Aksumite life, but also valuable indications towards a chronology, one of the perennial problems in Aksumite studies. As usual, more information produces more problems; we cannot claim to have more than begun to solve them, but a good deal of progress has been made, and the general schema of Aksumite history presented by this book has greatly benefited from Chittick's work.
The excavations explored a large number of sites in and around present-day Aksum. The archaeology of these is fully described in Munro-Hay 1989. The location of the most important sites was as follows.
The easternmost sites excavated were those flanking or near to the superstructure covering the so-called Tombs of Kaleb and Gabra Masqal. Next to the west were a number of stele sites, called Geza `Agmai (GA), `Enda Yesus (EY), and Ghele Emmi (GE). In the eastern central part of the town the site DA revealed the Tomb of the Brick Arches, and many trenches were laid out around the Stele Park (ST) to investigate and to try to date the stelae. Among these trenches many tombs were discovered, including Shaft Tombs labelled A-C, and the Mausoleum and East Tomb near the largest stele. Certain other large tombs were also cleared; the Nefas Mawcha (NM) south of the great terrace wall above which the three largest stelae stood, and, to the west of the main stelae group, the Brick Vaulted Structure and the Tomb of the False Door (the THA and THC trenches). In the ancient residential centre of the city, two sites revealed what were almost certainly small parts of large mansions; they were labelled IW and ES. Finally, apart from a number of relatively unimportant exploratory trenches around the Stele Park (designated HAW, PW, WC, and ML), some trenches were laid out in a stelae field west of the modern town, opposite the Dungur villa excavated by Anfray (1972); these were called GT after the traditional identification of the area with the legendary queen Gudit.
An important, and previously unknown, feature found at Aksum, among the ST trenches, was a series of buried stone-revetted platforms, the earliest of which seem to have been constructed in the first century AD, according to radiocarbon readings. The latest seem to have been erected, or rather expanded, in the fourth century. Behind their facades, the platforms were filled with freshly-quarried stones with almost no admixture of earth, and topped, relatively carefully, with layers of white and red soils. These, and considerable deposits elsewhere, at such sites as GA, GE, and HAW, lay in levels which yielded no coins, and thus seem to precede the first issues in c270-90AD. But in some of the GA and ST early levels were glass fragments, including types such as the mosaic or millefiori glass generally dated to between the first century BC and AD 100. The Periplus and other accounts mention glass of several types among the items imported into Aksum from the Roman empire, and these finds not only confirm the Periplus' report, but help to date these platforms as the earliest yet known features at Aksum.
There are further indications that there was a considerable period of occupation at the site before the `Classical Aksumite' period of the third and fourth centuries. Some stelae, found standing upright in pits which had been dug into the earlier platforms, had been completely buried by subsequent deposits. All were of a rough undressed type which preceded the later carefully shaped and sometimes elaborately carved examples, some of which could be dated to the later third and the fourth century AD by accompanying material.
The stelae at Aksum have never been properly dated. During his excavations Chittick was surprised to find that, according to his estimate, `the coins indicate that the deposits on which the stelae were erected accumulated in the Christian Aksumite period'. This certainly seemed a little unlikely, in view of the mounting evidence as the excavations progressed that the stelae were closely connected to tombs and were probably memorials to the deceased Aksumite kings; but, as usual, the key to his dating was the coinage, which has since been radically re-dated (Munro-Hay 1978 et seq.). The particular coin-type which led Chittick to assume that he had found stelae of Christian date was an issue attributed by earlier numismatists (Anzani 1926) to the sixth century king Kaleb or his immediate successors. But the type can now be re-dated to a considerable time before Kaleb, on the basis of overstriking on coins of king MHDYS, probably a close successor of Ezana. Further, study of the stratigraphy in the trenches concerned has resulted in a different interpretation of the sequence of events, and no longer supports the idea that stelae were a late phenomenon at Aksum.
The French archaeologist Henri de Contenson, working at Aksum in the 1950's, found that fragments of the broken summit of the largest stele of all (no. 1) lay below an occupation level containing coins of the late fourth century king Ouazebas (de Contenson 1959: 29). The stele, according to the coin evidence, fell most probably in the late fourth or early fifth century; that is, after the official conversion of king Ezana in c330AD, but at a period sufficiently close to this event to make it likely that certain burial traditions such as the erection of stelae had not yet lapsed. Other structures in the Stele Park area are also dated to the later fourth century, and confirm that the cemetery was in use after the advent of Christianity, but probably for decades rather than centuries.
The stelae seem to have all been associated with tombs, but as yet the direct pairing of certain tombs with certain stelae remains difficult. Almost every trench opened in the central (ST) area of Aksum yielded either a fallen stele, broken fragments, buried upright stelae, or shafts leading to tombs and tunnels, and it is certainly premature to assume that we know the lay-out of the necropolis. Two of the tombs were of quite unforeseen dimensions and sophisticated architecture. One, possibly associated with the largest stele, was dubbed the `Mausoleum', and consisted of a 15 × 15 metre complex of rooms off a central passage. Included in its construction were drystone walling, a brick arch, three shafts, dressed or rough granite roof-blocks, and a magnificent granite doorway in typical Aksumite style. The second, called by the Tigrinya name `Nefas Mawcha', a name meaning something like `the place where the winds go out', consisted of two outer corridors roofed with dressed granite slabs, built around a central room which was covered with a single slab measuring some 17m × 7m × 1½m. By a curious chance this tomb, roofed by the second largest stone known to have been employed in Aksumite construction work, was severely damaged when the largest stone of all, the great carved stele, crashed down and struck the tomb's north-west corner. This upset the complicated balance of roofing blocks and the entire tomb subsided. However, enough has remained intact for the excavators to be able to propose a restoration of its original design.
Though the stelae may not have been objected to for religious reasons (it has even been suggested that some of them bore crosses at the top, where nail-holes indicate some applied decoration; van Beek 1967), the collapse of the largest one, and possibly of the second largest too, may have been sufficient reason for the Aksumites to turn to a simpler but essentially similar memorial, the house-tomb.
The most accomplished monument of this type at Aksum, the Tomb of the False Door, was a surprising discovery. It is entirely made of dressed granite blocks, in the form of a house-superstructure with a magnificent carved granite door over a tomb chamber and a surrounding corridor, reached by a separate staircase from a paved courtyard. It was dated by Chittick to the pre-Christian period, since it was overlain by deposits containing glass attributed to the third century. However, it was later found that a stratum running beneath the stones of its courtyard abutted against an earlier stone wall, part of a building called the Brick Vaulted Structure. This latter, though incompletely excavated, appears to have consisted of a series of burnt-brick vaults, with horse-shoe shaped arches and granite relieving lintels, closely resembling the architecture of yet another tomb, the Tomb of the Brick Arches, so-called from its three horse-shoe shaped arches. This latter tomb contained material of probably mid-fourth century date. It therefore seems that the Tomb of the False Door is later than the arched structures, and probably of late fourth or early fifth century date. Very likely it was the next stage in the development of the necropolis architecture, since the fall of the great stele would probably have discouraged further such attempts, and the house-tomb type is a logical successor. A very close stylistic link between tomb and stelae is provided by the doorway and lintel of the tomb, carved in exactly the same manner as the doors depicted on the two largest, and latest, stelae. The early material found over the tomb, which was one reason for Chittick's assumption that it was of pre-Christian Aksumite date, appears to have been washed down from the higher slopes of the Beta Giyorgis hill which dominates the necropolis; it included a large number of stone scrapers also found in quantity on the top of the hill. Two other house-tombs, the double tomb building locally attributed to the sixth-century kings Kaleb and Gabra Masqal, and another found at the Eritrean site of Matara, are comparable.
The picture we have of the town is not all taken from the necropolis. At the same time the excavations cleared a number of domestic structures, particularly at two sites which were designated IW and ES. These revealed rough stone-built walls, strengthened by two techniques, wooden interlacing or the use of granite corner blocks. In addition the walls were arranged in a series of recesses, so that there were no long stretches of wall, and each wall rose in rebated steps, each lined with slate. This is, as we have noted (Ch. 5: 4), typical Aksumite `mansion' architecture. Only a few rooms were cleared in each place, but it was evident from the finds that these dwellings were the houses of prosperous Aksumites in possession of a high standard of living. Objects found included the fragments of many polished breccia bowls, glassware and elegant pottery, metalwork, coins, and other items. Temples or churches were not found by the BIEA expedition, nor were examples of the more humble dwellings which were probably built with perishable materials such as wood and mud plaster with thatched roofs.
The tombs, though only one was completely cleared, yielded rich grave-goods. The cleared one, marked by a rough stone stele, was not found in the main necropolis, but in the Gudit Stele Field west of the town (GT II). It appears to date from the mid-third century, and was merely a small chamber cut into the earth, with no built elements at all. It contained particularly fine pottery, two sets of glasses (stem goblets and beakers), and a large number of iron tools such as tweezers, saws, knives, and a sickle. The stele marking the grave, and the pottery, are `Aksumite' elements; the glassware and tools could as well be from a Roman site as an African one.
Tombs in the main necropolis were evidently much richer, and the excavation of only one room in the 4th century Tomb of the Brick Arches revealed piles of grave-goods (mentioned above, Ch. 12), including glassware, pottery vessels in a multitude of shapes, some painted and decorated, all sorts of metalwork, including glass-inlaid bronze plaques, fittings for what was probably a wooden chest, gold fragments, a silver amulet-case, a bronze belt-buckle inlaid with silver and enamel crosses, iron knives with bone or ivory handles, and even leather and wood. In a number of small inner loculi, constructed by dividing the interior of the simply cut tomb by built stone walls, stone coffins could be seen behind a partly broken blocking wall. This tomb was also a surprise from the architectural point of view, since it was the first of those excavated which revealed the burnt brick horseshoe arches later found in even more elaborate styles in the Brick Vaulted Building. These must be among the earliest horse-shoe arches known, and were quite unexpected elements in Aksumite architecture, not being repeated in the later rock-cut churches of Tigray and Lasta. Other tombs consisted of carefully cut shafts leading beneath the stelae into vast roughly cut chambers (Shaft Tombs A, B, and C), or into long winding corridors (the Tunnel Complex), which may have belonged to tombs, or perhaps more likely were robber tunnels. Though pottery, cut stone, skulls and so forth could be seen lying in the rooms and corridors, little clearing could be done in the time available. Much more work is necessary in the tombs found by the British Institute expedition, but political events have precluded a return as yet.
Nothing significant was found in the tombs or buildings at Aksum which can be certainly attributed to a later date than the sixth or early seventh century AD. The archaeological record shows that the large residences were occupied or built around by squatters, even, apparently, in the time of the last coin-issuing kings, then gradually covered by material brought down by run-off from the deforested hills. The excavations thus confirm the theory suggested above that by about 630AD the town had been abandoned as a capital, although it continued on a much reduced scale as a religious centre and occasional coronation place until the present.
End of Chapters 11-16.
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