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A Guide to Aksum A Guide to Aksum http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.CH.DOCUMENT.UNOPDFP2B1 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org A Guide to Aksum Author/Creator Fattovich, Andrea Manzo; Perlingieri, Cinzia Contributor DiBlasi, Michael, Bard, Kathryn Resource type Articles Language English Coverage (spatial) Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Axum Description This document was born at the CISA of Naples as a completion of the ten years archaeological project that UNIOR and BU carried out at Aksum and after a collaboration between UNIOR and the Aksum Museum. Format extent 2 (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.CH.DOCUMENT.UNOPDFP2B1 http://www.aluka.org AKSUM The Capital city Aksum is one of the major archaeological areas in Ethiopia, and one of the most impressive sites in subSaharan Africa. The town is the main religious center of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Aksum is located at the edge of a plain, and is dominated by the hills of Bieta Giyorgis and Mai Qoho, which are separated by the Mai Hedja. At present, the ancient settlement is partly covered by the modern town. According to the Ethiopian traditions, the capital had three different locations: Throne Bases The collapsed "Giant Stela" in the Mai Hedja Stele Field The Nefas Mawcha in the Mai Hedja Stele Field Culture and Tourism Department P.O. Box 15, Aksum, Tigrai, Ethiopia Tel. 251-4- 750228 Tigrai Tourism Department of CTI P.O. Box 124, Mekelle, Tigrai, Ethiopia Fax 251-4-401032, Tigrai [email protected] 1. Mazaber, built by the mythical King Itiyopis, son of Cush, on a hill to the northwest of Mai Qoho. The tomb of Itiyopis is traditionally located close to Addi Kiltè, immediately to the west of the modern town. 2. Aseba or Asfa, built by the Queen of Sheba, to the north of Bieta Giyorgis hill. 3. Aksum, founded at the present site by the kings Abraha and Atsebeha, who introduced Christianity in the kingdom. Some local traditions also state that the site of Ona Nagast on the top of Bieta Giyorgis hill was the residence of the earliest Aksumite kings. The archaeological area of Aksum includes: 1) The settlement area of the ancient capital, with some traces of a royal palace (Taaka Maryam) and other elite residences (e.g., Dungur, Addi Kilte), at the base of Bieta Giyorgis hill, and in the valley between Mai Qoho and Bieta Giyorgis. 2) The funerary area with stelae fields, including the monumental royal cemetery ("Stelae Park"), along the Mai Hedja and at the base of Mai Qoho hill, where the so-called tomb of Bazen is located. 3) The remains of the ancient Aksumite Christian church, and the Gondarian church of the 17th century (Enda Maryam Tsyon), at the center of the archaeological area. 4) The Guedit stelae field and the so- called "Tomb of Menelik," to the southwest and west of the settlement area, respectively. 5) Bieta Giyorgis hill, with a settlement site (Ona Nagast), a cemetery with stelae (Ona Enda Aboi Zewge), and the remains of two Aksumite churches. 6) Two hypogean tombs (Enda Kaleb and Gabra Masqal) and some pit-tombs on the top of Mai Qoho hill. Some ruins are also visible at Mazaber, to the north of Mai Qoho. A small stelae field is located at Enda Sendodo, to the northeast of Bieta Giyorgis. Many smaller sites, which formed the rural hinterland of Aksum, have also been recorded. The whole archaeological area, though still well preserved, is in great danger because of the expansion of the modern town. In a short time, the modern settlement may cover most of the ancient capital and destroy a great deal of the archaeological evidence. Rock Cut Niche at the base of Mai Qoho hill Mai Shum Stone quarry at the south-west edge of Bieta Giyorgis Urban Development The origins and development of the ancient town are still uncertain. Aksum is mentioned for the first time in the "Periplus of the Erythrean Sea," most likely dating to the mid-1st century A.D. The town is recorded as a capital in the "Geography" of Claudius Ptolomeus (ca. A.D. 150). Archeological investigations have demonstrated that the area of Aksum was occupied since the late 1st millennium B.C. The top of Bieta Giyorgis hill was occupied in PreAksumite times (7th-4th centuries B.C.). PreAksumite occupation has also been recorded at the base of the hill, to the north of the present town of Aksum . In the 4th-2nd centuries B.C., a residential area with a monumental building and a cemetery, with man-made stone platforms covering pitgraves cut in the bedrock and marked with monoliths, were established on the top of Bieta Giyorgis hill. Later, in the mid-2nd century B.C. to mid-2nd century A.D., a monumental funerary area with rock-cut tombs, stone platforms and carefully carved stelae was located on the top of Bieta Giorgis hill, and an elite residence was also built there. Perhaps, in Early Aksumite times, an industrial area for preparing hides or working ivory was located at Addi Kilte, in the eastern sector of the settlement at Aksum, where a great deal of scrapers have been collected. In Classic Aksumite times (ca. mid-2nd to mid-4th centuries A.D.) a palace was located on Bieta Giyorgis hill. This was associated with an elite or possibly royal cemetery marked by stone platforms, hewn stelae, and rock-cut tombs, including the earliest known Aksumite monumental tomb. Three elite and/or royal cemeteries with man-made stone platforms, monumental stelae, and rock-cut tombs were located to the northeast (Mai Hedja), east (Bazen), and southwest (Guedit) of the settlement. Beginning in the 2nd-3rd centuries, the royal cemetery was located in the so-called "Stelae Park" along the Mai Hedja. In the late 3rd century a middle-tohigh status cemetery was located in the Guedit area, to the southwest of Aksum. No evidence of monumental residences dating to these centuries has been found in Aksum proper. In the 5th century A.D., the palace at Bieta Giyorgis was no longer used as an elite residence, and the stelae ceased functioning as a funerary symbol. Most likely in this period some palaces were built on the plain at the base of Bieta Giyorgis hill. The church of Maryam Tsion was erected in the eastern sector of the settlement, and became the focal center of the town. In the 6th- 7th centuries, large palaces were built at Aksum. A middle-tolow status domestic area was located between Bieta Giyorgis and Mai Qoho, suggesting a northward expansion of the town. Two churches were built in this period on the eastern slopes of Bieta Giyorgis hill. In the late 1st millennium A.D. the settlement at Aksum occupied a much smaller area and was concentrated around the cathedral. No definite evidence of monumental architecture dating to this period has been recorded, but epigraphic evidence suggests that Aksum was still the residence of a prince. Ruins of the ancient structures were frequently reused. In the same period and/or in PostAksumite (medieval) times (ca. A.D. 1000- 1400), hamlets were located on the top of Bieta Giyorgis hill. Ruins at Dongur Palace Historical outline of the Aksumite kingdom Aksum is the site of the capital of the ancient Aksumite kingdom, which dominated the southern Red Sea in the 1st millennium A.D. At its height in the early to mid-1st millennium A.D. Aksum was one of the great kingdoms of the ancient world, involved in a trading network that stretched from the Mediterranean to India. The kingdom was the main African partner of the Roman/Byzantine Empire along the Red Sea trade route to the Indian Ocean. Ox-plow cultivation of barley, wheat and teff, which still is the main agriculture system in the region, was definitely established in Aksumite times. The rise of the kingdom resulted from a long process of social and economic transformations, which started in the 3rd millennium B.C. and involved the peoples of the western lowlands, Red Sea coastal plains, and the Ethiopian plateau. The main steps in this process in late prehistoric and early historical times were: 1) The progressive inclusion of the northern Ethiopian plateau in the trade circuit from Egypt and Nubia to southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa in the 3rd-2nd millennia B.C.. Trade between Egypt and the countries of the southern Red Sea was established in late 3rd2nd millennia B.C. At this time the land of Punt - from where the ancient Egyptians imported frankincense, ivory, and gold - most likely included Tigrai, Eritrea and eastern Sudan.
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