Addis Herald
  • Home
  • History
  • Africa
  • Travel
  • Music
  • Culture
  • Art

Culture

  • Or. 607The Ethiopian Emperor’s Manuscripts
  • 36540E1A-A477-4FDD-A4E7-2DD01514F57DEthiopian Manuscripts and Painting from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century
  • 184D8D78-8168-43A0-8F33-95AAC1CE81B2The Top Ten Ethiopia’s Endemic Wild Animals
  • 68B656DE-B1F3-47D4-9F6A-198C6FA6FCA3The New Face of Addis
  • 20-must-read-poems-ethiopian-poets20 Of The Best Poets And Poems of Ethiopia (Qene included)

Business

  • China-Ethiopia-forumEthiopia’s Export to China Grows Amid Booming FDI from Chinese Companies to the Country
  • 32AAAC40-C7CF-4A10-8C4A-D63F30DC6D07As Telebirr Increases it’s Subscribers to 18 mln, It’s Mother company Ethio Telecom launches 5G network
  • 57BD9DF7-CDDD-4722-AD63-F5A0C41A11B1Recovery Period: Inside Ethiopian Airlines’ 4-Pillar Growth Strategy
  • DC89FC8D-FC0B-4547-B6E6-7D8A4540717E12 investment opportunities in Ethiopia’s packaging industry
  • 3D2D6F24-5BB6-4943-AD60-DA8E222749C2Ethiopian Airlines leases two Dash 8-400 aircraft from TrueNoord

Africa

  • 2B04558D-E562-4F0C-B0F8-36082FF2C299As Gas hold the key to Africa’s energy future , it also may Rescue Europe’s energy crisis
  • C1480A4F-9399-4DEC-8DE9-6CD659342646African entrepreneurs need to be taken seriously
  • United-States-of-AfricaUnited States of Africa: A dream that got Gaddafi killed at the hands of a desperate US
  • 3B1B58E3-5D40-4ADA-8835-29B316116181Africa Isn’t an Opinion or an Opiate: An Ode to the Ever Defiant Motherland
  • E0A49956-D481-44EF-9A41-0B34EF9BDFAEAfrica: The Mother of all Civilization
December 6, 2018

The decline of Aksum

By Stuart Munro-Hay

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 runoff 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.

  • Introduction
  • Archaeological Discovery
    • Ancient Aksum
    • The Rediscovery of Aksum
  • The City and the State
    • Origins and Expansion of the Kingdom
    • The Development of Aksum
    • Cities, Towns and Villages
    • The Inhabitants
    • Foreign Relations
  • Aksumite History
    • Early Aksum
    • Gadarat to Endubis
    • Endubis to Ezana
    • Ezana to Kaleb
    • The End of the Coinage
    • The Post-Aksumite Period
  • The Civil Administration
    • Officials of the Government
    • Aksum, the Capital City
    • The Town Plan
    • Portuguese Records of Aksum
    • Domestic Architecture
    • The Funerary Architecture
    • The Stelae
  • The Monarchy
    • The Regalia
    • Dual Kingship
    • Succession
    • The Royal Titles
    • The Coronation
  • The Economy
    • Agriculture and Animal husbandry
    • Metal Resources
    • Trade
    • Local Industries
    • Food
  • The Coinage
    • Introduction of the Coinage
    • Internal Aspects of the Coinage
    • The Mottoes
    • The End of the Coinage
    • Modern Study of the Coinage
  • Religion
    • The Conversion to Christianity
    • Abreha and Atsbeha
    • Ecclesiastical Development
    • Churches
  • Warfare
    • The Military Structure
    • Weapons
    • The Fleet
    • The Inscriptions
  • Archaeological Records
    • Glassware
    • Stone Bowls
    • Metalwork
    • Aksumite Materials
  • Language
    • Literature
    • The Art
    • Saint Yared
  • Society and Death
    • Funerary Practice
  • The Decline of the Empire
    • The Arrival of Islam in Ethiopia
    • The decline of Aksum
    • External and Internal Troubles
    • The Hatsani Daniel of Aksum
  • Excavations at Aksum

Ethiopian History

  • Lucy
  • The Æthyopians
    • Ethiopia in Biblical Greek “Αιθιοπια”
    • Herodotus’s Ethiopia
    • The Legendary Queen of Sheba
    • The Horn Of Africa
    • Enoch ‘The black prophet’
    • The Ethiopic Book of Enoch
    • ETHIOPIANISM
    • Ethiopia Mystery and antiquity
  • Wonderful Ethiopians
  • Unknown Kings of Ethiopia
    • The Great Pyramids part 1
    • The Construction of the Pyramids part 2
    • Who Built the Giza Pyramids? Part 3
  • Kebra Nagast
  • Aksumite Empire
  • The Zagwe Dynasty
  • The Gadaa System
  • The Battle of Adwa
    • The Victory of Adwa: A Fresh Perspective
    • Mussolini’s atrocity
  • Profiling Africa
  • National Parks
  • Pages
  • Pages
The Decline of the Empire External and Internal Troubles

Related Posts

An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity

Aksumite Empire

Preface

600px-Pergamon-Museum_-_Wandmalerei_3

Aksumite Empire

Excavations at Aksum

The Hatsani Daniel

Aksumite Empire

The Hatsani Daniel of Aksum

What It’s Like To Be A Billionaire In Ethiopia

https://youtu.be/UsczEq9RtqI
https://youtu.be/oT1LO-6OC-I

Travel

  • Ethiopia has Over 10,000 Megalithic Monuments dating Back to the 1st CenturyEthiopia has Over 10,000 Megalithic Monuments Dating Back to the 1st Century
  • ethiopia_ethiopian_wolf_35Brilliant Ethiopia: The Unique Wonder
  • F6BD7E94-BC77-4B3E-B905-7B140F12F5FDKenya Had an Elephant ‘Baby Boom’ — and Now You Can Adopt One
  • Addis_herald_omo_3910 Main Tourist Attractions Places in Africa
  • Homage to Entoto Park How the Old “Town in the Forest” is turning into a newly flowering tourist hubHomage to Entoto Park How the Old “Town in the Forest” is turning into a newly flowering tourist hub

Africa

  • 2B04558D-E562-4F0C-B0F8-36082FF2C299As Gas hold the key to Africa’s energy future , it also may Rescue Europe’s energy crisis
  • C1480A4F-9399-4DEC-8DE9-6CD659342646African entrepreneurs need to be taken seriously
  • United-States-of-AfricaUnited States of Africa: A dream that got Gaddafi killed at the hands of a desperate US
  • 3B1B58E3-5D40-4ADA-8835-29B316116181Africa Isn’t an Opinion or an Opiate: An Ode to the Ever Defiant Motherland
  • E0A49956-D481-44EF-9A41-0B34EF9BDFAEAfrica: The Mother of all Civilization

Culture

  • Or. 607The Ethiopian Emperor’s Manuscripts
  • 36540E1A-A477-4FDD-A4E7-2DD01514F57DEthiopian Manuscripts and Painting from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century
  • 184D8D78-8168-43A0-8F33-95AAC1CE81B2The Top Ten Ethiopia’s Endemic Wild Animals
  • 68B656DE-B1F3-47D4-9F6A-198C6FA6FCA3The New Face of Addis
  • 20-must-read-poems-ethiopian-poets20 Of The Best Poets And Poems of Ethiopia (Qene included)

Business

  • China-Ethiopia-forumEthiopia’s Export to China Grows Amid Booming FDI from Chinese Companies to the Country
  • 32AAAC40-C7CF-4A10-8C4A-D63F30DC6D07As Telebirr Increases it’s Subscribers to 18 mln, It’s Mother company Ethio Telecom launches 5G network
  • 57BD9DF7-CDDD-4722-AD63-F5A0C41A11B1Recovery Period: Inside Ethiopian Airlines’ 4-Pillar Growth Strategy
  • DC89FC8D-FC0B-4547-B6E6-7D8A4540717E12 investment opportunities in Ethiopia’s packaging industry
  • 3D2D6F24-5BB6-4943-AD60-DA8E222749C2Ethiopian Airlines leases two Dash 8-400 aircraft from TrueNoord

RSS Allfrica.com News feed

  • Africa: Sparking Change for African Women Leaders Through the Power of Data
  • Africa: AFROPAC Promises to Strengthen Public Finance Oversight During Pandemic Recovery
  • Africa: The Russia - Ukraine Conflict and Its Impact On the Infrastructure and Built Environment Industry in Africa
  • Africa: Liberia Hosts AFROPAC Virtual Conference
  • Africa: Ghana Enterprise Agency Partners With Ie University's Africa Center to Promote Women Entrepreneurship
  • West Africa: President Weah Receives Letters of Credence From Ambassadors of South Africa, Gambia, Czech Republic And Ecowas
  • Africa: Guterres in Senegal - 'Triple Crisis' in Africa Aggravated By War in Ukraine
  • Africa: 60 Start-Ups Across Africa to Get $4m Google Fund
  • Africa: Over 11.6 Million Confirmed Cases of Covid-19 Across Continent
  • Africa: ILO - Child Labor Rising Around the World
  • Abijitta-Shalla National Park
  • Alatish Ethiopian National Park
  • Awash National Park
  • Babille Elephant Sanctuary
  • Bahir Dar Blue Nile Millennium Park
  • Bale National Park; Ethiopia’s lesser-known Treasure
  • Bale Mountains National Park
  • Borena-Sayint National Park
  • Chebera Churchura National Park
  • Dati Wolel National park
  • Gambella National Park
  • Gambella National Park 2
  • Kafta-Sheraro National Park
  • Mago National Park
  • Maze National Park
  • Nechisar National Park, Ethiopia
  • Omo National Park 
  • The Semien Mountains
  • Yabello National Park
  • Yangudi Rassa National Park
© Addis Herald 2022
  • Contact us
en English
af Afrikaansam Amharicar Arabiczh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanel Greekhi Hindiit Italianja Japaneseko Koreanla Latinru Russianes Spanishsu Sudanesesw Swahilisv Swedish