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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
  • Kebra Nagast
  • Aksumite Empire
  • The Zagwe Dynasty
  • The Gadaa System
  • The Battle of Adwa
    • Mussolini’s atrocity
  • Profiling Africa
  • National Parks
  • Pages
  • Pages
The Decline of the Empire External and Internal Troubles

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=excYNB26fhs

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Culture

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  • Christmas in Lalibela‘Genna’: Christ’s birthday anniversary, an indispensable part of Ethiopian culture
  • the weekendThe Weeknd’s Next Album Will Be Inspired By BLM Movement, COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Gena-AT-lALIBELA-1500x1000_1000x667Lalibela: 11 churches, each sculpted out of a single block of stone 800 years ago
  • cassiopiaCassiopeia: The Most Beautiful Constellation To The Night Sky.

Business

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