November 11, 2018

Agriculture and Animal husbandry

Aksumite Ethiopia possessed a mainly agricultural and pastoral economy, and its geographical situation gave it access to an unusual variety of environments which could be seasonally exploited for crop growing or grazing (Connah 1987; Phillipson 1989). The agricultural resource base, depending on rainfall and soil quality, seems to have been of far richer potential in Aksumite times than today, according to the work of Butzer (1981). Although the decline of the Red Sea trade links removed Ethiopia from the Roman/Byzantine orbit, it still remained a relatively rich and powerful state, according to the Arab authors who occasionally mention the kingdom of the najashi (Ch. 4: 8). Much of this prosperity must have been due to the considerable agricultural and domestic and wild animal resources of the country, amplified by a certain amount of trade with the Arabs. The soils in the Aksum region may have suffered from excessive exploitation and erosion (though there are still some good farmlands in the area), but the rich lands to the south which were the heartland of the later Ethiopian kingdom were very fertile. Famine is apparently first noted in Ethiopia in the ninth century (Pankhurst 1961: 236 after Budge 1928: I, 275); the story of the Metropolitan John of Ethiopia (Ch. 4: 8.3) in the patriarchates of James (819-830) and Joseph (830-849) of Alexandria, attributes Ethiopia’s condition to war, plague, and inadequate rains (Evetts 1904: 508ff).

The existence of the dam at Qohayto (Littmann 1913: II, 149-52), and the basin Mai Shum at Aksum (Littmann 1913: II, 70-73) indicates that water conservation was practised (as was inevitable in a country linked so closely to South Arabia both culturally and in the nature of the environment). However, so far no excavations have been undertaken at these sites, and neither the dam nor the basin can be securely dated. Butzer (1981) suggested that there had been an earth dam set across the Mai Hejja in Aksum, perhaps to augment the flow of water into the Mai Shum basin, and there may have been another pond for water conservation at the foot of Mai Qoho hill (Ch. 5: 3; Alvares, ed. Beckingham and Huntingford 1961: 155), but again neither have yet been investigated. In short, though control of water for agricultural and drinking purposes can almost certainly be posited for Aksumite times, we have no contemporary reports or archaeological evidence to indicate the level to which irrigation or water-conservation were actually employed in the Aksumite kingdom.

Illustration 44. The Aksumite kingdom is the first kingdom to print cross sing in its official coin.

The importance with which at least one of the agricultural staples was regarded can be inferred by the depiction on all Aksumite gold coins of ears of bearded wheat or primitive two-row barley (both identifications have been proposed), acting as a frame for the head of the king. On some bronze coins, the wheat or barley-head is the sole motif on the reverse, and the important place accorded to it seems to indicate that it was the specially selected symbol of Aksum or its rulers. The inscription of Ezana about his Beja war (see Ch. 11: 5; DAE 4, 6 & 7 and Geza `Agmai) shows that the kings had access to stores of food and were able to issue food rations on a substantial scale when necessary. The Safra inscription (Drewes 1962: pp. 30ff) appears to deal with special allotments of food for specific purposes, possibly on the occasion of the residence of the king in the area. Meat, bread and beer are the basic subsistence foods mentioned. At the Gobedra rock-shelter very near Aksum, David Phillipson (1977) found evidence of finger millet apparently from pre-Aksumite times; but this has since turned out to be intrusive (Phillipson 1989). The Safra inscription appears to be the earliest mention of grain products such as beer, flour, and bread. Ethiopia’s special native cereal, Eragrostis teff, is not attested from Aksumite times, but, like wheat, barley and spelt, it is very likely to have been cultivated on the Ethiopian plateau where numerous ancient forms of these crops are found. So far no evidence from oven or platter types has been adduced from the excavated material which might lead one to assume that the characteristic injera-bread made from teff, now a staple of the Tigray diet, was known in Aksumite times.

The Russian scientist N. I. Vavilov investigated Ethiopian wheat and barley, and found that the majority was grown on the high plateaux between 2000 and 2800m, while the late Ruth Plant added a note in an unpublished article that the distribution of wheat and barley-growing regions in the north of Ethiopia closely follows that of the distribution map of Aksumite sites. Vavilov considered that Ethiopia was the centre of origin for cultivated barley (but see Fattovich 1989ii: 85). However, it is also possible that cultivated wheat and barley entered the region long ago from perhaps Egypt, where they have been found in contexts dating to around the fifth millenium BC. In any event, the existence of these crops in Ethiopia from an early period supports the possibility that settled farming communities had long lived on the plateaux of Ethiopia, prior to the South Arabian influences in the country. The crops they farmed were bequeathed to their Aksumite successors, though, as noted above, the identity of the grain ears depicted on the coins is still disputed. It has been identified as a primitive two-row barley (Munro- Hay 1978), and Vavilov (1931: 10), from coins brought from Ethiopia, identified it as a wheat, Triticum turgidum, subspecies Abyssinicum Vavilov. But the two coins he illustrates as `Abyssinian coins’ in his fig. 4 are, oddly enough, not Aksumite, but are bronze issues of early to mid 1st century Judaea, one dating to the time of Coponius (6- 6AD) or Ambibulus (9-12AD), the other to the time of Agrippa I, c42AD. Such coins have not otherwise been found in Ethiopia. A number of different animals are attested from the Aksumite period in Ethiopia. Inscriptions and literary references to Aksum mention cattle, sheep, camels, and elephants.

The latter was apparently not usually trained by the Ethiopians, according to Kosmas (Wolska-Conus 1973: 354; see Pankhurst 1974: 219-220). When the king wanted some for the show he had young ones taken to be brought up in captivity. Elephant tusks add Kosmas, were sent by ship to India, Persia, Himyar and the Roman empire. The `pack animals’ captured from the Tsarane of Afan (Ch. 11: 5; DAE 10) may have been donkeys or camels; camel bones and teeth were found at Adulis (Paribeni 1907: 451). Yoked (humpless) oxen are modelled in clay standing in the base of bowls found in some of the tombs at Aksum, possibly fashioned for some sort of religious purpose; humped cattle (zebu) figures come from Matara (Anfray 1967: 44-45), from the excavator’s second Aksumite period (which he dates to the sixth-eighth centuries). Cattle on the hoof, with iron and salt, were used to barter with western neighbours for gold, according to Kosmas (Wolska-Conus 1968: 360), and most inscriptions tell of the seizure of large numbers of animals as plunder from defeated enemies (Ch. 11: 5). Inscriptions also note that some animals were used for sacrificial purposes, or at least presented to the gods (Ch. 11: 5; DAE 10). One or two pottery figures of birds exist from Aksumite times, and (with a little imagination) we can perhaps identify chickens and pigeons or doves (Chittick 1974: pl. XIIc; Paribeni 1907: fig. 48; Wilding in Munro-Hay 1989). Among wild animals, the giraffe, taurelaphus (buffalo) and rhinoceros are mentioned by Kosmas (Wolska-Conus 1973: 314-321), the former being sometimes tamed and kept in the palace to amuse the king.

The Ethiopian buffalo was wild, in contrast to that of India, where it was used as a beast of burden and supplier of milk. The rhinoceros was called the aroue harisi, apparently from Ethiopian words meaning wild beast and plough (Wolska-Conus 1973: 317 n. 2.1). The latter designation apparently referred both to the shape of its snout and the use to which its thick skin was put. Kosmas saw a wild one at a distance and the stuffed skin of another in the royal palace. The monoceros or unicorn Kosmas admitted not having actually seen, but he did see four brass figures of his set up in the king’s palace. The ibex, lion, and perhaps some species of deer or gazelle are depicted in Aksumite art forms (Ch. 13: 3). Two small bronze figures from Aksum are possibly dogs (Chittick 1974: fig. 23). A number of agricultural tools, notably a sickle, also came from tomb finds (Munro-Hay 1989). The pottery and glass beakers and goblets found in the tombs might have been used for the local beer, sewa, or the honey wine, mesor tej, which are mentioned in the ancient inscriptions dealing with the issue of rations. Oil (vegetable) and butter are also mentioned and wines and oils were noted in the lists of imports (see below). Local oils were probably derived from linseed and nug, and olive oil was imported. Wine or oil presses, with basins, channels and spouts carved in the rock, are known, which date to Aksumite times (Littmann 1913), but vines are only mentioned by the Portuguese in later centuries (Pankhurst 1961: 213).