November 11, 2018

Local Industries

The economy of Aksum in the days of its prosperity was flourishing enough to support a selection of specialised local industries. Perhaps the most impressive was the pottery (Anfray 1966; Wilding in Munro-Hay 1989), large numbers of both luxury and utilitarian wares being produced in very varied, sometimes elegant shapes. Pottery could be finished in a number of ways; elaborately decorated with incised or stamped patterns, slipped, painted, or burnished. There may have been a local glass industry (see also below), and the discovery of faience vessels in typical Aksumite shapes leads to the impression that it too was locally made (Chittick 1974).

Skins and hides were presumably used for clothing and bedding in the colder months. Woven fabrics may have been produced, but there is no actual evidence except for the loom-weights excavated (Wilding in Munro-Hay 1989), and Kosmas’ (Wolska-Conus 1968) allusion to Aksumites wearing white cloth kilts or loin-cloths. The draperies, sometimes apparently fringed, shown covering the kings’ shoulders on the coins were possibly among the imported garments mentioned by the Periplus (Huntingford 1980), as was also perhaps the gold-worked linen kilt worn by Kaleb in Malalas’ description (ed. Migne 1860; see Ch. 7: 2 above). Cotton may have come from Meroë (see p. 228), or perhaps from other areas within Aksumite control.

The many stone implements found at Aksum were probably made for leather-working or for ivory and bone carving; ivory, bone, or wood handles have been found in certain tombs (Munro-Hay 1989). An interesting ethnographic parallel for the use of obsidian tools, apparently limited to the scraping of animal hides among the Gurage, Sidamo, and Arussi peoples of present-day Southern Ethiopia is supplied by Gallagher (1974). There must also have been local workshops for metal objects, many examples of which have been found during excavations in Ethiopia. Some objects might have been imported. But such items as the statues of gold, silver, and bronze which inscriptions mention as raised to the gods in celebration of victories (Ch. 11: 5; DAE 4, 6 & 7, Geza `Agmai) would very likely have been of Aksumite manufacture and style.

A bronze belt buckle, with inlaid glass and silver decoration including crosses of typical Aksumite style as seen on the coins, may also have been a local product (Chittick 1974); if so, this confirms that there was probably a local glass industry as well. Helen Morrison, who catalogued and studied the glass from Aksum (Morrison in Munro-Hay 1989), found that a considerable number of unusual colours of glass came from the Aksum excavations and that some painted designs on glass were, so far, unattested elsewhere; features which may go towards confirming that the Aksumites set up their own glass workshops. A glass-kiln has in fact been reported from Aksum, but the find has not yet been confirmed or published.

Illustration 45. A bronze belt buckle decorated with silver crosses and inlay of dark-blue glass, from the Tomb of the Brick Arches at Aksum. Photo BIEA.

If local workers succeeded to imported mint-masters in the making of dies for the coinage, as seems probable, this may account for the gradual decline of standards of discussing; but the Aksumites compensated to some extent for the less skilled work by the inlaying of gold on the bronze and silver using mercury-gilding. Stone-working was very highly developed, as the stelae and other carved objects show, and the mason’s yards must have been continually busy shaping the blocks needed for corners, doorways, paving and so on. Carved stone capitals, bases and water-spouts were among the more common categories of decorated stonework found during excavations (see Ch. 13: 3). Bricks, too, used in tombs and certain special installations were surely made and fired nearby.