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An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity
November 11, 2018

Food

The Aksumites would doubtless have served their food in some of their large range of pottery vessels, after preparing it in the coarse-ware cooking vessels on open fires, in ovens or on charcoal-fed stoves. Much of their diet would have consisted of products of the local environment. Beef or mutton, bread, beer (sewa), honey wine or mead (tej), with various sorts of vegetables and fruits are to be expected locally, while imported wines of Laodicea and Italy, spices, and olive oil added to the luxury of the tables of the richer citizens. Archaeological evidence for the importation of wines and oils is supplied by the amphorae used to transport them; Paribeni even suggested that tar found in one amphora may have been used as a preservative, as in Greek resinated wines. It is unknown whether the Aksumites themselves cultivated the vine. Honey may have been used as a sweetener as well as a drink. Many of these foodstuffs are mentioned by the Safra inscription (Drewes 1962: 41, 48-9) or by the Periplus (Huntingford 1980: 22).

From the numerous medium-sized bowls found, it may be deduced that a part of the diet consisted of something like a cereal porridge or gruel. Wheat or barley-cakes and bread were also probably made, and the importance of the grain is illustrated by its depiction in a prominent position as a frame for the king’s head on many Aksumite coins. Large numbers of grindstones testify to the preparation of flour for bread at, for example, Matara and Adulis. Anfray (1974: 752) noted that they are of the round, turning, type at Adulis, but oblong on the plateau sites. Anfray (1963: pl. CXLVI and 1965: pl. LXXIII, 4) also mentions small mortars from the pre-Aksumite period, perhaps for use in the preparation of cosmetics rather than food. Dairy products would certainly have been part of the diet, and doubtless, eggs were eaten. For meat, there was beef or mutton, and also any wild animals which might have been considered edible. By one hearth in Adulis, the French excavator Francis Anfray found a cooking-pot still containing the mutton bones of a meal never cleared away (Anfray 1974: 753). The pork was not eaten in later times and possibly this abstention, observed by the Jews and Muslims as well as the Orthodox Ethiopians for practical health reasons, was of early origin as domestic pigs are not attested. Dietary prohibitions are later reiterated in the Kebra Nagast (Budge 1922: 159).

Fishing may have been practised. The turtles which produced the `tortoise-shell’ may also have added to the coastal Aksumites’ diet, though creatures without fins and scales are among those included in the later list of prohibited foods. Those who brought the tortoise-shell to the market are referred to by the author of the Periplus as Ikhthuophagoi, or fish-eaters. The excavations at Adulis produced both fish-bones and bronze fish-hooks (Paribeni 1907: 483, 540). Shell-fish were also later prohibited, again possibly an old custom. No early visitor has said whether the Aksumites liked raw beef, cut from the living animal, as Bruce (1790) reported (to the horrified disbelief of his eighteenth century English readers) about the Ethiopians of his day.

Almost certainly some foodstuffs would have been eaten from wooden or basketwork vessels (the typical Ethiopian `table’ today, the mesob, is of basketwork). Wooden cooking or eating utensils, and basketwork storage bins can also be presumed with some likelihood. In the lowest building level at the Maryam Tseyon site in Aksum, an exceptional find was a row of large pithoi or storage pots, probably for bulk storage of some sort of dry grain (de Contenson 1963i: pl. XII).

Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity

1. Introduction

2. Legend, Literature, and Archaeological Discovery

  • 2-1. The Legends of Aksum
    2-2. Aksum in Ancient Sources
    2-3. The Rediscovery of Aksum in Modern Times

3. The City and the State

  • 3-1. The Landscape
    3-2. Origins and Expansion of the Kingdom
    3-3. The Development of Aksum; an Interpretation
    3-4. Cities, Towns, and Villages
    3-5. The Inhabitants
    3-6. Foreign Relations

4. Aksumite History

  • 4-1  The Pre-Aksumite Period
    4-2  Early Aksum until the Reign of Gadarat
    4-3  Gadarat to Endubis
    4-4  Endubis to Ezana
    4-5  Ezana after his Conversion, to Kaleb
    4-6. Kaleb to the End of the Coinage
    4-7. The Post-Aksumite Period

5. The Capital City

  • 5-1. The Site
    5-2. The Town Plan
    5-3. Portuguese Records of Aksum
    5-4. Aksumite Domestic Architecture
    5-5. The Funerary Architecture
    5-6. The Stelae

6. The Civil Administration

  • 6-1. The Rulers
    6-2. Officials of the Government

7. The Monarchy

  • 7-1. The King and the State
    7-2. The Regalia
    7-3. Dual Kingship
    7-4. Succession
    7-5. The Royal Titles
    7-6. The Coronation

8. The Economy

  • 8-1. Population
    8-2. Agriculture, Husbandry, and Animal Resources
    8-3. Metal Resources
    8-4. Trade, Imports and Exports
    8-5. Local Industries
    8-6. Food

9. The Coinage

  • 9-1. The Origins
    9-2. Introduction and Spread of the Coinage
    9-3. Internal Aspects of the Coinage
    9-4. The Mottoes
    9-5. The End of the Coinage
    9-6. Modern Study of the Coinage

10. Religion

  • 10-1. The Pre-Christian Period
    10-2. The Conversion to Christianity
    10-3. Abreha and Atsbeha
    10-4. Ecclesiastical Development
    10-5. Churches

11. Warfare

  • 11-1. The Inscriptional Record
    11-2. The Military Structure
    11-3. Weapons
    11-4. The Fleet
    11-5. The Aksumite inscriptions

12. Material Culture; the Archaeological Record

  • 12-1. Pottery
    12-2. Glassware
    12-3. Stone Bowls
    12-4. Metalwork
    12-5. Other Materials

13. Language, Literature, and the Arts

  • 13-1. Language
    13-2. Literature and Literacy
    13-3. The Arts
    13-4. Music and Liturgical Chant

14. Society and Death

  • 14-1. Social Classes
    14-2. Funerary Practice

15. The Decline of Aksum

  • 15-1. The Failure of Resources
    15-2. The Climate
    15-3. External and Internal Political Troubles
    15-4. The Najashi Ashama ibn Abjar
    15-5. The NatsaniDaniell

16.The British Institute in Eastern Africa’s Excavations at Aksum

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