A very large number of stone tools are noted by various excavators at Aksum and other sites. They generally seem to be smallish scrapers, made of such materials as agate, chalcedony, and obsidian (Munro-Hay 1989; Anfray 1963: pl. CXIb). Probably they were used to treat some other material, such as skins, wood, or ivory. Paribeni […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay Owing to the lack of inscriptions and other sources of information, this period is very inadequately documented. A regulation of Constantius II of the late 350s, in the legal text called the Codex Theodosianus (Pharr 1952: 380, 12.12.2) speaks of persons traveling (presumably on official business) to the Aksumites and Himyarites. It reads; […]
14-1. Social Classes By Stuart Munro-Hay We have remarkably little information about the stratification of Aksumite society, but some suggestions can be made using indications from archaeological and other evidence. Mobility between classes, inheritance, marriage status or other family arrangements is all at present quite outside our knowledge. Polygamy can perhaps be assumed by analogy with […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay The kingship was thus of a sacred or semi-sacred character (for a study of this aspect in later times see Caquot 1957). On the coins, the reigning monarch is depicted equipped with a regalia formed from various insignia whose significance is in some cases obvious, and in others obscure. The majority of […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay Whatever was the cause of the end of the former Aksumite kingdom, a new centre eventually appeared in the province of Lasta to the south under a dynasty, apparently of Cushitic (Agaw) origin, later regarded as usurpers, called the Zagwé (Taddesse Tamrat 1972: 53ff; Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography 1975: 200ff). The existence […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay There is one internal clue to the end of Aksum as a power center; the inscriptions of a certain Hatsani (ruler, or perhaps at this time merely commander or general) Daniel, found on one of the ancient granite pedestals at Aksum (Littmann 1913: IV, nos. 12-14). The title Hatsani is that which became […]
Perhaps the most frequently quoted remark about Ethiopia occurs in a brief excursus on the Ethiopian church which Edward Gibbon included in his monumental work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, written at the end of the eighteenth century; `Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their religion the Æthiopians slept near […]
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 […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay The military establishment was undoubtedly one of the key institutions of the Aksumite monarchy, and as such was closely associated with it. The king himself was the commander-in-chief, but royal brothers and sons, and perhaps other relatives, were frequently put in charge of campaigns when the king was occupied elsewhere. The semisacred […]
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 […]
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