By Stuart Munro-Hay According to the Ethiopian traditional accounts of the conversion, Frumentius was captured during the reign of Ella Alada (Amida?), who was succeeded by two brothers, Abreha and Atsbeha, who were the first Christian kings. It has been suggested (Hahn 1983) that these names were constituent parts of the titulary of Ezana and his […]
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 […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay 1. The Landscape A traveler arriving at Gabaza, the coast station and customs point for the port city of Adulis (Ch. 3: 4) a short distance inland, may well have looked westwards towards Aksum from the hot and humid coastal plain by the Red Sea shore with some trepidation. As James Bruce […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay From the reign of king Endubis, we are fortunate in having the newly issued coinage, in gold, silver, and bronze, to guide us in tracing out a framework for the history and chronology of Aksum (Munro-Hay, loc. var.; Hahn 1983). The issue of a coinage (Ch. 9) is of very great importance in […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay There are several hints that things began to go wrong in the Aksumite state in the later sixth and the early seventh century. Kaleb seems to have lost both prestige and an expensive war during his contretemps with Abreha, though after his death some sort of peace was patched up. The invasion may […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay This final chapter is based on a talk given by the author to the Society of Antiquaries of London in October 1987, designed more or less to coincide with the publication of the report on the excavations undertaken for the BIEA by Dr. Neville Chittick at Aksum from 1972-1974. Chittick’s untimely death in […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay The metal equipment used by the Aksumites seems to fall into two categories. In the first, items of luxury, such as jewelry, costly boxes, small decorative objects, bowls, and figures in the round appear in gold, silver, and bronze, or combinations of these metals. Appliqué plaques in bronze, decorated with enameling, glass […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay There are numerous occasions when ships and shipping are mentioned in Aksumite contexts. The various expeditions and trading ventures overseas would suggest that Aksum was mistress of a fleet of some kind. Though there is no really clear statement to that effect in the local sources, a fleet is mentioned in the […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay 1. The Site Aksum was built on gently sloping land which rose, north and east of the city, to two flat-topped hills, now called Beta Giyorgis and Mai Qoho respectively. The hills around the town are formed from a granitic rock, nepheline syenite (Littmann 1913: II, 6; Butzer 1981). Between Beta Giyorgis […]
By Stuart Munro-Hay The process of development of the Aksumite state is obscure. The earliest surviving literary references to Aksum, in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Huntingford 1980) and Ptolemy’s Geography (Stevenson 1932), together with some finds of early date from the site itself (Munro-Hay 1989), indicate that the city was probably established at the […]
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