Aksum
I | INTRODUCTION |
Aksum, ancient kingdom that flourished in northeastern
Africa from the 1st century bc
until the early 7th century ad.
Its capital was the city of Aksum, which lies in the northern part of
present-day Ethiopia. A powerful trading center, Aksum controlled the highlands
of northern Ethiopia and the Red Sea coast of present-day Eritrea. Culturally,
it was closely associated with the people of southern Arabia, who spoke related
languages and followed similar traditions. Aksumite kings built massive stelae
(stone pillars) to adorn their tombs, and some of these stelae still stand
today.
II | POLITICAL HISTORY |
The kingdom of Aksum developed from a group of
smaller states in the region. The most important of these states was Da’amat,
which had existed since the 5th century BC and had its capital to the east at
Yeha. Aksum is first mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean
Sea, a Greek guide to shipping in the Red Sea that was written probably
in the 1st century ad. By this
time Aksum was a fully developed state trading through its Red Sea port of
Adulis, where many ships of neighboring countries anchored.
The first known Aksumite king was Zoskales. He
is mentioned in the Periplus, which suggests that he reigned some time
before ad 100. Inscriptions at a
temple at Ma’rib in Yemen indicate that a king known as Gedarat reigned in about
200. These inscriptions show that Aksumite armies had occupied parts of southern
Arabia by this time. In the middle of the 3rd century another Aksumite king,
Azeba, was allied with Arabian rulers. A Greek inscription from a site north of
Aksum in Eritrea refers to another king, Sembrouthes, around this same period.
This inscription describes Sembrouthes as “king of kings,” implying that he
reigned over a number of subordinate states whose rulers paid him tribute.
The earliest known Aksumite coins, from about
270, bear the name of King Endubis. From this time on, a series of coins
provides the names of rulers until the early 7th century. Aksumite kings of the
3rd and 4th centuries conducted military campaigns on both sides of the Red Sea
and erected the large stone stelae for which Aksum is famous.
One of the most important Aksumite kings was
Ezana, who ruled for several decades in the mid-4th century. Several
inscriptions describe his extensive military campaigns. At least one of these
campaigns was directed west towards Kush, a Nubian state in what is now southern
Egypt and northern Sudan. Some scholars believe that Ezana was responsible for
the destruction of Meroë, the ancient capital of Kush, in the middle of the 4th
century. The discovery of fragments of two Aksumite inscriptions and one coin in
the ruins of Meroë strongly supports this view. Ezana also converted to
Christianity in 333, which would profoundly affect Aksumite culture. (For more
information on his conversion to Christianity, see the Religion section
of this article.)
Little is known of the kings who reigned
after Ezana until Kaleb, in the early 6th century. Kaleb reasserted Aksumite
control over areas of southern Arabia, claiming that he was protecting
Christians from persecution by a local Jewish ruler, Yusuf Asar. Prior to
Kaleb’s invasion in about 520, there had been sporadic Aksumite military
activity in southwestern Arabia since the time of Gedarat in the mid-3rd
century. While treaties and alliances had been made with local rulers, it does
not seem that Aksumite kings before Kaleb had ever established permanent rule in
the area. Aksumite control in Arabia did not last long, however, and over the
next hundred years the kingdom’s military power and trade connections in the Red
Sea area diminished rapidly. The spread of Islam in the 7th century isolated
Aksum, confining Aksumite influence to its immediate surroundings. By the
mid-7th century Aksum was no longer a powerful state, and the kingdom finally
disintegrated in the 10th century. Some scholars believe that Aksum’s collapse
was hastened by overexploitation of the area’s natural resources, which led to
soil degradation, erosion, and food shortages.
III | ECONOMY |
The power of Aksum was based largely on
trade. The Red Sea was an important thoroughfare for trading vessels at the
time. Merchants from the Roman Empire traveled up and down the sea, trading in
harbors along both the African and Arabian coasts, and sailing with the
favorable monsoon winds on to India. Aksumites exported local products such as
ivory, tortoise shell, hippopotamus hide, spices, incense, gold, obsidian,
emeralds and other precious stones, and slaves. These items were exchanged for
manufactured goods from the Mediterranean, including iron weapons, articles made
of precious metals, glassware, cloth of great variety, garments, pottery, wine,
and olive oil. Excavated Aksumite tombs contain many of these foreign objects,
particularly glassware.
For the first few centuries of the kingdom’s
existence, trade was conducted by barter and direct exchange of commodities. In
about ad 270, during the reign of
King Endubis, Aksum began minting coins in the style of Roman coins. Coinage
made the exchange of products and tax collection more convenient, facilitating
Aksumite trade. Aksumite coins were made of gold, silver, and bronze, and
carried the name of the ruler in whose name they were issued. The coins are
therefore important to historians’ understanding of the history of Aksum,
providing royal names and a rough chronology of events.
As in most ancient societies, the internal
economy of Aksum was based mainly on agriculture. The kingdom produced enough
food to be self-sufficient. The main cereal crop may have been wheat, since a
head of wheat is shown on coins. Aksumites most likely also grew teff, an
indigenous cereal grain widely used in the region today. Although Aksum commonly
imported iron weapons, iron was also smelted locally and manufactured into tools
and weapons.
IV | RELIGION |
Little is known about Aksumite religion
before the conversion of King Ezana to Christianity. The names of some of the
gods who were worshipped have survived. The chief god was Astar, associated with
the Greek god Zeus. Mahrem was a war god, like the Greek god Ares, and a patron
of the royal family. It is not known how the gods were worshipped, though the
remains of a number of religious buildings still exist. The largest such
structure still standing is in Yeha. In these buildings, archaeologists have
found objects such as pottery animal figures, perhaps placed there as offerings.
Stone altars were used for the burning of incense.
According to traditional accounts, two
Christian Syrian boys, Aedisius and Frumentius, introduced Christianity to Aksum
in the early 4th century. Aksumites captured the boys when they put their ship
into port to obtain supplies during a voyage in the Red Sea. They were taken to
the capital and employed at the royal court where Frumentius, due to his
education, became secretary to King Ella Amida. When the king died, Ezana, who
was still a child, assumed the throne, and Frumentius became his teacher and
adviser. Frumentius used his position to convert the royal family to
Christianity in 333 and to encourage Christian missionaries to spread the
religion to the rest of the kingdom. The coins from Ezana’s reign carry a
representation of the Christian cross in place of the earlier pagan emblem of a
disc and crescent.
Frumentius traveled to Alexandria, in Egypt,
to ask Saint Athanasius, the head of the Coptic Church (the Egyptian Christian
church), to appoint a bishop for the developing Christian community of Aksum.
Athanasius appointed Frumentius bishop and sent him back to Aksum to continue
his missionary work. All subsequent heads of the Aksumite church were appointed
by the Egyptian patriarch of Alexandria and were Egyptian Copts.
In the 5th century the Coptic Church,
including the church of Aksum, split off from the main Christian churches of
Rome and Constantinople. Coptic Christians embraced the doctrine of
Monophysitism, the belief that Jesus Christ possessed only one, divine, nature
and no human nature. This doctrine went against the orthodox Christian doctrine
that Christ was both divine and human. The Council of Chalcedon condemned
Monophysitism in 451, and since that time the Coptic Church has been independent
of other Christian churches.
After the Council of Chalcedon, priests who
continued to teach Monophysitism were persecuted in the eastern Roman Empire,
and many migrated to Aksum. The influx of priests, along with the support of the
royal family, strengthened missionary efforts in Aksum. Many churches and
monasteries were founded after 451, some of which are still in use today.
The Aksumite church developed into the
Abyssinian Church, the church of Ethiopia. While similar to that of the Coptic
Church, the ritual of the Abyssinian Church contains many features different
from those of other Christian churches. These may be derived from Aksum’s
pre-Christian religion or from ancient Jewish practices, as Aksum’s people were
often in contact with Jewish communities in southern Arabia. The Coptic
patriarch of Alexandria continued to appoint the head of the Abyssinian Church
until the 1950s, when the Ethiopian church became independent from the Coptic
Church.
V | SOCIETY |
Very little is known of the social hierarchy
of the kingdom of Aksum. Scholars believe that a class of nobles surrounded the
king. Beneath the nobles were merchants, artisans, and villagers who grew crops
and tended animals. Aksumites owned slaves, many of whom were prisoners of war,
but it is not known how they were employed. Wealth was probably derived from
ownership of land.
The kingdom of Aksum contained a number of
important towns in addition to Aksum. The Red Sea port of Adulis was one of the
largest. It contained stone churches and houses, the latter probably belonging
to prosperous merchants. Other towns were located along the route that led from
Adulis to Aksum. Many stone buildings have been found away from the towns; these
may have been the residences of rich local landlords. Wealthy Aksumites lived
comfortable lives and used luxury domestic items—such as ceramics, glassware,
and fabrics—imported from abroad. The dwellings of town and rural workers were
likely round huts made of stone or mud with conical thatched roofs, similar to
rural houses in Ethiopia today.
The Aksumite diet would have varied, depending
on social class. The staple was likely a cereal dish, but the upper classes also
would have had such imported luxuries as wine and olive oil. The alcoholic honey
drink tej (mead), a common beverage in modern Ethiopia, would have been
available to everyone. Workers and rural people would have eaten injera
(flat, unleavened bread) and porridge made of local cereal, probably wheat or
barley.
Aksum is said to have imported cloth and
ready-made garments, but almost nothing is known of the styles of dress. The
cloth was linen, wool, or cotton. Archaeologists have found loom weights in
Aksum, suggesting that Aksumites wove their own cloth as well. People in rural
areas may also have worn leather.
VI | ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT |
The city of Aksum is famous for the large
stone stelae that were erected to mark royal burial places. These enormous
single pieces of stone, weighing hundreds of tons each, were quarried a few
kilometers away from Aksum, brought to the burial sites, and raised into place—a
process that would have required an enormous amount of labor. The largest
stele was 33 m (108 ft) long. This stele fell in antiquity and still lies
where it fell, broken into several pieces. Of the stelae still standing, the
tallest is 24 m (79 ft) tall. Some stelae were carved to represent the facades
of palaces, with false windows and doors and other decorations. The earlier,
smaller, stelae were left plain. All the stelae were erected before the
introduction of Christianity in the mid-4th century, although no exact dates can
be attributed to them.
The language of Aksum was Ge’ez, which was
written with characters derived from alphabets in use in southern Arabia for
related languages. Writing from the Aksum period is known only from official
inscriptions in stone. Aksumites may have used other materials, such as papyrus
or parchment, for less formal purposes. Aksumites likely translated the Bible
into Ge’ez, but no period Bibles have survived. Some royal Aksumite inscriptions
were in Greek, a language commonly used for trade as well as for official
purposes. Ge’ez, the basis for the modern Amharic script of Ethiopia, is now
used only in the rituals of the Ethiopian church.
Although no longer the seat of kings, Aksum
is still regarded with veneration in Ethiopia and is the subject of numerous
legends that contain elements of historic truth. One legend calls Aksum the home
of the Queen of Sheba. According to Ethiopian national tradition, the Queen of
Sheba is said to have married King Solomon of Israel and given birth to Menelik,
the legendary first emperor of Ethiopia. Another legend claims that Aksum is the
resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, which Menelik is said to have taken
from the Temple in Jerusalem. While such legends are difficult to verify, there
is no question that Aksum was an important political and cultural center in
ancient times, and one whose influence is felt to this day in Ethiopia.
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