page_title: Kingdom of Aksum
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Kingdom of Aksum / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: In the collection of the Archaeological Museum in Axum, Ethiopia. This is an example of a figural spout found on Axumite ceramic vessels. An intact example appears below. Spouts of this type feature a female head with a distinctive hairstyle or head covering that conforms tightly to the skull until it flares outward at a ninety-degree angle at a point between the cheekbones and the chin. Think Marlo Thomas in "That Girl." I'm tempted to say vessels of this type were votive goods associated with a goddess cult, which if correct, might date them to a time before the Axumite King Ezana converted to Christianity in the third century. I also see possible phallic imagery in these spouts. Envision the jar turned so the face is looking away from you, and what have you got? On the other hand, one of my viewers observed the head reflects the common hairstyle in Tigray, the northern Ethiopian provice in which Axume is located. In any case, I'm no Joseph Campbell, nor even a cultural anthropologist, so I will leave the reconstruction of Axumite spiritual beliefs and fashion to others. The Axumite Kingdom evolved from a city-state to a regional power between the second century before the current era and the second century of the current era. At its peak between the third and sixth centuries of the current era, Axum controlled inter-regional and Red Sea trade. Axum is believed to have traded widely, with contacts in Byzantium, Alexandria and southern Europe. Axum began to decline in the seventh century with the spread of Islam, which severed the trade routes that had been Axum's economic lifeblood. A remnant of the Axum Kingdom persisted in the Blue Nile region until a rebellion finished it off in the tenth century. I've complied with restrictions on the use of flash, and taken photos only when permitted by the museum.
context_page_description: The Kingdom of Aksum, also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was an ancient kingdom centered in Northern Ethiopia, in the Tigray region as well as what is now Eritrea. Axumite rulers styled themselves as King of kings, king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Saba, Salhen, Tsiyamo, Beja and of Kush.
  Ruled by the Aksumites, it existed from approximately 80 BC to AD 825. The polity was centered in the city of Axum and grew from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period around the 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD.
  Aksum became a major player on the commercial route between the Roman Empire and Ancient India. The Aksumite rulers facilitated trade by minting their own Aksumite currency, with the state establishing its hegemony over the declining Kingdom of Kush. It also regularly entered the politics of the kingdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and eventually extended its rule over the region with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom. The Manichaei prophet Mani regarded Axum as one of the four great powers of his time, the others being Persia, Rome, and China.
  The Aksumites erected monumental stelae, which served a religious purpose in pre-Christian times.
context_section_description: Largely on the basis of Carlo Conti Rossini's theories and prolific work on Ethiopian history, Aksum was previously thought to have been founded by the Sabaeans, who spoke a language from the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Evidence suggests that Semitic-speaking Aksumites semiticized the Agaw people, who originally spoke other Afroasiatic languages from the family's Cushitic branch, and had already established an independent civilization in the territory before the arrival of the Sabaeans.
  
  Scholars like Stuart Munro-Hay thus point to the existence of an older kingdom known as Dʿmt, which flourished in the area between the tenth and fifth centuries BC, prior to the proposed Sabaean migration in the fourth or fifth century BC. They also cite evidence indicating that Sabaean settlers resided in the region for little more than a few decades. Sabaean influence is now thought to have been minor, limited to a few localities, and disappearing after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of D'mt or some proto-Aksumite state. As George Hatke put it:
  The most significant and lasting impact of these colonists was the establishment of a writing system and the introduction of Semitic speech—both of which the Ethiopians modified considerably. . . . South Arabian culture [was] a foreign commodity from which the Ethiopians were able to freely pick and chose when they saw fit, rather than an entire civilization imposed by foreign rulers.
  The Ge'ez language is no longer universally thought of, as previously assumed, to be an offshoot of Sabaean or Old South Arabian, and there is some linguistic (though not written) evidence of Semitic languages being spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia since approximately 2000 BC. However, the Ge'ez script later replaced Epigraphic South Arabian in the Kingdom of Aksum 
  .
caption: An Axumite jar spout
exif: {"Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D70", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2007:10:30 11:39:15", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:10:30 11:39:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:10:30 11:39:15", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-3/2", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Shade", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "130", "EXIF SubSecTime": "80", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "80", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "80", "EXIF ColorSpace": "0", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1659", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1654", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "195", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}