An outline, era by era

Kingdom of Aksum (Ethiopia/Eritrea)

Classical Antiquity · ~500 BCE – ~500 CE

The Kingdom of Aksum was a trading state in the highlands of northern Ethiopia and southern Eritrea. Its capital, Aksum, lay in Tigray, and its port, Adulis, stood on the Red Sea coast. The kingdom emerged in the first centuries CE, grew powerful from about the 3rd century, and lasted until roughly the 7th or 8th century. At its height it controlled the highlands, the coast, and for a time parts of southern Arabia.

Aksum sat on trade routes linking the Roman world, Egypt, Arabia and India with the African interior. It exported ivory, tortoiseshell and other goods, and it minted its own gold, silver and bronze coins, which was rare in Africa at the time. Its kings raised tall carved stone stelae over royal tombs. Around the 330s CE King Ezana adopted Christianity, making Aksum one of the first states to do so. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church grew from this change, and the Ge'ez script still used in Ethiopia and Eritrea comes from the language of Aksum.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Adulis and the Red Sea trade

    Event

    What happened

    In the first century CE a Greek-speaking merchant writes a guide to Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. It describes Adulis as a busy port where ivory, tortoiseshell and rhinoceros horn are sold, and says goods are carried inland to Aksum. It names a king, Zoskales, who rules the area and knows Greek.

    The rest is history

    The Periplus shows that the Aksumite state was already tied into long-distance trade by the first century CE. Excavations at Adulis and Aksum have found Roman, Egyptian and Indian goods, such as pottery and glass. Historians see this trade as one important source of the wealth behind the kingdom's growth, coinage and monuments, though it was not the only one. The text is usually dated to the middle of the first century CE, though some scholars argue for a later date.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryPeriplus of the Erythraean Sea. Greek merchant's guide, 1st century CE. Edition and translation by Lionel Casson, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
    2. BookMunro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991.Standard survey of the kingdom, its trade and its archaeology.
    3. BookPhillipson, David W. Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum, Its Antecedents and Successors. London: British Museum Press, 1998.

  2. Aksumite coinage

    Event

    What happened

    Around the end of the 3rd century CE, Aksumite kings begin to mint their own coins, with gold, silver and bronze issues. Early coins carry Greek inscriptions and the king's portrait, modelled on Roman and other Mediterranean coins. They carry the royal name and symbols such as the disc and crescent.

    The rest is history

    Minting coins marked Aksum as a state that counted itself among the great powers of the time. The coins served in trade and also spread the king's image across the region. After Ezana's conversion, the disc and crescent were replaced by the cross on coins. Aksumite coins have been found as far away as India and southern Arabia. A Persian writer of the 3rd century, Mani, listed Aksum among the four great kingdoms of the world, along with Persia, Rome and China.

    Sources

    1. BookMunro-Hay, Stuart, and Bent Juel-Jensen. Aksumite Coinage. London: Spink, 1995.
    2. BookMunro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991.

  3. King Ezana adopts Christianity

    Event

    What happened

    In the 4th century CE, King Ezana rules Aksum. His early inscriptions name the gods Astar, Beher and Meder, and his early coins show the disc and crescent. After a Syrian Christian named Frumentius, who had reached Aksum as a young captive, is made bishop by Athanasius of Alexandria, Ezana becomes Christian around the 330s. His later inscriptions give thanks to the Lord of Heaven, and his coins show the cross.

    The rest is history

    Frumentius's story is told by the Roman writer Rufinus around 400 CE. Ezana's own inscriptions and coins confirm the change of religion. Christianity became the faith of the court and slowly spread through the highlands. The church of Aksum stayed linked to the patriarchate of Alexandria, and this tie shaped the later Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The exact date of the conversion is debated, but it fell within Ezana's reign, about the 320s to 360s.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryRufinus of Aquileia. Ecclesiastical History, Book 10, c. 400 CE. Account of Frumentius in Aksum.
    2. PrimaryEzana Stone. Trilingual inscription of King Ezana in Ge'ez, Sabaean and Greek, 4th century CE, from Aksum.
    3. BookMunro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991.

  4. Ezana's campaigns on the Nile

    Event

    What happened

    In the 4th century CE, King Ezana sends an army against the Noba people and neighbouring peoples in the Nile region. His Greek and Ge'ez inscriptions at Aksum describe the campaign and the captives and goods taken. At this time the Kushite kingdom of Meroe, further up the Nile, is already in decline.

    The rest is history

    Kush had ruled the middle Nile for centuries, and its power was fading by the 4th century. Ezana's inscriptions record campaigns against the Noba and others, but they do not document a conquest of Meroe itself. Historians debate what part, if any, Aksum played in the end of Meroe, since Kush was already weakened by other forces, including pressure from the Noba. The Ezana inscriptions are among the few written sources for this period of the Nile valley.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryEzana Stone. Trilingual inscription of King Ezana, 4th century CE, from Aksum.
    2. BookMunro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991.

  5. The Queen of Sheba and Menelik

    Origin story

    The legend

    The Kebra Nagast tells how the Queen of Sheba, called Makeda, travels to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon. She returns to Ethiopia and gives birth to a son, Menelik. Menelik visits his father, then comes home carrying the Ark of the Covenant, which is kept at Aksum. His line becomes the royal house of Ethiopia.

    The rest is history

    The Kebra Nagast was composed in Ge'ez in the 14th century, long after Aksum's time. It draws on the biblical account of the Queen of Sheba. It was used to support the Solomonic dynasty, which took power in 1270. There is no evidence in the Aksumite period for Menelik or the Ark. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church still claims to keep the Ark at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum, but no outside scholar has examined it.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryKebra Nagast. Ge'ez text, 14th century CE. Translated by E. A. Wallis Budge as The Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelek, London: Oxford University Press, 1932.
    2. BookHubbard, David Allan. The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast. PhD thesis, University of St Andrews, 1957.
    3. BookMunro-Hay, Stuart. The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant: The True History of the Tablets of Moses. London: I. B. Tauris, 2005.

  6. The Ark of the Covenant at Aksum

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Many people believe that the real Ark of the Covenant, the chest holding the stone tablets of Moses, rests in a small chapel beside the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum. Only one guardian monk is allowed to see it, and he may never leave the chapel.

    The rest is history

    The claim comes from the Kebra Nagast and Ethiopian church tradition, and is held firmly by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. No independent scholar has been allowed to see the object. Ethiopian churches each keep a replica called a tabot, which is a consecrated altar slab, and the Aksum object may be one of these. The chapel where it is said to be kept was built in 1965. The original Church of Mary of Zion is said to date from the 4th century, though the present buildings are far later.

    Sources

    1. BookMunro-Hay, Stuart. The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant: The True History of the Tablets of Moses. London: I. B. Tauris, 2005.
    2. BookHancock, Graham. The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. London: Heinemann, 1992.Popular book that argues for the Ark's presence in Aksum.

  7. The Nine Saints

    Origin story

    The legend

    Ethiopian tradition says that around 480 CE nine monks from the Roman East arrive in Aksum. They found monasteries, translate the Bible into Ge'ez, and spread Christianity through the countryside. Among them are saints such as Aregawi, Pantelewon and Garima.

    The rest is history

    The tradition is recorded in Ethiopian hagiography written much later. Monasticism did take hold in Ethiopia in the late Aksumite period, and the monastery of Debre Damo is thought to date from this time. The identity and dates of the individual saints are uncertain. The Garima Gospels, kept at the Abuna Garima monastery and traditionally linked to Saint Garima, are among the oldest illuminated Christian manuscripts, and radiocarbon testing in the early 2010s placed them in roughly the 5th to 7th centuries CE.

    Sources

    1. BookPhillipson, David W. Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum, Its Antecedents and Successors. London: British Museum Press, 1998.
    2. BookMunro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991.

  8. The Queen of Sheba's palace at Aksum

    Folk tale

    The legend

    Local tradition in Aksum points to a ruined building near the great stelae and calls it the palace, or bath, of the Queen of Sheba. Visitors are told that the queen lived here before her journey to Solomon.

    The rest is history

    The ruin is a large palace complex, known as Dungur, dated by archaeologists to the 6th century CE, many centuries after any Sheba of the Bible. It was excavated in 1966 to 1968 by Neville Chittick and his colleagues. It is one of the biggest known Aksumite buildings, with a large footprint and many rooms. Another site nearby, a pool called Mai Shum, is also linked to the queen in local stories, though it is a reservoir.

    Sources

    1. BookPhillipson, David W. Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum, Its Antecedents and Successors. London: British Museum Press, 1998.
    2. BookMunro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991.

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