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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Proto-Aksumite Period: an overview |
Authors: | Fattovich, Rodolfo Bard, Kathryn A. |
Year: | 2001 |
Periodical: | Annales d'Éthiopie |
Volume: | 17 |
Pages: | 3-24 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Ethiopia Eritrea |
Subjects: | Axum polity archaeology history traditional polities |
Abstract: | The period between the decline in the 4th/3rd centuries BC of the Ethio-Sabean State (known as Da'amat) that had emerged in northern Ethiopia and central Eritrea in the early to mid-first millennium BC, and the rise of the kingdom of Aksum in the first century AD in the same region is not well known. Beginning in 1993, archaeological investigations have been conducted under the direction of the authors at Bieta Giyorgis, near Aksum. The results of these investigations have provided new evidence on the origins and development of Aksum. They suggest that the kingdom originated from a local polity, most likely centred at Bieta Giyorgis, that emerged in the 4th century BC after the decline of the Da'amat State in Tigray. This formative period of the Aksumite kingdom has been tentatively named the 'Proto-Aksumite Period', The material evidence of this period (ceramics and funeral monuments) is already Aksumite in style but has distinctive traits of later Aksumite materials. Thus the Proto-Aksumite Period constitutes a break with the anterior phase and announces the cultural accomplishments of the Aksumite Period. Bibliogr., ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract, edited] |