Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay

200AD  
 
 
GDRT, BYGT 
South Arabian inscriptions 
230AD `DBH, GRMT 
 
 
Sembrouthes 
 
250AD  
Nefas Mawcha 
 
 
Walls M2, M5, and M9 
 
 
Gudit Tomb; Gudit, Southeastern, and GA stelae fields 
260AD DTWNS and ZQRNS  
Period 3. Endubis to Ezana before his conversion. c270AD to c330AD.  
270AD  
 
 
Endubis* 
Main Stele Field 
 
Coinage begins 
 
 
 
Dressed stelae 
 
 
Wall M1 
300AD  
 
 
 
Decorated stelae 
 
Aphilas* 
 
 
 
Tunnel Complex, East Tomb, Sh.T.B 
 
Wazeba* 
 
 
Ousanas* 
 
 
 
Tomb of Brick Arches 
 
Ezana* 
Inscriptions, 
Anza stele, Brick Vaulted Structure, Mausoleum, Matara 
stele. 
Period 4. Ezana as a Christian to Kaleb. c330AD to c520AD.  
330AD   
 
 
Christian Inscriptions and coins.  
 
 
2nd platform extension 
 
 
Wall M'1, East wall, East steps 
 
Anonymous Christian coins 
 
350AD   
 
 
Athanasius Apologia 
 
 
MHDYS* 
Sh.T.C 
 
Ouazebas* 
Walls M7 and M8 
400AD   
Fall of Stele 1 
 
 
Kaleb I-IA buildings 
 
Eon* 
Tomb of the False Door 
 
 
IW building 
 
Ebana* 
 

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Nezool*/Nezana* 
 
500AD   
 
 
Ousas*/Ousana(s)*. Tazena 
 
Period 5. Kaleb until the end of the coinage. c520AD to early C. 7th AD.  
 
Kaleb* Inscription 
Kosmas Indikopleustes 
 
 
Conquest of Yemen 
 
Yusuf As`ar 
Tombs of Kaleb and Gabra Masqal 
530AD  Sumyafa` Ashwa` 
 
 
AbrehaAlla Amidas* 
Wazena* 
 
 
W'ZB Inscription, Ella Gabaz*  
 
 
Sh.T.A 
 
Ioel* 
 
575AD   
Persians in Yemen 
 
Hataz* = `Iathlia' 
Fill of ES building 
 
Israel* 
 
600AD   
 
 
Gersem* 
 
614AD  Armah* 
Jerusalem falls to Persia 
619AD   
Egypt falls to Persia 
 
 
End of Aksum as capital, Matara tomb 
Period 6. After the end of the coinage.  
630AD 
 
Death of Ashama ibn Abjar 
640AD 
Arab expedition in Red Sea, Egypt falls to Arabs  
705-715AD Reign of al-Walid, Qusayr Amra painting 
 
The symbol * denotes issues of coins. 
3. Period 1; Early Aksum until the Reign of Gadarat 
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 
beginning of our era. The dates of both the above references have been disputed. It has 
been suggested that the Periplus could have been written in the mid-1st century 
(Bowersock 1983: 70; Casson 1989: 7) or even as late as the 3rd century AD (Pirenne 
1961), whilst one scholar proposed that the earliest surviving versions of Ptolemy's work 
relay information which was continually updated until the 4th century AD (Mathew 
1975: 152). However, if they are accepted as early documents, their references to Aksum 
do seem to be backed up by the excavation there of certain features which can be 
satisfactorily dated to the first and second centuries AD. These include stone-built 

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platforms, perhaps originally laid out with some funerary purpose since they were found 
below the deposits later formed by the main cemetery (now the so-called Stele Park; see 
Ch. 16
). They have been dated by radiocarbon tests on material found in associated 
contexts to the first two centuries AD (Chittick 1974; Chittick 1976i; Munro-Hay 1989). 
Among the finds from this region were fragments of glass vessels of particular types, 
dateable to the first century AD; and certain types of glass were actually included in the 
list of imports into Aksum provided by the Periplus.  
If we are right in thinking of the Periplus as a probably mid- first century document, we 
can hope to find at Aksum evidence of the "city of the people called Auxumites" (Schoff 
1912: 23) — translated by Huntingford as "the metropolis called the Axomite" (1980: 20) 
— which it mentions, together with a comprehensive selection of such goods as it 
describes as being imported into Aksum. Ptolemy, if we accept that his reference is not a 
later addition, leads us to expect a city with a king's palace at some time around the mid-
second century AD. Archaeology has so far revealed little of this, but the early platforms 
and glass indicate that further evidence for the existence of the city by the first century 
AD may now be expected. With more archaeological excavation, other early remains 
apart from the platforms may be discovered. Much of the other material excavated is at 
the moment difficult to date reliably and so remains inconclusive.  
Accepting, with the modern consensus of opinion, that the Periplus dates to the mid- first 
century AD, we find that at this stage Aksum, under the rule of king Zoskales, was 
already a substantial state with access to the sea at Adulis. Zoskales is the earliest king of 
the region known to us at the moment (though Cerulli 1960: 7; Huntingford 1980: 60, 
149-50 and Chittick 1981: 186 suggested that he was not king of Aksum but a lesser 
tributary ruler). In his time there was a vigorous trading economy, and already a notable 
demand for the luxuries of foreign countries. The monarchy was established; and 
Ptolemy confirms that Aksum was the royal capital by the mid-second century AD. This 
period, then, saw the rise of the city into the governmental centre for a considerable area 
of the Ethiopian plateau and the coastal plain. Such a line of development is to be 
expected since by the time of king GDRT (Gadarat) Aksum had attained a position which 
allowed it to venture to send its armies on overseas expeditions and even establish 
garrisons in parts of Arabia. The fact that the Periplus does not mention Aksumites in 
connection with South Arabia is another feature which seems to date it before the period 
of Abyssinian intervention there, and indeed the Periplus notes that the power of king 
Kharibael of Himyar and Saba, and the tyrannos Kholaibos of the southern coastal 
Mopharitic region (al-Ma`afir), reaching from their capitals of Zafar and Saue, was 
sufficient to allow them to control Azania, the east African coast to Tanzania, and its rich 
trade in ivory and tortoise-shell (Casson 1989: 61, 69). Though, by the early third 
century, Aksum had come to dominate al-Ma`afir, and much weakened the Arabian 
trading system, at the time of the Periplus the Ethiopians were not in a position to reach 
so far, and the Arabian port of Muza seems to have been rather more important than 
Adulis. Gradually, during the second century, Aksum must have begun to interest itself in 
weakening Himyarite maritime control, culminating in its allying with Saba (see below) 
and seizing certain areas formerly under Himyarite rule (Bafaqih and Robin 1980; 
Bafaqih 1983: Ch. 3).  

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