Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay

Some distance away was found the so-called Brick Vaulted Structure, presumed to be a 
tomb of the same date as the Tomb of the Brick Arches, since it was also situated in the 
main necropolis and similarly employed brick horse-shoe shaped arches. But it also 
included relieving arches and lintels, and the rooms were barrel- vaulted with brick. These 
bricks were mortared together, and it is evident that the Aksumites knew the use of 
mortar (nb. de Almeida's statement above, 
Ch. 5: 3
), but rarely felt the need to employ it, 
preferring their drystone walling with simple mud-bonding.  
The Brick Vaulted Structure first appeared during the excavations (Munro-Hay 1989) as 
a stone wall of Aksumite style, built parallel to the courtyard in front of the Tomb of the 
False Door to the west. In due course, a number of bricks began to appear, soon proving 
to be the remains of collapsed brick vaults. These consisted of double rows of square 
baked bricks forming radial barrel vaults resting on string-courses of slate- like stone on 
top of the usual Aksumite stone and mud- mortared walls. The chambers covered by the 
vaulting seem to have been approximately 1 × 2 m in size, and one retained traces of the 
stone-paved floor of a superstructure over the barrel vaulting. The height of the vaulted 
rooms was about 4 m, and a tentative reconstruction seems to indicate that they flanked a 
central passage.  
The vaults themselves were not horse-shoe shaped. But the entrance to one of the vaults 
(the only entrance found) was formed by a horse-shoe shaped arch, also 1.3 m wide 
across the centre, sealed with a stone blocking, and surmounted by a granite relieving 
lintel above which the bricks of the vault rose. This revealed a new and more complex 
combination of architectural features, which, as far as our present knowledge goes, is 
entirely unique. It seems as if the structure originally had a number of these vaulted 
rooms opening off a central corridor, but the complete plan has not yet been completely 
recovered.  
Illustration 28. Drawing of the granite ent rance doorway to the tomb called the 
`Mausoleum'. Drawing BIEA.  
A further tomb, probably the largest yet known at Aksum, was entered by a monumental 
granite doorway in typical Aksumite style, with carved granite square- headed beam ends 
protruding at the corners. This tomb was dubbed the `Mausoleum', as a testimony to its 
size and elaborate construction, both totally unexpected by the excavators. Its plan 
consists of a long corridor behind the stone doorway, also entered from above by three 
shafts, and flanked by ten rooms, five on each side. It has not yet been cleared, only 
planned by crawling through the narrow gap left between the mud fill and the roof. The 
tomb is about 15 m square and lies to the west of the foot of the largest stele. The 
entrance to another tomb was found on the east side of the stele with a simpler doorway 
of rough stone topped by a granite lintel. Both of these tombs opened onto a courtyard at 
the foot of the stele, which must have been filled in before the collapse of the stele. The 
`Mausoleum' was built largely of rough stone walling roofed with granite blocks, and was 
covered with huge quantities of dry stone fill. It may belong to the person for whom the 
giant stele was raised. At the west end of its central corridor can be seen the top of 
another brick arch, leading into a passage not yet entered; but whether it was of the horse-

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shoe type is as yet unknown, as it was never cleared. It is possible that the arch gives 
access to further chambers, but it seems unlikely that there will be any connection with 
the Brick Vaulted Structure to the west, since over 20 metres lie between them.  
By the time this arch was found it was scarcely a notable discovery (see above). But 
earlier in the same season (1974), the very appearance of baked brick in Aksumite 
Ethiopian architecture would have been remarkable, since it had been previously noted 
only in a few special circumstances (Anfray 1974), and an arch in the same material was 
completely unheard of. It is certain that our ideas about the architectural limitations of the 
ancient Aksumites will require yet more revision when excavations can be resumed.  
These baked brick features, horseshoe shaped arches and vaults, in Aksumite buildings of 
the fourth century AD, may mean that our ideas about the routes of dissemination of 
architectural ideas in Africa, the Near East, and Spain (where the horse-shoe arch was 
later familiar) also need some revision. Wherever the style originated, it was certainly not 
expected to turn up in Aksumite Ethiopia. Witho ut being able to assert the idea too 
strongly until we have more evidence, there may even be a case for proposing the brick 
horse-shoe arch as another Aksumite innovation, perhaps based on ideas which arrived 
through the trade-routes with India.  
It may be presumed that attached to all the stelae are as yet unrevealed tombs like those 
just described. The latest excavations confirmed that the whole area of the central `Stele 
Park', apart from the tombs already mentioned, was honeycombed with shaft tombs and 
tunnels (Chittick 1974; Munro-Hay 1989). These consisted of chambers and passages cut 
into the rock, sometimes irregularly, sometimes following a more orderly plan. Some 
may be a combination of smaller tombs linked by robber tunnels cut later. Very little 
could be done to clear them and investigate their plan and content in the short time 
available, but the remains of tomb-furniture were found in some.  
Illustration 29. The Tomb of the False Door; the door block during excavation. It is very 
similar in detail to the doorways carved on the three largest of the decorated stelae at 
Aksum. Photo BIEA.  
The most westerly of all the tombs found so far, excluding one small shaft tomb, was the 
Tomb of the False Door. This possibly late-fourth or fifth century tomb (Munro-Hay 
1989) has a false-door facade with a dentilled lintel exactly like those on some of the 
decorated stelae, but instead set into a granite-built square structure exhibiting the typical 
Aksumite plan of symmetrical recessed facades. It faced onto a carefully paved court and 
was doubtless open to view. Below, however, was an underground tomb-chamber with a 
vestibule and a surrounding corridor, with two staircases descending from the court to the 
substructure. The staircases had been blocked by massive capping stones, only one of 
which now survives. The tomb now contains nothing but a smashed granite coffin.  
Illustration 30. The ruined superstructure of the Tombs of Kaleb and Gabra Masqal, just 
outside Aksum. Photo BIEA.  
Illustration 31. Detail showing the entrance to the Tomb of Kaleb.  

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