Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I have written this, 
hatsani Danael, the son of Dabra Ferem. There came . . . hatsani Karuray . . . attacked 
him . . . and I swore that . . . 608 foals. And I captured 10,000 oxen and 130 steers . . . 
and our servants, who always . . . I summoned them . . . and there were none who did me 
good, except 30 people, all . . . they returned and went to KSL (Kassala?) and did not 
leave me? . . . the proclamation that they should go, and those who went for the giving of 
presents. And I surrounded those who came to Kassala . . . and they plundered? the 
Barya. Booty, 103 steers . . . and 200 sheep . . . and curse them forever. And they said to 
me, `Your land, woe'. As I heard these words, I marvelled, and . . . they were doing; my 
translators advised them, and I went out. And as they showed themselves unfriendly to 
me, they attacked? . . . and I made a judgement against them . . . and I fought them and 
captured massive booty: 17,830 foals, 10,030 oxen, and I captured 30 tribes.  
DAE 13. 
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I, hatseni Danael, son of 
Dabra Ferem. When the people of Wolqayt devastated the land of HSL, and came to 
Aksum, I expelled them and was harsh to them and killed them and captured 102 foals 
and 802 cattle. And I made the people go . . . and the equipment, and from here I made 
them enter the country of Ablas . . . whose name is Maya Tsaltsal, and I plundered 10,000 
sheep . . . 3000 cattle . . . and I went while my people were raiding and taking captive. 
And they returned home when I entered, day . . . our entry before . . . booty . . . we waited 
in the enclosure . . . I plundered it. . . .  
DAE 14. 
And the king came, and desired to rule over me, while I was in Aksum, in the manner of 
his father, like a poor man (?). When he had taken booty, he came to Aksum. But I came 
out, and my enemy was frightened (?), I took the newcomer captive: before blood was 
shed, I subjected the king of Aksum and dismissed him to administer Aksum as the land of 
my dominion; and he was released (?). And . . . I sent into the field. . . .  
12. Material Culture; the Archaeological Record 
 
From the very uneven choice of excavation areas at Aksum and other Aksumite cities, we 
have inevitably a view of Aksumite everyday life which favours the upper echelons of 
urban society. Palaces, mansions, large and important tombs, and churches contain the 
remains of objects from these élite groups, whilst the living equipment of their lesser 
urban contemporaries (not to mention country-dwellers) has not often been found. 
Exceptions are possibly Adulis, where the excavators seem to have found smaller houses, 
though it is possible that these too belong to the outer buildings of a mansion, and at the 
sites E2 and F (the latter near a church) at Matara. As yet, the results of these excavations 
are only known through the brief preliminary report of Francis Anfray (1974). The series 

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of rooms found by Paribeni (1907: plan, fig. 37) at Adulis contained so many gold coins 
that they hardly seem to have been occupied by the humbler echelons of Adulite society.  
However, in spite of this emphasis on the richer groups, certain elements of material 
culture cross the social boundaries to some extent. Pottery (excluding luxury types) is a 
good example of this, whilst glass and much of the decorative metalwork can be expected 
mainly from the élite contexts. To some extent coinage may have been universally used, 
though obviously gold wo uld have been unlikely to reach the peasant or ordinary artisan 
in much quantity. By analogy with better-known ancient civilisations, it seems that the 
copper coinage would have been the common market-exchange medium where barter 
was not practised, and thus could move freely on many levels, whilst the more valuable 
coins moved less and were perhaps chiefly employed for major long-distance trade or 
storage of wealth.  
1. Pottery 
 
Both fine and coarser ceramic wares have been found in very large numbers (see the 
various excavation reports in the Annales d'Ethiopie; Anfray 1966; Wilding in Munro-
Hay 1989). These were made in a pottery tradition which seems to be particularly 
Aksumite and to owe relatively little to either the pre-Aksumite period or to foreign 
influences (but see below). The commonest types are fired to colours between orange and 
almost brick red, and there are also black or grey wares from different periods. Some less 
usual wares are brown, or red-brown. Chronologically, it seems that the red wares are 
typical of earlier Aksumite times, the brown coming later in perhaps the fifth century, 
while the black wares typify the post-Aksumite period (except for the black pottery with 
incised decoration which was found in the earliest excavated levels at Adulis, which 
seems to belong to an earlier tradition — Paribeni 1907: 448, 547). Aksumite grey wares 
vary in date, the finer specimens in earlier shapes being perhaps examples of the 
prevalent red wares which had not been correctly fired in the kiln, and the coarse large 
grey pots with rough geometric decoration being of late or post-Aksumite date. A much 
rarer type is called purple-painted ware, since areas of the surface are decorated with 
paint of an almost brownish-purple colour, and a mat- impressed ware has also been found 
which may owe its origin to influences from the Nile Valley, where such decoration was 
common. These various wares were often burnished, painted, incised or otherwise 
decorated. A very common and characteristic decorative style has been called the 
`Classical Aksumite' style. This employs lightly impressed designs, mainly vertical 
corrugations, combined with small ovoid impressions arranged in a staggered fashion like 
footprints, sometimes filling diamond-shaped panels. The corrugatio ns and certain of the 
shapes of the vessels may owe something to metalwork originals. Other decorative motifs 
included all sorts of appliqué designs; crosses, crescents, small ridges and the like, as 
well as more ambitious ones consisting of little pottery hands clinging to the rim of a 
bowl and linked by swags, or depicting modelled birds perched on frilled rims (de 
Contenson 1959: pl. XVIII; Wilding in Munro-Hay 1989). Some pots and bowls received 
stamped impressions on the bases or inside, often of very elaborate forms based on the 

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