Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay



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when found it contained thirty-three gold coins of king Israel of Aksum (Paribeni 1907: 
501).  
A row of very large `pithoi', presumably for grain storage, was found in a building of 
Aksumite date whose ruins were found during excavation between the old and new 
cathedrals of Maryam Tseyon (de Contenson 1963: pls. VII, XII, XIIIa). Other pithoi 
came from Adulis, and one example was pierced with holes round the neck to attach it to 
the body; evidently these were unlikely to have carried liquids (Paribeni 1907: 462).  
Aksumite pottery, with the exception of such imported categories as the amphorae for 
wine and other commodities, was mostly locally made, without the use of the potters' 
wheel — though Paribeni (1907: 548) thought that the rough locally- made pottery of 
Adulis was made on the wheel. The style and decoration evolved, although, as we have 
said, some basic outlines of shape can be paralleled from both Nubia and the Roman 
empire, was unique to the Aksumite region.  
The coarser wares included two types of stoves (Chittick 1974: fig. 21), presumably for 
cooking with charcoal obtained from the local woodlands, now vanished. The remains of 
ovens or kilns have also been found at Aksum (Anfray 1968: fig. 22) and Matara, in the 
latter place together with pottery on a habitation floor (Anfray 1974: pl. V 2-3; 1963: 99 
and pl. LXXX). Pottery groups left in place were not infrequent at Matara, and these and 
collections of pottery from tomb-groups should eventually allow us to date the different 
styles more precisely (Anfray 1963: pls. LXXV, LXXVIIa).  
The Aksumites seem to have imported certain blue or green-glazed wares, which have 
been found at Aksum, Adulis and Matara, perhaps from the Persian Gulf region. At 
Aksum and Adulis only sherds were found, but at Matara a complete pot was preserved 
(Anfray 1965: 6; 1974: 759, fig. 6). The Aksumites also used faience vessels apparently 
of local manufacture, their friable sandy bodies covered with a turquoise-blue glaze. One 
example found was an exact imitation of the fluted pottery bowls with little handles, and 
this product in typical Aksumite style seems to confirm that the faience was from a local 
workshop (Chittick 1974: pl. XIVe).  
Miscellaneous pottery objects have also been found. A few animal figures (aside from 
those which stood in the animal- figure bowls already mentioned) are known, and the 
figure of a dove impressed with a cross came from Adulis (Paribeni 1907: 528, fig. 48). 
Pottery discs, plain or pierced, which may be gaming pieces or loom- weights for 
weaving, are commonly found. Numbers of little pierced crosses and cones in pottery 
were excavated, most commonly at the Enda Sem`on site at Aksum, but also at Matara 
(Anfray and Annequin 1965: pls. LXV, 3; LXVI, 1). Their use is unknown. A few dice of 
pottery, marked with dots to indicate the numbers, came from Matara (Anfray and 
Annequin 1965: pl. LXVI, 4; Anfray 1968: pl. 5). From Matara also came the 
steatopygous figure of a woman, of seemingly prehistoric type, but found in an Aksumite 
level (Anfray 1968: fig. 13); another example came from Adulis (Paribeni 1907; 486).  
2. Glassware 


 
It may be imagined that the more expensive imported wines and the better-quality local 
mead were consumed from some of the vessels included among the rich range of 
glassware found at Aksum (Morrison in Munro-Hay 1989) and Matara (Anfray 1968: fig. 
16). This was probably mostly imported, though some types may have been made locally; 
as previously noted, there was an unusual incidence of exotically- coloured or decorated 
glass from the Aksum excavations, representing types unknown elsewhere at the 
moment. Glass from habitation sites is generally very fragmentary, but is naturally best 
preserved in tomb deposits. A set of stem goblets decorated with a swagged design, and 
smaller beakers with restricted necks were found together in one tomb, with the owner's 
best crockery and sets of iron tools (Chittick 1974: pl. XIVa). Since such glass seems to 
indicate a quite luxurious level of living, perhaps the tomb-owner was a prosperous 
merchant. In another tomb, much richer, possibly even royal, was found a large purple 
stem goblet, a purple flask with a long neck, and fragments of an engraved glass bowl 
with an inscription in Greek (Chittick 1974: fig. 22). Glass lamps, presumably oil- fed
together with the bronze chains which would have suspended them, came from one of the 
mansions. It is unlikely that glassware, at least imported glassware, percolated very far 
down the social ladder, as it was not only brought down the Red Sea from Egypt or Syria, 
or perhaps in some cases from Persia to the east, but then transported by land into the 
interior of the country by the merchant caravans. This troublesome journey mus t have 
made it an expensive commodity by the time it arrived at Aksum. The Periplus 
(Huntingford 1980: 21) mentions several sorts of glass as being imported into Aksum 
from the Roman world. One, imitating a type called murrhine, may have been coloured 
glass resembling agate or similar semi-precious stones (Schoff 1912: 24, 68), or perhaps 
murrhine describes a type of mosaic glass made by the so-called millefiore or mosaic-
glass technique in which slices from rods of coloured glass, forming faces and other 
patterns, were fused together. Examples of this glass, apparently not made after about the 
end of the 1st century AD, have been found at Aksum (Morrison, in Munro-Hay 1989).  
Illustration 61. Mosaic or millefiore glass fragments, dating to a relatively early period 
(1st century BC - 1st century AD), came from the Aksum excavations. Photo BIEA.  
Some of the jewellery worn by the Aksumites was of glass, chiefly bangles and beads. 
One necklace, its beads found scattered across the chambers of the Tomb of the Brick 
Arches, consisted of glass globes overlaid with thin gold leaf, in turn covered with a thin 
layer of glass. Ear-plugs and possible gaming pieces have also been identified from 
among the large number of glass items excavated.  
3. Stone Bowls 
 
In what seem to be rooms belonging to one of the mansions excavated in the Addi Kilte 
district of Aksum the remains of many purplish breccia bowls were found (Chittick 1974: 
fig. 25), lathe-turned and finely made. They appear to have been smashed and 


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