Aksum An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity Stuart Munro-Hay

implements continued in use among the poorer elements of the population long after 
metal tools were made or imported, and either this or some specialist use as suggested 
above doubtless explains their presence in a number of contexts at Aksum (Munro-Hay 
1989; Puglisi 1941). Larger axes of polished stone were found also at Matara, one made 
of serpentine (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXIV, 4; LXV, 2).  
All sorts of grind-stones or polishers, and a variety of stone mortars, come from 
Aksumite sites, doubtless used for grinding everything from grain to eye-paint and spices 
(Anfray 1963: pl. CXIIb-c; Anfray and Annequin 1965: pl. LXVII, 4). A lava specimen 
from Adulis was found complete, with an upper and lower stone, the former furnished 
with a pivot, the latter with a hole for the pivot and two lateral holes for wooden handles 
to assist in the rotation (Paribeni 1907: 498: fig. 26).  
From Matara and Adulis came stone images of very plump females, a type which has also 
been found in pottery from the same places (Anfray 1968: fig. 13; Paribeni 1907: 498-9, 
fig. 27, 486). Two small stone objects have been found which may have served as seals, 
both being pierced for suspension. One, from Aksum, was of white stone with an 
indistinguishable design carved on one end, and another, from Adulis, in black and white 
variegated stone, was pierced longitudinally like a bead, and bore the image of two 
winged griffins, summarily carved (Munro-Hay 1989; Paribeni 1907: 493, fig. 23). The 
onyx bezel of a ring engraved with an eagle on a globe, an opal bezel bearing an image 
identified as Jupiter Ammon, and a carnelian inscribed with four letters in perhaps an 
Indian script, as yet unidentified, were also found at Adulis (Paribeni 1907: 521, 526, 
529). Objects of this class may well have belonged to members of Adulis' international 
merchant community.  
Only one little leather object, somewhat of the shape of the stelae-tops at Aksum 
(Chittick 1974: fig. 24c), and a few fragments of ivory, including possible gaming pieces 
from Adulis and part of a decorated ivory vase from Matara (Paribeni 1907: 454, 486; 
Anfray 1963: pl. CXIa), now remain to testify to these industries. Bone appears to have 
been used for knife-handles, in one case decorated with bronze nails (Paribeni 1907: 
480). Tiny fragments of ostrich eggshell from Adulis (Paribeni 1907: 454, 458, 517) may 
hint at its use, perhaps in one of the forms still seen in Ethiopia — cut into discs and 
pierced as beads, or used entire to decorate roof- finials, particularly on churches. Shells 
were used as decoration, at least at Adulis, where they were easier to obtain. They were 
probably sewn, as in relatively recent times, onto cloth or skins (Paribeni 1907: 485-6), 
and one example even bore an inscribed word in Greek letters (Paribeni 1907: 490). 
Fragments of coral (and even sponge) were also found at Adulis, as well as a large piece 
of amber (Paribeni 1907: 517, 519, 524, 528).  
Wood from Aksumite times is rare, but is known as a building material, and was also 
probably used for furniture. In the Tomb of the Brick Arches at Aksum traces of wood 
were found on glass- inlaid bronze plaques, which seem to have come from a wooden 
chest, and the coins of king Armah depict a tall-backed chair or throne, perhaps made of 
carved or turned wood. There must have been other Aksumite wooden furniture, as well 
as structural elements in buildings, such as pillar shafts, capitals, doors or shutters, or 

---

roof-panelling such as at Dabra Damo. Traces of some of this ancient work may still 
survive in some of the old churches of Tigray and other provinces of Ethiopia, but what 
little has been found is very hard to date.  
13. Language, Literature, and the Arts 
 
1. Language 
 
The language of the Aksumite kingdom was Ge`ez (Ethiopic), a Semitic tongue assumed 
(but not proven) to have an ancestry in old South Arabian. Ge`ez, possibly deriving its 
name from the Agwezat or Agazi tribal group, is now a dead language except for its use 
in traditional Ethiopian Orthodox church rituals and in some specialised circumstances, 
such as poetry. It was written in characters descending from the same parentage as the 
script now called Epigraphic South Arabian, but more cursive in form; the modern 
Ethiopian alphabet is the only survivor of this script today. Its development required that 
certain letters employed in dialects of South Arabian were omitted and others added as 
necessary. A number of early texts and graffiti from Ethiopia are themselves in a cursive 
form of the old South Arabian script (Drewes 1962). Time and the influence of the 
Cushitic languages of Ethiopia (Agaw or Central Cushitic being the most important) both 
helped in the transference from the original language to Ge`ez.  
The arguments advanced for the origins of the Ge`ez script would fill a small book 
(Ullendorff 1955; 1960: 112ff; Drewes 1962: Ch. V; Drewes and Schneider 1976). Some 
have seen it as a development from the monumental South Arabian script, others as 
related to the contemporary cursive scripts found in both Arabia and Ethiopia; the 
mechanics of the change, the experts have suggested, could have been through either 
intentional or accidental alteration. The script could have been inspired by an early 
importation, or even by a more recent inspiration subsequent to the period of the earlier 
inscriptions.  
A fair number of inscriptions have been found dating from pre-Aksumite times and 
written in the epigraphic South Arabian script, at such places as Yeha, Kaskase and 
Hawelti-Melazo. Some of these employ a form of the language which is apparently more 
or less pure Sabaic, while others, though contemporary, show linguistic features perhaps 
indicating that they were carved by Ethiopians (Drewes 1962; Schneider 1976i). The use 
of the South Arabian script continued on into Aksumite times (or was revived then?) and 
as late as the reigns of Kaleb and W`ZB monumental inscriptions were still written in a 
version of this script, but using the Ge`ez language.  
In the early fourth century, the purely consonantal script was found inadequate, and a 
system of vowelling was adopted, which greatly facilitated the reading of Ge`ez. The 
origins and history of the vowelling system are uncertain; it might have been influenced 

---