bailiffs or stewards. We can imagine a fairly considerable
population for the larger
dwellings and dependencies; for example, Matara Tertre B had over thirty rooms in its
outbuildings, the Dungur mansion, with its several courtyards, contained about fifty
rooms, while Ta`akha Maryam had probably around eighty.
2. Funerary Practice
The Aksumites belonging to the last three categories above are those for whom we can
envisage burial in the main cemeteries at Aksum. Tomb architecture, and the stelae, have
already been discussed (Ch.
5: 5
&
6
); it can be assumed that only the upper echelons of
society could have had a built tomb or one of the larger rock-cut types.
In the royal
cemetery the dead were probably buried with considerable amounts of valuable gear, and
with the full panoply of ceremony, sacrificial offerings, and the like. The dead of high
rank were laid in stone coffins, and, surrounded with their equipment, were either sealed
up forever, or to wait for the next member of the family to die if they were in multiple
tombs. So far among the tombs discovered, only that of the False Door seems to have
been an individual tomb. Very likely the dead were dressed in their best clothing and
decked
with their jewellery, but no intact burial assemblage in one of the larger tombs has
yet been found. Stone coffins were visible in the partly-plundered Tomb of the Brick
Arches, but no-one has yet penetrated into the inner chambers, where some of the burials
still perhaps lie undisturbed since the robbery which scattered other occupants'
possessions across the floor of the outer rooms.
The tomb excavated by the BIEA in the Gudit Stele Field, though it was only a simple
excavated chamber marked by a rough stele, seems from its contents to have belonged to
someone in the better-off social strata. However, it contained only pottery, glass and iron
tools (though some valuable items may have been taken by robbers), whereas the only
partially cleared
Tomb of the Brick Arches, situated in the main cemetery but still a
modest tomb in comparison to some of the really large ones, contained objects of every
kind, including precious metals. Such a gap probably expresses the differences between
the third and fourth categories discussed above, and indicates how the ruling class
compared with even the next grade of their subjects in terms of material wealth.
Some tombs contained multiple burials with only a few personal items of jewellery, or
the occasional pot or glass vessel (Shaft Tomb A at Aksum; Chittick 1974: 171). These
seem to date to the Christian period, and probably the old customs requiring a mass of
funerary equipment died away after the spread of Christianity. Tombs of persons of rank,
such as the so-called Tombs of Kaleb and Gabra Masqal, and
the tomb at Matara Tertre
D (Anfray and Annequin 1965: pls. XLIV-XLV), were still very well-constructed, but
contained less space for equipment. All these tombs, and that of the False Door, have
been open for centuries or were so badly robbed in antiquity that nothing can now be said
about their possible contents; only the stone sarcophagi remain in some of them, and even
these are often smashed into fragments.
Rather lesser tombs were found in and around the building at Tertre A at Matara (Anfray
1963); they may be contemporary with the building, but are more likely to have been
installed after its abandonment. There were six, either built of stones or simply dug into
the earth, and roofed with stone slabs. Occasionally
they yielded some pottery, and some
contained three or four bodies. Information about the burial of newly-born or very young
children comes from both Adulis and Matara. In these places, imported amphorae,
formerly used for the conveyance of wine or oil from abroad, were used as miniature
coffins to bury children in the houses of their parents. The necks of the amphorae having
been broken off, the body was put inside, and the top closed by a stone lid (e.g. Anfray
and Annequin 1965: pl. L, 1). The custom of burying children thus was not uncommon in
the contemporary Roman world.
The discovery of two skeletons thrown into the pit at the base of Stele 137
at Aksum, and
the fact that among the platforms and in some tombs were found animal bones, either
burnt or not, may indicate that certain sacrificial ceremonies were enacted during funerals
or dedications of stelae (Munro-Hay 1989). Possibly the animal bones and charcoal were
the remains of a funerary or celebratory meal. If Drewes (1962: 41) is correct in his
interpretation of the Safra inscription A, we have there details of the offerings on the
occasion of certain acts connected with death and burial. These seem to consist of the
completion of an excavated tomb; the occasion of a funerary ceremony; the immolation
of a cow; and a gathering at the tomb. The inscription is apparently
of the third century,
and the rites mentioned by it may have been the same as those enacted at the necropolis
of Aksum, resulting in the occurrence of animal bones and their burnt remains in and
around the tombs.
15. The Decline of Aksum
1. The Failure of Resources
The long period of occupation of the city of Aksum evidently had a profound effect on
the surrounding countryside, from which it drew the materials of subsistence. Some of
the processes set in train can be inferred from the present state of the land, and
consideration of the various factors invo lved. The local industries, including the
manufacture of glass, faience,
brick and pottery, and metal-working, all needed wood or
charcoal for their furnaces. Charcoal was probably in further demand for cooking, and
heating when necessary, and wood was used for furniture and other equipment as well as
house-building. These activities slowly robbed the surrounding hills of their covering of
trees — which, however, survived in a few enclaves on the Shire plateau to be noted by
Butzer (1981), — and exposed the ir topsoil to degradation and erosion. The expansion of
the population, probably adequately coped with at first by enlarging the food catchment
areas by improved roads and transport facilities for goods into the city, and more
intensive cultivation
on the surrounding lands, eventually subjected these to