Bibliography
[☞ work_cited1] Abdu, B. and Gordon, R. (2004) “Iron artifacts from the land of Kush.” Journal of Archaeological Science 31: 979-98.
[☞ work_cited2] Abdelrahman, M. F. (2011) “A New Study Concerning Kushite and Post-Meroitic Objects.” In La pioche et la plume: autour du Soudan, du Liban et de la Jordanie: hommages archéologiques à Patrice Lenoble. V. Rondot, F. Alpi, and F. Villeneuve (dir.). Paris: Presses de l’université Paris-Sorbonne: 391-402.
[☞ work_cited3] Adams, N. K. (1987) “Textile Remains from a Late Temple in Egyptian Nubia.” Ars Textrina 8: 85-124.
[☞ work_cited4] Adams, W. Y. (1977) Nubia: Corridor to Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[☞ work_cited5] -----. (1996) Qaṣr Ibrîm: The Late Mediaeval Period. London: Egypt Exploration Society.
[☞ work_cited6] Ahmed, K. A. (1984) Meroitic Settlement in the Central Sudan: An Analysis of Sites in the Nile Valley and the Western Butana. Oxford: BAR.
[☞ work_cited7] Alexander, J. (1988) “The Saharan divide in the Nile Valley: the evidence from Qasr Ibrim.” African Archaeological Review 6 (1): 73-90.
[☞ work_cited8] Álvarez-Mon, J. (2010) The Arjān Tomb: At the Crossroads of the Elamite and the Persian Empires. Leuven: Peeters.
[☞ work_cited9] Anfray, F. (1981) “The civilization of Aksum from the first to the seventh century.” In General History of Africa. II: Ancient Civilizations of Africa. G. Mokhtar (ed.). Paris: Unesco: 362-80.
[☞ work_cited10] Apologia=Athanasius of Alexandria (1987) Deux apologies à l’empereur Constance pour sa fuite. J. M. Szymusiak (ed. and transl.). Paris: Editions du Cerf.
[☞ work_cited11] Appleyard, D. L. (1996) “Ethiopian Semitic and South Arabian: Towards a Re-examination of a Relationship.” Israel Oriental Studies 16: 203-28.
[☞ work_cited12] -----. (2004) “Beja as a Cushitic Language.” In Egyptian and Semito-Hamitic (Afro-Asiatic) Studies: in memoriam W. Vycichl. G. Takács (ed.). Boston: Brill: 175-94.
[☞ work_cited13] Arkell, A. J. (1944) “Cosmas and the Gold Trade of Fazoqli.” Man 44: 30-1.
[☞ work_cited14] -----. (1951) “An Old Nubian Inscription from Kordofan.” American Journal of Archaeology 55 (4): 353-4.
[☞ work_cited15] -----. (1961) A History of the Sudan: from the earliest times to 1821. 2nd ed. London: University of London, Athlone Press.
[☞ work_cited16] Barnard, H. (2002) “Eastern Desert Ware, a first introduction.” Sudan & Nubia 6: 53-7.
[☞ work_cited17] -----. (2005) “Sire, il n’y a pas de Blemmyes. A Re-evaluation of Historical and Archaeological Data.” In People of the Red Sea: Proceedings of Red Sea Project II, held in the British Museum, October 2004. J. C. M. Starkey (ed.). Oxford, England: Archaeopress: Hadrian Books: 23-40.
[☞ work_cited18] -----. (2008) “Suggestions for a Chaîne Opératoire of Nomadic Pottery Sherds.” In The Archaeology of Mobility: Old World and New World Nomadism. H. Barnard and W. Wendrich (eds.). Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California: 413-39.
[☞ work_cited19] Barnes, T. D. (1978) The Sources of the Historia Augusta. Bruxelles: Latomus.
[☞ work_cited20] -----. (1993) Athanasius and Constantius: Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[☞ work_cited21] Becchaus-Gerst, M. (1984-5) “Sprachliche und historische Rekonstruktionen im Bereich des Nubischen unter besonder Berücksichtigung des Nilnubischen.” Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 6: 7-134.
[☞ work_cited22] -----. (1996) Sprachwandel durch Sprachkontakt am Beispiel des Nubischen in Niltal: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer diachronen Soziolinguistik. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
[☞ work_cited23] -----. (2004) “Beja Idenity in Tu Beɖawiɛ.” In Egyptian and Semito-Hamitic (Afro-Asiatic) Studies: in memoriam W. Vycichl. G. Takács (ed.). Boston: Brill: 195-204.
[☞ work_cited24] Beeston, A. F. L. (1980) “The Authorship of the Adulis Throne Text.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 43 (3): 453-8.
[☞ work_cited25] Bender, M. L. (1968) “Analysis of a Barya Word List.” Anthropological Linguistics 10 (9): 1-24.
[☞ work_cited26] Bernard, E. (1982) “Nouvelles versions de la campagne du roi Ezana contre les Bedja.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 45: 105-14.
[☞ work_cited27] -----. (2000) Recueil des inscriptions de l’Éthiopie des périodes pré-axoumite et axoumite. Tome III: Traductions et commentaires, A. Les inscriptions grecques. Paris: Diffusion de Boccard.
[☞ work_cited28] Bernard, E., Drewes, A. J., and Schneider, R. (1991) Recueil des inscriptions de l’Éthiopie des périodes pré-axoumite et axoumite. Tome I: Les documents. Paris: Diffusion de Boccard.
[☞ work_cited29] Black, S. L. (2008) ““In the Power of God Christ”: Greek inscriptional evidence for the anti-Arian theology of Ethiopia’s first Christian king.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 71 (1): 93-110.
[☞ work_cited30] Blench, R. (1999) “The westward wanderings of Cushitic pastoralists: Explorations in the Prehistory of Central Africa.” In L’homme et l’animal dans le bassin du lac Tchad: actes du colloque du Réseau Méga-Tchad, Orléans, 15-17 octobre 1997. C. Baroin and J. Boutrais (eds.). Paris: Editions IRD, Institut de recherche pour le développement: 39-80.
[☞ work_cited31] Blois, F. de (1984) “Clan-names in ancient Ethiopia.” Die Welt des Orients 15: 123-5.
[☞ work_cited32] -----. (1985) “‘Freemen’ and ‘nobles’ in Iranian and Semitic languages.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17: 5-15.
[☞ work_cited33] -----. (2002) “Naṣrānī (Naζωραῖoς) and ḥanīf (ἐθνικός): studies on the religious vocabulary of Christianity and of Islam.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 65 (1): 1-30.
[☞ work_cited34] Boivin, N., Blench, R., and Fuller, D. Q. (2009) “Archaeological, Linguistic and Historical Sources on Ancient Seafaring: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Early Maritime Contact and Exchange in the Arabian Peninsula.” In The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia: Paleoenvironments, Prehistory and Genetics. M. D. Petraglia and J. I. Rose (eds.). Dordrecht: Springer: 251-78.
[☞ work_cited35] Boivin, N. and Fuller, D. Q. (2009) “Shell Middens, Ships, and Seeds: Exploring Coastal Subsistence, Maritime Trade and the Dispersal of Domesticates in and Around the Arabian Peninsula.” Journal of World Prehistory 22: 113-80.
[☞ work_cited36] Bowersock, G. W. (1994) “The Aethiopica of Heliodorus and the Historia Augusta.” In Historiae Augustae Colloquium Genevense. Bari: Edipuglia: 43-52.
[☞ work_cited37] Bradley, R. J. (1984) “Summary of Discussion.” In Meroitische Forschungen 1980: Akten der 4. Internationalen Tagung für meroitische Forschungen vom 24. Bis 29. November 1980 in Berlin. F. Hintze (ed.). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag: 247-52.
[☞ work_cited38] Brakke, D. (2000) “Athanasius.” In The Early Christian World. P. F. Esler (ed.). London and New York: Routledge: Vol. 2: 1102-27.
[☞ work_cited39] Brakmann, H. (1994) TO ΠAPA TOIC BAPBAPOIC EPΓON ΘEION: Die Einwurzelung der Kirche im spätantiken Reich von Aksum. Bonn: Borengässer.
[☞ work_cited40] Browne, E. G. (2004) “Blemmyes and Beja.” The Classical Review (New Series) 54: 226-8.
[☞ work_cited41] Bryce, T. (2010) “The Hittite Deal with the Ḫiyawa-Men.” In Pax Hethitica: Studies on the Hittites and their Neighbours in Honour of Itamar Singer. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: 47-53.
[☞ work_cited42] Buffa, V. (2007) Ma‘layba et l’âge du bronze du Yémen. Deutsche Archäologisches Institut Ṣan‘ā’. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.
[☞ work_cited43] Bukharin, M. D. (2011) “The notion τὸ πέρας τῆς ἀνακομιδῆς and the location of Ptolemais of the Hunts in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.” Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 22: 219-31.
[☞ work_cited44] Burstein, S. M. (1981) “Axum and the Fall of Meroe.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 18: 47-50.
[☞ work_cited45] -----. (1995) “The Nubian Slave Trade in Antiquity: A Suggestion.” In Burstein, S. M. Graeco-Africana: Studies in the History of Greek Relations with Egypt and Nubia. New Rochelle: Aristide D. Caratzas: 195-205.
[☞ work_cited46] -----. (1998) “The Roman Withdrawal from Nubia: A New Interpretation.” Symbolae Osloenses 73: 125-32.
[☞ work_cited47] -----. (2008) “Trogodytes=Blemmyes=Beja? The Misuse of Ancient Ethnography.” In The Archaeology of Mobility: Old World and New World Nomadism. H. Barnard and W. Wendrich (eds.). Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California: 250-63.
[☞ work_cited48] -----. (2009) Ancient African Civilizations: Kush and Axum. New ed. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers.
[☞ work_cited49] Carter, P. L. and Foley, R. (1980) “A Report on the Fauna from the Excavations at Meroe, 1967-1972.” In Shinnie, P. L. and Bradley, R. J. The Capital of Kush 1: Meroe Excavations 1967-1972. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag: 298-312.
[☞ work_cited50] Casson, L. (1989) The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[☞ work_cited51] -----. (1993) “Ptolemy II and the Hunting of African Elephants.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 123: 247-60.
[☞ work_cited52] Ceccarelli-Morolli, D. (1998) “Un interessante brano di un manoscritto etiopico del XVI sec. concernente la Nubia.” In Actes de la VIIIe Conférence internationale des études nubiennes: Lille, 11-17 septembre 1994. III—Études. Villeneuve d’Ascq: Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille III : 67-72.
[☞ work_cited53] Chatterji, S. K. (1968) India and Ethiopia from the Seventh Century B.C. Calcutta: Asiatic Society.
[☞ work_cited54] Chittick, H. N. (1982) “Ethiopia and the Nile Valley.” In Meroitic Studies: Proceedings of the Third International Meroitic Conference, Toronto 1977. N. B. Millet and A. L. Kelly (eds.). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag: 50-4.
[☞ work_cited55] Chowdhury, K. A. and Buth, G. M. (1971) “Cotton seeds from the Neolithic in Egyptian Nubia and the origin of Old World cotton.” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 3 (4): 303-12.
[☞ work_cited56] Cline, E. (1991) “A Possible Hittite Embargo against the Mycenaeans.” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 40 (1): 1-9.
[☞ work_cited57] Connah, G. (1987) African Civilizations: Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa: An Archaeological Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[☞ work_cited58] ----- (2001) African Civilizations: An Archaeological Perspective. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[☞ work_cited59] Contenson, H. de (1963) “Les fouilles de Haoulti en 1959.” Annales d’Éthiopie 5 (5): 41-86.
[☞ work_cited60] Crawford, O. G. S. (1951) The Fung kingdom of Sennar; with a geographical account of the middle Nile region. Gloucester: J. Bellows.
[☞ work_cited61] Crone, P. (1987) Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[☞ work_cited62] ----- (2007) “Quraysh and the Roman Army: Making sense of the Meccan leather trade.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 70: 63-88.
[☞ work_cited63] Curtin, P. D. (1984) Cross-cultural Trade in World History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[☞ work_cited64] Cuvigny, H. and Robin, C. J. (1996) “Des Kinaidokolpite dans un ostracon grec du désert oriental (Égypte).” Topoi 6/2: 697-720.
[☞ work_cited65] Davies, V. (2003) “Sobeknakht of Elkab and the coming of Kush.” Egyptian Archaeology 23: 3-6.
[☞ work_cited66] Desanges, J. (1978) Recherches sur l’activité des méditerranéens aux confins de l’Afrique, VIe siècle avant J.-C.-IVe siècle après J.-C. Rome: École française de Rome.
[☞ work_cited67] Detoraki, M. (2007) “Première partie: la genèse du texte.” In Le martyre de Saint Aréthas et de ses compagnons (BHG 166). J. Beaucamp (ed. and transl.). Paris: Association des amis du Centre d’histoire et civilisation de Byzance: 13-99.
[☞ work_cited68] Dihle, A. (1965) Umstrittene Daten: Untersuchungen zum Auftreten der Griechen am Roten Meer. Cologne and Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
[☞ work_cited69] -----. (1989) “L’ambassade de Théophile l’indien ré-examinée.” In L’Arabie préislamique et son environnement historique et culturel: actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 24-27 juin 1987. T. Fahd (ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill: 461-8.
[☞ work_cited70] Dijkstra, J. H. F. (2008) Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion: A Regional Study of Religious Transformation (298-642 CE). Leuven and Dudley: Peeters; Departement Oosterse Studies.
[☞ work_cited71] Dimmendaal, G. J. (2007) “Eastern Sudanic and the Wadi Howar and Wadi el Milk Diaspora.” Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 18: 37-67.
[☞ work_cited72] Dixon, D. M. (1963) “A Meroitic Cemetery at Sennar (Makwar).” Kush 11: 227-34.
[☞ work_cited73] Drewes, A. J. (1962) Inscriptions de l’Éthiopie antique. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
[☞ work_cited74] -----. (1980) “The Lexicon of Ethiopian Sabaean.” Raydān 3: 35-54.
[☞ work_cited75] -----. (2002-2007) “La question de ‘Ezânâ, roi d’Axoum.” Semitica 52-53: 125-38.
[☞ work_cited76] Edessene Apocalypse (1917) = Nau, F. “Révélations et legends: Methodius—Clement—Andronicus.” Journal Asiatique 9: 415-52.
[☞ work_cited77] Edwards, A. B. (1877) A Thousand Miles up the Nile. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
[☞ work_cited78] Edwards, D. N. (1989) Archaeology and Settlement in Upper Nubia in the 1st Millennium A.D. Oxford: B.A.R.
[☞ work_cited79] ----- (1994) “Post-Meroitic (‘X-Group’) and Christian Burials at Sesibi, Sudanese Nubia. The Excavations of 1937.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 80: 159-78.
[☞ work_cited80] -----. (1998) Gabati: A Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Medieval Cemetery in Central Sudan. Oxford: Archaeopress.
[☞ work_cited81] -----. (2004) The Nubian Past: An Archaeology of the Sudan. London and New York: Routledge.
[☞ work_cited82] -----. (2011) “From Meroe to “Nubia”: Exploring Culture Change without the “Noba”.” In La pioche et la plume: autour du Soudan, du Liban et de la Jordanie: hommages archéologiques à Patrice Lenoble. V. Rondot, F. Alpi, and F. Villeneuve (dir.). Paris: Presses de l’université Paris-Sorbonne: 501-14.
[☞ work_cited83] Eger, J. (2011) “Ein mittelalterliches Kloster am Gebel al-Ain?” Mitteilungen der Sudanarchäologischen Geselschaft zu Berlin e.V. 22: 115-20.
[☞ work_cited84] Ehret, C. (2002) The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
[☞ work_cited85] Eigner, D. (2004) “Archaeological Research Conducted by the German Archaeological Mission to Eritrea.” In Neueste Feldforschungen im Sudan und in Eritrea: Akten des Symposiums vom 13. bis 14. Oktober 1999 in Berlin. S. Wenig (ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: 103-29.
[☞ work_cited86] Falk, H. (2001) “The yuga of Sphujiddhvaja and the era of the Kuṣâṇas.” Silk Road Art and Archaeology 7: 121-36.
[☞ work_cited87] -----. (2004) “The Kaniṣka era in Gupta records.” Silk Road Art and Archaeology 10: 167-76.
[☞ work_cited88] Fattovich, R. (1990) “Remarks on the Pre-Aksumite Period in Northern Ethiopia.” Journal of Ethiopian Studies 23: 1-33.
[☞ work_cited89] -----. (1995) “The Origins of the Kingdom of Kush: Views from the African Hinterland.” Archéologie du Nil moyen 7: 69-78.
[☞ work_cited90] -----. (2004) “The ‘Pre-Aksumite’ state in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea reconsidered.” In Trade and Travel in the Red Sea Region: Proceedings of Red Sea Project I held in the British Museum, October 2002. P. Lunde and A. Porter (eds.). Oxford: Archaeopress: 71-7.
[☞ work_cited91] -----. (2009) “Reconsidering Yeha, c. 800-400 BC.” African Archaeological Review 26: 275-90.
[☞ work_cited92] Fattovich, R. and Bard, K. (2001) “The Proto-Aksumite Period: An Overview.” Annales d’Éthiopie 17: 3-24.
[☞ work_cited93] Fauvelle-Aymar, F.-X. (2009) “Les inscriptions d’Adoulis (Érythrée): Fragments d’un royaume d’influence hellénistique et gréco-romaine sur la côte africaine de la mer Rouge.” Bulletin de l’institut français d’archéologie orientale 109: 135-60.
[☞ work_cited94] Fernandez, G. (1989) “The Evangelizing Mission of Theophilus “The Indian” and the Ecclesiastical Policy of Constantius II.” Klio 71 (2): 361-6.
[☞ work_cited95] Fiaccadori, G. (1992) Teofilo Indiano. Ravenna: Mario Lapucci.
[☞ work_cited96] -----. (2004) “Sembrouthes ‘gran re’: (DAE IV 3 = RIÉth 275). Per la storia del primo ellenismo Aksumita.” La Parola del Passato 59: 103-57.
[☞ work_cited97] Finneran, N. (2007) The Archaeology of Ethiopia. Routledge: London and New York.
[☞ work_cited98] Fitzpatrick, M. P. (2011) “Provincializing Rome: The Indian Ocean Trade Network and Roman Imperialism.” Journal of World History 22 (1): 27-54.
[☞ work_cited99] Fontes Historiae Nubiorum (1994-2000) Fontes Historiae Nubiorum: textual sources for the history of the middle Nile region between the eighth century BC and the sixth century AD. T. Eide et al. (eds.). 4 vols. Bergen: University of Bergen, Dept. of Classics.
[☞ work_cited100] Frantsouzoff, S. A. (2006) “South Arabian Miniscule Writing and Early Ethiopian Script of Pre-Aksumite Graffiti: Typological Resemblance or Genetic Interdependence?” In Proceedings of the XVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Hamburg, July 20-25, 2003. S. Uhlig (ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: 572-86.
[☞ work_cited101] Frézouls, E. (1989) “Cosmas Indicopleustes et l’Arabie.” In L’Arabie préislamique et son environnement historique et culturel: Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg 24-27 juin 1987. T. Fahd (ed.). Leiden: Brill: 441-60.
[☞ work_cited102] Fuller, D. Q. (2008) “The spread of textile production and textile crops in India beyond the Harappan zone: an aspect of the emergence of craft specialization and systematic trade.” In Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past. T. Osada and A. Uesugi (eds.). Kyoto: Indus Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature: 1-26.
[☞ work_cited103] Fuller, D. Q., Boivin, N., Hoogervorst, T., and Allaby, R. (2011) “Across the Indian Ocean: the prehistoric movement of plants and animals.” Antiquity 85: 544-58.
[☞ work_cited104] Gajda, I. (1996) “Ḥuğr b. ‘Amr roi de Kinda et l'établissement de la domination ḥimyarite en Arabie centrale.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 26: 65-73.
[☞ work_cited105] -----. (2009) Le royaume de Ḥimyar à l’époque monothéiste: l’histoire de l’Arabie du sud ancienne de la fin du IVe siècle de l’ère chrétienne jusqu’à l’avènement de l’Islam. Paris: Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.
[☞ work_cited106] Genz, H. (2011) “Foreign Contacts of the Hittites.” In Insights into Hittite History and Archaeology. H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (eds.). Leuven, Paris, and Walpole: Peeters: 301-23.
[☞ work_cited107] George, A. (n.d.) “What’s new in the Gilgamesh epic?” (http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/3251/1/GilgameshWhat'sNew.pdf). Accessed April 30, 2011.
[☞ work_cited108] Gervers, M. (1992) “Cotton and Cotton Weaving in Meroitic Nubia and Medieval Ethiopia.” In Orbis Aethiopicus: Studia in honorem Stanislaus Chojnacki natali septuagesimo quinto dicata, septuagesimo septimo oblate. P. O. Scholz (ed.). Albstadt: K. Schuler: Vol. I: 13-29.
[☞ work_cited109] Giangrande, G. (1970) “Heliodorus.” In The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 2nd ed. N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard (eds.). Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press: 493-4.
[☞ work_cited110] Glaser, E. (1895) Die Abessinier in Arabien und Afrika, auf Grund neuentdeckter Inschriften. Munich: Hermann Lukaschik.
[☞ work_cited111] Gradel, C. (2007) “Deux monnaies romaines découvertes à Saï (Soudan).” In Mélanges offerts à Francis Geus: Egypte-Soudan. B. Gratien (ed.). Villeneuve d’Ascq: Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille: 141-9.
[☞ work_cited112] Gradel, C., Letellier-Willemin, F., and Tallet, G. (in press) “«Une laine bien plus belle et douce que celle des moutons» à el-Deir (oasis de Kharga, Égypte): le coton au cœur de l’économie oasienne à l’époque romaine.” In D’Afrique et d’Egypte. Relations et échanges entre les espaces au sud de la Méditerranée à l’époque romaine, Actes du colloque international de l’U. de Limoges. S. Guédon (ed.). Bordeaux: Ausonius.
[☞ work_cited113] Gragg, G. (1997) “Ge‘ez (Ethiopic).” In The Semitic Languages. R. Hetzron (ed.). London and New York: Routledge: 242-60.
[☞ work_cited114] Gregory, T. E. (1991a) “Aphthartodocetism.” In The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. A. P. Kazhdan (ed.). New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press: Vol. 1: 129.
[☞ work_cited115] -----. (1991b) “Julian of Halikarnassos.” In The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. A. P. Kazhdan (ed.). New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press: Vol. 2: 1080.
[☞ work_cited116] Griffith, F. Ll. (1911) “The Inscriptions from Meroë.” In Garstang, J. Meroë, the city of the Ethiopians; being an account of a first season’s excavations on the site, 1909-1910. Oxford: Clarendon Press: 57-80.
[☞ work_cited117] Griffith, F. Ll. and Crowfoot, G. M. (1934) “On the Early Use of Cotton in the Nile Valley,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 20 (1/2): 5-12.
[☞ work_cited118] Grimal, N. (1992) A History of Ancient Egypt. I. Shaw (transl.). Oxford, United Kingdom; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell.
[☞ work_cited119] Haaland, G. and Haaland, R. (2007) “God of war, worldly ruler, and craft specialists in the Meroitic kingdom of Sudan: Inferring social identity from material remains.” Journal of Social Archaeology 7 (3): 372-92.
[☞ work_cited120] Hackl U., Jenni, H., and Schneider, C. (2003) Quellen zur Geschichte der Nabatäer: Textsammlung mit Übersetzung und Kommentar. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag Freiburg.
[☞ work_cited121] Hägg, T. (2004) “Axumite Inscription in Greek 6164 (SNM 24841).” In The Capital of Kush 2: Meroë Excavations 1973-1984. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag: 106-8.
[☞ work_cited122] Hahn, W. (1989) “A numismatic contribution to the dating of the Aksumite king Sembrouthes.” In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. Taddese Beyene (ed.). Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies; Frankfurt am Main: Frobenius Institut, Johann Wolfgang, Goëthe (sic) Universität: Vol. 2: 11-13.
[☞ work_cited123] -----. (2000) “Aksumite numismatics: a critical survey of recent research.” Revue numismatique 6 (155): 281-311.
[☞ work_cited124] Hartmann, U. (2008) “Claudius Gothicus und Aurelianus.” In Die Zeit der Soldaten-Kaiser: Krise und Transformation des Römischen Reiches im 3. Jahrhundert n. Chr. (235-284). K.-P. Johne (ed.). Berlin: Akademie Verlag: Vol. 1: 297-323.
[☞ work_cited125] Hatke, G. (2011) Africans in Arabia Felix: Aksumite Relations with Ḥimyar in the Sixth Century C.E. Ph.D. diss. Princeton: Princeton University, Department of Near Eastern Studies.
[☞ work_cited126] Haycock, B. G. (1967) “The Later Phases of Meroïtic Civilization.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 53: 107-20.
[☞ work_cited127] -----. (1971) “The Place of the Napatan-Meroitic Culture in the History of the Sudan and Africa.” In Sudan in Africa: Studies presented to the first international conference sponsored by the Sudan Research Unit, 7-12 February, 1968. Y. F. Ḥasan (ed.). Khartoum: Khartoum University Press: 26-41.
[☞ work_cited128] Heliodorus (1935-43) Les Éthiopiques (Théagène et Chariclée). J. Maillon (transl.). 3 vols. Paris: Société d’édition «Les Belles lettres».
[☞ work_cited129] Herodotus (1987) The History. D. Grene (transl.). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
[☞ work_cited130] Hintze, F. (2000) “Meroe and the Noba.” Mitteilungen der Sudanarchäologischen Geselschaft zu Berlin e.V. 10: 49-55.
[☞ work_cited131] Historia Augusta=The Scriptores Historiae Augustae (1921-32). D. Magie (transl.). 3 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann.
[☞ work_cited132] Höfner, M. (1965) “Die semiten Äthiopiens.” In Götter und Mythen in vorderen Orient. H. W. Haussig (ed.). Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Verlag: 553-67.
[☞ work_cited133] Hohl, E. (1985) Historia Augusta: römische Herrschergestalten. Vol. 2. Zürich and Munich: Artemis-Verlag.
[☞ work_cited134] Huntingford, G. W. B. (1989) The Historical Geography of Ethiopia from the First Century AD to 1704. Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press.
[☞ work_cited135] Ibn Ḥawqal, Abū l-Qāsim (1938-9) Kitāb Ṣūrat al-Arḍ (=Opus geographicum, auctore Ibn Ḥauḳal). J. H. Kramers (ed.). 2 vols. Leiden: Brill.
[☞ work_cited136] Ibn Sa‘īd, ‘Alī b. Mūsā (1970) Kitāb al-jughrafiyya. I. al-‘Arabī (ed.). Beirut: al-Maktab al-Tijārī lil-ṭibā‘a wal-nashr wal-tawzī‘.
[☞ work_cited137] Inizan, M.-L. and Francaviglia, V. M. (2002) “Les périples de l’obsidienne à travers la mer Rouge.” Journal des Africanistes 72 (2) : 11-19.
[☞ work_cited138] al-Iryānī, M. ‘A. (1973) Fī Tarīkh al-Yaman: Sharḥ wa-ta‘līq ‘alā nuqūsh lam tunshar: 34 naqshan min majmū‘at ‘Alī ‘Abd Allāh al-Kahālī. Ṣan‘ā’: Markaz al-Dirāsāt al-Yamaniyya.
[☞ work_cited139] Jakobi, A. (1993) “The State of Research on Nubian Languages and the Contribution of Linguistics to the Study of Nubian Origins.” In Perspectives and Challenges in the Development of Sudanese Studies. I. H. Abdalla (ed.). Lewiston, Queenston, and Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press: 59-73.
[☞ work_cited140] Jesse, F. (2009) “An den Grenzen der Macht—Die Festung Gala Abu Ahmed in der Wüste des Wadi Howar. Ein erster Arbeitsbericht aus einem neuen Forschungsprojekt.” http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/praehist/africa/fst-afrika/deu/sudan/kurier.pdf. Accessed March 12, 2011.
[☞ work_cited141] John of Ephesus (1853) The Third Part of the Ecclesiastical History of John, Bishop of Ephesus. W. Cureton (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[☞ work_cited142] Kaplan, S. (1982) “Ezana’s Conversion Reconsidered.” Journal of Religion in Africa 13 (2): 101-9.
[☞ work_cited143] Kelly, J. N. D. (1958) Early Christian Doctrines. New York: Harper & Brothers.
[☞ work_cited144] Kendall, T. (1989) “Ethnoarchaeology in Meroitic studies.” In Studia Meroitica 1984: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference for Meroitic Studies, Rome 1984. S. Donadoni and S. Wenig (eds.). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag: 625-745.
[☞ work_cited145] -----. (1997) Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush, 2500-1500 B.C.: The Archaeological Discovery of an Ancient Nubian Empire. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
[☞ work_cited146] -----. (2007) “Evidence for a Napatan Occupation of the Wadi Muqaddam: Excavations at Al-Meragh in the Bayuda Desert (1999-2000).” In Mélanges offerts à Francis Geus: Egypte-Soudan. B. Gratien (ed.). Villeneuve d’Ascq: Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille: 197-204.
[☞ work_cited147] Khalidi, L. (2009) “Holocene Obsidian Exchange in the Red Sea Region.” In The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia: Paleoenvironments, Prehistory and Genetics. M. D. Petraglia and J. I. Rose (eds.). Dordrecht: Springer: 279-91.
[☞ work_cited148] Kirwan, L. (1937) “A Contemporary Account of the Conversion of the Sudan to Christianity.” Sudan Notes and Records 20: 289-95.
[☞ work_cited149] -----. (1957) “Tanqasi and the Noba.” Kush 5: 37-41.
[☞ work_cited150] -----. (1960) “The Decline and Fall of Meroë.” Sudan Notes and Records 8: 163-73.
[☞ work_cited151] -----. (1972) “An Ethiopian-Sudanese Frontier Zone in Ancient History.” Geographical Journal 138: 457-65.
[☞ work_cited152] -----. (1994) “Christianity in the Central Sudan: The Byzantine Mission and Nubian Alwa.” In Hommages à Jean Leclant. Volume 2: Nubie, Soudan, Ethiopie. C. Berger, G. Clerc, and N. Grimal (eds.). Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire: 245-9.
[☞ work_cited153] Kitchen, A., Ehret, C., Shiferaw Assefa, Mulligan, C. J. (2009) “Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Semitic languages identifies an Early Bronze Age origin of Semitic in the Near East.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 276: 2703-10.
[☞ work_cited154] Kitchen, K. A. (1990) “Further thoughts on Punt and its neighbours.” In Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honour of H. S. Smith. A. Leahy and J. Tait (eds.). London: Egypt Exploration Society: 173-8.
[☞ work_cited155] -----. (1994-2000) Documentation for Ancient Arabia. 2 vols. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
[☞ work_cited156] -----. (2004) “The elusive land of Punt revisited.” In Trade and Travel in the Red Sea Region: Proceedings of Red Sea Project I held in the British Museum, October 2002. P. Lunde and A. Porter (eds.). Oxford: Archaeopress: 25-31.
[☞ work_cited157] Klemm, D. et al. (2001) “Gold of the Pharaohs—6000 years of gold mining in Egypt and Nubia.” African Earth Sciences 33: 643-59.
[☞ work_cited158] Knauf, E. A. (1988) “The West Arabian Place Name Province: Its Origin and Significance.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 18: 39-49.
[☞ work_cited159] Kobishchanov, Y. M. (1979) Axum. J. W. Michels (ed.); L. T. Kapitanoff (transl.). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
[☞ work_cited160] Łajtar, A. and van der Vliet, J. (2006) “Rome-Meroe-Berlin: The Southernmost Latin Inscription Rediscovered (“CIL” III 83).” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 157: 193-8.
[☞ work_cited161] Lassányi, G. (2008) “Tumulus burials and the nomadic population of the Eastern Desert in Late Antiquity.” In Between the Cataracts: Proceedings of the 1156 International Conference for Nubian Studies, Warsaw University, 27 August-2 October 2006. PAM Supplement Series 2.2/2. Warsaw: Warsaw University Press: 595-606.
[☞ work_cited162] Leclant, J. (1961) “Découverte de monuments égyptiens ou égyptisants hors de la vallée du Nil, 1955-60.” Orientalia 30: 391-406.
[☞ work_cited163] Lenoble, P. and Sharif, N. M. (1992) “Barbarians at the gates? the royal mounds of El Hobagi and the end of Meroë.” Antiquity 66: 626-35.
[☞ work_cited164] Leslau, W. (1991) Comparative Dictionary of Ge‘ez (Classical Ethiopic). Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
[☞ work_cited165] Levine, D. (2000) Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a Multiethnic Society. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[☞ work_cited166] Liszka, K. (2011) “‘We have come from the well of Ibhet’: Ethnogenesis of the Medjay.” Journal of Egyptian History 4: 149-71.
[☞ work_cited167] Littmann, E. (1913) Deutsche Aksum-Expedition: Sabäische, Griechische, und Altabessinische Inschriften. Deutsche Aksum-Expedition, Band IV. Berlin: G. Reimer.
[☞ work_cited168] Littmann, E. and Meredith, D. (1954) “An Old Ethiopic Inscription from the Berenice Road.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 3/4: 119-23.
[☞ work_cited169] Lohwasser, A. (2008) “Das meroitische Reich und die Blemmyer.” In Die Zeit der Soldatenkaiser: Krise und Transformation des Römischen Reiches im 3. Jahrhundert n. Chr. (235-284). K.-P. Johne (ed.). Berlin: Akademie Verlag: Vol. 1: 571-80.
[☞ work_cited170] Lucas, A. (1927) “Copper in Ancient Egypt.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 13 (3/4): 162-70.
[☞ work_cited171] Lusini, G. (2003) “Aksum: Mäṣḥafä Aksum.” In Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. S. Uhlig (ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: Vol. 1: 185-6.
[☞ work_cited172] Magid, A. A. (2004) “The Site of Tabot: An Old Waystation in the Southern Red Sea Hills, Sudan.” In Neueste Feldforschungen im Sudan und in Eritrea: Akten des Symposiums vom 13. bis 14. Oktober 1999 in Berlin. S. Wenig (ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag: 155-89.
[☞ work_cited173] Magnavita, C. (2006) “Ancient Humped Cattle in Africa: A View from the Chad Basin.” African Archaeological Review 23: 55-84.
[☞ work_cited174] Malalas (1986) The Chronicle of John Malalas. E. Jeffreys et al. (transl.). Melbourne: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies; Sydney: Department of Modern Greek, University of Sydney.
[☞ work_cited175] Manzo, A. (1997) “Les tessons «exotiques» du groupe du Gash: un essai d’étude statistique.” In Actes de la VIIIe Conférence internationale des études nubiennes: Lille, 11-17 septembre 1994. Vol. II: Découvertes archéologiques. Villeneuve d’Ascq: Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille III: 77-87.
[☞ work_cited176] -----. (2004) “Late Antique Evidence in Eastern Sudan.” Sudan & Nubia 8: 75-83.
[☞ work_cited177] -----. (2005) “Aksumite Trade and the Red Sea Exchange Network: A View from Bieta Giyorgis (Aksum).” In People of the Red Sea: Proceedings of the Red Sea Project II, held in the British Museum, October 2004. J. C. M. Starkey (ed.). Oxford: Archaeopress: 51-66.
[☞ work_cited178] -----. (2009) “Capra nubiana in Berbere Sauce? Pre-Aksumite Art and Identity Building.” African Archaeological Review 26: 291-303.
[☞ work_cited179] -----. (2010) “Nubian Pottery and Ceramics from Southern Regions of the Red Sea.” In Mersa/Wadi Gawasis 2009-2010. K. A. Bard and R. Fattovich (eds.). http://www.archaeogate.org/storage/15_article_1331_1.pdf. Accessed May 23, 2011.
[☞ work_cited180] Maraqten, M. (1994) “Typen altsüdarabischer Altäre.” In Arabia Felix: Beiträge zur Sprache und Kultur des vorislamischen Arabien: Festschrift Walter W. Müller zum 60. Geburtstag. N. Nebes (ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: 160-77.
[☞ work_cited181] Marcus, H. G. (1994) A History of Ethiopia. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
[☞ work_cited182] Marrassini, P. (2003) “The Semites in Abyssinia: Onomastic and Lexicographical Notes.” In Studia Semitica. L. Kogan (ed.). Moscow: Russian State University for the Humanities: 141-51.
[☞ work_cited183] Martyrium Arethae (2007) = Le martyre de Saint Aréthas et de ses compagnons (BHG 166). J. Beaucamp (ed. and transl.). Paris: Association des amis du Centre d’histoire et civilisation de Byzance.
[☞ work_cited184] Matthews, J. F. (1984) “The Tax Law of Palmyra: Evidence for Economic History in a City of the Roman East.” Journal of Roman Studies 74: 157-80.
[☞ work_cited185] Mayerson, P. (1993) “A confusion of Indias: Asian India and African India in Byzantine sources.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 113 (2): 169-74.
[☞ work_cited186] Merid Wolde Aregay (2005) “Military Elites in Medieval Ethiopia.” In Land, Literacy and the State in Sudanic Africa. D. Crummey (ed.). Trenton and Asmara: The Red Sea Press: 159-86.
[☞ work_cited187] Metlich, M. A. (2006) “Aksumite gold coins and their relation to the Roman-Indian trade.” In Dal denarius al dinar: l’Oriente e la moneta romana: atti dell’incontro di studio, Roma 16-18 settembre 2004. Roma: Istituto italiano di numismatica: 99-103.
[☞ work_cited188] Mitchell, P. (2005) African Connections: An Archaeological Perspective on Africa and the Wider World. Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press.
[☞ work_cited189] Morgan, J. R. (1982) “History, Romance, and Realism in the Aithiopika of Heliodorus.” Classical Antiquity 1 (2): 221-65.
[☞ work_cited190] Morin, D. (1996) “Y-a-t-il un lexique Beni-Amer?” Israel Oriental Studies 16 : 251-67.
[☞ work_cited191] -----. (2004) Dictionnaire historique afar: 1288-1982. Paris: Karthala.
[☞ work_cited192] Morkot, R. G. (2000) The Black Pharaohs: Egypt’s Nubian Rulers. London: The Rubicon Press.
[☞ work_cited193] Morton, J. (1989) “Ethnicity and Politics in Red Sea Province, Sudan.” African Affairs 88 (350): 63-76.
[☞ work_cited194] Müller, W. W. (2010) Sabäische Inschriften nach Ären datiert: Bibliographie, Texte und Glossar. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
[☞ work_cited195] Munro-Hay, S. (1981-2) “A Tyranny of Sources: The History of Aksum from its Coinage.” Northeast African Studies 3 (3): 1-16.
[☞ work_cited196] -----. (1989a) “The al-Madhariba Hoard of Gold Aksumite and Late Roman Coins.” Numismatic Chronicle 149: 83-100.
[☞ work_cited197] -----. (1989b) “Aksumite chronology: some reconsiderations.” In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. Taddese Beyene (ed.). Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies; Frankfurt am Main: Frobenius Institut, Johann Wolfgang, Goëthe (sic) Universität: Vol. 2: 27-40.
[☞ work_cited198] -----. (1991) Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
[☞ work_cited199] -----. (1999) Catalogue of the Aksumite Coins in the British Museum. London: British Museum Press.
[☞ work_cited200] Munro-Hay, S. and Juel-Jensen, B. (1995) Aksumite Coinage. Spink: London.
[☞ work_cited201] Munro-Hay, S. and Nosnitsin, D. (2005) “Danǝ’el.” In Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. S. Uhlig (ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: Vol. 2: 84-5.
[☞ work_cited202] Murray, O. (1967) “Review: East of Suez.” The Classical Review (New Series) 17 (1): 79-81.
[☞ work_cited203] Nibbi, A. (1997) “A Note on Atika/Attāka/Tāka and Copper.” In Nibbi, A. Some Geographical Notes on Ancient Egypt: A Selection of Published Papers, 1975-1997. Oxford: Discussions in Egyptology: 305-12.
[☞ work_cited204] Noeske, H.-C. (1998) “Zu den Gußimitationen axumitischer Bronzemünzen in Ägypten und Palästina.” In ΘEMEΛIA: spätantike und koptologische Studien: Peter Grossmann zum 65. Geburtstag. M. Krause and S. Schaten (eds.). Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag: 249-62.
[☞ work_cited205] Al-Nūr, U. ‘A.-R. (2004) “Sharq al-Sūdān: Daltā al-Qāsh fī mā qabl al-tārīkh: lamḥa mūjaza ‘an ahamm natā’ij al-baḥth al-maydānī fī sharq al-Sūdān.” Arkamānī 5 (http://arkamani.com/vol_5/archaeology_5/eastern%20sudan%20and%20south%20arabia.htm). Accessed July 8, 2011.
[☞ work_cited206] Ogden, J. (2000) “Metals.” In Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. P. T. Nicholson and I. Shaw (eds.). Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press: 148-76.
[☞ work_cited207] Ochała, G. (2011) “A King of Makuria in Kordofan.” In Nubian Voices: Studies in Christian Nubian Culture. The Journal of Juristic Papyrology, Supplement XV. A. Łajtar and J. Van Der Vliet (eds.). Warsaw: Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw: 149-55.
[☞ work_cited208] Pankhurst, R. (1961) An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia, from Early Times to 1800. London: Lalibela House.
[☞ work_cited209] -----. (1997) The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century. Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press.
[☞ work_cited210] Payne Smith, R. (1860) The Third Part of the Ecclesiastical History of John Bishop of Ephesus. Oxford: University Press.
[☞ work_cited211] Peacock, D. and L. Blue (2007) The Ancient Red Sea Port of Adulis, Eritrea: Results of the Eritro-British Expedition, 2004-5. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
[☞ work_cited212] Piamenta, M. (1990-1) Dictionary of Post-Classical Yemeni Arabic. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill.
[☞ work_cited213] Phillips, J. (1997) “Punt and Aksum: Egypt and the Horn of Africa.” Journal of African History 38 (3): 423-57.
[☞ work_cited214] -----. (2003a) “Egypt, Nubia and Ethiopia.” In Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century: Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists, Cairo, 2000. Volume 2: History-Religion. Z. Hawass (ed.). Cairo and New York: The American University in Cairo Press: 434-42.
[☞ work_cited215] -----. (2003b) “Looking Forwards by Looking Backwards: West of Aksum.” In Researching Africa’s Past: New Contributions from British Archaeologists: Proceedings of a Meeting held at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, Saturday, April 20th 2002. P. Mitchell, A. Haour, and J. Hobart (eds.). Oxford : Oxford University School of Archaeology; Oakville: David Brown Book Co.: 69-72.
[☞ work_cited216] Phillipson, D. W. (1997) The Monuments of Aksum: An Illustrated Account. Addis Ababa: Addis Ababa University Press in collaboration with the British Institute in Eastern Africa.
[☞ work_cited217] -----. (1998) Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum: Its Antecedents and Successors. London: British Museum Press.
[☞ work_cited218] -----. (2009a) “The First Millennium BC in the Highlands of Northern Ethiopia and South-Central Eritrea: A Reassessment of Cultural and Political Development.” African Archaeological Review 26 (4): 257-74.
[☞ work_cited219] -----. (2009b) “Aksum, the entrepot, and highland Ethiopia, 3rd-12th centuries.” In Byzantine Trade, 4th-12th Centuries: The Archaeology of Local, Regional and International Exchange: Papers of the Thirty-eighth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, St John’s College, University of Oxford, March 2004. M. M. Mango (ed.). Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Limited: 353-68.
[☞ work_cited220] Philostorgius (2007) Philostorgius: Church History. P. R. Amidon (transl.). Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
[☞ work_cited221] Pierce, R. H. (1995) “A Sale of an Alodian Slave Girl: a Reexamination of Papyrus Strassburg Inv. 1404.” Symbolae Osloenses 70: 148-66.
[☞ work_cited222] Plumley, J. M. and Adams, W. Y. (1974) “Qasr Ibrîm 1972.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 60: 212-38.
[☞ work_cited223] Power, T. (2007) “The ‘Arabians’ of pre-Islamic Egypt.” In Natural Resources and Cultural Connections of the Red Sea. J. Starkey, P. Starkey, and T. Wilkinson (eds.). Oxford: Archaeopress: 195-210.
[☞ work_cited224] Priese, K.-H. (1984) “Orte des mittleren Niltals in der Überlieferung bis zum Ende des christlichen Mittelalters.” In Meroitische Forschungen 1980: Akten der 4. Internationalen Tagung für meroitische Forschungen vom 24. Bis 29. November 1980 in Berlin. F. Hintze (ed.). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag: 484-97.
[☞ work_cited225] Procopius, De Bell. Pers. (1914) History of the Wars. H. B. Dewing (transl.). Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press.
[☞ work_cited226] Rabin, C. (1949) “Old Abyssinian (?) graffito.” In Macadam, M. F. L. The Temples of Kawa: Oxford University Excavations in Nubia. Vol. 1: The inscriptions. London: Published on behalf of the Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, by Oxford University Press: 117-18.
[☞ work_cited227] Rankin, D. (2000) “Arianism.” In The Early Christian World. P. F. Esler (ed.). London and New York: Routledge: Vol. 2: 975-1001.
[☞ work_cited228] Raschke, M. G. (1978) “New Studies in Roman Commerce with the East.” In Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der Neueren Forschung. H. Temporini and W. Haase (eds.). Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter: Vol. 2: 604-1361.
[☞ work_cited229] Rehren, T. (2001) “Aspects of the production of cobalt-blue glass in Egypt.” Archaeometry 43 (4): 483-9.
[☞ work_cited230] Ricci, L. (1994) “On Both Sides of al-Mandab.” In New Trends in Ethiopian Studies: Papers of the 12th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Michigan State University, 5-10 September 1994. H. G. Marcus (ed.). Lawrenceville: Vol. 1: 409-17.
[☞ work_cited231] Richter, S. G. (2002) Studien zur Christianisierung Nubiens. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag.
[☞ work_cited232] Rihani, B. (2004) “Identification of Some Archaeological Nabataean Sites in North-West Saudi Arabia.” In Studies in the Archaeology and History of Jordan. Amman: Department of Antiquities: Vol. 8: 371-8.
[☞ work_cited233] Rilly, C. (2007) La langue du royaume de Méroé: un panorama de la plus ancienne culture écrite d’Afrique subsaharienne. Paris: Champion.
[☞ work_cited234] -----. (2009) “From the Yellow Nile to the Blue Nile. The quest for water and the diffusion of Northern East Sudanic languages from the fourth to the first millennium BCE.” Paper presented at the Third European Conference on African Languages in Leipzig, 4-7 June 2009 (http://www.sfdas.com/blog/wp-content/leipzig-2008-rilly.pdf). Accessed February 24, 2012.
[☞ work_cited235] Robin, C. (1989) “La première intervention abyssine en Arabie méridionale (de 200 à 270 de l’ère chrétienne environ).” In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. Taddese Beyene (ed.). Addis Ababa: Institute of Ethiopian Studies; Frankfurt am Main: Frobenius Institut, Johann Wolfgang, Goëthe (sic) Universität: Vol. 2: 147-62.
[☞ work_cited236] -----. (1991) “Quelques épisodes marquants de l’histoire sudarabique.” Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Méditerranée 61: 55-70.
[☞ work_cited237] -----. (1996) “Le royaume hujride, dit « royaume de Kinda », entre Himyar et Byzance.” Comptes-rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 140 (2) : 665-714.
[☞ work_cited238] -----. (2005) “Ḥimyar au IVe siècle de l’ère chrétienne: analyse des données chronologiques et essai de mise en ordre.” In Rencontres sabéennes 6: The Periodisation and Chronological Terminology of Ancient Yemen. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern: 133-51.
[☞ work_cited239] Robin, C. and Gajda, I. (1994) “L’inscription de Wadi ‘Abadan.” Raydān 6: 113-37.
[☞ work_cited240] Robin, C. and Gorea, M. (2002) “Les vestiges antiques de la grotte de Ḥôq (Suquṭra, Yemen),” Comptes-rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 146 (2): 409-45.
[☞ work_cited241] Robin, C. and Maigret, A. de (1998) “Le Grand Temple de Yéha (Tigray, Éthiopie), après la première campagne de fouilles de la Mission française (1998).” Comptes-rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 142 (3): 737-98.
[☞ work_cited242] Rodinson, M. (1981) “Les nouvelles inscriptions d’Axoum et le lieu de déportation des Bedjas.” Raydān 4: 97-116.
[☞ work_cited243] Roy, J. (2011) The Politics of Trade: Egypt and Lower Nubia in the 4th Millennium BC. Leiden: Brill.
[☞ work_cited244] Rufinus (1997) The Church History of Rufinus of Aquileia, Books 10 and 11. P. R. Amidon (transl.). New York: Oxford University Press.
[☞ work_cited245] Salih, M. A. M. (2007) “Kassala.” In Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. S. Uhlig (ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: Vol. 3: 354-5.
[☞ work_cited246] Sayce, A. H. (1909) “A Greek Inscription of a King (?) of Axum found at Meroe.” Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 31: 189-90.
[☞ work_cited247] -----. (1923) Reminiscences. London: Macmillan.
[☞ work_cited248] Schmidt, P. R. (2006) Historical Archaeology in Africa: Representation, Social Memory, and Oral Traditions. Lanham: AltaMira Press.
[☞ work_cited249] Schneider, R. (1974) “Trois nouvelles inscriptions royales d’Axoum.” IV Congresso Internazionale di Studi Etiopici (Roma, 10-15 aprile 1972), Tomo I (Sezione Storica). Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei: 767-86.
[☞ work_cited250] -----. (1976) “L’inscription chrétienne d’Ezana en écriture sudarabe.” Annales d’Éthiopie 10 (10): 109-17.
[☞ work_cited251] -----. (1983) “Les origins de l’écriture éthiopienne.” In Ethiopian Studies dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, November 14th, 1981, by his friends and colleagues. S. Segert and J. E. Bodrogligeti (eds.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: 412-16.
[☞ work_cited252] Sedov, A. (1996) “Qana’ (Yemen) and the Archaeological Evidence.” In Tradition and Archaeology: Early Maritime Contacts in the Indian Ocean: Proceedings of the International Seminar, Techno-archaeological Perspectives of Seafaring in the Indian Ocean, 4th cent. B.C.-15th cent. A.D., New Delhi, February 28-March 4, 1994. H. P. Ray and J.-F. Salles (ed.) New Delhi: Manohar Publishers and Distributors: 11-35.
[☞ work_cited253] -----. (2007) “The Port of Qana’ and the incense Trade.” In Food for the Gods: New Light on the Ancient Incense Trade. D. Peacock and D. Williams (eds.). Oxford: Oxbow; Oakville: David Brown Books: 71-111.
[☞ work_cited254] Seland, E. H. (2010) Ports and Political Power in the Periplus: Complex Societies and Maritime Trade on the Indian Ocean in the First Century AD. Oxford: Archaeopress.
[☞ work_cited255] Severin, T., Rehren, T., and Schleicher, H. (2011) “Early metal smelting in Aksum, Ethiopia: copper or iron?” European Journal of Mineralogy 23: 981-92.
[☞ work_cited256] Shinnie, P. L. (1967) Meroe: A Civilization of the Sudan. New York: F. A. Praeger.
[☞ work_cited257] -----. (1978) “The Nilotic Sudan and Ethiopia, c. 660 BC to c. AD 600.” In The Cambridge History of Africa. Volume 2: from c. 500 BC to AD 500. J. D. Fage (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 210-71.
[☞ work_cited258] -----. (1996) Ancient Nubia. London and New York: Kegan Paul International.
[☞ work_cited259] Shinnie, P. L. and Anderson, J. R. (2004) “The Excavations.” In The Capital of Kush 2: Meroë Excavations 1973-1984. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag: 5-102.
[☞ work_cited260] Shinnie, P.L. and Bradley, R. J. (1980). The Capital of Kush 1. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
[☞ work_cited261] Shinnie, P. L., Kirwan, L. P., Jakobielski, S., and Leclant, J. (1982) “Discussion: Ethiopia and the Nile Valley.” In Meroitic Studies: Proceedings of the Third International Meroitic Conference, Toronto 1977. N. B. Millet and A. L. Kelly (eds.). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag: 55-7.
[☞ work_cited262] Shinnie, P. L. and Robertson, J. H. (1993) “‘The end of Meroë’—a comment on the paper by Patrice Lenoble & Nigm el Din Mohamed Sharif.” Antiquity 67: 895-9.
[☞ work_cited263] Sidebotham, S. E. (1986) Roman Economic Policy in the Erythra Thalassa, 30 B.C.-A.D. 217. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
[☞ work_cited264] -----. (1996) “Roman Interests in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.” In The Indian Ocean in Antiquity. J. Reade (ed.). London and New York: Kegan Paul International in association with the British Museum: 287-308.
[☞ work_cited265] -----. (2011) Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[☞ work_cited266] Sidebotham, S. E., Hense, M., and Nouwens, H. M. (2008) The Red Land: The Illustrated Archaeology of Egypt’s Eastern Desert. Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo Press.
[☞ work_cited267] Sima, A. (2003) “Ag‘azi.” In Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. S. Uhlig (ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: Vol. 1: 144-5.
[☞ work_cited268] Sinor, D. (1990) “The Establishment and Dissolution of the Türk Empire.” In The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. D. Sinor (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 285-316.
[☞ work_cited269] Skeat, T. C. (1977) “A Letter from the King of the Blemmyes to the King of the Noubades.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 63: 159-70.
[☞ work_cited270] Smidt, W. (2010) “Taka.” In Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. S. Uhlig (ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: Vol. 4: 821-2.
[☞ work_cited271] Smith, S. T. (2003) Wretched Kush: Ethnic Identities and Boundaries in Egypt’s Nubian Empire. London and New York: Routledge.
[☞ work_cited272] Snowden, F. M. (1970) Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
[☞ work_cited273] Spalinger, A. J. (2005) War in Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom. Oxford: Blackwell.
[☞ work_cited274] Spaudling, J. (1995) “Medieval Christian Nubia and the Islamic World: A Reconsideration of the Baqt Treaty.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 28 (3): 577-94.
[☞ work_cited275] Tadesse Tamrat (1988) “Processes of Ethnic Interaction and Integration in Ethiopian History: The Case of the Agaw.” Journal of African History 29: 5-18.
[☞ work_cited276] El Tayeb, M. (2002) Genesis of the Makurian Culture in the Light of Archaeological Sources. Lille: Université Charles-de-Gaulle-Lille III.
[☞ work_cited277] Thelwall, R. and Schadeberg, T. C. (1983) “The Linguistic Settlement of the Nuba Mountains.” Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 5: 219-31.
[☞ work_cited278] Tomber, R. (2005) “Aksumite and other Imported Ceramics from Early Historic Kamrej.” Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology 2: 99-102.
[☞ work_cited279] Top. Chr.=Cosmas Indicopleustes (1968-73) Topographie chrétienne. W. Wolska-Conus (ed. and transl.). 3 vols. Paris: Éditions du Cerf.
[☞ work_cited280] Török, L. (1985) “The date of the end of Meroe.” Meroitic Newsletter 24: 6-22.
[☞ work_cited281] -----. (1988) Late Antique Nubia: History and archaeology of the southern neighbour of Egypt in the 4th-6th c. A. D. Budapest: Archaeological Institute of The Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
[☞ work_cited282] -----. (1989) “Kush and the external world.” In Studia Meroitica 1984: Proceedings of the Fifth Conference for Meroitic Studies, Rome 1984. S. Donadoni and S. Wenig (eds.). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag: 49-215.
[☞ work_cited283] -----. (1997) The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. Leiden and New York: Brill.
[☞ work_cited284] -----. (1999) “The End of Meroe.” In Recent Research in Kushite History and Archaeology: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference for Meroitic Studies. D. A. Welsby (ed.). London: British Museum: 133-56.
[☞ work_cited285] -----. (2002) The Image of the Ordered World in Ancient Nubian Art: The Construction of the Kushite Mind, 800 BC-300 AD. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
[☞ work_cited286] -----. (2009) Between Two Worlds: The Frontier Region between Ancient Nubia and Egypt, 3700 BC-AD 500. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
[☞ work_cited287] -----. (2011) “From El Hobagi to Ballana and Back.” In La pioche et la plume: autour du Soudan, du Liban et de la Jordanie: hommages archéologiques à Patrice Lenoble. V. Rondot, F. Alpi, and F. Villeneuve (dir.). Paris: Presses de l’université Paris-Sorbonne: 515-30.
[☞ work_cited288] Trigger, B. G. (1969) “The Myth of Meroe and the African iron Age.” African Historical Studies 2 (1): 23-50.
[☞ work_cited289] Trimingham, J. S. (1949) Islam in the Sudan. London and New York: Oxford University Press.
[☞ work_cited290] Tucker, A. N. and Bryan, M. A. (1956) The Non-Bantu Languages of North-eastern Africa. London and New York: Published for the International African Institute by the Oxford University Press.
[☞ work_cited291] Van der Veen, M. and Morales, J. (2011) “Summer Crops—From Trade to Innovation.” In Van der Veen, M. Consumption, Trade and Innovation: Exploring the Botanical Remains from the Roman and Islamic Ports at Quseir al-Qadim, Egypt. Frankfurt am Main: Africa Magna Verlag: 75-119.
[☞ work_cited292] Wainwright, G. A. (1942a) “Cosmas and the Gold Trade of Fazoqli.” Man 42: 52-8.
[☞ work_cited293] -----. (1942b) “Early Records of iron in Abyssinia.” Man 42: 82-8.
[☞ work_cited294] Ward, C. (2006) “Boat-building and its social context in early Egypt: interpretations from the First Dynasty boat-grave cemetery at Abydos.” Antiquity 80:118-29.
[☞ work_cited295] Weinandy, T. G. (2007) Athanasius: A Theological Introduction. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate.
[☞ work_cited296] Welsby, D. A. (1996) The Kingdom of Kush: The Napatan and Meroitic Empires. London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Press.
[☞ work_cited297] -----. (1998) Soba II: Renewed excavations within the metropolis of the Kingdom of Alwa in Central Sudan. London: British Museum Press.
[☞ work_cited298] -----. (1999) “Meroitic Soba.” In Studien zum antiken Sudan: Akten der 7. internationalen Tagung für meroitische Forschungen vom 14. bis 19. September 1992 in Gosen/bei Berlin. S. Wenig (ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowtiz Verlag: 663-77.
[☞ work_cited299] -----. (2002) The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia: Pagans, Christians and Muslims along the Middle Nile. London: British Museum Press.
[☞ work_cited300] Wendrich, W. Z. (1998) “Fringes are Anchored in Warp and Weft: The Relations between Berenike, Shenshef, and the Nile Valley.” In Life on the Fringe: Living in the Southern Egyptian Deserts during the Roman and Early-Byzantine Periods. O. E. Kaper (ed.). Leiden: Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies: 243-51.
[☞ work_cited301] Whitehouse, D. (1997) Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass. Vol. 1. Corning, New York: Corning Museum of Glass.
[☞ work_cited302] Wild, J. P., Wild, F. C., and Clapham, A. J. (2005) “Roman Cotton Revisited.” In Vestidos, textiles y tintes: estudios sobre la producción de bienes de consumo en la antigüedad: actas del II Symposium Internacional sobre Textiles y Tintes del Mediterráno en el Mundo Antiguo, Atenas, 24 al 26 de noviembre, 2005. C. Alfaro Giner and L. Karali (eds.). Valencia: University of Valencia: 143-7.
[☞ work_cited303] Wild, J. P., Wild, F. C., and Clapham, A. J. (2007) “Irrigation and the spread of cotton growing in Roman times.” Archaeological Textiles Newsletter 44: 16-18.
[☞ work_cited304] Williams, R. (1987) Arius: Heresy and Tradition. London: Darton, Longman, and Todd.
[☞ work_cited305] Winnicki, J. K. (2009) Late Egypt and her Neighbours: Foreign Population in Egypt in the First Millennium BC. Warsaw: Warsaw University, Faculty of Law and Administration, Chair of Roman and Antique Law; Institute of Archaeology, Department of Papyrology.
[☞ work_cited306] Wright, D. R. (1999) “‘What Do You Mean There Were No Tribes in Africa?’: Thoughts on Boundaries—and Related Matters—in Precolonial Africa.” History in Africa 26: 409-26.
[☞ work_cited307] Young, J. (1999) “Along Ethiopia’s western frontier: Gambella and Benishangul in transition.” Journal of Modern African Studies 37 (2): 321-46.
[☞ work_cited308] Zarins, J. (1990) “Obsidian and the Red Sea Trade: Prehistoric Aspects.” In South Asian Archaeology 1987: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, held in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. M. Taddei (ed.). Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente: 507-41.
[☞ work_cited309] Zarroug, M. A. (1991) The Kingdom of Alwa. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.
[☞ work_cited310] Zibelius, K. (1972) Afrikanische Orts- und Völkernamen in hieroglyphischen und hieratischen Texten. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert.
[☞ work_cited311] Zibelius-Chen, K. (2006) “The Chronology of Nubian Kingdoms from Dyn. 25 to the End of the Kingdom of Meroe.” In Ancient Egyptian Chronology. E. Hornung, R. Krauss, and D. A. Warburton (eds.). Leiden and Boston: Brill: 284-303.
[☞ work_cited312] Zwettler, M. J. (1996) “The “era of NBT” and “YMNT”: two proposals (1).” Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 7 (1): 95-107.
[☞ work_cited313] -----. (2000) “Ma‘add in Late-Ancient Arabian Epigraphy and Other Pre-Islamic Sources.” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 90: 223-309.
Endnotes
[☞ note1] 1 The working title of the paper was “Aksum and Nubia: Battles, Merchants, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa.”
[☞ note2] 2 Hatke 2011.
[☞ note3] 3 It is certainly true that the ancient kingdom of Aksum encompassed not only northern Ethiopia but also much of what is now Eritrea. By referring to Aksum as an Ethiopian polity the author does not wish to imply that modern Eritreans have any less claim to the Aksumite legacy than modern Ethiopians. Rather, Ethiopia is simply employed in the present context as shorthand for the northern Horn of Africa, including the area of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea but excluding Djibouti and Somalia, much as one might classify the Harappan civilization as Indian, even though it was based in the Indus Valley of today’s Pakistan.
[☞ note4] 4 Connah 2001: 63. This perspective is to a large extent a reaction to earlier diffusionist theories about Nubian, particularly Kushite, influence on the rest of Africa. On Kushite civilization as an amalgam of different influences, rather than a center of cultural diffusion across Africa, see Haycock 1971: 30.
[☞ note5] 5 Zarins 1990: 532-5; Inizan and Francaviglia 2002; Mitchell 2005: 80; Boivin and Fuller 2009: 130-1; Khalidi 2009: 283.
[☞ note6] 6 Roy 2011: 264.
[☞ note7] 7 Zarins 1990: 533; Phillips 2003a: 439-40. As no obsidian material has been found in Predynastic contexts at Elephantine on the northern frontier of Nubia, it is unlikely that the obsidian found in Egypt came from Nubia by way of the Nile (Roy 2011: 264). A Red Sea route is more likely. On Predynastic maritime trade, see Ward 2006: 126. Predynastic Egyptian pottery found in the eastern Sudan (Fattovich 1995: 72) may be related to this trade.
[☞ note8] 8 Boivin et al. 2009: 260, 261.
[☞ note9] 9 Mitchell 2005: 81, 83.
[☞ note10] 10 A pottery figurine of a humped zebu from Zilum in northeastern Nigeria, dating from c. 600-400 BCE (Magnavita 2006: 71-3, 78), provides what may be a terminus ante quem for the zebu’s diffusion from the Horn into Nubia, as Nubia would have been the likeliest intermediate stage along the route of diffusion from the Red Sea coast to the Lake Chad basin. The zebu is depicted in Egyptian art as early as c. 2000-1500 BCE (Boivin and Fuller 2009: 159), indicating that the initial stage of the animal’s diffusion from the Horn to the Nile Valley must have taken place by that time. One should be careful not to read too much into the diffusion of the humped zebu to the western end of the Indian Ocean, however, as this process probably involved only a limited number of zebu (Boivin et al. 2009: 267) and involved a significant interbreeding of African taurine and Indian zebu stocks (Fuller et al. 2011: 547).
[☞ note11] 11 Boivin et al. 2009: 266; Fuller et al. 2011: 547.
[☞ note12] 12 Grimal 1992: 87.
[☞ note13] 13 Resinous material has been found at several Predynastic Egyptian sites, and while not all of it has been fully analyzed, it is quite possible that much of it reached Egypt via Nubia (Roy 2011: 252). If so, the northern Horn of Africa is the likeliest source, as Nubia lacks trees producing aromatic gums.
[☞ note14] 14 Boivin and Fuller 2009: 138.
[☞ note15] 15 Kitchen 1990: 173. Arguments for locating Punt in South Arabia or Somalia, also famous in antiquity as sources of aromatic gums, are not supported by the evidence (Kitchen 2004: 28-30).
[☞ note16] 16 Fattovich 1995: 72; Manzo 1997: 79-83; Phillips 2003a: 437; Mitchell 2005: 79-80.
[☞ note17] 17 Kitchen 1990: 174-7.
[☞ note18] 18 Manzo 2010.
[☞ note19] 19 Kendall 1997.
[☞ note20] 20 Boivin and Fuller 2009: 140.
[☞ note21] 21 Fattovich 1995: 72-3; al-Nūr 2004.
[☞ note22] 22 Davies 2003.
[☞ note23] 23 Phillipson (2009a: 266-8) notes that inscriptions mentioning Di‘mat (D‘mt) are very few, numbering only six as of 2008, and on this basis questions whether Di‘mat was the only Pre-Aksumite state in the northern Horn of Africa, or was even the name of a state at all. It is true that there are Pre-Aksumite inscriptions, including royal inscriptions, which do not mention Di‘mat, though it need not follow from this that these inscriptions are to be associated with a separate (and apparently nameless!) polity. Indeed Manzo (2009: 299-300) suggests that the “uniformity of the Pre-Aksumite decorum system over a large geographical area” resulted from the implementation of a planned program aimed at the construction and communication of a unitary state identity of Di‘mat. Thus with due caution, and for lack of any better term, the name Di‘mat will be retained in this study as the name for the first state in Ethiopia.
[☞ note24] 24 A longer chronology, stretching back to c. 1000 BCE, has been proposed by Morkot 2000: 140-4, though the prevailing opinion among scholars is that the era of the preliterate rulers of the Napatan dynasty extends for six reigns up to King Alara (c. 785-765 BCE), in which case the inception of the dynasty can be placed no earlier than c. 885 BCE (Zibelius-Chen 2006: 284).
[☞ note25] 25 Morkot 2000: 147-50, 156-7.
[☞ note26] 26 Fattovich 1995: 69.
[☞ note27] 27 Archaeological evidence of the diffusion of southern Levantine material culture to Yemen during the fourth and third millennia BCE (Buffa 2007: 271-7, 278-9) may provide a context for the migration of pre-literate Semitic-speakers to South Arabia. This connection was proposed some years ago by Knauf (1988), who argued for the settlement of western Arabia by Semitic-speakers from the Levant after c. 2000 BCE, based also on archaeological evidence as well as on similarities between Canaanite and Arabian toponyms. Although Marrassini (2003: 146) suggests that some Semitic-speakers had begun moving across the Red Sea from Arabia to the Horn of Africa as early as the third millennium BCE, implying an earlier date for the presence of Semitic-speakers in Arabia than that proposed by Knauf, archaeological evidence of Bronze Age contact between South Arabia and the Horn of Africa suggests that interaction was relatively limited during the third millennium BCE but increased during the following millennium (Buffa 2007: 261-71, 278).
[☞ note28] 28 On the archaeological remains of these indigenous agro-pastoralists, see Finneran 2007: 67-108. Based on a study of Semitic and Cushitic vocabulary relating to agriculture and livestock, it has been argued that, while the indigenous Cushitic-speaking peoples of Ethiopia did practice agriculture, most agricultural technology, including the plough, was introduced by Semites from South Arabia (Marrassini 2003).
[☞ note29] 29 Better known to the west as Sheba, by which Saba’ is known in the Hebrew Old Testament.
[☞ note30] 30 Robin and Maigret 1998. While the South Arabian, specifically Sabaean, influence is, on account of its prominence in monumental culture, more visible than the local, archaeological evidence indicates that indigenous traditions prevailed at the popular level (Finneran 2007: 138-9, 144-5; Fattovich 2009; Manzo 2009; Phillipson 2009a). At the same time, many recent studies, by treating Sabaean influence in the northern Horn of Africa as a superficial phenomenon, overlook the more deeply-rooted impact of Semitic speech, which was diffused into the region by way of South Arabia. Given the internal diversity of Ethiosemitic, and particularly the distinctiveness of the Gurage group, the diffusion of Semitic to the Horn of Africa is likely to have been not only a long but also a very complex process (Boivin et al. 2009: 271). A recent study gives an estimate of c. 2850 YBP for the origin of Ethiosemitic, corresponding roughly with the probable date of initial Sabaean settlement in the Horn of Africa (Kitchen et al. 2009: 2709), but fails to take into consideration the significant disparity between Ancient South Arabian and Ethiosemitic. Given the lexical and morphological differences between the two, it is clear that Sabaic cannot be regarded as the ancestor of all Semitic languages spoken in the Horn of Africa (Appleyard 1996: 207-8; cf. Robin and Maigret 1998: 792-3). This being the case, there is every reason to believe that the first stage of Semitic settlement in the Horn of Africa predates Sabaean influence, perhaps by several centuries.
[☞ note31] 31 Kitchen’s attempt to do just this is premised on his assumption that Di‘mat was actually ruled from South Arabia (Kitchen 1994: I: 115-17), a theory which is entirely without support (Finneran 2007: 144).
[☞ note32] 32 Finneran, loc. cit.: 119-20. These dates correspond roughly with the combined Yehā I and Yehā II phases proposed by Fattovich 2009: 281-2, who is, however, wary of designating Pre-Aksumite culture as “Di‘mat” (ibid.: 287). It is true that graffiti from the Qōḥaytō Plateau in Eritrea exhibit numerous similarities with the early forms of the musnad script found at Durayb-Yalā, Hajar bin Humayd, and Jabal Balaq, dating from the beginning of the first millennium BCE (Ricci 1994), though these graffiti, even if correctly dated, need not be related to Di‘mat and may in fact have been left by Sabaean merchants—or by Sabaicized Ethiopians—before the rise of Di‘mat.
[☞ note33] 33 Robin and Maigret 1998: 783. The comparative rarity of references to Di‘mat in inscriptions also suggests that it was a short-lived polity (Manzo 2009: 300).
[☞ note34] 34 Robin and Maigret: 778; Manzo 2009: 292.
[☞ note35] 35 Welsby 1996: 73-7, 91-2, 100-13, 115-22, 178-9, 189.
[☞ note36] 36 Robin and Maigret 1998; Finneran 2007: 120, 121-2, 130, 134-7, 145; Manzo 2009: 299-300.
[☞ note37] 37 Robin and Maigret 1998: 782, 789, 790; Finneran 2007: 122, 144; Phillipson 2009a: 267.
[☞ note38] 38 Morkot 2000: 75.
[☞ note39] 39 Kitchen et al. 2009: 2709; Finneran 2007: 144; Morkot 2000: 81-3.
[☞ note40] 40 Thus the inscriptions from the period of the Di‘mat kingdom display at times certain local idiosyncrasies in morphology and vocabulary (Drewes 1980; Robin and Maigret 1998: 784-7; Finneran 2007: 120, 121-2; Phillipson 2009a: 265), indicating that the authors were in many cases Ethiopians, not expatriate Sabaeans. In the case of Nubia, Egyptian influence was mediated through the children of the local Nubian elite who were educated in Egypt (Morkot 2000: 81-7). On the complexities of ethnic identity in Nubia under Egyptian rule, see Smith 2003.
[☞ note41] 41 Finneran 2007: 144. The reference to Saba’ (S1b’) in the titles of some Di‘matite rulers has been taken as evidence of a close union between Di‘mat and Saba’, if not the tutelage of the latter (Robin and Maigret 1998: 788), though it is more probable that, since S1b’ can refer to both the kingdom of Saba’ and the Sabaean people, it was used in royal titles in reference to the Sabaean expatriate community in Di‘mat. This scenario is also (cautiously) suggested by Phillipson 2009a: 267.
[☞ note42] 42 In the Ethiopian context, the culture of the Proto-Aksumite period (c. 400-150 BCE) owes nothing to South Arabia and is instead African in character (Finneran 2007: 141-4). On Nubianizing trends in religion and art during later phases of Kushite history, see Welsby 1996: 77-9, 181-5; Edwards 2004: 179, 181.
[☞ note43] 43 On the Nilo-Saharan, specifically East Sudanic, origins of Meroitic, see Rilly 2007: 471-87; idem 2009: 2. On the history and use of Meroitic in Nubia, see Welsby 1996: 189-95; Edwards 2004: 176-79; Rilly 2007.
[☞ note44] 44 Schneider 1983; Frantsouzoff 2006.
[☞ note45] 45 This might explain why, as noted by Manzo (2009: 300), South Arabian cultural elements were favored over those of Nubia in Pre-Aksumite Ethiopia.
[☞ note46] 46 Although the Kushite king Kashta, who came to the Nubian throne c. 760 BCE, managed to establish control as far north as the Aswān region (Grimal 1992: 335), probably c. 755-750 BCE (Török 1997: 145), it was not until the reign of his son and successor Piye (c. 753-723 BCE) and even more so that of the latter’s brother Shabaqo (c. 722-707 BCE) that the Kushites achieved control of all of Egypt (Welsby 1996: 63). Given that the establishment of Kushite rule in Egypt was a long process, it is difficult to assign a precise date to its inception.
[☞ note47] 47 Although Kushite rule in Egypt came to an end in 663 BCE, official documents in Thebes continued to be dated according to the regnal years of the Kushite king Tanwetamani as late as 656 BCE (Grimal 1992: 352; Török 1997: 187). This, however, reflects nothing more than the political fiction of continued Kushite rule in Egypt.
[☞ note48] 48 See above, n. 41.
[☞ note49] 49 On the epigraphic sources relating to Aksumite relations with South Arabia in the third century, see Robin 1989.
[☞ note50] 50 Kālēb’s invasions of South Arabia are treated in detail by Hatke 2011.
[☞ note51] 51 Fattovich (2004: 74) believes that Kushite military campaigns against the Tigrayan Highlands precipitated Di‘mat's decline, though there is no evidence that the Kushite army was ever active in that region. For his part, Finneran (2007: 143) believes that the use of model axes as grave goods, as well as a possible instance of a human sacrificial burial at Bēta Gīyōrgīs, can be compared with similar funerary practices in Nubia, and can thus be regarded as evidence of a cultural exchange between the two regions. Such cultural traits as these, however, are too vague and are encountered over too wide an area to support Finneran’s hypothesis. Cultural links between Ethiopia and Nubia have also been seen in a stone sphinx from ‘Ādī Gramaten in Eritrea (Manzo 2009: 295, 296 [Fig. 4]), recalling the sphinx motif found on other Pre-Aksumite objects (Finneran 2007: 136). But since the sphinx is a common a motif throughout the Near East, and since the sphinxes depicted in Kushite art are too different in style from their Pre-Aksumite counterparts, any direct link between Ethiopia and Nubia in this case seems unlikely.
[☞ note52] 52 Fattovich 1990: 14; idem 2009: 282.
[☞ note53] 53 As Fattovich (2009: 284) points out, very few ceramics from Yehā are comparable in style to Kushite pottery.
[☞ note54] 54 Finneran 2007: 114; Fattovich 2009: 283, 285.
[☞ note55] 55 Fattovich 1990: 14; idem 2009: 284.
[☞ note56] 56 De Contenson 1963: 48.
[☞ note57] 57 Chittick 1982: 51.
[☞ note58] 58 The Ptolemies are known to have sent several elephant-hunting expeditions to the Horn of Africa (Raschke 1978: 946-8 [n. 1185-1186]; Casson 1993). The inscription of Ptolemy III (246-222 BCE) discovered at Adulis in the sixth century CE (§3.1) could well have been erected in the course of one of the Ptolemaic expeditions to the southern Red Sea. A votive stele of Ptolemaic date, first discovered by the Scottish traveler James Bruce at Aksum in 1770 and presented in 1955 to the National Museum of Scotland (Phillips 1997: 449), may also be a relic of Ptolemaic contact with the Horn.
[☞ note59] 59 Finneran 2007: 143.
[☞ note60] 60 Leclant 1961: 392.
[☞ note61] 61 Kirwan 1960: 172; Chittick 1982: 51.
[☞ note62] 62 For this image, see Connah 2001: 51 (Fig. 2.11).
[☞ note63] 63 Fattovich 2004: 74.
[☞ note64] 64 Casson 1993.
[☞ note65] 65 Sidebotham 1986: 7-12.
[☞ note66] 66 Ibid.: 13-47, 116-41. On the new pattern of seafaring, based on sailing in open water with the monsoon winds, which began c. 120-100 BCE and facilitated the growth of Indian Ocean trade, see Curtin 1984: 96-100. That Roman trade with the Indian Ocean world greatly exceeded that of the Ptolemies probably has much to do with the fact that the population of the Roman Empire, estimated at approximately fifty to sixty million, was far greater than that of Ptolemaic Egypt, which was probably no more than seven to eight million (Sidebotham 1996: 289).
[☞ note67] 67 Casson 1989. On the Egyptian origin of the anonymous author of the Periplus, see ibid.: 7; Seland 2010: 14.
[☞ note68] 68 The oft-repeated identification of Zoskales with the Za-Haqelē of late medieval Ethiopian king-lists is unlikely given that the earliest of these lists post-date the Periplus by well over a thousand years (cf. Casson 1989: 109).
[☞ note69] 69 Periplus 5:2.21-2.
[☞ note70] 70 Bernard 2000.
[☞ note71] 71 Periplus 4:2.6.
[☞ note72] 72 Casson 1989: 100-1; but see Bukharin 2011.
[☞ note73] 73 On the location of “Barbaria” see Beaucamp in Martyrium Arethae 2007: 262 (n. 178).
[☞ note74] 74 Seland 2010: 38. Seland (ibid.) may well be correct that Zoskales maintained different places of residence throughout his realm and periodically spent time at each, as did many kings throughout history, including medieval Ethiopian kings.
[☞ note75] 75 For an assessment of this trade, based primarily on pottery evidence, see Manzo 2005.
[☞ note76] 76 Raschke 1978: 869-70 (n. 900); Török 1989: 61, 117-50.
[☞ note77] 77 Wild et al. 2005: 145.
[☞ note78] 78 Ibid. On ties between Lower Nubia and the Red Sea, see Raschke 1978: 868-9 (n. 899).
[☞ note79] 79 India, for example, produced plenty cotton textiles of its own, and it is probable that most if not all of the cotton textiles at Berenike woven with Z-spun yarn are of Indian origin (Gradel et al. [in press]: 17; but see Wild et al. 2005: 146).
[☞ note80] 80 Welsby 1996: 62; cf. Manzo 2004: 77.
[☞ note81] 81 On Aksumite port facilities, see Peacock and Blue 2007.
[☞ note82] 82 Ibid.
[☞ note83] 83 Tomber 2005: 100; Sidebotham et al. 2008: 182; Sidebotham 2011: 75, 185, 231, 248-9, 275, 277, 280.
[☞ note84] 84 Hatke 2011: 236.
[☞ note85] 85 Ibid.: 265.
[☞ note86] 86 Periplus 6:3.1.
[☞ note87] 87 Sedov 1996: 22; idem 2007: 85.
[☞ note88] 88 Tomber 2005.
[☞ note89] 89 Munro-Hay 1989a; Metlich 2006: 102-3.
[☞ note90] 90 Hatke 2011: 355-84.
[☞ note91] 91 Robin and Gorea 2002: 427-8.
[☞ note92] 92 Raschke 1978: 966 (n. 1258).
[☞ note93] 93 Chatterji 1968: 52-3.
[☞ note94] 94 Kobishchanov 1979: 58. On the dates of the kings who minted these coins, see Falk 2001; idem 2004.
[☞ note95] 95 Magid 2004: 157, 159, 163.
[☞ note96] 96 Cowrie shells (Monetaria moneta) have been found at Meroë and can only have come from the Red Sea or Indian Ocean (Carter and Foley 1980: 303), though it is impossible to tell whether these reached the town directly or came by way of intermediaries in the Eastern Desert, such as the Beja/Blemmyes. In the past, scholars were wont to see Indian influence on Kush, and cited as evidence to that effect the depiction of the Kushite god Apedemak with three heads and two pairs of arms in a relief of early first-century CE date at Naq‘a (Arkell 1961: 166; Adams 1977: 318 [Fig. 51], 331). While this image invites comparison with Indian depictions of Hindu deities, the fact that multi-headed and multi-armed deities are not depicted in Indian art before c. 500 CE (Shinnie 1978: 253) makes the theory of Indian influence on Kushite depictions of Apedemak quite untenable (cf. Haycock 1971: 29; Raschke 1978: 966 [n. 1258]). That Apedemak is portrayed in this manner seems in fact to represent a Kushite artist’s attempt to depict Apedemak from several angles at once (Welsby 1996: 181-2). A related theory that cotton cultivation was introduced to Kush from India (Arkell 1961: 166; Adams 1977: 331) is also without basis (Gradel et al. in press), and there are no grounds for supposing that the Nubian (Nobiin) word for cotton, koshmaag, is derived from the Sanskrit karpā’sa, as recently suggested by Fuller (2008: 19).
[☞ note97] 97 Periplus 2:1.11.
[☞ note98] 98 The manuscript itself is of tenth-century date. A fourteenth- to fifteenth-century copy of this manuscript (BM Add. 19391, fols. 9r-12r) contains all of the errors of the former and has no independent authority (Casson 1989: 5).
[☞ note99] 99 Ibid.: 100.
[☞ note100] 100 Periplus 4:1.19-6:3.7.
[☞ note101] 101 Phillipson 1998: 65, 70; Peacock and Blue 2007; Hatke 2011: 32-4, 237-43, 265-8.
[☞ note102] 102 See §4.2; §4.6.1; §5.1.
[☞ note103] 103 Edwards 1989: 37.
[☞ note104] 104 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 908-12.
[☞ note105] 105 Kirwan (1960: 171) believes that the fallen foes are Aksumite, though there is no evidence of Aksumite military activities as far west as the Buṭāna during this period. Indeed, since the triumph of the ruler over his enemies is a standard, if not stereotypical, image in Kushite art, it is not impossible that Shorakaror’s monument is symbolic, rather than historical, in nature.
[☞ note106] 106 This so-called “Sun Temple” is more properly a temple dedicated to the union of the gods Amūn and Rē‘ (Török 2002: 219-20). Though the first temple at the site is supposed to have been erected in the late seventh to early sixth century BCE, the inscriptions and reliefs with which we are presently concerned can be dated to the late first century BCE based on a sunk relief depiction of Prince Akiñidad (ibid.: 213, 215). This individual is known from epigraphic evidence to have played a role in the Kushite attack on the Roman frontier in 25 BCE (Török 1997: 451-2; Zibelius-Chen 2006: 299), which gives us an approximate timeframe for the reliefs from Temple 250 at Meroë.
[☞ note107] 107 Török 2002: 220.
[☞ note108] 108 Ibid.
[☞ note109] 109 Griffith 1911: 58-9 (pl. XXXIV).
[☞ note110] 110 Al-Nūr 2004. Griffith (1911: 59) compares another name from the southern tower, Awir, with several toponyms in the Red Sea region, among them Aua, mentioned in Monumentum Adulitanum II, though this is connection seems far-fetched.
[☞ note111] 111 An analogous situation is the dispatch by autonomous Aegean peoples of diplomatic gifts to Egypt during the New Kingdom (1539-1075 BCE), depicted in Egyptian tombs as the offering of tribute. One is reminded as well of the Chinese habit of referring to goods brought by foreign merchants and diplomats as “tribute.”
[☞ note112] 112 Manzo 2004: 77.
[☞ note113] 113 Idem 2005: 56; Chittick 1982: 52.
[☞ note114] 114 Welsby 1996: 140.
[☞ note115] 115 Manzo 2005: 56.
[☞ note116] 116 Whitehouse 1997; Rehren 2001.
[☞ note117] 117 Fattovich and Bard 2001: 9, 19.
[☞ note118] 118 Ibid.: 11.
[☞ note119] 119 Chittick 1982: 52.
[☞ note120] 120 Welsby 1996: 42.
[☞ note121] 121 Chittick 1982: 52.
[☞ note122] 122 Ibid.; Welsby 1996: 42.
[☞ note123] 123 Trigger 1969: 26 (n. 12); cf. Raschke 1978: 874-5 (n. 917).
[☞ note124] 124 Commenting on the discovery of one such thumb-ring in the Daju Hills of South Dārfūr, believed to be of Kushite origin, Trigger (1969: 26 [n. 12]) compares the circulation of Native American arrowheads in modern North America.
[☞ note125] 125 Magid 2004: 164; Manzo 2004: 79, 80. Though found at sites in Nubia as well as in the Eastern Desert (Barnard 2008: 416-17), Eastern Desert Ware vessels differ in technology, shape, and decoration from pottery produced by permanent inhabitants of the Nile Valley, in addition to which preliminary analyses of the fabric of more than 140 Eastern Desert Ware vessels indicates that this type of pottery was made in several regions, all of them most likely outside the Nile Valley (ibid.: 418-19). On Eastern Desert Ware in the context of Aksumite expansion to the north during the third century CE, see §3.3.1.
[☞ note126] 126 Periplus 4:2.9-10.
[☞ note127] 127 For references to the relevant literature, see Casson 1989: 107.
[☞ note128] 128 Dixon 1963; Welsby 1996: 140; Török 1997: 137; Hintze 2000: 52.
[☞ note129] 129 Connah 2001: 96 (Fig. 3.10), 97.
[☞ note130] 130 Anfray 1981: 377.
[☞ note131] 131 Raschke 1978: 905 (n. 1005).
[☞ note132] 132 Casson 1989: 107.
[☞ note133] 133 The same hypothesis was earlier put forward by Chittick 1982: 50.
[☞ note134] 134 Casson 1989: 107.
[☞ note135] 135 Ibid.
[☞ note136] 136 Ibid.: 107-8.
[☞ note137] 137 Ibid.: 108.
[☞ note138] 138 On the date of Cosmas’ journey, see Hatke 2011: 79-80.
[☞ note139] 139 On the identification of Ethiopia with India, see Mayerson 1993. There is no evidence that Cosmas visited South Asia (Frézouls 1989: 442-3, 458-9).
[☞ note140] 140 Top. Chr. 2.56.
[☞ note141] 141 Ibid.: 2.58-9.
[☞ note142] 142 Ibid.: 2.60-3. The case has occasionally—though never successfully—been made that the anonymous king who erected Monumentum Adulitanum II was not an Aksumite. Theories that the king hailed from South Arabia (Drewes 1962: 106-7; Beeston 1980) can be easily dismissed for two reasons. Firstly, Monumentum Adulitanum II is in Greek, and while two South Arabian merchants named Hāni’ and Zayd’īl are known to have left a brief bilingual Greek-Minaic inscription on the island of Delos (Robin 1991: 61 [Fig. 17], 62; Maraqten 1994: 162-3), no royal South Arabian inscriptions in Greek have ever come to light. By contrast, several Aksumite kings left inscriptions in Greek (Bernard 2000). Secondly, most of the battles recorded in Monumentum Adulitanum II took place on the African continent, which suits the inscription’s attribution to an Aksumite king; but since no South Arabian king at any point in history is known to have waged war in Africa, attributing Monumentum Adulitanum II to a ruler from South Arabia is quite out of the question. More recently it has been argued that Monumentum Adulitanum II was erected by a king of the Red Sea littoral of Eritrea (Fauvelle-Aymar 2009). Quite apart from the implausibility that a polity based in this region would have had the resources and manpower to wage long-distance military campaigns against the Ethiopian Highlands and much of the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula like those described in the inscription, the argument against the Aksumite origin of Monumentum Adulitanum II suffers from the emphasis which Fauvelle-Aymar (ibid.: 143) places on the identification of the Gaze people (Γάζη ἔθνoς) with the Aksumites. Since Monumentum Adulitanum II records the king’s campaign against these people, the king, so Fauvelle-Aymar contends, cannot easily have been an Aksumite himself. As Fauvelle-Aymar (ibid.) correctly points out, one of the eleventh-century scholia added to the text of the Christian Topography identifies the Gaze with the Aksumites and notes that the Ethiopians were still called Agaze. However, it must not be forgotten that, since the scholia are not integral parts of the original text of the Christian Topography, they may well reflect later traditions regarding Ethiopia and its peoples. In her addition of the text, Wolska-Conus (in Top. Chr. 1968: I: 78) suggests that Cosmas is not the author of the scholia but cautions, “[p]eut-être faut-il mettre à part les annotations qui accompagnent les inscriptions axoumites, très discutées par les spécialistes, sur lesquelles il est difficile de porter un jugement.” To be sure, ’Ag‘āzī (literally, “the free ones”) is a name by which Ethiopians have called themselves during the Middle Ages, while what seems to be a related epithet, Yg‘dyn, is applied to King Rābiḥ of Di‘mat and his son Liman (Sima 2003: 144) during the Pre-Aksumite period. Nevertheless there is no reason to assume that the Aksumites regularly used ’Ag‘āzī as a generic name for themselves, given that this name is nowhere attested in Aksumite inscriptions (ibid.: 144-5). Although [’Ag]‘āzǝ[yān] has been read in a fragmentary sixth-century Ge‘ez inscription from Ẓafār in Yemen, that text is too badly damaged to provide any indication as to who was meant by this name (ibid.). For all we know, these putative *’Ag‘āzǝyān were mercenaries from the Ethiopian Highlands recruited by the Aksumites. ’Abrehā, a general of the sixth-century Aksumite king Kālēb who seized power in Ḥimyar at some point between 531 and 547, bears a title that has been interpreted as “the ’Ag‘āzī king” (mlkn ’g‘zyn) in his famous Dam Inscription from Mārib in Yemen (CIH 541). But as Sima (ibid.) points out the meaning of this title is enigmatic in that ’Abrehā was at this time no longer an Aksumite general but rather an autonomous ruler of Ḥimyar. In addition, the reference to ’Abrehā as ’Ag‘āzī need not imply that the Aksumites were regularly known by this name, particularly given that ’Abrehā began his career as a slave of a Roman citizen at Adulis (Procopius, De Bell. Pers. 1.20.4-5), in which case he may not have been Aksumite at all but might instead have been taken into bondage from one of Aksum’s African vassals. Even this assumes that the reading mlkn ’g‘zyn in CIH 541 is in fact correct; as Müller (2010: 111 [n. 5]) notes in his edition of the text, an alternative reading ’l‘zyn is also possible. ’Abrehā’s title might in that case be reconstructed as *malikān ’Ǝlla-‘Ūzāyān, “the King ’Ella-‘Ūzāyān,” with no connection to the ’Ag‘āzī at all. Since, therefore, the case for associating the Aksumites with the name ’Ag‘āzī is extremely dubious, the identification of the Gaze people of Monumentum Adulitanum II with the Aksumites is best rejected, at least insofar as Aksum’s third-century history is concerned. It is perfectly plausible that ’Ag‘āzī, though originally a name for a single group in the Ethiopian Highlands, was adopted by Ethiopians in later centuries as a generic name for themselves, much as the name “Ethiopian” itself, originally a designation for Nubians, was appropriated by the Aksumites in the mid-fourth century (see §3.3.2). But even if, for the sake of argument, the Aksumites adopted ’Ag‘āzī as a term of self-identification as early as the sixth century, it need not follow that the people thus designated in the third-century Monumentum Adulitanum II were Aksumites. In short, there is no basis for Fauvelle-Aymar’s identification of the Gaze people with the Aksumites, and his theory that the king who erected Monumentum Adulitanum II, by virtue of his having made war on the Gaze, was not an Aksumite can be safely dismissed. As for Fauvelle-Aymar’s hypothesis that the inscription was erected by a king of Africa’s Red Sea littoral around the end of the first century BCE or the turn of the Common Era (Fauvelle-Aymar 2009: 145), this too is easily rejected on grounds of the references in Monumentum Adulitanum II to military operations in Arabia. Since no African kingdom other than Aksum is known to have invaded Arabia, much less during the period posited by Fauvelle-Aymar, attributing the inscription to a polity based on the narrow coastal strip of Eritrea is extremely dubious. As Finneran (2007: 165) points out, the palace excavated at Adulis is similar enough in form with Aksumite palaces excavated elsewhere to indicate a standardized layout for all palaces, and thus the existence of a centralized state organization based at Aksum, which in turn controlled Adulis.
[☞ note143] 143 Top. Chr. 2.54.6-18.
[☞ note144] 144 Ibid.: 2.63.8-12.
[☞ note145] 145 RIE 188:24; RIE 189:39 (Bernard et al. 1991: 260, 264). Manbar, the Ge‘ez word for throne used in ‘Ēzānā’s inscriptions, seems to correspond with the word δίφρoς used in Monumentum Adulitanum II.
[☞ note146] 146 Top. Chr. 2.58-9.
[☞ note147] 147 Ibid.: 2.56.1-7.
[☞ note148] 148 On Kālēb’s irredentist claims to Arabia, see Hatke 2011: 154-60.
[☞ note149] 149 Top. Chr. 2.62.4-9. Despite a great deal of speculation as to its exact location, Leuke Kome is in all likelihood to be identified with ‘Aynūna in northwestern Saudi Arabia (28º 5’ 8” N/35º 11’ 13” E) (Hackl et al. 2003: 565-6). On archaeological remains from the region of Wādī ‘Aynūna, see Rihani 2004: 371-2; Sidebotham 2011: 175. Regarding the Sabaeans of South Arabia, Monumentum Adulitanum II says nothing of the Aksumite king having made war on them, which would imply that his campaigns took him only as far as the northern borders of the kingdom of Saba’ but not beyond. It is quite possible that the anonymous king who erected Monumentum Adulitanum II did not make war on the Sabaeans was because western Yemen was already under Aksumite control.
[☞ note150] 150 Top. Chr. 2.62.4-9. On the identification of the Kinaidokolpitae, see Cuvigny and Robin 1996. The identification of the Arabitae is a bit more problematic, as this group, despite its name, does not seem to be coterminous with the Arabs. On this issue, see Hatke 2011: 40-1.
[☞ note151] 151 Littmann 1913: 2-3. For a French translation of, and commentary on, RIE 269, see Bernard 2000: 3-4.
[☞ note152] 152 Littmann 1913: 2.
[☞ note153] 153 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 950 (Greek text), 951-2 (English translation). The similarity between the passage in Monumentum Adulitanum II and Line 3 of RIE 269 is noted by Littmann (1913: 3).
[☞ note154] 154 On ‘Ēzānā’s conversion to Christianity, see §4.5.1.
[☞ note155] 155 Höfner 1965: 560.
[☞ note156] 156 Ibid.: 559; Brakmann 1994: 37.
[☞ note157] 157 On Aksumite military activities in South Arabian during the third century, see Robin 1989.
[☞ note158] 158 As argued by Robin in Cuvigny and Robin 1996: 710-11.
[☞ note159] 159 As argued by Fiaccadori 2004.
[☞ note160] 160 Robin 2005: 140-5. On the somewhat earlier Ḥimyarite conquest of the western Ḥaḍramawt, see ibid.: 136-40.
[☞ note161] 161 On this invasion, see Hatke 2011: 119-76.
[☞ note162] 162 Al-Iryānī 1973: 147 ff.; Hatke 2011: 60-1.
[☞ note163] 163 Tha’rān ’Ayfa‘ and Dhamar‘alay ’Ayfa‘, though referred to as “kings” in ‘Abadān 1, seem to have been simply members of the royal family rather than actual rulers (Robin and Gajda 1994: 133).
[☞ note164] 164 The details of the Ḥimyarite campaigns against the Tihāma are dealt with in ‘Abadān 1:5, 24-7 (Robin and Gajda 1994: 114, 115, 117, 118-19, 121, 124-5). On the chronology of this period of Ḥimyarite history, see Robin 2005.
[☞ note165] 165 Török 1988: 33.
[☞ note166] 166 See §4.5.2.3.
[☞ note167] 167 For a tentative identification of the toponyms and ethnonyms attested in Monumentum Adulitanum II, see Huntingford 1989: 44-7; Bernard 2000: 35-40.
[☞ note168] 168 Greek text and translation in Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 950-1.
[☞ note169] 169 Appleyard 2004; Bechhaus-Gerst 2004.
[☞ note170] 170 Burstein 2008: 253, 256.
[☞ note171] 171 Snowden 1970: 117, 128.
[☞ note172] 172 Raschke 1978: 890 (n. 953); Winnicki 2009: 488-94.
[☞ note173] 173 Barnard 2005; Burstein 2008. Burstein (loc. cit.) goes so far as to argue that the Blemmyes during Late Antiquity were for the most part sedentary folk based in the Nile Valley and cites textual evidence to that effect. Since, however, the Romans probably had more direct contact with Blemmyes in the Nile Valley than those out in the Eastern Desert, the textual evidence of Blemmyan settlement in the Nile Valley may be somewhat skewed. Also, it is not uncommon for an ethnic group to contain nomadic as well as sedentary elements, and the Blemmyes of antiquity were probably no different. Burstein’s argument, on the basis of a reference in Ammianus Marcellinus, that the people known to Roman authors as the Saracens (i.e., Arabs) dominated the Eastern Desert in Late Antiquity (ibid.: 258-9) is misleading. All the text in question says is that the Saracens territory extended as far as the Nile cataracts and the frontiers of the Blemmyes, an area encompassing only the northern part of the Eastern Desert. The case for Arab settlement in that area has recently been made, primarily on the basis of archaeological evidence, by Power (2007), who argues that in Late Antiquity as today the Wādī Ḥammāmāt marked the border between Arab and Beja domains (ibid.: 203). Curiously, Burstein (2008: 260) has no problem accepting that the Beja against whom the Aksumites fought were pastoralists based in the Eastern Desert.
[☞ note174] 174 Plumley and Adams 1974: 238.
[☞ note175] 175 Browne 2004.
[☞ note176] 176 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1054; Lassányi 2008: 598. On earlier skirmishes between the Romans and the pastoral peoples of the Eastern Desert, see Raschke 1978: 890 (n. 953).
[☞ note177] 177 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 960-2, 996-7. The first plague is mentioned by Cassius Dio in his Roman History, the second by the twelfth-century Byzantine author, John Zonaras. Although the latter authority is very late, his reference to a plague originating in “Ethiopia” (i.e. Nubia) c. 250-253 is probably derived from one of the lost books of Cassius Dio (ibid.: 997).
[☞ note178] 178 Fauvelle-Aymar 2009: 153.
[☞ note179] 179 Smidt 2010: 821. On the region of Tāka during the Middle Ages, see Nibbi 1997: 305, 307.
[☞ note180] 180 §4.5.1, §4.5.2.1.
[☞ note181] 181 Huntingford 1989: 43. Regarding these scholia, due caution is of course in order. On the somewhat problematic authenticity of the scholia appended to the medieval manuscripts of Cosmas’ Christian Topography, see §3.1.
[☞ note182] 182 Tucker and Bryan 1956: 119-20.
[☞ note183] 183 Ibid.: 133-4. On the dialect of Tigrē spoken by the Banī ‘Āmir and the Beja influence on this dialect, see Morin 1996.
[☞ note184] 184 Huntingford 1989: 46.
[☞ note185] 185 Roger Bagnall, pers. comm.
[☞ note186] 186 I.e., the land of the twelve schoinoi, a distance of about 75 mi (Adams 1977: 334).
[☞ note187] 187 Török 2009: 442. On the Roman occupation of this region, see Raschke 1978: 866-6 (n. 898); Adams 1977: 340-4; Török 2009: 443 ff. Though firmly integrated into Roman Egypt, the Dodekaschoinos was administered on behalf of the Roman authorities by the local Nubian elite (Török 1997: 459).
[☞ note188] 188 Lohwasser 2008: 576.
[☞ note189] 189 De Bell. Pers. 1.19.28-35. On the historicity of this strategic move on the part of Diocletian, see Burstein 1998. Procopius claims that when Diocletian withdrew the Roman frontier to Syene, he filled the consequent political vacuum by settling the region with the Nobatae. Also known as the Nobades, the Nobatae were a Nubian-speaking group related to the Noba mentioned in fourth-century Aksumite inscriptions (see §4.4 ff.). Török (1988: 31) contests Procopius’ statement, pointing out that “both epigraphic and archaeological sources attest a Meroiticisation of the Dodekaschoinos after the Roman withdrawal.” This contention receives support from the lack of Meroitic inscriptions from before the third century, which suggests that the region had earlier been within the Roman sphere of influence (Haycock 1967: 112-13). But as far as ethnicity is concerned it is not impossible that the population of Lower Nubia at this time included at least some Nobatae who had adopted Kushite culture.
[☞ note190] 190 Lassányi 2008: 598.
[☞ note191] 191 Török 2009: 472-3.
[☞ note192] 192 Török 1997: 434; idem 2009: 497-8.
[☞ note193] 193 Török 1997: 434-5.
[☞ note194] 194 Török 2009: 496-7.
[☞ note195] 195 Sidebotham et al. 2008: 260-2.
[☞ note196] 196 Snowden 1970: 136-40.
[☞ note197] 197 Wendrich 1998: 249; Barnard 2002: 53; Manzo 2004: 79; Barnard 2008: 418 (who extends the period in which Eastern Desert Ware was used down to the beginning of the eighth century CE).
[☞ note198] 198 Barnard 2002: 53.
[☞ note199] 199 At least, no trace of destruction has been uncovered in fourth- to fifth-century strata at Berenike.
[☞ note200] 200 Sidebotham 2011: 260.
[☞ note201] 201 Sidebotham et al. 2008: 354; Sidebotham 2011: 260.
[☞ note202] 202 Lassányi 2008: 598; Sidebotham 2011: 259-60.
[☞ note203] 203 If so, one should not expect to find evidence of intensive Aksumite activity, such as fortifications, in the archaeological record. To date only a meager quantity of Aksumite material has come to light at Berenike, most notably a coin of the Aksumite king Aphilas (c. 300-310) and some Aksumite sherds (Sidebotham 2011: 248, 277-8). It is not impossible that the road from Aksum to the Egyptian border described in Monumentum Adulitanum II was connected in some way with the route between Berenike and the Nile (cf. Fauvelle-Aymar 2009: 153). A Ge‘ez graffito left by one ’Abrehā Takla-’Aksūm in the Wādī Manīḥ along the road from Berenike to Coptos (Littmann and Meredith 1954) indicates direct Aksumite contact with Upper Egypt by way of Berenike. Given its reference to “the power of the Lord of the Highest Heaven” (hayla ’ǝgzī’a samāya ’aryām), this graffito most likely dates from no earlier than the mid-fourth century, when such phraseology, associated with an early stage of Ethiopian Christianity, first appears in Aksumite inscriptions (see §4.5.2). In that case the Wādī Manīḥ graffito would postdate Monumentum Adulitanum II by several decades if not an entire century and thus cannot be directly tied to the latter.
[☞ note204] 204 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 951.
[☞ note205] 205 Snowden 1970.
[☞ note206] 206 RIE 270bis: 1-4 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1095 [Greek text], 1096 [English transl.]).
[☞ note207] 207 RIE 185bis I: 2 (Bernard et al. 1991: 246).
[☞ note208] 208 RIE 185bis II: 2-3 (Bernard et al. 1991: 247).
[☞ note209] 209 Dihle 1965: 66.
[☞ note210] 210 Murray 1967: 80.
[☞ note211] 211 Why this was done is a matter for speculation, though it may be that the Aksumites appropriated the Graeco-Roman name for Nubia after reducing the last kings of Meroë to vassal status. Since the term “Ethiopian” was applied by the Greeks and Romans to black Africans in general (Snowden 1970), ‘Ēzānā may also have styled himself “King of the Ethiopians” in the Greek text of RIE 270bis as a means of announcing to Greek-speaking visitors to Aksum that his was the African kingdom par excellence.
[☞ note212] 212 Glaser 1895: 146.
[☞ note213] 213 Wainwright 1942a: 55.
[☞ note214] 214 Kirwan 1960: 171-2; idem 1994: 248.
[☞ note215] 215 §3.3.2.
[☞ note216] 216 Top. Chr. 2.51-2.52.
[☞ note217] 217 Ibid.: 2.51.3-6.
[☞ note218] 218 Ehret 2002: 128.
[☞ note219] 219 If the Agaw are to be identified with the Ἀθαγαoὺς (=*Ad Agaw) of Monumentum Adulitanum II (Bernard 2000: 36) and the Atagaw of one of ‘Ēzānā’s pre-Christian inscriptions from Aksum (RIE 187:7) (Bernard et al. 1991: 256), it would appear that some of the Agaw-speaking regions of the Ethiopian Highlands were incorporated into the Aksumite state at least as early as the third century, and certainly by the fourth, even if the Aksumites had to undertake periodic punitive campaigns in ‘Ēzānā’s reign to enforce their suzerainty over the Agaw. On Aksumite relations with the Agaw, see Tadesse Tamrat 1988: 8-9.
[☞ note220] 220 Thus, for example, Cosmas attributes his information on the Christian community of Dioskorides (Soqotra) to Greek-speaking inhabitants of the island whom he interviewed during his stay in Ethiopia (Top. Chr.: 3.65.1-13).
[☞ note221] 221 Ibid.: 2.51.1-3. That Sasu and the incense-producing region along the coast of the Horn of Africa were viewed by Cosmas as being located at opposite ends of Ethiopia is made clear in his account of the geography of Africa (ibid.: 2.48.8-11).
[☞ note222] 222 Judging from the information he provides in his Christian Topography, Cosmas was ignorant of the lands south of the “Cape of Spices” in Somalia (Frézouls 1989: 448-9). In fact, despite his having visited Ethiopia, he was poorly informed about the western frontiers of Aksum, hence his claim that the kingdom had a southwestern coast (ibid.).
[☞ note223] 223 Top. Chr.: 2.52.1-9.
[☞ note224] 224 Ibid.: 2.52.10-11. Both salt and iron retained an economic importance in early modern Ethiopia and to that end served as forms of currency (Pankhurst 1961: 261-5).
[☞ note225] 225 A similar case of alleged “silent” trade at Hiera Sykaminos on the southern frontier of Roman Egypt is described by Philostratus c. 220 in his biographical novel of Apollonius of Tyana (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 962-4).
[☞ note226] 226 Curtin 1984: 13. As Curtin quite rightly points out in reference to the implausibility of “silent” trade, “[t]o bargain with such elaborate avoidance, yet to assume that total strangers will act with honesty and good faith, calls for an unusual degree of cross-cultural understanding from both parties—and to believe it requires unusual credulity from the reader.”
[☞ note227] 227 Curtin, loc. cit.
[☞ note228] 228 Wainwright 1942a: 53-5.
[☞ note229] 229 Idem 1942b: 86-7.
[☞ note230] 230 Arkell 1944.
[☞ note231] 231 Pankhurst 1997: 369.
[☞ note232] 232 Ibid.: 30.
[☞ note233] 233 Top. Chr. 2.52.1-3.
[☞ note234] 234 Leslau 1991: 577. For other etymologies, see Chittick 1982: 53 (n. 2). The derivation of tagkhara from the Persian tanga or the Baluchi tango, both meaning “gold” (ibid.) are highly improbable on philological as well as historical grounds.
[☞ note235] 235 Wainwright 1942a: 56.
[☞ note236] 236 Young 1999: 322.
[☞ note237] 237 On the question of political “boundaries” in pre-colonial Africa, see Wright 1999.
[☞ note238] 238 A small Graeco-Roman-style kiosk at Naq‘a in the Buṭāna may date as late as the third century (Shinnie 1978: 253).
[☞ note239] 239 Łajtar and van der Vliet 2006.
[☞ note240] 240 Ibid. The sequence of pyramids at Meroë’s Bagrawiyya North Cemetery ends with Bagrawiyya N 25, a tomb belonging to a queen (Zibelius-Chen 2006: 303)—the “Lady Queen” mentioned in the Latin graffito from Muṣawwarāt al-Ṣafrā’ perhaps?
[☞ note241] 241 On Kushite influence in this region, which seems to have extended as far south as Sinnār, see §2. On parallel Kushite influence in the lower White Nile valley, see Edwards 2004: 163.
[☞ note242] 242 Burstein (1998: 130) thinks that a reference to Aethiops et Indus in an anonymous panegyric in honor of Consantius Chlorus indicates Roman conflict with the Kushites and Aksumites in the 290s, though this is after the timeframe for Monumentum Adulitanum II proposed here. It is true, as Török (1988: 29) notes, that the Blemmyes are at times reckoned as “Indians,” which may be the case in this panegyric, although other late antique texts distinguish between the two groups (Barnard 2005: 28, 34). Even if frictions arose between the Roman Empire and Aksum towards the end of the third century, there is no evidence that Aksumite expansion in the Eastern Desert as far as the Egyptian border was the cause. In his account of the conversion of Aksum to Christianity, Rufinus alludes to a disturbance in Roman relations with Ethiopia in the early fourth century (Rufinus, Historia ecclesiastica 10.9 [transl. Amidon 1997: 19-20]), though this seems to have involved Red Sea traffic, and was not the outcome of Aksumite military operations in the Eastern Desert which took place several decades earlier.
[☞ note243] 243 The Ge‘ez records of these operations are RIE 185 I+II and RIE 185bis I+II (Bernard et al. 1991: 241-50); the Greek records are RIE 270 and RIE 270bis (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1094-1100; Bernard 2000: 5-15). On these campaigns, see §4.5.2.4.
[☞ note244] 244 Like the Beja, the Oromo are a Cushitic-speaking people, but one which threatened Ethiopia from the south rather than the north. On their history in Ethiopia, see Marcus 1994: 34 ff.
[☞ note245] 245 Eigner 2004: 115.
[☞ note246] 246 Adams 1977: 385; Török 1988: 41-2; idem 1997: 475-6; Ehret 2002: 215; cf. Welsby 1996: 172. Writing of the invasion of Kush by the fourth-century Aksumite king ‘Ēzānā, Arkell (1961: 171-2) similarly regards Aksum and Kush as trade rivals.
[☞ note247] 247 See §1.2, §2.
[☞ note248] 248 See §4.1.
[☞ note249] 249 For tentative identifications of Ḥmšm and Mṭnm see Huntingford 1989: 52; Merid Wolde Aregay 2005: 161, 181 (n. 13).
[☞ note250] 250 Probably to be identified with the Gabala, referred to in Monumentum Adulitanum II as a nation which, together with the Lasine and Zaa, lived on a mountain “seething with streams of hot water” (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 951). Huntingford (1989: 46) tentatively identifies Gabala with Gabalē, located near Enṭalō in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray Province, though the reference to “streams of hot water” in Monumentum Adulitanum II suggests a local near geothermal springs. Although several such springs exist in central Ethiopia, those closest to Aksum are located in the Afar region to the southeast of Tigray. It is possible, then, that the Gabala of Monumentum Adulitanum II and—assuming they are one and the same people—the Gabal of RIE 186 are to be identified with the Gabala tribe of the upper Awash, mentioned in the chronicle of ‘Amda Ṣeyōn (1314-1344) (Morin 2004: 153-4). Since the Awash Basin has a number of geothermal springs, locating Gabal(a) in this region would fit the reference to hot waters in Monumentum Adulitanum II.
[☞ note251] 251 RIE 186: 15-18 (Bernard et al. 1991: 252).
[☞ note252] 252 Magid 2004: 166.
[☞ note253] 253 Top. Chr. 2.48.7; Procopius, De Bell. Pers. 1.19.27-8.
[☞ note254] 254 In her description of her journey up the Nile in the winter of 1873-4, the English novelist Amelia B. Edwards (1877: 303-4) mentions an encounter with an “Abyssinian caravan” in Lower Nubia, noting that the caravan included no fewer than seventy camels bearing what she estimated as 840 elephant tusks. She does not, however, give any information on the route by which this caravan reached Nubia.
[☞ note255] 255 Manzo 2004: 79.
[☞ note256] 256 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1127; Raschke 1978: 678, 1063-4 (n. 1725).
[☞ note257] 257 Top. Chr. 11.21.1-5.
[☞ note258] 258 Barnard 2002: 53.
[☞ note259] 259 Klemm et al. 2001.
[☞ note260] 260 Ibn Ḥawqal 1938-9: I: 162.
[☞ note261] 261 Sidebotham et al. 2008: 223-5.
[☞ note262] 262 Ibid.: 221-2.
[☞ note263] 263 Welsby 1996: 169, 175. It may be significant in this regard that, apart from a single gold vessel, gold was not among the items seized by the Aksumites in the course of ‘Ēzānā’s Nubian campaign (§4.5.2.2).
[☞ note264] 264 Even when Ptolemy II (285-246 BCE) conquered the Wādī al-‘Allāqī (Török 1997: 426), thus opening the region up to gold-mining (Sidebotham et al. 2008: 217-24), there is no record of immediate conflict with the Kushites (Welsby 1996: 66). This could hardly have been the case had Kush exercised control over the gold-producing region of the Eastern Desert. In fact, what conflict did take place between Kush and Ptolemaic Egypt in the reigns of Ptolemy IV (221-203 BCE) and Ptolemy V (203-181 BCE) resulted not from disputes about control of the Eastern Desert’s gold mines but from Kushite intervention in Egyptian affairs (ibid.: 67), particularly in the form of Kushite support to Upper Egyptian rebels (Török 1997: 427).
[☞ note265] 265 Török 1988: 40.
[☞ note266] 266 Haycock 1967: 113-17; Török 1997: 434-5; idem 2009: 496-7.
[☞ note267] 267 Sidebotham 2011: 275.
[☞ note268] 268 Top. Chr. 2.62.4-8.
[☞ note269] 269 The only Ethiopian king of antiquity who is known to have engaged in long-distance desert warfare is ’Abrehā (c. 535-558 CE). On his military campaigns in the interior of Arabia, see Gajda 2009: 137-46. Strictly speaking, however, these campaigns cannot be classified as Aksumite in that ’Abrehā rebelled against his lord, Kālēb of Aksum, and reigned as a king of Ḥimyar rather than Aksum. At most ’Abrehā’s campaigns in Arabia represent an attempt by an Ethiopian expatriate to restore Ḥimyarite control of the Arabian interior and the tribes living there.
[☞ note270] 270 The popular literature on this history is fairly substantial and need not be treated here. Not counting the specialized studies cited in the present work, one may note the descriptions of the Aksumite invasion of Nubia in the more general monographs of Adams 1977: 386-8; Kobishchanov 1979: 82-5 (in which the untenable theory of two Aksumite kings named ‘Ēzānā is adopted); Marcus 1994: 7-8; Shinnie 1996: 116-17; Welsby 1996: 197-9; Ehret 2002: 215.
[☞ note271] 271 Bernard et al. 1991: 250-4.
[☞ note272] 272 For an illustration of this object, see Bernard et al. 1991: 220. The object itself is shaped like a curved stick, not unlike the throw-sticks used down to the present in the Sudan, and which were among the commodities imported by the ancient Egyptians from Nubia and Punt (Kendall 1989: 703-7, pl. VI). That implements such as these are associated with burials in Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt (ibid.: 704) suggests that they had ritual importance, a hypothesis supported by the reference to the offering of throw-sticks to deities in the Epic of Gilgamesh (George n.d.: 7).
[☞ note273] 273 Bernard et al. 1991: 219-20.
[☞ note274] 274 The particle ἐκ in Sembrouthes’ title is in fact unnecessary, though this is more likely the result of a careless scribal error than an intentional rendition of the phrase “king from [a line of] kings”—i.e., legitimately descended (Munro-Hay 1981-2: 5).
[☞ note275] 275 Bernard 2000: 23-5.
[☞ note276] 276 It cannot be deduced from the development of longer royal titles that the territory of Aksum itself increased, for Aksum was already in possession of parts of Yemen in the third century, when only short titles are attested. The longer royal titles from the fourth century, by contrast, date from a time at which Aksum had already lost control of South Arabia (see §3.2). The development of royal titles in Aksum, then, was to a large extent driven by ideological concerns.
[☞ note277] 277 Mimation does occur in Sabaic inscriptions from the Di‘mat period, though only in personal names (Robin and Maigret 1998: 784).
[☞ note278] 278 RIE 186: 1-4 (Bernard et al. 1991: 251).
[☞ note279] 279 That Tιάμαα is to be identified with Ṣeyāmō is supported by ‘Ēzānā’s Greek inscriptions, which give Tιαμῶ as the equivalent of Ṣeyāmō.
[☞ note280] 280 Top. Chr. 2.60.5-11.
[☞ note281] 281 While the “Ethiopia” of Monumentum Adulitanum II is in all likelihood to be identified with Kush, as argued above (§3.3.2), RIE 186 contains the oldest known reference to Nubia as Kush in Aksumite records.
[☞ note282] 282 Munro-Hay 1989b: 27-8.
[☞ note283] 283 That RIE 186 has long been attributed to ‘Ēzānā is the result of Littmann’s reading of the first three words of the royal title as wldm ’lm ‘mdm, “the son of ’Ella ‘Amīdā” (Littmann 1913: 20-1), a reading accepted by Bernard et al. 1991: 251, 253). Since ‘Ēzānā is designated as a son of a king named ’Ella ‘Amīdā in his own inscriptions, Littmann (1913: 20-1) was quick to read the element …šnm in the clan-name mentioned RIE 186 as …lnm, which he believed was the final portion of *Ḥālēn, the name of ‘Ēzānā’s clan, with mimation. Recent re-examinations of the text, however, support the reading of the fragmentary clan-name as …šnm (Bernard et al. 1991: 251, 253; Drewes 2002-2007: 132). As for the wldm read by Littmann, Munro-Hay (1989b: 27-8) points out that the only letters apparent from the photograph are the initial w and the m of mimation. This leaves us with w..m ’lm ‘mdm b’s[ym .]šnm for the name of the king and that of his clan. It is unlikely that the initial w..m can be reconstructed as wldm (“son of”), as this would mean that the king who erected RIE 186 began the text by designating himself not by his name but only by his filiation (“the son of ’Ella-‘Amīdā”)!
[☞ note284] 284 Munro-Hay and Juel-Jensen 1995: 104.
[☞ note285] 285 In the musnad script used in RIE 186, the Sabaic /š/, more properly s2, corresponds to the Ge‘ez /ś/. The use of the sigma to represent this phoneme in the Greek mottoes on Ousanas’ coins poses no problems. Firstly, Greek has no equivalent of either /š/ or /ś/, in which case the sigma would have been the best approximation. Secondly, the Ge‘ez phoneme /ś/ seems to have undergone a shift to /s/ at some point in the language’s history. If this process was already underway in the fourth century CE, the /ś/ in Ousanas’ clan-name Gīśēnē may well have been pronounced /s/. On the phoneme /ś/ in Ge‘ez, see Gragg 1997: 244-5.
[☞ note286] 286 Munro-Hay 1999: 15; Hahn 2000: 290.
[☞ note287] 287 RIE 187:1, RIE 188:1, RIE 189:1 (Bernard et al. 1991: 255, 259, 263).
[☞ note288] 288 See §3.2.
[☞ note289] 289 Sayce 1909.
[☞ note290] 290 Sayce’s account of RIE 286’s discovery is very vague. Although he was present at Meroë during Garstang’s excavations there, it appears that locals showed him the inscription at a slightly earlier point in time (Shinnie et al. 1982: 55).
[☞ note291] 291 For a complete bibliography see Bernard 2000: 47.
[☞ note292] 292 English translation Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1068-9.
[☞ note293] 293 Greek text ibid.: 1068.
[☞ note294] 294 Burstein 1981: 48.
[☞ note295] 295 Ibid.
[☞ note296] 296 RIE 185: 17-19 (Bernard et al. 1991: 242-3); RIE 270: 30-1 (Bernard 2000: 6, 11).
[☞ note297] 297 Phillipson 1997: 155-6.
[☞ note298] 298 Ibid.: 155.
[☞ note299] 299 Török 1988: 42.
[☞ note300] 300 Hägg 2004: 106-7.
[☞ note301] 301 Ibid.: 107.
[☞ note302] 302 Phillipson 1997: 123.
[☞ note303] 303 Ibid.
[☞ note304] 304 Of interest is the choice of δίφρoς as the word for throne in SNM 24841, as well as in Monumentum Adulitanum II and the narrative of Cosmas Indicopleustes’ Christian Topography, when θρόνoς is the more common word for throne. In Greek, δίφρoς can refer not only to a throne, a seat, or a couch, but also a litter, a chariot-board on which two people can stand, and even the chariot itself (Glen W. Bowersock, pers. comm.). It could be that the “throne” on which SNM 24841 and similar Aksumite inscriptions were erected were representations in stone of transportable thrones which, as emblems of the Aksumite king’s power, were carried by the Aksumite army on military campaigns.
[☞ note305] 305 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II 1996: 566-7.
[☞ note306] 306 Diodorus 3.6.3 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II 1996: 647).
[☞ note307] 307 Welsby 1996: 194-5.
[☞ note308] 308 Hägg 2004: 108.
[☞ note309] 309 ‘Pεειδᾶν in RIE 271.
[☞ note310] 310 Σ[ιλ]εῆλ in RIE 271.
[☞ note311] 311 Xάσω in RIE 271.
[☞ note312] 312 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1095, 1101.
[☞ note313] 313 Munro-Hay 1999: 16.
[☞ note314] 314 Hahn 2000: 288.
[☞ note315] 315 Munro-Hay and Juel-Jensen 1995: 46. Unlike Hahn (2000), Munro-Hay and Juel-Jensen regard Wāzēbā as the predecessor of Ousanas.
[☞ note316] 316 §4.5.1.
[☞ note317] 317 On these inscriptions, see Hatke 2011: 357-61.
[☞ note318] 318 Burstein 1981: 49.
[☞ note319] 319 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1067-8.
[☞ note320] 320 Top. Chr. 2.61.1-5.
[☞ note321] 321 Huntingford (1989: 46) very tentatively suggests a location in the Ḥarar highlands. Other scholars favor a location to the west of Aksum, while still others identify Sesea with the Issa, an important Somali tribe. For a discussion of these and other theories, see Bernard 2000: 39.
[☞ note322] 322 Hägg 2004: 108.
[☞ note323] 323 Burstein 1981: 49.
[☞ note324] 324 RIE 270bis: 25 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1095).
[☞ note325] 325 Burstein 1981: 49.
[☞ note326] 326 Ibid.
[☞ note327] 327 Ibid.
[☞ note328] 328 Török 1985: 18.
[☞ note329] 329 Spaulding (1995) has approached the baqṭ arrangement between the Christian Nubian kingdom of Makouria and Muslim Egypt from this perspective, arguing that the baqṭ provided a basis for diplomatic gift-giving and a state-controlled import-export trade. Not enough survives of RIE 286 to determine whether the relationship of reciprocity which Spaulding envisions for Makouria and Muslim Egypt is applicable to Aksumite-Kushite relations in the fourth century. On the possibility of a system of gift-exchange between Aksum and Kush in the fourth century, see §4.6.2.
[☞ note330] 330 RIE 186: 21-4 (Bernard et al. 1991: 252).
[☞ note331] 331 Ibid.
[☞ note332] 332 Littmann 1913: 9.
[☞ note333] 333 Bernard et al. 1991: 252.
[☞ note334] 334 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II 1996: 448-50.
[☞ note335] 335 Zibelius 1972: 133-7.
[☞ note336] 336 Adams 1977: 58, 389, 419; Shinnie 1996: 67, 118. Like the Graeco-Roman term “Blemmyes” (Barnard 2005) it is probable that “Medjayū” was a somewhat contrived term by which the Egyptians referred to all the peoples of the Eastern Desert, implying that these constituted a single ethnic group when in fact there is likely to have been a fair amount of diversity (Liszka 2011). That Monumentum Adulitanum II preserves the names of several ethnic groups in the Eastern Desert (§3.3) suggests as much.
[☞ note337] 337 Zibelius 1972: 133-7 (VII D a 90=Cairo JE 48864). Whether any connection exists between Metete and the name Meded, mentioned in earlier Kushite inscriptions, is unlikely given that Metete is described in Ḥarsiyotef’s inscription as a land, while an inscription from the reign of the Kushite king Irike-Amannote (floruit second half of the fifth century BCE) describes the Meded as a people, to wit “western desert-dwellers” (h3stjw imnt) (Kawa IX: 45 [Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II 1996: 407]). That the Meded are located by Irike-Amannote’s inscription in the western desert disqualifies them from any identification with the Medjayū, much less with Ousanas’ MTT.
[☞ note338] 338 Pliny, Naturalis historia 6.190 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 859).
[☞ note339] 339 Crawford 1951: 3, 96. It is true that Pliny locates the Mattitae on the “African” (i.e., western) side of the Nile, though in this passage he is somewhat inconsistent in his designation of the western and eastern banks of the river (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 859 [n. 454]). Moreover, since the Takkazē River is also occasionally referred to as the Nile in ancient sources (such as Monumentum Adulitanum II), it is not impossible that Pliny has gotten his rivers confused, in which case he might have meant that the Mattitae in his day occupied the west bank of the Takkazē, rather than the west bank of the Nile proper.
[☞ note340] 340 Crawford 1951: 96-8.
[☞ note341] 341 Assuming, as suggested above (§4.2.1), that Wāzēbā died prematurely following a brief co-regency with Ousanas c. 324-5.
[☞ note342] 342 On the relationship between Nubian and Meroitic, both of which are classified as Nilo-Saharan languages belonging to the East Sudanic branch, see Rilly 2009.
[☞ note343] 343 Bechhaus-Gerst 1984/5: 105-6; idem 1996: 37; Jakobi 1993: 69-71; cf. Rilly 2009: 5-6. For a broader treatment of East Sudanic origins in the western Sudan, see Dimmendaal 2007.
[☞ note344] 344 Geography 17.1.2 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II 1996: 560).
[☞ note345] 345 Bechhaus-Gerst 1984/5: 117. For an inventory of archaeological sites in the Bayūḍa, see El Tayeb 2002: 52-4.
[☞ note346] 346 On this outpost, see Jesse 2009. The dating of its foundation to the mid-first millennium BCE is based on C14 dates between c. 700 and 400 BCE obtained from the site (ibid.: 8). Possibly related to this apparent Kushite interest in the western frontier is the evidence for Kushite occupation of the Bayūḍa’s Wādī Muqaddam, though this may date at as early as the eighth century BCE (Kendall 2007), before the foundation of the outpost at Qal‘at Abū Aḥmad.
[☞ note347] 347 Rilly (2009: 6) suggests that some Proto-Nubians may have resided in areas of the middle Wādī Hawār until the first millennium BCE, which fits nicely with the date of the Kushite fortress at Qal‘at Abū Aḥmad and might support the hypothesis that the fortress was founded as a defense against the ancestors of the Noba.
[☞ note348] 348 Edwards 2004: 155.
[☞ note349] 349 Idem 1989: 81-92; cf. El Tayeb 2002: 54-6.
[☞ note350] 350 See §4.5.2.3.
[☞ note351] 351 A number of sites in the Abū Ḥamad Reach, as well as in the area of the ‘Aṭbara-Nile confluence and the region to the south, may represent a later stage in the settlement of Nubian-speakers in the middle Nile Valley. The Tanqasi Culture associated with these sites, so called after the site where it was first identified, is distinct from that of Kush, and as it dates from the fourth and fifth centuries CE it has long been connected with the Noba (Kirwan 1957; Bechhaus-Gerst 1984/5: 95-8; Shinnie 1996: 117). Further excavations, however, are needed to clarify the relationship between the Noba and the pottery types regarded as diagnostic of late and post-Kushite times in Upper Nubia, for as El Tayeb (2002: 72-6) cautions, the identification of a distinct pottery type with the Noba remains controversial, as is the issue of cultural continuities between the Kushite and post-Kushite periods. In a similar vein Edwards (2004: 210) notes that “if there were any significant population movements in the late Meroitic period they have left little obvious trace archaeologically.” We should probably in that case view Noba settlement in Nubia as a gradual trickle of migrants from the west over a long period, their push towards the Aksumite frontier during the fourth century CE representing a later stage in the history of the Noba.
[☞ note352] 352 Török 2011: 517.
[☞ note353] 353 Nubian toponyms occur as far south as Kosti on the White Nile, though on the basis of this evidence alone it is impossible to tell how far back Nubian presence goes, except that it probably predates the Arabizing trend which began in the northern Sudan around the sixteenth century (Thelwall and Schadeberg 1983: 222).
[☞ note354] 354 Geography 17.1.2 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II 1996: 560).
[☞ note355] 355 Török 1985: 19.
[☞ note356] 356 See §5.2.
[☞ note357] 357 See in particular the conflict between the Roman’s Ghassānid clients and the Sāsānids’ Lakhmid clients (Procopius, De Bell. Pers. 2.1).
[☞ note358] 358 Brakmann 1994: 68.
[☞ note359] 359 Bernard 2000: 15-21; Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1094-1100.
[☞ note360] 360 Bernard et al. 1991: 262-7.
[☞ note361] 361 Ibid.: 268-71.
[☞ note362] 362 For a bibliography of early literature on RIE 189, see Bernard et al. 1991: 262.
[☞ note363] 363 §4.2.2.
[☞ note364] 364 An alternative theory holds that ‘Ēzānā never set foot in Nubia but instead merely conducted a campaign against tribes in the Ethiopian Highlands to the west of Aksum (Welsby 1996: 198). Such a theory is, however, quite untenable, for the erection of RIE 286 and SNM 24841 at Meroë clearly demonstrates Aksumite military intervention in Nubia (ibid.), in addition to which RIE 189 mentions several Nubian toponyms and describes ‘Ēzānā’s attack on the Kushites, who maintained no presence as far east as the Ethiopian Highlands, least of all in the fourth century CE.
[☞ note365] 365 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1100.
[☞ note366] 366 Translation based on ibid.: 1102.
[☞ note367] 367 Greek text ibid.: 1101.
[☞ note368] 368 RIE 186:3-4 (Bernard et al. 1991: 251); cf. RIE 187:3 (ibid.: 255); RIE 188:4 (ibid.: 260); RIE 270:5 (Bernard 2000: 6); RIE 270bis:4 (Bernard 2000: 12; Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1095, 1096).
[☞ note369] 369 RIE 189:4 (Bernard et al. 1991: 263).
[☞ note370] 370 RIE 185 I:2 (Bernard et al. 1991 : 242); RIE 185 II:1 (ibid.: 243); RIE 185bis I:3 (ibid.: 246); RIE 185bis II:2 (ibid.: 247); RIE 187:3 (ibid.: 255); RIE 188:4 (ibid.: 260).
[☞ note371] 371 RIE 270:5 (Bernard 2000: 6); RIE 270bis:4 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1095, 1096; Bernard 2000: 12).
[☞ note372] 372 RIE 185 I:2-3 (Bernard et al. 1991: 242); RIE 185 II:3-4 (ibid.: 243); RIE 185bis I:3-4 (ibid.: 246); RIE 185bis II:3-4 (ibid.: 247); RIE 187:4 (ibid.: 255); RIE 188:5-6 (ibid.: 260).
[☞ note373] 373 RIE 270:5-6 (Bernard 2000: 6); RIE 270bis:4-5 (Bernard 2000: 12; Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1095, 1096).
[☞ note374] 374 Munro-Hay and Juel-Jensen 1995: 41.
[☞ note375] 375 Rufinus, Historia ecclesiatica 10.9-10.11 (transl. Amidon 1997: 18-23).
[☞ note376] 376 Ibid.: 10.9 (Amidon, loc. cit.: 19-20).
[☞ note377] 377 Ibid.
[☞ note378] 378 Ibid.
[☞ note379] 379 Ibid.
[☞ note380] 380 Ibid.: 10.10 (Amidon, loc. cit.: 20).
[☞ note381] 381 Not until after Constantine died on 22 May 337 was Athanasius able to return to Alexandria, only to be exiled again, this time by Consantius II, on 16 April 339, his second exile lasting until 21 October 346. It cannot be excluded, of course, that Frumentius was ordained bishop of Aksum during the two-year period between Athanasius’ first and second exiles, though the longer period between 8 June 328 and 11 July 335 is a more probable timeframe for his ordination. It is far less likely that Frumentius was ordained bishop after the end of Athanasius’ much longer second exile in October 346. On the life and career of Athanasius, see Barnes 1993; Brakke 2000.
[☞ note382] 382 Since Frumentius was still a boy when he arrived in Ethiopia, his trip to India with Meropius could not have lasted much more than a year, as Meropius would hardly have undertaken such a journey with a very young child.
[☞ note383] 383 Kelly 1958: 226-31. On the life and career of Arius, see Williams 1987. On Arian doctrine in the fourth century, see Rankin 2000.
[☞ note384] 384 Kelly 1958: 243-7; Weinandy 2007: 49-79.
[☞ note385] 385 This Śe‘āzānā, together with another brother of ‘Ēzānā named Ḥadefā (Ḥdfh=Ἀδιφᾶν), led a campaign against the Beja prior to ‘Ēzānā’s conversion to Christianity, as recorded in Ge‘ez in RIE 185 I and II, and in Greek in RIE 270. Σαζανᾷ, the Greek form of Śe‘āzānā’s name given in Athanasius’ Apologia as well as in RIE 270, appears in the unvocalized Ge‘ez of RIE 185 I and II as Š‘dnm and Ś‘zn respectively (Bernard et al. 1991: 242, 243; Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1095).
[☞ note386] 386 Apologia 31.13-17 (transl. Szymusiak 1987: 161).
[☞ note387] 387 Ibid. 31.36-41 (transl. Szymusiak 1987: 163).
[☞ note388] 388 Dihle 1965: 53; idem 1989: 464.
[☞ note389] 389 Dihle 1965: 53.
[☞ note390] 390 Ibid.
[☞ note391] 391 Török 1988: 37.
[☞ note392] 392 Ibid.
[☞ note393] 393 Brakmann 1994: 76-7 (n. 376).
[☞ note394] 394 Ibid.: 77.
[☞ note395] 395 De Blois 2002: 22 (n. 110, 111).
[☞ note396] 396 See §4.1.
[☞ note397] 397 Munro-Hay 1999: 15-16.
[☞ note398] 398 Rufinus, Historia ecclesiastica 10.10 (transl. Amidon 1997: 20).
[☞ note399] 399 Ethiopia has historically followed the Julian calendar, resulting in a seven- to eight-year gap between the Ethiopian year (EC) and the year in the Gregorian calendar.
[☞ note400] 400 Munro-Hay 1999: 16. Hahn (2000: 295) prefers to see c. 340 as the date of Frumentius’ appointment as Ethiopia’s first bishop by Athanasius, believing that ‘Ēzānā did not convert until the later 340s.
[☞ note401] 401 Translation Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1102.
[☞ note402] 402 Greek text ibid.: 1101.
[☞ note403] 403 Török 1988: 37-8.
[☞ note404] 404 There is no evidence to support Török’s contention (loc. cit.) that RIE 271 should be assigned to an otherwise unattested Aksumite ruler whose name is partially preserved as AΓ..AC, particularly when the king who erected this inscription names ’Ella-‘Amīdā as his father and Ḥalēn as his clan. Since ‘Ēzānā is the only Aksumite who is known to have claimed kinship with both, RIE 271 must be assigned to his reign.
[☞ note405] 405 Black 2008: 104-5.
[☞ note406] 406 Ibid.: 107-8.
[☞ note407] 407 Ibid.: 104-5.
[☞ note408] 408 Ibid.: 107-8.
[☞ note409] 409 In the years before George’s episcopate these doctrinal issues would have been less pressing, such that the Aksumites would have felt less of a need to emphasize such doctrines as the identity of Christ with God which were the distinguishing beliefs of the non-Arian camp. Perhaps ‘Ēzānā felt the need to take a firmer doctrinal stand against Arianism, as he seems to in RIE 271, following the mission of Theophilus Indus. This Arian Christian of South Asian origin is reported by Philostorgius to have evangelized the Ḥimyarites of South Arabia sometime in the 350s, perhaps 356, after which he traveled to Ethiopia (Philostorgius 3.4, 3.6). It may be significant that, while Philostorgius recounts Theophilus’ work in Ḥimyar in some detail, and even claims that the local king built three churches under Theophilus’ influence, he has very little to say about Aksumite Ethiopia, a striking omission which might suggest that his attempt to promote Arianism there failed (Fernandez 1989: 362). All the same, the experience of his mission may have been enough to prompt ‘Ēzānā to publicly assert his anti-Arian stance. For an in-depth study of Theophilus Indus, see Fiaccadori 1992.
[☞ note410] 410 See §4.4.
[☞ note411] 411 Kirwan 1972: 462. Today a distinction is made between the name Khāsa, by which Arabs refer to all Tigrē-speakers, and the name Hāsā, which refers to the Tigrē-speakers from the region of Tokar and Port Sudan and thus distinguishes them from Eritrean Tigrē-speakers (Morin 1996: 252-3).
[☞ note412] 412 Ibn Sa‘īd 1970: 98. This grisly custom was still practiced as late as the twentieth century by the Afar nomads of the Danakil Desert.
[☞ note413] 413 Kirwan 1972: 462; Bender 1968: 1; Huntingford 1989: 58.
[☞ note414] 414 Rilly 2009: 1.
[☞ note415] 415 Bender 1968: 1; Huntingford 1989: 58; Levine 2000: 56.
[☞ note416] 416 The name “Noba” may also be derived from a Northeast Sudanic word meaning “slave” in both Meroitic (nob) and Proto-Nubian (*nogu) (Rilly 2009: 3).
[☞ note417] 417 Ibn Ḥawqal 1938-9: I: 55.
[☞ note418] 418 Ibid. In the same passage he states that the Barya and Bazayn were made up of “many nations” (umam kathīra).
[☞ note419] 419 Ibn Ḥawqal, loc. cit.
[☞ note420] 420 Kirwan 1972: 462.
[☞ note421] 421 Bernard 2000: 17.
[☞ note422] 422 RIE 189:1 (Bernard et al. 1991: 263).
[☞ note423] 423 For a survey of the relevant literature, see Kaplan 1982: 103.
[☞ note424] 424 Levine (2000: 66) notes that nearly all the peoples of Greater Ethiopia believe in a supreme deity, without exception associated with the sky and conceived as masculine, and cites examples of this phenomenon among Cushitic, Omotic, and East Sudanic communities. This recalls the manner in which the Christian deity is designated in RIE 189, though in the latter case the deity is called the Lord of Heaven residing both in heaven and on earth.
[☞ note425] 425 Brakmann 1994: 73.
[☞ note426] 426 Kaplan 1982: 108. Kaplan’s main argument, though valid in the opinion of the present author, is undermined by his theory (ibid.: 107) that, as part of the long-term process of conversion to Christianity, ‘Ēzānā must necessarily have passed through an intermediate stage of cosmological speculation, marked by a monotheizing paganism centered on the cult of ‘Astar. No evidence for such an intermediate period survives in the epigraphic record.
[☞ note427] 427 RIE 189: 1-2 (Bernard et al. 1991: 263).
[☞ note428] 428 RIE 189: 2-4 (ibid.).
[☞ note429] 429 See §4.1.
[☞ note430] 430 RIE 189: 4-7 (Bernard et al. 1991: 263). Note that the particle of negation employed here (’ay-) represents an earlier stage in the phonological development *’al->’ī (Gragg 1997: 257). The fourth century CE would seem to mark a transitional stage in this process during which both ’ay- and the Classical Ge‘ez ’ī- were still used interchangeably, as the latter form appears several times elsewhere in RIE 189, thus ’ī-yǝfallǝs in Line 8 and ’ī-sam‘anī in Line 13 (Bernard et al. 1991: 263).
[☞ note431] 431 It will be noted that the phonology of the Ge‘ez in this inscription differs slightly from that of Classical Ge‘ez.
[☞ note432] 432 In RIE 189 not only the Mangurto, the Khasa, and the Barya but also the Noba themselves are described as ’ǝḥzāb (Classical Ge‘ez ’aḥzāb, sing. ḥǝzb), a somewhat ambiguous term used to describe groups of people ranging in size from tribes to nations. With the development of a Christian literature in Ge‘ez, ’aḥzāb took on the connotation of “gentiles” (cf. Syriac ‘ammē). A few lines later in RIE 189 ‘Ēzānā refers to his troops as his ’aḥzāb, and it is in this military sense that the sixth-century Aksumite king Kālēb uses the term when referring to the invasion forces which he dispatched to Ḥimyar in 518 (RIE 191: 35 [Bernard et al. 1991: 273]). On the nuances of this term in Kālēb’s Ge‘ez inscription from Mārib, RIE 195 I, see Hatke 2011: 366-8; cf. Merid Wolde Aregay 2005: 159, 180 (n. 3). This Ethiopian habit of calling armed divisions ’aḥzāb was apparently a long-standing one, for the Aksumite forces which occupied the Tihāma region of western Yemen c. 200-270 CE are also referred to in South Arabian inscriptions as ’ḥzb (=*’aḥzāb) (Hatke 2011: 366-8). When applied to non-Aksumite groups, however, the term is best translated as “confederations” for lack of any more precise information on the social and political structure of Aksum’s neighbors to the west. It should be noted that ’aḥzāb has no equivalent in the Greek account of ‘Ēzānā’s Nubian campaign (RIE 271), wherein the different ethnic groups are simply mentioned by name, without their designation as ἔθνoς, for example.
[☞ note433] 433 The verb used here, yǝfallǝs, is grammatically singular, but since collective groups such as the Noba or the Aksumites are typically treated as singular throughout RIE 189, it seems better to take the Aksumites rather than ‘Ēzānā as the subject of this sentence.
[☞ note434] 434 RIE 189 (Bernard et al. 1991: 263).
[☞ note435] 435 §3.3.
[☞ note436] 436 §4.5.2.3.
[☞ note437] 437 Hintze 2000: 50.
[☞ note438] 438 Cf. English “young and old” and “big and small,” both expressions signifying “everyone.”
[☞ note439] 439 Drewes 1962: 98 (n. 2). In Ethiopian inscriptions from the pre-Aksumite period Drewes (ibid.) identifies a prototype for this idiomatic expression in the form of ’dmhy w-ṣlmhy (“its reds and blacks”), which also seems to have the sense of “everyone” given the use of a parallel phrase ms2rqhy w-m‘rbhy (“its east and west”).
[☞ note440] 440 On the problem of the term “Noba” see Edwards 2011: 505-8.
[☞ note441] 441 See §4.5.2.2.
[☞ note442] 442 Manzo 2004: 75.
[☞ note443] 443 Ibid.: 75-7.
[☞ note444] 444 For a discussion of this material, see §4.5.2.4.
[☞ note445] 445 Significantly, it is nowhere stated in any of ‘Ēzānā’s inscriptions that the Noba actually settled in those parts of the Aksumite frontier occupied by the Mangurto, Khasa, and Barya. Rather, RIE 189 indicates that their area of permanent settlement was limited to the Nile Valley. If so, then the replacement of the Ḥājiz Group by a foreign culture like the Khatmiyya, suggesting as it does the sustained presence of a new population in the eastern Sudan, is unlikely to be attributed to short-term Noba raids.
[☞ note446] 446 Manzo 2004: 80-1.
[☞ note447] 447 See §5.2.
[☞ note448] 448 RIE 189 (Bernard et al. 1991: 263).
[☞ note449] 449 Hintze 2000: 50. Kālēb (c. 510-540) was the first and, as far as we know, the only Aksumite king who styled himself “King of the Noba.” On this point, see §5.1.
[☞ note450] 450 RIE 189 (Bernard et al. 1991: 263-4).
[☞ note451] 451 Kirwan 1972: 463.
[☞ note452] 452 Kirwan (1960: 167) compares the name Kemalke with the Galla (i.e., Oromo) word malka, meaning “ford,” but since there is no evidence of an Oromo presence this far north, let alone as early as the fourth century CE, this etymology is untenable.
[☞ note453] 453 Hintze 2000: 52.
[☞ note454] 454 It is unknown what the Noba’s temples looked like. Worthy of note, however, is Building G at Soba, which has been interpreted by its excavator as a temple (Welsby 1998: 272, 275-8; idem 1999: 667-8), and which appears to belong to a cultural tradition different from that of Meroë. While the date proposed for this structure on the basis of pottery and C14 evidence (Welsby 1998: 272-3) is much too late for it to have any connection with the temples of the Noba destroyed by ‘Ēzānā’s troops, it raises interesting questions regarding the non-Kushite traditions of religious architecture in Upper Nubia in Late Antiquity.
[☞ note455] 455 This is another reason why the Khatmiyya Group of the eastern Sudan, which may have had a more nomadic economic base (Manzo 2004: 80-1), is more likely connected with the Beja than with the Noba.
[☞ note456] 456 Sites of Post-Kushite date consisting of small, impermanent structures have been excavated in the fourth cataract region and are thought to represent a population with a pastoral economy (Edwards 2011: 513-14). The Noba who dwelled in “towns of straw” may have been among such groups.
[☞ note457] 457 See §4.5.2.3.
[☞ note458] 458 It is unlikely that Meroë can be identified with the town of Alwa mentioned later on in RIE 189, as suggested by Hintze (2000: 52). On this point, see §4.5.2.3.
[☞ note459] 459 Lenoble and Sharif 1992: 629.
[☞ note460] 460 Török (1999: 135-6) cautions us that, since we do not know enough about the social hierarchy of this period, it cannot be assumed that the occupants of the largest tumuli at El Hobagi were kings as opposed to simply high-ranking officials or noblemen. He compares the elite burials of El Hobagi to those of the uppermost, yet still non-royal, echelon of Nubian society at more northerly sites like Qustul, Firka, and Gemai.
[☞ note461] 461 Lenoble and Sharif 1992: 630-4.
[☞ note462] 462 Ibid.
[☞ note463] 463 Shinnie and Robertson 1993: 897. Shinnie and Robertson, quite correctly in the opinion of the author, call into question many of interpretations put forward by Lenoble and Sharif (1992).
[☞ note464] 464 Leslau (1991: 29) gives ’angǝbǝnāwī as a variant of the term ’angabēnāy, which he interprets as “noble” or “offspring of a noble family.” ’Angabēnāy appears in a fragment of Kālēb’s Ge‘ez inscription from Ẓafār in Yemen, RIE 263 (Bernard et al. 1991: 350), apparently in reference to that king’s conflict with the royal house of Ḥimyar. For a discussion of this fragment and the term ’angabēnāy, see Hatke 2011: 358-61. Kirwan, however, takes the ’ǝngabēnāwē of RIE 189 as a proper name (Kirwan 1960: 164), but adds in a footnote that this may be “possibly tautological” (ibid.: n. 3). Despite this cautionary note, Angabenawi is accepted without comment as a proper name by Burstein (2009: 118), who incorrectly gives the source for the translation as Kirwan’s article “A Survey of Nubian Origins” (Kirwan 1937: 50-1). In fact, Kirwan’s translation in the latter article omits the section on the capture of the spies in which the term ’ǝngabēnāwī appears. The mistranslated passage in Burstein’s work reads as follows: “And I captured two nobles, who had come as spies, riding on camels. Their names were Yesaka, Butale, and the chieftain Angabenawi” (Burstein 2009: 118). Since the inscription refers to only two noblemen (magabt) it would appear instead that “their names” (’asmātīhōmū) refers only to Yesaka and Butale—the dual does not exist in Ge‘ez except in a few vestigial forms—and that the ’ǝngabēnāwī was simply another member of the Noba elite who had also been captured at the time. It is likely, then, that what Bernard et al. (1991: 264) read as ’ǝngabēnāwē kābra in RIE 189 is a construct phrase meaning something like “one of noble birth and/or belonging to the royal house.”
[☞ note465] 465 RIE 191:36 (Bernard et al. 1991: 273). On this passage in Kālēb’s inscription, see Hatke 2011: 141-3.
[☞ note466] 466 Edwards 1989: 155-6. Although copper ores in the far southwest of the Sudan lie well beyond the known range of Kushite trade networks (ibid.: 156), copper ore also exists at Abū Siyāl in the desert of southeastern Egypt (Lucas 1927: 164-5) and at Tokar in the eastern Sudan (Nibbi 1997: 307). The exploitation of this particular source in antiquity is indicated by the traces of ancient slag and furnaces at the site (ibid.), which might explain the copper slag at Qubbān in Egyptian Nubia, as well as the reference to the collection of Nubian copper by the Egyptians during the Twelfth Dynasty, c. 1991-1802 BCE (Ogden 2000: 150-1). If Edwards (1989: 156) is correct that unworked copper was imported by the Kushites, it is possible that its source lay in the Eastern Desert.
[☞ note467] 467 Gervers 1992: 15. Gervers’ observation that a Ge‘ez word for linen, ‘agē, is translated as ṭǝṭ in Amharic in eighteenth-century texts need not indicate that the Ge‘ez ṭūṭ had this same connotation in the mid-fourth century. Though ṭǝṭ is clearly a cognate of ṭūṭ, the Amharic term may not have acquired the meaning of “linen” until well after ‘Ēzānā’s time. Even then, there is no reason to assume that ṭǝṭ was regularly used as a term for linen. Gervers may well be correct that the derivation of the more common Arabic term for cotton, quṭn, from the Old Babylonian kitinnu points to the transfer of the word for linen to cotton as one fiber replaced the other in use, but it cannot be assumed on this basis that a similar lexical development took place in early Ethiopia. In fact the evidence from Ethiosemitic militates against such a supposition. To begin with, ṭǝṭ is by no means a common term for linen in Amharic but is most commonly used by speakers of that language to refer to cotton. Similarly, ṭǝṭ in the Gurage languages and ṭūṭ in Tigrinya and Ḥararī both mean “cotton” rather than “linen.” On the diffusion of cotton in the ancient Near East, see Álvarez-Mon 2010: 34-42.
[☞ note468] 468 Based on cotton seeds found in Egyptian Nubia by the Archaeological Survey of India, it is known that the cotton plant grew in Nubia as early as the mid-third millennium BCE, though it was not until the Roman period that the Nubians used cotton to produce textiles (Chowdhury and Buth 1971; cf. Wild et al. 2007). The earliest archaeobotanical evidence for the use of cotton in the Nile Valley comes from Qaṣr Ibrīm (Van der Veen and Morales 2011: 111). Addition archaeological and textual evidence has been found for the cultivation of cotton in the Egyptian oases during the Roman period (Gradel et al. in press). Fragments of cotton fragments were discovered by Reisner in the course of his excavations at Meroë’s West Cemetery in 1922-3 (Griffith and Crowfoot 1934: 9), and textiles recovered from Kushite-period tombs at Ballaña and Qustul in Egyptian Nubia were largely of cotton (Welsby 1996: 160). Of the 115 Kushite-period textile fragments from Qaṣr Ibrīm, all but three were made of cotton (Adams 1987: 86). Even Gervers, for all his reservations about interpreting RIE 189’s ṭūṭ as cotton, has no trouble acknowledging that 75% of the textiles from Cemetery III at Jabal ‘Adda, also located in Egyptian Nubia, are believed to be of cotton (Gervers 1992: 16). On the Kushite production of cotton in the broader context of long-distance trade during the Roman period, see Gradel et al. in press.
[☞ note469] 469 Klemm et al. 2001.
[☞ note470] 470 Edwards 2004: 137-8. Writing in the mid-fifth century BCE, Herodotus (3.23) states that bronze was the most precious metal to the Kushites, and that prisoners in Kush were bound with gold fetters. Though obviously apocryphal, this statement may imply that ancient Nubian attitudes toward metals differed from attitudes in other societies (Edwards, loc. cit.).
[☞ note471] 471 Shinnie and Anderson 2004: 73-9; Abdelrahman 2011: 392.
[☞ note472] 472 Shinnie and Anderson 2004: 74; Haaland and Haaland 2007: 381. Recent excavations at Tombos, near the third Nile cataract, has pushed the history of Kushite iron working back to the late eighth to early seventh century BCE (Abdelrahman 2011: 395).
[☞ note473] 473 The actual quantity of iron produced, as estimated from slag at Meroë, may have been as much as 5000 tons, or 2500 tons of finished objects after forging, representing an annual production of perhaps 5-20 tons of iron objects over a period of five centuries (Haaland and Haaland 2007: 380-1). It has been hypothesized that more northerly towns like Tabo, Kawa, and Napata were also centers of iron production, though the evidence at those sites is less clear (Welsby 1996: 170; Abdu and Gordon 2004: 993; cf. Edwards 1989: 156). Since Lower Nubia lacks good wood for fuel, most iron-smelting would have taken place in Upper Nubia, apparently at places with a significant royal presence (Abdu and Gordon 2004: 992, 993-4). To the south of Meroë, iron slag and evidence of iron working have come to light at the sites of Ḥamādāb, al-Ḥaṣā, and Muways (Abdelrahman 2011: 393).
[☞ note474] 474 That relatively few iron objects can be dated to the Kushite period, despite the scale of Meroë’s iron industry, might suggest that such objects were made primarily for export (Haaland and Haaland 2007: 379-80; cf. Abdu and Gordon 2004: 979, 994, 995; Abdelrahman 2011: 398-9). If so, it could be that groups like the Noba were among the recipients of such iron, particularly if they were, at least at some point, federates of Kush.
[☞ note475] 475 Shinnie and Anderson 2004: 75-6.
[☞ note476] 476 Haaland and Haaland 2007: 380, 387. The diffusion of iron workshops seems to have continued after the breakup of the Kushite state (Abdelrahman 2011: 394, 401).
[☞ note477] 477 Manzo 2004: 81.
[☞ note478] 478 Welsby 1996: 154-5.
[☞ note479] 479 Manzo 2004: 81.
[☞ note480] 480 There is no evidence that the Noba knew of, much less used, the camel before reaching the Nile Valley.
[☞ note481] 481 RIE 189 (Bernard et al. 1991: 264).
[☞ note482] 482 Merid Wolde Aregay 2005: 159-63. On the origin and political status of clans in Aksumite Ethiopia, see De Blois 1984, who argues that royal clans were matrilineal groups. For a different interpretation, see Merid Wolde Aregay (2005: 162).
[☞ note483] 483 On the Maḥazā regiment, see ibid.: 161, 181 (n. 12).
[☞ note484] 484 De Blois (1985: 10-11) gives numerous attestations of the root √ḥrr in Ethiosemitic, all having the sense of “free.” On the basis of Ge‘ez ḥarā (“troops”) he suggests that “a ‘freeman’ was by definition a clansman, and thus a ‘soldier.’” If so, it is likely that Ḥarā is to be understood as a title rather than a clan-name as such, which would support Merid Wolde Aregay’s hypothesis that Ḥarā is an honorific name (Merid Wolde Aregay 2005: 161).
[☞ note485] 485 Of these, the Ṣerā’ recall the Ṣere’ mentioned in RIE 263, a fragmentary Ge‘ez inscription erected at the Ḥimyarite capital of Ẓafār following Kālēb’s second invasion of South Arabia in 525 (Bernard et al. 1991: 350). Alternatively, Ṣere’ in RIE 263 might refer to the Romans (Hatke 2011: 359). Having examined the Ge‘ez material from ‘Ēzānā’s reign, the author now considers the possibility that the Ṣerā’ of RIE 189 and the Ṣere’ of RIE 263 are one and the same, a not inconceivable scenario since Aksumite clans continued in existence for several centuries. As a case in point, a military unit called Dākēn/Dakwēn in inscriptions from ‘Ēzānā’s time (RIE 187:21 and RIE 188:10 [Bernard et al. 1991: 256, 260]) appear again in RIE 191 from the reign of Kālēb (RIE 191:15, 16 [Bernard et al. 1991: 272]). The Ḥarā, Damawa, and Falḥa also reappear in the sixth century (Merid Wolde Aregay 2005: 162).
[☞ note486] 486 On the Lūkēn clan, whose name is also read as Laken, see Merid Wolde Aregay, loc. cit.: 161, 181 (n. 14).
[☞ note487] 487 The writing of this name in RIE 189 is inconsistent. It is written Ḥalēn (ሐሌን) here in Line 34 but Ḥalen (ሐልን) in Line 2.
[☞ note488] 488 Hintze 2000: 53.
[☞ note489] 489 The only difference is that in RIE 189 the toponym Alwa is written አልዋ with an initial glottal stop /’/, whereas a closer equivalent of the Arabic would have been *ዐልዋ with an initial voiced pharyngeal fricative /‘/. It is unlikely that the vocalization of Alwa in RIE 189 provides an example of the conflation of these two phonemes observable in Ge‘ez manuscripts from the medieval period, when the orthography of Ge‘ez came to be influenced by Amharic pronunciation. Since the pharyngeal fricative is not attested in any Nubian language the ‘Alwa of Arabic sources would instead seem to reflect an Arabization of a Nubian toponym, in which case it cannot predate the Islamic period.
[☞ note490] 490 Welsby 1999.
[☞ note491] 491 It is doubtful that Alodia is to be identified with the land of *Arut/Alut (Ἰ-r3-t) mentioned in an inscription of Nastaseñ, a Kushite king of the second half of the fourth century BCE (Berlin Ägyptisches Museum 2268:16), as believed by some scholars (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II 1996: 498).
[☞ note492] 492 Cf. Kirwan 1960: 168.
[☞ note493] 493 Pliny, Naturalis historia 6.179 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 805).
[☞ note494] 494 Priese 1984: 496.
[☞ note495] 495 Bradley 1984: 249.
[☞ note496] 496 Edwards 1998.
[☞ note497] 497 Crawford 1951: 17-18.
[☞ note498] 498 Ptolemy, Geographika 4.7.5 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 928-9).
[☞ note499] 499 Crawford 1951: 17-18.
[☞ note500] 500 Hintze 2000: 52.
[☞ note501] 501 Crawford 1951: 17. This theory is accepted by Kirwan and others (Kirwan 1960: 168).
[☞ note502] 502 On this route, see Chittick 1982: 51.
[☞ note503] 503 Priese 1984: 496; Ptolemy, Geographika 4.7.5 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 928-9). It is hard to accept Crawford’s suggestion that Negwasē has any connection with the Ge‘ez word for king, nǝgūś (Crawford 1951: 19).
[☞ note504] 504 Ibid.: 19 (n. 62).
[☞ note505] 505 Ibid. Edwards (1989: 84), on the other hand, believes that the extant ruins at the site of Birti are from the Christian period, i.e., post-sixth century.
[☞ note506] 506 Hintze 2000: 53.
[☞ note507] 507 Snowden 1970: 3.
[☞ note508] 508 Sinor 1990: 300-1.
[☞ note509] 509 Levine 2000: 55.
[☞ note510] 510 The theory that the Red Noba were Blemmyes/Beja (Trimingham 1949: 45) is implausible on the grounds that the Aksumites were well acquainted with the Beja and always designated them as such in inscriptions.
[☞ note511] 511 Rabin 1949.
[☞ note512] 512 Kirwan 1960: 169.
[☞ note513] 513 Hintze 2000: 53.
[☞ note514] 514 Following the collapse of the Kushite state in the mid-fourth century, a culture with localized characteristics developed in the Dongola Reach (Edwards 2004: 193-5). Could the reference in RIE 189 to the Red Noba as a distinct group indicate the first stage in the evolution of a new polity? In that case the Red Noba might, as Brakmann (1994: 69) suggests, be identified with the polity which by the sixth century would evolve into the kingdom of Makouria. This is an intriguing possibility, though one which is as yet impossible to prove.
[☞ note515] 515 Rabin 1949.
[☞ note516] 516 Török 1999: 143 (n. 89).
[☞ note517] 517 Of the graffito from Bagrawiyya N 2 only the words kwǝllō mǝdra wa- (“all the land and…”) can be made out.
[☞ note518] 518 This point further calls into question Hintze’s identification of Alwa with Meroë (Hintze 2000: 52).
[☞ note519] 519 Kirwan 1960: 166.
[☞ note520] 520 §4.5.2.2.
[☞ note521] 521 RIE 189 (Bernard et al. 1991: 264-5).
[☞ note522] 522 Presumably tribes living somewhere in the Ethiopian Highlands.
[☞ note523] 523 RIE 188:24 (Bernard et al. 1991: 260).
[☞ note524] 524 Lusini 2003.
[☞ note525] 525 Huntingford 1989: 55 (n. 1).
[☞ note526] 526 Sayce 1923: 352-3.
[☞ note527] 527 Ibid. On this site, see Edwards 1989: 67.
[☞ note528] 528 In contrast to these public inscriptions, the graffiti left by the Aksumites at Kawa’s Temple T and Bagrawiyya N 2 were written in Ge‘ez. Since Greek was an international language it was the Aksumites’ preferred medium when addressing a foreign audience.
[☞ note529] 529 To be sure, due caution is in order when dealing with tallies of prisoners, fallen enemies, and booty, particularly when ancient sources are prone to inflate numbers. That said, there is no reason to think that the capture of a total of 629 men and women was beyond the capacity of the Aksumite army, in addition to which 629 and the total number of dead (758) are not the sort of neat, round numbers that one might expect in cases of hyperbole. These numbers of dead and captured enemies may thus be accurate.
[☞ note530] 530 Periplus 8.3.32; 13.5.4-5.
[☞ note531] 531 Pierce 1995.
[☞ note532] 532 Pierce (ibid.: 150) suggests that she was brought overland by way of the oases of the Western Desert.
[☞ note533] 533 On the Nubian slave trade in antiquity, see Burstein 1995.
[☞ note534] 534 RIE 185 II:5-9 (Bernard et al. 1991: 243). For a translation of the passage, see Huntingford 1989: 48. The Beja chieftains, of whom there are said to have been six, are called “kings,” ngśt (=*nagaśt), in the inscription. Rodinson (1981) suggests that the Beja were resettled by the Aksumites in Bagēmder to the west of Aksum, though his attempt to interpret the name of that region as “Beja-land” (*Bǝgā-mǝdr) is not convincing.
[☞ note535] 535 RIE 185 I:20-1, cf. RIE 185: II: 21 (Bernard et al. 1991: 243). The text survives in two versions, both in Ge‘ez, the first in South Arabian musnad with mimation (RIE 185 I), the second in unvocalized fīdal (RIE 185 II).
[☞ note536] 536 RIE 270:5, 27, 31, 37 (Bernard 2000: 6).
[☞ note537] 537 RIE 185 II:8-9 (Bernard et al. 1991: 243); RIE 185bis II:9-11 (ibid.: 247); RIE 270:19 (Bernard 2000: 6); RIE 270bis:15 (ibid.: 12; Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1095, 1096). The number given in RIE 270bis might also read 4420, according to the reading offered in Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1096 (n. 689).
[☞ note538] 538 Huntingford (1989: 48) translates the unvocalized word sb’ (=*sab’) of the Ge‘ez inscriptions as “men,” in which case the number 4400 would refer only to the male prisoners of war, not counting their children and women (dqqm w-’nstm=*daqīq wa-’anǝst) whom the inscription includes among the captives a few lines earlier (RIE 185 I: 5-6=RIE 185 II: 7-8 [Bernard et al. 1991: 242, 243]). Though Huntingford does not develop this idea further, his interpretation has significant implications for our understanding of the scale of ‘Ēzānā’s resettlement program, for if one assumes that every man had a wife and one child, the figure of 4400 men would imply a total of 13,200 Beja men, women, and children. This would not be an implausible estimate if one allows both for unmarried men among the Beja as well as for men who had several children, a common phenomenon in pre-industrial societies. However, the Ge‘ez plural sab’ can mean not only “men” but “people” more generally. Since RIE 270 makes no claim that the relocated Beja comprised only men, “people” would be a much more appropriate translation of sab’ than Huntingford’s “men.”
[☞ note539] 539 Once again one must view such neat, round numbers with a bit of skepticism. However, 4400, even if rounded off, seems much more credible as a number of captured Beja than 15,200, which an Egyptian inscription from the reign of Amūnḥotep II (c. 1425-1400 BCE) gives as the number of captured Shasū, a nomadic people like the Beja (Spalinger 2005: 144-5). There are, of course, no census records for the Beja from any period before the modern era, but if the number of 500,000 estimated for the Beja population of the Sudan’s Kasalā Province in the 1970s (Morton 1989: 66 [n. 9]) is in any way indicative of the demographic capacity of just one portion of the larger Beja region in antiquity, it is perfectly credible that over 4000 Beja were resettled by ‘Ēzānā in Ethiopia.
[☞ note540] 540 Said to be 22,000 loaves of wheaten bread and 4190 head of cattle to each of the six Beja chieftains (thus 25,140 head in total), together with enough meat, beer, and wine for four months (RIE 185 II:12-13, 16-18 [Bernard et al. 1991: 243=Huntingford 1989: 48-9]).
[☞ note541] 541 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum II 1996: 488.
[☞ note542] 542 Ibid.: 489.
[☞ note543] 543 Ibid.: 490.
[☞ note544] 544 Ibid.
[☞ note545] 545 Ibid.: 491.
[☞ note546] 546 Ahmed 1984: 13.
[☞ note547] 547 Zooarchaeological studies of Meroë suggest a greater proportion of cattle relative to caprovines, though the special status of Meroë as the capital of Kush might have led to a pattern of consumption that differed from other sites in the region (Ahmed 1984: 92).
[☞ note548] 548 Aksum appears to have possessed a viable iron industry of its own during the fourth century, as indicated by an analysis of archaeometallurgical remains from the site of Aksum, dating from 325 CE (Severin et al. 2010). This being the case, ‘Ēzānā may have had little need of Nubian iron.
[☞ note549] 549 Schneider 1974.
[☞ note550] 550 Idem 1976.
[☞ note551] 551 Bernard et al. 1991: 268-71.
[☞ note552] 552 RIE 190 is by no means the only inscription from ‘Ēzānā’s reign in which Ge‘ez is written—anachronistically—in the musnad script. The Ge‘ez records of ‘Ēzānā’s campaign against the Beja (RIE 185 I and RIE 185bis I) also employ the musnad script, together with the mimation typical of Sabaic—but foreign to Ge‘ez.
[☞ note553] 553 Bernard et al. 1991: 268.
[☞ note554] 554 fīdal, the vocalized Ethiopian script based on a syllabic system, appears for the first time in RIE 187 and RIE 188, both of which date from the pre-Christian period of ‘Ēzānā’s reign.
[☞ note555] 555 RIE 190:8, 9 (Face A), 3-4 (Face B) (Bernard et al. 1991 : 269, 270).
[☞ note556] 556 Ibid.: 269.
[☞ note557] 557 Ibid.: 271.
[☞ note558] 558 Schneider 1974: 769; idem 1976: 112.
[☞ note559] 559 Bernard et al. 1991: 269.
[☞ note560] 560 Ibid.: 271.
[☞ note561] 561 W-’brn wst mnbr ’bwy (RIE 191:5 [Bernard et al. 1991: 272]). Schneider (1976: 772) is almost certainly correct in reconstructing ’brn as ’nbrn (=*’anbaranī) hence *wa-’anbaranī wǝsta manbara ’abawǝya, “and He placed me on the throne of my fathers.”
[☞ note562] 562 Reading uncertain.
[☞ note563] 563 Reading uncertain.
[☞ note564] 564 Note, however, ṣyḥm in RIE 186:15 (Bernard et al. 1991: 252) as the musnad rendering of the verb ṣēḥa, “to make level,” “to pave a road,” “to build a road.”
[☞ note565] 565 §4.5.2.1.
[☞ note566] 566 RIE 190:6-11 (Bernard et al. 1991: 269, with modifications).
[☞ note567] 567 The inscriptions gives us only dm, representing the vowel /d/ with mimation. This is meaningless in Ge‘ez unless we take it as an orthographic error on the part of the Aksumite scribe. Since a foreign campaign is described in RIE 190, it is tempting to reconstruct dm as *dwlm (=dawal). In support of this emendation one may note that Mḍ (Greek Mάτλια), the territory in which ‘Ēzānā settled the defeated Beja earlier in his reign is called a dwl in RIE 185I:15 and RIE 185 II:16 (Bernard et al. 1991: 242, 243). The Greek account of ‘Ēzānā’s campaign against the Beja (RIE 270:21) gives τόπoς (“place”) as the equivalent of the Ge‘ez dwl (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1095).
[☞ note568] 568 The final letter /’/ is missing in the original text, but the imperfect of ’amṣǝ’a, “to bring,” fits perfectly here. The text is emended accordingly.
[☞ note569] 569 Reading dubious.
[☞ note570] 570 RIE 190:10, 16, 18, 32, 41 (Bernard et al. 1991: 269-70).
[☞ note571] 571 RIE 190:13, 15, 16, 18, 20 (ibid.).
[☞ note572] 572 Ibid.: 270.
[☞ note573] 573 RIE 190:32, 33, 36, 38 (ibid.: 269-70).
[☞ note574] 574 RIE 190:12, 25 (ibid.: 269).
[☞ note575] 575 Bernard et al. 1991: 269.
[☞ note576] 576 Ibid.
[☞ note577] 577 Ibid.
[☞ note578] 578 For a thorough and up-to-date study of the Meroitic language, see Rilly 2007.
[☞ note579] 579 Shinnie and Anderson 2004: 64.
[☞ note580] 580 Ibid.: 20.
[☞ note581] 581 Ibid.
[☞ note582] 582 Ibid.: 35-6, 62.
[☞ note583] 583 Ibid.: 62.
[☞ note584] 584 Ibid.: 44, 51.
[☞ note585] 585 Ibid.: 51.
[☞ note586] 586 Ibid.
[☞ note587] 587 Ibid.: 55.
[☞ note588] 588 On this invasion, see Török 1997: 451-4.
[☞ note589] 589 Edwards 1989: 172.
[☞ note590] 590 Ibid.
[☞ note591] 591 Ibid. Whether the Roman army reached Napata is questioned by Török 1997: 453-4.
[☞ note592] 592 Edwards 1989: 172.
[☞ note593] 593 Shinnie and Bradley 1980: 185, 211 (Fig. 76).
[☞ note594] 594 Török 1985: 22.
[☞ note595] 595 Ibid.
[☞ note596] 596 Phillipson 2009b: 364.
[☞ note597] 597 Metlich 2006: 102.
[☞ note598] 598 Noeske 1998: 257.
[☞ note599] 599 Eusebius, Vita Constantini 4.7 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1079-81).
[☞ note600] 600 Mayerson 1993.
[☞ note601] 601 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1081; Török 2011: 523.
[☞ note602] 602 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1081.
[☞ note603] 603 Heliodorus 1935-43.
[☞ note604] 604 Herodotus 3.17-25.
[☞ note605] 605 Heliodorus, Les Éthiopiques 10.27.1.
[☞ note606] 606 Ibid.
[☞ note607] 607 On this point, see Morgan 1982.
[☞ note608] 608 Giangrande 1970: 493.
[☞ note609] 609 Bowersock 1994: 44-8.
[☞ note610] 610 Heliodorus 1943: III: 107-8.
[☞ note611] 611 Burstein 1981: 48.
[☞ note612] 612 Heliodorus 10.25-26.
[☞ note613] 613 Historia Augusta 33.4-5; Bowersock 1994: 49. Although the Historia Augusta presents itself as the work of no fewer than six authors writing between the reigns of Diocletian (284-305) and Constantine (306-337)—the “Life of Aurelian” which concerns us at present being attributed to Flavius Vopiscus—text-critical studies suggest that the Historia is in fact the work of a single author, and that it was written between 395 and 399 (Barnes 1978: 13-18).
[☞ note614] 614 Hohl (1985: 401 [n. 204]) believes that the passage about the foreign presence in Aurelian’s procession has been tainted by an ahistorical insertion of the name of the Aksumites in place of the broader category of “Ethiopians” which, as we have seen, did not come to refer to the Aksumites until the mid-fourth century, when it appears in ‘Ēzānā’s Greek inscription RIE 270bis as the equivalent of the Ḥbšt/Ḥbśt of his Ge‘ez inscriptions RIE 185bis I and RIE 185bis II (see §3.3.2). For his part, Hartmann (2008: 319 [n. 69]) regards as “zweifellos unhistorisch” the entire description of the royal spectacle with its animals and foreign peoples bringing gifts. The participation of foreigners in the spectacle—moreover as captives—seems to reflect an idealized image of the Roman emperor as the ruler of the entire world. This same idea is expressed later on in the Historia Augusta (41.10-11), where we are told that the Saracens, Blemmyes, Aksumites, Bactrians, Seres, Hibernians, Albanians, Armenians, and Indians revered Aurelian as a god!
[☞ note615] 615 §3.3.4.
[☞ note616] 616 §4.5.1.
[☞ note617] 617 Welsby 1996: 199-200.
[☞ note618] 618 Ibid.: 200.
[☞ note619] 619 Ibid.: 201.
[☞ note620] 620 That the tumulus at Meroë cannot itself be a tomb from the early Kushite period like those at al-Kurrū is clear from the fact that the earliest graves at Meroë post-date the tumulus-burials at al-Kurrū by several centuries.
[☞ note621] 621 Welsby 1996: 200.
[☞ note622] 622 Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 22.15.2 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1113).
[☞ note623] 623 Török 1988: 32; idem Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1114.
[☞ note624] 624 Török 2011: 519-20, 522.
[☞ note625] 625 Edwards 2011: 509-10.
[☞ note626] 626 Ibid.: 503.
[☞ note627] 627 The only historical material from fifth-century Aksum is coinage, which provides little more than the names of Aksumite kings during that period.
[☞ note628] 628 For a detailed discussion of Kālēb’s invasions of Ḥimyar, see Hatke 2011.
[☞ note629] 629 The first epigraphically dated mention of ’Abrehā is in a Sabaic inscription dated Dhū-Qiyāẓān 657 (June 547), and though ’Abrehā undoubtedly came to power before this date, he could not have done so before 531, when we last hear of Sumūyafa‘ ’Ashwa‘ in connection with a Roman diplomatic mission to Ḥimyar (Gajda 2009: 116).
[☞ note630] 630 Procopius, De Bell. Pers. 1.20.4-8. In this source ’Abrehā is given as Abramos, while Kālēb is referred to as Hellestheaeus, a corruption of the king’s alternative name ’Ella-’Aṣbeḥā (literally, “he who has brought the dawn”). Wa‘zeb is not mentioned by name by Procopius, but it is obvious that the anonymous successor of “Hellestheaeus” to whom Procopius refers is to be identified with him, since Wa‘zeb refers to himself as the son of ’Ella-’Aṣbeḥā (wld ’l-’ṣbḥ=*walda ’Ella-’Aṣbeḥā), i.e. Kālēb, in his inscription from Aksum (RIE 192:7 [Bernard et al. 1991: 275]).
[☞ note631] 631 RIE 191:8-10 (Bernard et al. 1991: 272).
[☞ note632] 632 RIE 191: 12 (ibid.).
[☞ note633] 633 RIE 187: 9-12 (ibid.: 256).
[☞ note634] 634 Slbn<Tha‘labān?
[☞ note635] 635 RIE 191: 34-5 (Bernard et al. 1991: 273).
[☞ note636] 636 On the name and identity of Ḥayyān Salabān and the significance of this individual for the chronology of Kālēb’s wars against Ḥimyar, see Hatke 2011: 124-36. There is no evidence that Ḥayyān took part in either of Kālēb’s failed attempts to depose ’Abrehā in Ḥimyar, and according to Procopius (De Bell. Pers. 1.20.5) the first of these was led by a relative of Kālēb—something which Ḥayyān, who seems to have been a South Arabian, was not.
[☞ note637] 637 Hatke 2011.
[☞ note638] 638 Ibid.: 166-76, 216-17, 250, 299-311, 333-4, 347-8.
[☞ note639] 639 Ibid.: 196, 200-3.
[☞ note640] 640 Sedov 1996: 22; idem 2007: 85.
[☞ note641] 641 Munro-Hay 1989a; Hahn 2000. A sixth-century letter in Greek from Gabalayn, deriving from the Blemmyan community in Upper Egypt, mentions the receipt of eight gold solidi, which are described as Noυβαρ[…] (Török 1988: 66). Though this curious word has been interpreted as “Nobadian,” Török is undoubtedly correct that the scribe either misunderstood something or rendered it unintelligible, for the existence of Nobadian currency is quite improbable (ibid.). Likewise, the absence of Aksumite gold coins in Nubia militates against any suggestion that the solidi referred to in the letter from Gabalayn were Aksumite gold coins. To the extent that foreign currency was known at all in Nubia, it functioned not as currency but rather as a type of bullion which could be traded like other rare items imported from abroad (Gradel 2007: 145).
[☞ note642] 642 Hatke 2011: 137-46, 272, 349.
[☞ note643] 643 Ibid.: 217-19.
[☞ note644] 644 Bernard et al. 1991: 284-8, 349-3. For a detailed discussion of this epigraphic material and its historical significance, see Hatke 2011: 355-84.
[☞ note645] 645 Phillips 1997: 455; idem 2003a: 440.
[☞ note646] 646 Chittick 1982: 53.
[☞ note647] 647 Ibid.
[☞ note648] 648 Ibid.
[☞ note649] 649 Only in a few isolated instances was “Kush” used as a name for Nubia after the fourth century. Among these is the fifth-century Meroitic inscription of the Nobadian king Kharamadoye from Kalabsha, in which we find a reference to Kush (Qes), though as a geographical, rather than a political, term (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1104, 1107; Török 2011: 517). In foreign sources from Late Antiquity “Kushite” would appear to have become largely divorced from any memory of the kingdom of Kush. Thus in fifth-century Coptic texts the term is employed in a generalized manner as an alternative for “Blemmyan” or “barbarian” (Török, loc. cit.: 524), while in the Edessene Apocalypse, a Miaphysite text in Syriac dating from c. 691/2, we are told that Alexander the Great was given an Ethiopian consort named Kūshyat “by the king of Kush, and they are called Nub[ians]” (men malkā d-Kūš w-hennōn metqrēn Nūb) (Edessene Apocalypse=Nau 1917: 432-3 [Syriac text]). While this text would seem to preserve a vague memory of a Nubian kingdom called Kush, the term Kūšāyē had by this time become so widely accepted in Syriac-speaking circles as a generic term for black Africans—to the extent that even the Aksumites were called Kūšāyē—that some qualification was needed when the anonymous author of the Edessene Apocalypse used the term to refer to Nubians. An Old Nubian graffito of medieval date from Jabal Abū Nagīla in northern Kordofan has long been thought to contain an illusion to Kush. When first read, this graffito was taken to refer to a man named Anena who came “from Kush when Aaron was king” (Arkell 1951). Although the graffito itself bears no date it was confidently assigned to the Nubia’s Christian period in light of the cross that accompanies the text, as well as the use of Old Nubian, which was not written before Nubia’s conversion to Christian in the second half of the sixth century, and which fell out of use as a written language after the Islamization of Nubia during the later Middle Ages. In light of a more recent reading of the Abū Nagīla graffito, however, this apparent reference to Kush is untenable (Ochała 2011). Far from referring to a man from Kush, the graffito instead mentions one Siti, a Christian Nubian king known to have reigned in the 1330s, whose precise relationship with Anena remains obscure (ibid.: 151-5). This medieval Nubian presence in northern Kordofan may reflect a growing interest on the part of Christian Nubians in regions to the west of the Nile during the late Middle Ages, which would explain the remains of a Christian Nubian monastery at Jabal al-‘Ayn just north of the modern boundary between the Kordofan and Shamāliyya provinces (Eger 2011). Needless to say, nothing could be further removed from the ancient kingdom of Kush! (The author wishes to thank Grzegorz Ochała for bringing Eger’s article to his attention.)
[☞ note650] 650 Hatke 2011: 122-3. Kālēb’s list of Arabian vassals is based on what Robin designates the “titulature très longue 2” (TTL 2), which appears for the first time in an inscription of the Ḥimyarite king Ḥaśśān Yuha’min (c. 440-448) and his brother Shuraḥbi’īl Ya‘fur and reads thus: mlk S1b’ w-d-Rydn w-Ḥḍrmwt w-Ymnt w-’‘rb-hmw Ṭwdm w-Thmt (Robin 1996: 683, 685).
[☞ note651] 651 Zwettler 2000: 253 (n. 55).
[☞ note652] 652 Gajda 1996: 69; Zwettler 2000: 239 (n. 30).
[☞ note653] 653 Zwettler (1996: 102) contends that Yamānāt designates “(the rest of the) South/(the whole) South/(the) South (in general),” though it seems unlikely that the Ḥimyarites would have used a geographical term in such a vague, imprecise manner, particularly when the corresponding “north” (s2’mt), while attested epigraphically, is not used in royal titles as a counterpart to Yamānāt. Since the root √ymn in Arabic can have the sense of “south” (see for example shāman wa-yamanan, “to the north and the south”), a sense retained in Yemeni Arabic (Piamenta 1991: II: 537), Yamānāt undoubtedly does refer to some southern region. Rather than taking it to refer to a generic “south,” however, Yamānāt is best understood as denoting the southern coast of Yemen, extending perhaps as far as Ẓufār and possibly including the Yemeni island of Soqotra. For a list of similar theories, see Zwettler 1996: 99.
[☞ note654] 654 On the Ḥimyarite conquest of Ḥaḍramawt, see Robin 2005.
[☞ note655] 655 See §4.5.2.1.
[☞ note656] 656 Welsby 2002: 24-8; Edwards 2004: 194-5, 202.
[☞ note657] 657 Kirwan 1937; idem 1994; Richter 2002; Dijkstra 2008: 282-304. Even before Christianity became the state religion of the three Nubian kingdoms there appears to have been a Christian presence in Nubia, for fifth-century Nobadian chieftain named Abourni had a son who bore the Christian name Mouses, while one fifth-century monk from Philae corresponded in a Christian-style letter with the Nobadian chief Tantani (Dijkstra, loc. cit.: 294; Török 2011: 529). Cosmas Indicoplesutes mentions bishops of Nubia in the third book of his Christian Topography (Top. Chr. 3.66.5). Since Cosmas was in the process of writing the sixth book of this treatise in 547, at which point he records two eclipses in that year (ibid.: 6.3), his references to bishops in Nubia in the third book must therefore reflect conditions in the 540s at the latest. The empress Theodora, wife of Justinian, is known to have sent a Miaphysite mission to Nubia in 543, though on the basis of the history of John of Ephesus it would seem that the first bishop of the Nobades was not appointed until 566 (Török 2011: 516).
[☞ note658] 658 Malalas 18.15 (transl. Jeffreys et al. 1986: 251).
[☞ note659] 659 A demotic graffito from Philae indicates that the Blemmyes had already made inroads into Lower Nubia as early as 372-4, following the fall of Kush and with it the collapse of centralized control of Lower Nubia from Meroë. On this text, see Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1110-12; Török 1999: 148. By 394 the Blemmyes had come to occupy the whole of the Dodekaschoinos (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1115-18; Török, loc. cit.).The Meroitic inscription from Kalabsha naming the Nobadian king Kharamadoye and believed to date from the beginning of the fifth century may belong to the final period of Blemmyan occupation in Lower Nubia before the Nobadian takeover under Silko. On this inscription, see Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1103-7. On the identity of Kharamadoye, see Török 1999: 152-3.
[☞ note660] 660 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1149 (Greek text), 1150 (English translation).
[☞ note661] 661 Ibid.: 1158-65.
[☞ note662] 662 Ibid.: 1148.
[☞ note663] 663 Skeat 1977: 159 (n. 3).
[☞ note664] 664 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1148.
[☞ note665] 665 Török 1988: 62.
[☞ note666] 666 Welsby 2002: 21-2.
[☞ note667] 667 RIE 270bis: 25 (Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1095 [Greek text], 1096 [English translation]; cf. Bernard 2000: 12).
[☞ note668] 668 Török 1999: 136 (n. 28).
[☞ note669] 669 On the date of this work, see Detoraki 2007: 98.
[☞ note670] 670 The Coptic patriarchate continued to claim ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Aksum well into the Middle Ages. Thus the patriarch Markos III (1166-1189) is called “the great Archbishop of the city of Alexandria and the city of Babylon and Nobadia and Arouda and Makour[ia] and Dalmatia and Aksum” in the Greek subscript of a Coptic transcript of a letter from Qaṣr Ibrīm, the original draft of which was sent to Alexandria by King Moses George of the late medieval Nubian kingdom of Dotawo (Adams 1996: 228-9). Alexandria continued to send Coptic archbishops to Ethiopia as late as the 1950s, though Markos’ claim to jurisdiction over Aksum reflects that town’s importance as a religious — rather than a political — center during the Middle Ages.
[☞ note671] 671 Martyrium Arethae 27.19-22. Beaucamp (ibid. 2007: 258) notes that the syntax of the passage referring to the movement of the Blemmyes and Nobades through Kālēb’s territory poses several difficulties of interpretation. In Detoraki’s edition of the text, the entire passage is given as follows: Kαὶ ἡμεῖς δὲ διὰ Kόπτoυ καὶ Bερoνίκης καὶ τῶν λεγoμένων Bλεμμύων καὶ Noβάδων πλῆθoς στρατευμάτων ἐκπέμψαντες παρόδῳ χρησάμενα τὰ στρατόπεδα ἡμῶν διὰ τῆς γῆς σoυ πᾶσαν συτρίψωσιν τὸν δὲ Ὁμηρίτην καὶ τὴν χώραν αὐτoῦ εἰς τέλειoν ἀφανισμὸν καὶ ἀνάθεμα καταστήσωσιν. Beaucamp translates the problematic passage as “nos troupes, en se frayant un passage à travers tes terres, les ruineront toutes et réduiront l’Homérite et tout son pays à une disparition complète et à l’anathème” (ibid.). She notes, however, that a variant recension of the Martyrium reads πᾶσαν τὴν χώραν τoῦ Ὁμηρίτoυ καὶ αὐτὸν εἰς τέλειoν ἀφανισμὸν καταστήσωσιν (“ils réduiront tout le pays de l’Homérite, ainsi que lui-même, à une disparition complète”), of which she says that “la menace que fait peser Justin sur l’Éthiopie est ainsi effacée du texte” (ibid.: 258, n. 168). One is inclined to favor this latter recension, which is adopted in the present study, given that Justin, by sending the Blemmyes and Nobades to aid Aksum in the war against Ḥimyar, would, in the interest of diplomacy, have wanted to avoid any collateral damage to Aksumite territory.
[☞ note672] 672 Martyrium Arethae 29.11.
[☞ note673] 673 Ibid.: 29.14-17.
[☞ note674] 674 §5.1.
[☞ note675] 675 See §3.3.1.
[☞ note676] 676 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum III 1998: 1196-1216; Török 1988: 64-9.
[☞ note677] 677 Dijkstra 2008: 283.
[☞ note678] 678 In his inscription Wa‘zeb styles himself simply “King of Aksum and Ḥimyar and Raydān and Saba’ and Salḥīn and SLF and the Beja and Kush and Ṣeyāmō and WYTL” (ngš ’ksm w-d-Ḥmyrm w-d-Rydn w-d-Sb’ w-d-Slf w-d-Bg w-d-Ks w-d-Ṣym w-d-Wytl=*nǝgūša ’Aksūm wa-za-Ḥǝmēr wa-za-Raydān wa-za-Saba’ wa-za-SLF wa-za-Bǝgā wa-za-Kūs wa-za-Ṣǝyāmō wa-za-WYTL) (RIE 192: 5-7 [Bernard et al. 1991: 275]). Who the SLF and WYTL were is impossible to ascertain, as these peoples are referred to only in this inscription. In Line 5 Wa‘zeb claims to have made war on the latter, stating: ḍb’k Wytl (=*ḍabā’kū Wytl), “I fought WYTL” (ibid.). Judging from their placement in the list of vassals in the king’s title, it is probable that the SLF and WYTL were African peoples.
[☞ note679] 679 On John’s background and the writing of his history, see Dijkstra 2008: 276-79, 282-92.
[☞ note680] 680 On Roman missionary efforts in Nubia, see Kirwan 1937; idem 1994.
[☞ note681] 681 The Ecclesiastical History of John of Ephesus is the only Syriac source in which the Aksumites are given a gentilic derived from the name of their kingdom rather than the generic epithet Kūšāyē. Even then, John’s term for them, Aksīmīṭōn (ܐܟܣܝܡܝܛܘܢ), is a calque on the Greek Ἀξωμιτῶν—the correct plural form would have been *Aksīmāyē < Aksūmāyē according to the rules of Syriac morphology—which suggests that the “Aksumite” was a rather unfamiliar term in Syriac tradition.
[☞ note682] 682 John of Ephesus 1853: 290 (Syriac text).
[☞ note683] 683 Welsby 1998: 272; idem 1999: 666.
[☞ note684] 684 On Julian and his religious teachings, see Gregory 1991a and idem 1991b.
[☞ note685] 685 Payne Smith (1860: 320) regards this name as a corruption of the Greek Eurypylus.
[☞ note686] 686 John of Ephesus 1853: 290 (Syriac text).
[☞ note687] 687 Phillips (2003a: 440) calls the Aksumites in Alodia “missionaries.”
[☞ note688] 688 As suggested by Török (1988: 71).
[☞ note689] 689 For a critical edition of these texts with bibliography see Bernard et al. 1991: 278-80.
[☞ note690] 690 Ibid.: 279.
[☞ note691] 691 Munro-Hay and Nosnitsin 2005: 84.
[☞ note692] 692 Bernard et al. 1991: 279.
[☞ note693] 693 Littmann 1913: 45-6.
[☞ note694] 694 Bernard et al. 1991: 280, 282.
[☞ note695] 695 Ibid.: 279, 282.
[☞ note696] 696 RIE 193 I: 4-5; RIE 193 II: 4-5 (ibid.: 279).
[☞ note697] 697 Munro-Hay and Nosnitsin 2005: 84.
[☞ note698] 698 Ibid.
[☞ note699] 699 Ibid.
[☞ note700] 700 Among the evidence for the decline of Aksum in the seventh century is the cessation of coinage, the abandonment of palatial structures at Aksum by c. 650, and the abandonment of entire sites, such as Matarā and Adulis, around the same time (Finneran 2007: 212-13). Ecological decline may have played a role in the downfall of the Aksumite state by weakening its agricultural base (ibid.: 210-11). On the final years of the Aksumite kingdom, see Munro-Hay 1991: 89-94, 258-62. That Aksumite forms remained popular in early medieval church architecture in Ethiopia suggests some degree of cultural continuity between the kingdom of Aksum and its successors further to the south-east (Finneran 2007: 212, 214-24). Whether there existed any political continuity remains to be proven.
[☞ note701] 701 Munro-Hay and Nosnitsin 2005: 84.
[☞ note702] 702 Ibid.
[☞ note703] 703 Littmann 1913: 43-4; Kobishchanov 1979: 120, 157; Munro-Hay 1991: 262 (with reservations); al-Nūr 2004; Munro-Hay and Nosnitsin 2005: 84.
[☞ note704] 704 Littmann 1913: 43.
[☞ note705] 705 Ibid.
[☞ note706] 706 A more recent (and more conservative) reconstruction of the relevant portion of Lines 14-15 by Bernard et al. (1991: 280) reads simply wa[…]r : b-.-.- :, that of Lines 17-19 wa.-t-k- : zab-[ṣ-].-.-m-ku[…]b-y-t- : …]b-.-y- :. Needless to say, no sense can be made of any of this, though it is quite possible that weathering of the stone in the decades following Littmann’s initial study of the inscriptions is in part responsible for the much more fragmentary reconstruction proposed by Bernard et al.
[☞ note707] 707 Salih 2007: 354.
[☞ note708] 708 The nature of Nubian-Ethiopian contact during the Middle Ages remains obscure, and what evidence we have dates mostly from the late medieval period; see, for example, Ceccarelli-Morolli 1998.
[☞ note709] 709 Cline 1991. More recently, Genz (2011: 303-9) has drawn attention to the dearth of Hittite objects, or even evidence of Hittite influence, to the west of central Anatolia. He also notes that Mycenaean pottery is known from only three sites in the Hittite heartland (ibid.: 309).
[☞ note710] 710 Bryce 2010: 48.
[☞ note711] 711 Ibid.
[☞ note712] 712 Obsidian is one of the few exceptions (§1.1).
[☞ note713] 713 Crone 1987; idem 2007.
[☞ note714] 714 On the importance of leather products in Aksum, see Hatke 2011: 419.
[☞ note715] 715 Lenoble and Sharif 1992: 634; Edwards 1994: 173, 174, 176; Welsby 1996: 93. A systematic study of the use of incense in ancient Nubia has yet to be undertaken but would certainly repay the effort.
[☞ note716] 716 There is to date no evidence of direct Kushite trade with South Arabia, which also produced incense.
[☞ note717] 717 Fitzpatrick 2011: 33-4.
[☞ note718] 718 The role of pastoralists in long-distance exchange networks in ancient northeast Africa has also been noted by Fattovich (2009: 284).
[☞ note719] 719 Matthews 1984: 172.
