http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/652/heritage.htm

Older than Egypt is Ethiopia
From distant past to the dawn of Islam, Gamal Nkrumah
looks at the history of this African nation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ethiopia is old, even older than Egypt, but its
antiquity is somewhat different. While Egypt was the
world's first indisputable nation-state, unique in its
complex politico-religious system augmented by
magnificent material remains and a corpus of epic
literature, in Ethiopia, the very cradle of mankind,
the material evidence of its ancient civilisation
alone attests to its former glory.

The Ancient Egyptians, from the earliest times, kept
records of their kings and this chronology is central
to the chronological structure of the early Aegean,
Levantine and Mesopotamian civilisations. It is,
however, of no import to Ancient Ethiopia. If the
Ethiopians did keep records, these have either been
lost for ever or not yet discovered. The attempts by
unnamed writers to compile an Ethiopian king-list --
the Kebra Negast or Book of the Glory of Kings -- from
the Queen of Sheba to the rise of the Zagwe dynasty,
is believed to be a 13th-century creation; its aim
seems to have been to establish the political
credentials of the so-called Solomonic dynasty, an
Ethiopian king-list that traces the rulers of Ancient
Axum to Menelik I (originally Bin Ha Malik, The King's
Son), the son of the "Israelite" King Solomon and the
"Ethiopian" Queen Makeda, the Queen of Sheba.

Confusingly, the Queen of Sheba features prominently
in the oral and written traditions of Ethiopia, Yemen
and ancient Israel. The Yemenis saw her as a South
Arabian queen, the Ethiopians as Axumite. In Arabic
her name is Bilquis, in Ethiopia Makeda and in the
biblical language of the Israelites she is known as
the Queen of Sheba. To add to the confusion,
historians suggest that King Solomon must have reigned
around the 10th century BC. It is difficult to
decipher fact from fiction, but archaeological
evidence is indisputable and it reveals that Axum was
founded a millennium later.

LUCY-DINKENESH: Ethiopia easily claims the longest
archaeological record of any country in the world. It
is in Ethiopia that the story of the evolution of
mankind began. The remains of the earliest ancestral
humans or hominids have been found there. But while
sophisticated civilisations historically developed on
the Ethiopian highlands, in many parts of the
mountains and rugged country, many of its peoples
retained a material existence not much different from
the hunter-gathering lifestyles of our ancestral
hominids.

Two Ethiopian regions stand out as preeminent sites
favoured for habitation by the early hominids -- the
Omo Valley in the southwestern part of the country,
and the Afar or Danakil Depression. To this day, these
remote and inhospitable regions remain largely cut off
from the outside world. They form different parts of
Africa's Great Rift Valley, which runs from central
Africa, through the eastern part of the continent,
dissecting the Horn of Africa, dividing Arabia from
Africa, marking out the outlines of the Sinai
Peninsula, and ending somewhat unobtrusively with the
Gulf of Aqaba and the River Jordan Valley.

The Omo Valley and the Danakil Depression are markedly
different in landscape and terrain. The latter is a
desolate and dreary desert, 100 metres below sea level
and one of the hottest places on earth, while the Omo
Valley is a veritable Garden of Eden with a rich and
luxuriant tropical flora and teaming with exotic
fauna.

Remains of Australopithecus Afarensis, an early
hominid dating as far back as four million years, have
been found in an almost complete state in the Danakil
Depression, which was not always the arid desert it is
today. When the early hominids roamed the Afar region,
it was a well-watered and wooded savanna country. In
1974 archaeologists excavating sites in the Awash
River Valley discovered the skeletal remains of a
female hominid whom they promptly named "Lucy"
(apparently because they were listening to the song
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds by the Beetles). The
diminutive three-and-half-feet tall Lucy -- known as
Dinkenesh or "Thou art beautiful" in Amharic,
Ethiopia's official language -- lived some 3.5 million
years ago. Her skeletal remains are now deposited at
the National Museum of Addis Ababa, which is also home
to a host of other prehistoric remains.

THE ANTECEDENTS OF AXUM: The history of Ethiopia goes
back a long way. The profusion of Stone Age tools and
cave paintings hint at the industriousness and
vibrancy of the lifestyles of the earliest Ethiopians
and attests to the country's antiquity. During the
Chalcolithic Age (6200-3000 BC) the inhabitants began
cultivating grains and crops that are still much in
use in Ethiopia today. Indigenous grasses and grains,
such as teff, from which the national Ethiopian sour
pancake-like moist bread is made, began to be
extensively cultivated as a staple food. The ensete, a
root crop known as the false banana because the plant
resembles the banana tree but bears no edible fruit,
was also grown in the southern and central parts of
the Ethiopian Highlands. Sorghum, barley and buckwheat
were also cultivated.

From late prehistoric times patterns of livelihood
were established that were to become characteristic of
Ethiopia down through the ages and right up to
contemporary times. The Early Bronze Age (3000 BC)
witnessed the domestication of cattle, a process which
had started much earlier in neighbouring Sudan. At
this stage of development, regular interaction between
the indigenous peoples of Ethiopia and their
neighbours first began.

The close proximity of the Ethiopian highlands to the
Red Sea has always provided the main line of external
communication. This stretch of water has, since time
immemorial, provided a means of transport and the
Ancient Egyptians recorded voyages to the Land of Punt
-- God's Land. To them, Punt was the most ancient
country, a sacred territory.

Queen Hatshepsut in the 18th dynasty (1540-1304 BC)
dispatched a diplomatic and trading mission to Punt,
beautifully depicted on her funerary temple at Deir
Al-Bahri. Punt was also the source of a host of exotic
goods such as gold, ivory, ostrich feathers, animal
skins and hides.

Egyptian legends sometimes referred to Punt as a land
ruled by serpent-kings. Interestingly enough, material
and literary evidence suggest some form of
serpent-worship before the advent of Christianity in
Ethiopia. Could then, Ethiopia be the Punt of the
Egyptians? To carry the argument further, the sturdy
tankwas, or papyrus canoes, that ply Lake Tana -- the
source of the Blue Nile -- are curiously reminiscent
of the Ancient Egyptian reed boats.

The Hebrews, too, seem to have maintained links with
Ancient Ethiopia. The marital union of the Queen of
Sheba and King Solomon was not the first biblical
reference to a Hebrew-Ethiopian marriage. According to
the Bible Moses had an Ethiopian wife. "And Miriam and
Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian
woman whom he had married: for he had married an
Ethiopian woman," we read in the Book of Numbers.

Ethiopia appears in the King James Version 45 times.
Most references to Ethiopia are cited in the Old
Testament, not always in the most favourable light.
Still, there appears to have been some familiarity
with Ethiopian geography in the Levant with frequent
biblical references to the rivers of Ethiopia, such as
Gihon.

The centrality of the Solomonic link to the Ethiopian
heritage is challenged by concrete archaeological
evidence. "The Queen of Sheba is clearly recalled as a
contemporary of King Solomon, whose reign must be
placed around the 10th century BC. There is no
archaeological evidence that the site of Axum was
settled until one thousand years after this date,"
argues David W Phillipson in Ancient Ethiopia,
published by British Museum Press, 1998.

AXUM: This most celebrated state of Ancient Ethiopia
could, in its heyday, be compared in grandeur with the
empires of Rome, Persia and Ancient China. Among the
most imposing features of its material culture are
monumental stelae that mark the burial catacombs of
Axumite kings. Some 120 survive today -- many in a
dilapidated state of disrepair. The largest is over 30
metres long, albeit no longer standing upright. It was
the largest single stone ever quarried in the ancient
world. The stelae of Axum are grave markers with which
catacombs are invariably associated. Shafts,
underground passages and chambers are always found
nearby. Alas, most of the burial chambers were looted
in antiquity, and only a few broken grave-goods were
left by robbers

Byzantine Greek and Roman references to Axum -- a
prosperous state which at its zenith stretched from
Nubia to Yemen and Hejaz, and encompassed much of the
Horn of Africa -- abound. The kingdom, in conjunction
with the Nabateans and southern Arabians, apparently
held a monopoly over the spice and incense trade.

Relations between Axum and some of its other
neighbours remain unclear. We know that Axum's fabled
King Ezana (who reigned from 325 to 360 AD) controlled
Mero‘ (the once thriving Nubian kingdom) and Yemen as
well as the Red Sea coast up to Suakin in Sudan. We
know also that Ezana's armies overran Mero‘ when it
was in its last throes. A trilingual inscription,
vaguely reminiscent of the Rosetta Stone, was erected
by Ezana recording his victories over the Nubians in
three languages -- Sabaean, Ge'ez and Greek.

The Axumite empire's heartland was the highlands of
northern Ethiopia and southern Eritrea. The most
impressive ruins are to be found in the northern
Ethiopian region of Tigray, and to a lesser extent in
Eritrea. The capital, Axum, in northern Tigray still
stands today -- a mere shadow of its former glory.

Axum's rulers assumed the title of Negust Nagast, King
of Kings, and started minting coins that provide an
interesting chronology of the rulers of Axum. No other
kingdom in Africa south of the Sahara did this, and
the study of the Axumite coinage system reveals much
about the development of the political structure,
religion and culture of the ancient empire. For
example, the earliest Axumite coins bore the crescent
and sun-disc, or crescent and star -- designs
characteristic of the pagan religion where moon and
sun worship was prevalent. Later, when Christianity
was officially adopted as a state religion, the cross
replaced the crescent and sun-disc as state emblems
engraved on official Axumite coins. Many of the
earliest coins also had Greek inscriptions but, as
Axum grew in importance, the Greek inscriptions were
replaced by Ge'ez inscriptions (see box).

Christianity was adopted as a state religion in
Ethiopia in the fourth century AD. According to
tradition, two Christian youths from Tyre, Aedesius
and Frumentius, were shipwrecked on the Red Sea coast
of what is today Eritrea. They were taken to Axum,
became tutors of the future king, and later Frumentius
left Ethiopia for Alexandria and asked the Coptic
Patriarch of Egypt to send a bishop to head the
nascent Ethiopian Church. Frumentius was consecrated.
He assumed the name Abuna Salama, initiating a
tradition, whereby the Archbishops of the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church were consecrated by the Coptic Pope,
which lasted until the early 1970s.

ETHIOPIA AND YEMEN: The history of Ancient Ethiopia
cannot be separated from that of Ancient Yemen, whose
recorded history stretches back over 3,000 years.
Archaeological evidence shows that settled
agricultural communities were established in the
Yemeni highlands by the third millennium BC. Urban
centres soon developed supported by the surrounding
farming countryside. Masonry flourished and monumental
sculptures and massive stone architecture were
erected. Sophisticated irrigation works were also
constructed which attest to a high degree of material
sophistication. States like Hadhramaut, Saba, with it
capital Ma'rib, and later Himyar thrived as
industrious mercantile nations that monopolised the
spice and incense trade of the ancient world.

Successive civilisations of Mineans, Sabaeans and
Himyarites interacted closely with their counterparts
in Ethiopia. The precise nature of the relationship
between the people who inhabited Ancient Yemen and
their contemporaries across the Red Sea in Ethiopia is
unknown. What is clear, however, is that due to
geographical proximity, strong cultural and trading
links developed between the most celebrated of Ancient
Yemeni civilisations, Saba, and the peoples of
Ethiopia. Archaeological research based on the results
of excavations and the study of extant monuments and
artefacts by Western and Ethiopian scholars reveal
growing cultural and trade contacts between them.

It is difficult to acertain how far Axum, the most
glorious of Ethiopia's earliest civilisations, can be
viewed as a direct heir to Saba. The mystification is
deepened by the confusion between Sheba, a variation
of Saba, and Ethiopia in the Bible and other mediaeval
documents. Sheba, or the Kingdom of the South, could
equally refer to either Yemen or Axum.

That controversy apart, there is no doubt that the
cultures and histories of Saba and Ethiopia were
inextricably intertwined. The Sabaeans were highly
skilled masons and water engineers and, not many
centuries after they constructed the Ma'rib Dam,
walled cities and other architectural wonders, similar
structures began to be erected in Ethiopia.

Scholars claim that some 2,500 years ago, successive
waves of Semitic people from southern Arabia crossed
the Red Sea into what is now Ethiopia, they brought
with them their Semitic language and script. Around
the fifth century BC, there is archaeological evidence
to show that the Semitic influences intensified.
Sabaean merchants and perhaps armies moved across the
Red Sea into Ethiopia, as attested by the many Sabean
inscriptions dating to that period. In time they
produced a pre-Axumite culture which ripened into a
proto-Axumite culture.

We know next to nothing of the pagan religion of the
Axumites. In sharp contrast, much is known today about
the Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs and practices.
We know the names and attributes of Ancient Egyptian
gods and goddesses, but little is known about the
nature of worship in Ancient Ethiopia -- save perhaps
that serpents were sacred creatures and maybe the sun,
moon and stars were worshipped, as in Ancient Arabia.
Archaeological evidence suggests that South Arabian
gods and goddesses were worshipped in Ethiopia before
the advent of Christianity. Nothing, though, is
conclusive. Archaeological evidence points to the
influx of settlers and cultural influences from Yemen,
across the Red Sea, into Ethiopia at least about 800
BC, in all probability much earlier. The Red Sea
proved no impediment to trade and cultural exchange.
Yemen at the time was at the centre of a trading
network that linked Egypt and the eastern
Mediterranean world -- what is today Greece, Turkey
and the Levant -- with Yemen and onwards to Oman, the
Arabian Gulf, present day Iraq, Iran and India,
perhaps even beyond. In Yemen, the Minaean
Civilisation was absorbed or superseded by the
celebrated Sabaean Civilisation about 1000 BC. Trade
relations were revolutionised when the inhabitants of
Arabia domesticated the dromedary, or one- humped
camel, in the 11th century BC.

The domestication of the dromedary made it easier to
transport goods over more desolate regions. The spice
trade was the mainstay of the economy. The Sabaeans
were great builders and the imposing dam they
constructed near Ma'rib, their capital, stands
testimony to their accomplished architectural skills.
They lived in multistoried apartment blocks in walled
cities with monumental gates. From the windows and
door designs on the Axumite stelae, it appears that
these particular Sabaean colonists probably settled in
Ethiopia in much the same way as Europeans settled in
America. Indeed, interaction between Yemen and
Ethiopia in ancient times is sometimes compared with
the historical relationship between Europe and
America, with the Red Sea as substitute for the
Atlantic Ocean.

The Sabaeans united southern Arabia into a single
political entity by the third century BC. By the time
of the birth of Jesus Christ, they had expanded their
empire to include Ethiopian lands across the Red Sea.
With Sabaean power waning in the fifth and sixth
centuries AD, their empire was conquered by the
Ethiopians in 525. The Sabaean civilisation endured
for 14 centuries lasting from around 800 BC to 600 AD.
And as Saba declined, Axum arose. The tables were soon
turned and Ethiopia had the upper hand. For many
centuries afterwards, Yemen remained under Axumite
suzerainty.

Trade and cultural exchanges between Sabaean Yemen and
Ancient pre-Axumite Ethiopia were strengthened.
Artefacts and stone slabs bearing the Sabaean script
of southern Arabia became more common in Ethiopia.
Soon the monumental stone structures similar to those
in Ancient Yemen began to appear in Eritrea and
northern Ethiopia. The Temple of the Moon in Yeha is
the largest surviving structure in East Africa.

With the rise of Islam in the seventh century AD, Axum
lost Yemen and Hejaz, and the once flourishing empire
shrunk back to its original core region of the
northern Ethiopian highlands.

Ge'ez the sacred tongue
> LINGUISTIC affinities between Ethiopia and the Arab
world are as strong today as they were in bygone days.
Ge'ez, Amharic and Tigrinya are related to Arabic.
There are some 80 different languages spoken in
Ethiopia, but the country's official language is
Amharinya, better known outside Ethiopia as Amharic.
It is the language of higher education, most modern
literature and government.
Historical linguists generally hold that the languages
spoken by a majority of the inhabitants of Ethiopia
today, namely the Afro-Asian languages, have their
roots in northeastern Africa. The area covered by
speakers of the Afro- Asian linguistic group spans a
huge swathe of territory from northwestern Africa, the
Sahara, eastern and northeastern Africa, Arabia and
southwestern Asia. The Afro-Asian group of languages
is divided into Semitic, Cushitic and Omotic -- and
speakers of all three groups are found in Ethiopia.
Indeed, Ethiopia is the only country where all the
three linguistic groups are currently in use.

Scholars also suggest that first Omotic and then
Cushitic speaking peoples moved into the Ethiopian
highlands about 7,000 BC. The Semitic-speaking peoples
entered Ethiopia at a later date. Speakers of the
Nilotic languages spanning a vast territory in Sudan
and other East African countries such as Kenya and
Tanzania inhabit in the southwestern extremities of
Ethiopia, and it is not known if they previously
inhabited other areas of the country. Of the Cushitic
languages spoken in Ethiopia, the most widespread is
Oromo followed by Somali and Sidamo. But the recorded
history of Ethiopia has traditionally been the domain
of the country's Semitic speakers.

The foremost of the Semitic languages of Ethiopia is
Ge'ez, widely regarded as an offshoot of Sabaean, held
in special esteem.

Ethiopia has one of the longest continuous literate
traditions in Africa. It is a literary tradition where
Ge'ez plays a central, all-important role. Ge'ez is to
Ethiopia what Latin is to Europe. Ge'ez, the
liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church
and the official court language of the Axumites,
borrowed 24 symbols from the Sabaean writing system.

Amharic, the official language of contemporary
Ethiopia, is derived from Ge'ez. Two other languages
are closely related to it -- Tigre, spoken in Eritrea;
and Tigrinya spoken in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, as
well as in Eritrea. Both Amharic and Tigrinya use a
modified version of the Ge'ez script.

The Axumites left behind a body of written records in
Greek and Ge'ez. The Bible was translated into Ge'ez
from Greek, and the Ge'ez alphabet bears an uncanny
resemblance to both the Coptic and Greek scripts.
Ge'ez , which ceased to be a spoken language in the
10th century, is still widely studied by academic
scholars who specialise in Ancient Ethiopia.