On the nature of South Arabian influences in Ethiopia during the first millennium BC

Anne Benoist (1) , Iwona Gajda (2) , Steven Matthews (3) , Jérémie Schiettecatte (4, 2) , Ninon Blond (1) , Saskia Büchner (3) , Pawel Wolf (3)

1 Archéorient - ARCHEORIENT - Environnements et sociétés de l'Orient ancien
2 OM-MS - Équipe Mondes sémitiques
3 DAI - Deutsches Archäologisches Institut
4 OM - ORIENT ET MÉDITERRANÉE : Textes, Archéologie, Histoire

This paper presents the results of survey and excavations carried out in the Wakarida region by the French Archaeological Mission in eastern Tigray, Ethiopia. Here we discuss a series of late first millennium BC occupation sites. The sites, material culture, and landscape evolution are reviewed in relation to current arguments concerning Sabaean influence on highland cultural development in Ethiopia during the pre-Aksumite period. This contribution underlines the strong cultural continuity of pottery traditions throughout the period until the development of the Aksumite polity at the end of the first millennium BC, highlighting the lack of a ‘proto-Aksumite’ equivalent in eastern Tigray. The absence of any clear traces of South Arabian influence on local cultures in this region, despite its relative proximity to sites such as Meqaber Gaʿewa and Ziban Adi which demonstrate links to the Daʿmat polity, are discussed.

Mots clés: land use; Ethiopia; pre-Aksumite period; proto-Aksumite period; pottery traditions

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Anne Benoist, Iwona Gajda, Steven Matthews, Jérémie Schiettecatte, Ninon Blond, et al.. On the nature of South Arabian influences in Ethiopia during the first millennium BC: A pre-Aksumite settlement on the margins of the eastern Tigray plateau. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 2020, 50, pp.19-36. ⟨halshs-02926829⟩