Ancient Settlement Patterns in the Area of Aksum (Tigray, Northern Ethiopia) – Ca. 900 BCE–800/850 CE

From Centre-Periphery Models to Textured Urban Landscapes: Comparative Perspectives from Sub-Saharan Africa

“…Long a focus of archaeological investigations and systematic surveys (Bard 1997;Fattovich 2008;Fattovich and others 2000;French, Sulas, and Madella 2009;Michels 2005;Monneret de Villard 1938;Munro-Hay 1989;1991;Phillipson 1997;Sernicola 2017;Sernicola and Phillipson 2011), the settlement record at Aksum is significant and almost unparalleled in the wider region. Recent syntheses and spatial analyses provide a comprehensive record of the settlement pattern at Aksum before, during, and after the decline of the eponymous kingdom (Fattovich 2019;Sernicola 2017). By the early first millennium bc, permanent settlement is amply documented in the Aksum area with sites clustering on the hilltop of Bēta Giyorgis, at the base of the hill, and to the north of the present town (Fig.…”

“…In the sixth century ad, the settlement occupied a much smaller area (c. 80 ha) concentrated around the cathedral and, by the late seventh/early eighth century ad, Aksum was no longer the capital city with an occupation in the core urban area now reduced to c. 40 ha. If very little is known about the following few centuries, new records indicate substantial occupation and land use in the greater Aksum area during the period between the tenth and sixteenth centuries ad (Sernicola 2017;Sulas 2014).…”

“…In Christian times, apsidal basilicas were built on a stepped podium (Phillipson 2009). A great portion, if not the largest, of the population probably lived in small sites (c. 1-3 ha) that are interpreted as farming compounds and hamlets (Michels 2005;Sernicola 2017). Non-elite residential buildings were also built in stone with undressed and mortared walls, shaping rectilinear plans and narrow alleys in urban settings (Phillipson 2012, 125-26).…”

“…Whilst acknowledging that structures and features are increasingly dispersed away from the centre, estimating the total size and shape of the area occupied by ancient Aksum remains highly speculative. What matters, following David W. Phillipson (2012), is that the Aksumite settlement was significantly larger than several, contemporaneous cities elsewhere -against the peak of 180 ha estimated for Aksum in the mid-first millennium ad (Fattovich 2019;Sernicola 2017), Phillipson (2012 mentions, for example, two famous contemporaries: Roman London (140 ha) and the ancient West African city of Jenne-Jeno (33 ha). Rather than representing boundaries, the extensive archaeological record of Aksumite settlement might be reflecting an essentially urban region, with permeable and fluid occupation and movement space linking the seat of power at Aksum to its hinterland.…”