Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum and the northern Horn, 1000 BC - AD 1300

Eastern Africa

by David W. Phillipson

Focuses on the Aksumite state of the first millennium AD in northern Ethiopia and southern Eritrea, its development, florescence and eventual transformation into the so-called medieval civilisation of Christian Ethiopia. This book seeks to apply a common methodology, utilising archaeology, art-history, written documents and oral tradition from a wide variety of sources; the result is a far greater emphasis on continuity than previous studies have revealed. It is thus a major re-interpretation of a key development in Ethiopia's past, while raising and discussing methodological issues of the relationship between archaeology and other historical disciplines; these issues, which have theoretical significance extending far beyond Ethiopia, are discussed in full. The last millennium BC is seen as a time when northern Ethiopia and parts of Eritrea were inhabited by farming peoples whose ancestry may be traced far back into the local 'Late Stone Age'. Colonisation from southern Arabia, to which defining importance has been attached by earlier researchers, is now seen to have been brief in duration and small in scale, its effects largely restricted to élite sections of the community. Re-consideration of inscriptions shows the need to abandon the established belief in a single 'Pre-Aksumite' state. New evidence for the rise of Aksum during the last centuries BC is critically evaluated. Finally, new chronological precision is provided for the decline of Aksum and the transfer of centralised political authority to more southerly regions. A new study of the ancient churches - both built and rock-hewn - which survive from this poorly-understood period emphasises once again a strong degree of continuity across periods that were previously regarded as distinct. David W. Phillipson is Emeritus Professor of African Archaeology and former Director of the University Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, Cambridge. In 2014 he was made an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences. Published in association with the British Institute in Eastern Africa. Addis Ababa University Press

Genres: History, Ethiopia, Africa, Eritrea, Eastern Africa, Ancient History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 19, 2012

Reviews

[Jessica Strider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros: summarizes a large stretch of history, lots of detail in some areas

Cons: only a few black and white photo, some illustrations reproduced from earlier works, very dense

The book consists of 18 chapters starting with an introduction followed by 3 parts: 1) Before Aksum (2 chapters), 2) The Kingdom of Aksum (13 chapters), After Aksum (1 chapter) and an epilogue. There’s also an extensive bibliography.

In the introduction the author mentions that he wrote the book to be both a scholarly work and something accessible to every day Ethiopians wishing to know more about their past. He definitely achieved the former, while I’m not Ethiopian I had trouble with several sections that were quite dense. There’s a fair bit of repetition in sections where the author refers you to another chapter where a particular issue is dealt with in greater detail.

There are only a handful of photos, all of which are black and white. The author also used illustrations of floor plan/layouts, etc. from older books.

I was disappointed that the Zagwe dynasty only rated one chapter but the book did make me want to read what happens after 1300 when the Solomonic dynasty took over.

While I came away knowing more about the Aksumites, the writing is so dense that I can’t really recommend this book for casual readers interested in Ethiopian history.

[Old Man JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in a dry academic style the book is at times exceedingly dull but otherwise fairly informative. I enjoy, on occasion, reading about ancient societies and, other than Egypt, hadn't read anything about ancient African societies. This book is primarily about Aksum a society that attained a fairly advanced level between the third and sixth centuries. The book, also, briefly discusses the region before and after Aksum. The book covers a broad range of subjects and is fairly comprehensive although many of the discussions are pretty brief.

[Hugh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a high tolerance for dry detailed writing and dull academic prose but this defeated me.
For what is trying to be an introductory survey of the topic Phillipson, when not engaging in endless throat clearing about the mistakes of prior historiography (which is fine if you have anything of interest to say yourself in response), combines being far too cursory with import topics with listing excruciating minutiae of archeological sites (which would I'm sure be of interest if they could be tied into some overall argument instead of detailing only what we cannot infer from them).

I think this would only work as reading material accompanying a lecture course for a cohort of undergraduates to whom you wanted to be particularly cruel.

[Yoni T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice book for a quick survey, but the scholarship is quite outdated.