The modern city of Aksum is located in the northeastern portion of what is now Ethiopia, on the horn of Africa. It lies high on a plateau 7200 ft above sea level, and in its heyday, its region of influence included both sides of the Red Sea. An early test shows that trade on the Red Sea coast was active as early as the 1st century BC. During the first century AD, Aksum began a rapid rise to prominence, trading its agricultural resources and its gold and ivory through the port of Adulis into the Red Sea trade network and thence to the Roman Empire.
Archaeological excavations at Aksum were first undertaken by Litman in 1906, and concentrated on the monuments and the elite cemeteries. Later, Dr. Neville Chittick, leader of the 1974 British Institute in Eastern Africa's expedition to Aksum explored the tombs beneath the city. After making it down the stairs and through brick to the tombs, he found that they were horseshoe shaped. We know little of early Aksum, hence the great importance of Dr. Chittick’s excavations.
Dictionaries and atlases of the ancient world barely mentioned Aksum. The only thing said about it was that the kings of Aksum ruled Ethiopia. On the coast, Adulis had churches and palaces built of local basalt which became Aksum’s chief port. Treasures were shipped from here to Egypt, Rome, India, and Sri Lanka.
One reason we know what we do about Aksum is the importance placed on written documents by its rulers, particularly Ezana or Aezianas. Ezana spread his realm north and east conquering the Nile Valley and becoming ruler over part of both Asia and Africa early in the 4th century AD. He constructed much of the monumental architecture of Aksum, including 100 stone obelisks, the tallest of which stood 98 ft tall, looming over the cemetery, this obelisk weighed 517 tons. Aksum flourished until the 6th century AD, maintaining its trade connections and a high literacy rate, minting its own coins, and building monumental architecture. With the rise of the Persian Empire in the 6th century AD, the Arabic world redrew the map of Asia and excluded the realm of Aksum from its trade network. After this, Aksum fell in importance.
Sources
Munro-Hay, Stuart. "the Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum," www.biw.co.uk/aksum/index.htm. 20 March, 99.
Munro-Hay, Stuart. "History," www.biw.co.uk/aksum/aksum01.htm. 23 March, 99.
Candice Solheid