Hostname: page-component-cc8bf7c57-fxdwj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-11T13:08:50.944Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An archaeology of conversion? Evidence from Adulis for early Christianity and religious transition in the Horn of Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2022

Gabriele Castiglia*
Affiliation:
Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana (PIAC), Rome, Italy (✉ castiglia84@gmail.com & castiglia@piac.it)

Abstract

The port-city of Adulis in modern Eritrea was a key node on the Red Sea linking the Kingdom of Aksum to the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. Recent excavations at Adulis have reinvestigated two early Christian churches. New radiocarbon analysis dates both structures to the sixth and early seventh centuries AD, with multiple phases of architectural development reflecting changing use and liturgy. The author uses evidence for both continuity and change in architectural materials, construction styles and sacred practices to assess religious transition at Adulis, and across the Aksumite Kingdom more broadly. Moving beyond an archaeology of conversion, the article reinforces recent work on cosmopolitanism in the Horn of Africa.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amidon, P.R. 2016 [1997]. Rufinus of Aquileia: history of the Church. Washington, D.C.: CAU Press.Google Scholar
Anfray, F. 1974. Deux villes axoumites: Adoulis et Matara, in Accademia Nazionale dei Linc (ed.) IV Congresso Internazionale di Studi Etiopici. Roma 10–15 aprile 1972: 745–65. Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.Google Scholar
Anfray, F. & Zazzaro, C.. 2016. Recherches archéologiques à Adoulis (Érythrè). Tolouse: Presses Universitaires du Midi.Google Scholar
Bard, K.A., Fattovich, R., Manzo, A. & Perlingieri, C.. 2014. The chronology of Aksum (Tigrai, Ethiopia): a view from Bieta Giyorgis. Azania 49: 285316. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2014.943484CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bausi, A., Harrower, M. & Dumitru, I.A.. 2020. The Gǝ̔ ǝz inscriptions from Beta Samā ̔ti (Beta Samati). Bibliotheca Orientalis 77: 3456.Google Scholar
Beaucamp, J. 2010. Le rôle de Byzance en Mer Rouge sous le règne de Justin: mythe ou réalité?, in Beaucamp, J., Briquel-Chatonnet, F. & Robin, C.J. (ed.) Juifs et chrétiens en Arabie aux Ve et VIe siècles: regards croisés sur les sources: 197218. Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Berghoff, W. 1967. Palladius. De Gentibus Indiae et Bragmanibus. Meisenheim: Anton Hain.Google Scholar
Bowersock, G.W. 2013. The throne of Adulis: Red Sea wars on the eve of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Breton, J.-F. 2015. Les bâtisseurs des deux rives de la Mer Rouge. Paris: Éditions de Boccard. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.cfee.792CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butts, A. 2021. Ethiopic, in Walters, J.E. (ed.) Eastern Christianity: a reader: 367412. Grand Rapids (MI): William B. Eerdmans.Google Scholar
Casson, L. 1989. The Periplus Maris Erythraei: text with introduction, translation and commentary. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Castiglia, G. 2019. In Adule, Aethiopum Urbs Maritima. L'impatto monumentale del Cristianesimo ad Adulis e nel Corno d'Africa in età tardo antica. Antiquité Tardive 26: 327–48. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.AT.5.116762CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castiglia, G. et al. 2020. Le campagne del Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana ad Adulis (Eritrea): scavi 2018 e 2019. Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 96: 165218.Google Scholar
Castiglia, G. et al. 2021. For an archaeology of religious identity in Adulis and the Horn of Africa: sources, architecture, and recent archaeological excavations. Journal of African Archaeology 19: 2556. https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20210006Google Scholar
Chekroun, A. & Hirsch, B.. 2020. The Muslim-Christian wars and the Oromo expansion: transformations at the end of the Middle Ages (ca. 1500–ca. 1560), in Kelly, S. (ed.) A companion to medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea: 454–76. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004419582_017CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Romanis, F. & Maiuro, M. (ed.). 2015. Across the ocean: nine essays on Indo-Mediterranean trade. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004289536CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Salvo, M. 2017. The basilicas of Ethiopia. an architectural history. London: I.B. Tauris. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350988477CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eigner, D. 2003. Architecture, in Uhlig, S. (ed.) Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: 323–24. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Fattovich, R. 2018. From community to state: the development of the Aksumite polity (northern Ethiopia and Eritrea). Journal of Archaeological Research 27: 249–85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-018-9122-xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fauvelle, F.-X. 2020. Of conversion and conversation: followers of local religions in medieval Ethiopia, in Kelly, S. (ed.) A companion to medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea: 113–41. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004419582_006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fedalto, G. 1988. Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series Episcoporum Ecclesiarum Christianarum Orientalium. Volume 2: Patriarchatus Alexandrinus, Antiochenus, Hierosolymitanus. Padova: Messaggero.Google Scholar
Gajda, I. 2009. Le royaume de Ḥimyar à l’époque monothéiste. L'histoire de l'Arabie du Sud ancienne de la fin du IVe siècle de l’ère chrétienne jusqu’à l'avènement de l'islam. Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.Google Scholar
Gaudiello, M. & Yule, P. (ed.). 2017. Mifsas Baḥri: a Late Aksumite frontier community in the mountains of southern Tigray. Survey, excavation and analysis, 2013‒16 (British Archaeological Reports International Series 2839). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407315799Google Scholar
Giostra, C. 2017. La diffusione del Cristianesimo lungo il Mar Rosso alla luce dell'archeologia: la città porto di Adulis e il regno di Aksum. Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 93: 249313.Google Scholar
González-Ruibal, A. 2009. Vernacular cosmopolitanism: an archaeological critique of universalistic reason, in Meskell, L.M. (ed.) Cosmopolitan archaeologies: 113–39. Durham (NC): Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822392422-006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
González-Ruibal, A. 2021. The cosmopolitan borderland: western Ethiopia c. AD 600–1800. Antiquity 95: 530–48. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2021.23CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greatrex, G. 1998. Rome and Persia at war, 502–532 (ARCA Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs 37). Leeds: Francis Cairns.Google Scholar
Hable Selassie, S. et al. 1972. Ancient and medieval Ethiopian history to 1270. Addis Ababa: United Printers.Google Scholar
Harrower, M. et al. 2019. Beta Samati: discovery and excavation of an Aksumite town. Antiquity 93: 1534–52. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogg, A.G. et al. 2020. SHCal20 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–55 000 Years cal BP. Radiocarbon 62: 759–78. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2020.59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horton, M. 1991. Primitive Islam and architecture in East Africa. Muqarnas 8: 103–16. https://doi.org/10.2307/1523158CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Insoll, T. 2003. The archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Insoll, T. 2021. The archaeology of complexity and cosmopolitanism in medieval Ethiopia: an introduction. Antiquity 95: 450–66. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.168CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, S. 1982. Ezana's conversion reconsidered. Journal of Religion in Africa 13: 101109. https://doi.org/10.1163/157006682X00087CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kominko, M. 2013. The world of Kosmas: illustrated Byzantine codices of the Christian topography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Loiseau, J. et al. 2021. Bilet and the wider world: new insights into the archaeology of Islam in Tigray. Antiquity 95: 508–29. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.163CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meskell, L.M. 2009. Cosmopolitan archaeologies. Durham (NC): Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulholland, B. 2014. The Early Byzantine Christian church: an archaeological re-assessment of forty-seven Early Byzantine basilical church excavations primarily in Israel and Jordan, and their historical and liturgical context. Oxford: Peter Lang.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munro-Hay, S. 1988. The dating of Ezana and Frumentius. Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 32: 111–27.Google Scholar
Munro-Hay, S. 1989. The British Museum excavation at Adulis, 1868. Antiquaries Journal 69: 4352. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500043407CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munro-Hay, S. 1990. The rise and fall of Aksum: chronological considerations. Journal of Ethiopian Studies 23: 4753.Google Scholar
Munro-Hay, S. 1991. Aksum: an African civilization of late antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Munro-Hay, S. 1997. Ethiopia and Alexandria: the metropolitan episcopacy of Ethiopia. Warsaw: Zaś Pan.Google Scholar
Obłuski, A. 2016. Nobadian and Makurian church architecture: Qasr el-Wizz, a case study, in Łajtar, A., Obłuski, A. & Zych, I. (ed.) Aegyptus et Nubia Christiana: the Włodzimierz Godlewski jubilee volume on the occasion of his 70th birthday: 481512. Warsaw: University of Warsaw.Google Scholar
Papaconstantinou, A. (ed.). 2015. Conversion in late antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and beyond. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315574202Google Scholar
Paribeni, R. 1907. Ricerche sul luogo dell'antica Adulis (Colonia Eritrea). Monumenti Antichi 18: 437572.Google Scholar
Peacock, D. & Blue, L.. 2007. The ancient Red Sea port of Adulis, Eritrea: results of the Etritro-British expedition 2004. Oxford: Oxbow. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dpstGoogle Scholar
Phillipson, D.W. 1998. Ancient Ethiopia. Aksum: its antecedents and successors. London: British Museum.Google Scholar
Phillipson, D.W. 2009. Ancient churches of Ethiopia: fourth–fourteenth century. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Phillipson, D.W. 2012. Foundations of an African civilisation: Aksum & the northern Horn 1000 BC–AD 1300. Croydon: Boydell & Brewer.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J. et al. 2020. The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere radiocarbon age calibration curve (0–55 cal kBP). Radiocarbon 62: 725–57. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2020.41CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robin, C.J. 2015. Himyar, Aksum, and Arabia Deserta in late antiquity: the epigraphic evidence, in Fisher, G. (ed.) Arabs and empires before Islam: 127–71. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.003.0004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seland, E.H. 2014. Early Christianity in East Africa and Red Sea/Indian Ocean commerce. African Archaeological Review 31: 637–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-014-9172-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, J. 2013. Archaeology of religious change: introduction. World Archaeology 45: 111. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2013.783968CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundström, R. 1907. Archaeological work at the ruins of Adulis and Gabaza, in E. Littmann (ed.) Preliminary report of the Princeton University expedition to Abyssinia. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 20: 151–82. https://doi.org/10.1515/zava.1907.20.1.151CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taft, R.F. 1995. Church and liturgy in Byzantium: the formation of the Byzantine church, in Akentiev, C.C. (ed.) Liturgy, architecture, and art in Byzantine world. Papers of the XVIII International Byzantine Congress (Moscow, 8–15 August 1991) and other essays dedicated to the memory of Fr. John Meyendorff: 1329. Saint Petersburg: Society for Byzantine and Slavic Studies.Google Scholar
Tchalenko, G. 1990. Églises syriennes à Bêma. Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner.Google Scholar
Tomber, R. 2008. Indo-Roman trade: from pots to pepper. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Wolska-Conus, W. 1968–1973. Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topographie chrétienne. Introduction, texte critique, illustration, traduction et notes. Paris: Les éditions du cerf.Google Scholar
Yule, P.A. 2013. A late antique Christian king from Ẓafār, southern Arabia. Antiquity 87: 1124–35. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00049905CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zazzaro, C. 2013. The ancient Red Sea port of Adulis and the Eritrean coastal region: previous investigations and museum collections (British Archaeological Reports International Series 2569). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Zazzaro, C., Cocca, E. & Manzo, A.. 2014. Towards a chronology of the Eritrean Red Sea port of Adulis (1st–early 7th century AD). Journal of African Archaeology 12: 4373. https://doi.org/10.3213/2191-5784-10253CrossRefGoogle Scholar