UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI “L’ORIENTALE”

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NAPOLI 2010

In copertina: Dormitio Mariae (part.), telero, anni Trenta del XX sec., chiesa di Ǝnda Abunä Täklä Haymanot, parete sud del mäqdäs, Wägäriqo, Eritrea. Foto: G. Lusini.

UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI “L’ORIENTALE”

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Current Trends in Eritrean Studies

edited by

Gianfrancesco Lusini

NAPOLI 2010

UNI VE R S IT À DE GL I ST UDI DI NAP OL I “ L ’OR IE NT AL E ”

A N N A L I

Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo

Sezione orientale AION (or)

Direttore: Gianfrancesco Lusini

Vice Direttore: Natalia L. Tornesello

Comitato di Redazione: Silvana De Maio, Anna Filigenzi, Roberta Giunta, Giancarlo Lacerenza, Gianfrancesco Lusini, Natalia L. Tornesello, Patrizia Zotti (segretaria di redazione).

Consiglio Scientifico: Marilina Betrò (Università di Pisa), Salem Chaker (Aix-Marseille Université – INALCO, Paris), Riccardo Contini (Università degli studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”), Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit (Freie Universität Berlin), Birgit Kellner (Universität Heidelberg), Rudolf Leger (Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main), Ulrich Pagel (SOAS, London), Robert Rollinger (Universität Innsbruck), Adriano Rossi (Università degli studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”), Maurizio Tosi (Università di Bologna), Roberto Tottoli (Università degli studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”), Wang Xiaoming (Shanghai University – East China Normal University, Shanghai).

Prezzo del presente volume: UE € 90,00; altri Paesi € 110,00 Abbonamento annuale: UE € 90,00; altri Paesi € 110,00

Per informazioni su ordini e abbonamenti:

DIPARTIMENTO ASIA, AFRICA E MEDITERRANEO Redazione AION (or)

Palazzo Corigliano, Piazza S. Domenico Maggiore 12 – 80134 Napoli (Italy) Tel. (+39) 081 6909774/775 – Fax (+39) 081 5517852 annas@unior.it; sito web: daam.pubblicazioni.unior.it

ISSN 0393-3180

© Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”

Autorizzazione del Tribunale di Napoli B. 434/63 del 16-1-1964

SUMMARY

PAG.

Foreword 1

PAOLO MARRASSINI, Ancient Semitic Gods on the Eritrean Shores 5

RODOLFO FATTOVICH, Eritrea in the 2nd and 1st Millennium BC: an Archaeological Overview

17

ANDREA MANZO, Adulis before Aksum? Possible 2nd and 1st Millennium BC Evidence from the Site of the Ancient Port

29

GIANFRANCESCO LUSINI, The Monastery of Ǝnda Abunä Täklä Haymanot in Wägäriqo. I. A Historical Sketch

43

LORENZA MAZZEI, The Monastery of Ǝnda Abunä Täklä Haymanot in Wägäriqo. II. Aesthetic Analysis of a Hand Cross

51

SILVANA PALMA, Colonial Lessons: the School of Arts and Crafts in Segeneiti, Eritrea (1914-1921)

61

KLAUS WEDEKIND, More on the Ostracon of Browne’s Textus Blemmyicus 73

GIORGIO BANTI, MORENO VERGARI, The Saho of Eritrea and the Documentation of their Language and Cultural Heritage

83

MARIE-CLAUDE SIMEONE-SENELLE, Relative Clauses in Dahalik (Afro-Semitic) 109

SALEH MAHMUD IDRIS, Outline of Analysis of the Kinship Terms of the Tigre Language

125

MASSIMO VILLA, The Broken Plural in Arabic and South Semitic (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen). History of the Research and Some Unsolved Questions

135

Reviews

Peter R. Schmidt, Matthew C. Curtis, Zelalem Teka (eds), The Archaeology of Ancient Eritrea (Gianfrancesco Lusini)

193

E.J. Bickerman, Studies in Jewish and Christian history. A New Edition in English Including The God of the Maccabees (Riccardo Contini)

196

Á. Sáenz-Badillos, Storia della lingua ebraica (Giancarlo Lacerenza) 201

S. Pernigotti, L’Egitto di Ramesse II fra guerra e pace (Massimiliano Nuzzolo) 202

Ẓahīr al-Dīn Nīshāpūrī, The Saljūqnāma (Michele Bernardini) 205

Francis Richard, Maria Szuppe éds., Écrit et culture en Asie centrale et dans le monde turco-iranien, Xe-XIXe siècles/Writing and Culture in Central Asia and the Turko-Iranian World, 10th-19th centuries (Michele Bernardini)

206 M. Bais, A. Sirinian (a c.), Atti del seminario internazionale «I Mongoli in Armenia:

storia e immaginario» (Michele Bernardini)

210

Books received

215

AION, 70/1-4 (2010), 29-42

ANDREA MANZO

Adulis before Aksum? Possible 2nd and 1st Millennium BC Evidence from the Site of the Ancient Port

Introduction

The site of Adulis, on the Eritrean coast south of Massawa (pl. I), was in-vestigated at the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century, in the Seventies and more recently in the late Nineties.1 In the last couple of years a complete re-assessment of the materials collected in earlier investigations was con-ducted (Munro-Hay 1989; Zazzaro 2006, 2009; Zazzaro, Manzo 2012: 234), and new investigations were undertaken at the site (Zazzaro, Manzo 2012: 234-36). Despite the fact that the original assemblages of the materials col-lected in earlier investigations can rarely be identified, and that they are usu-ally mixed and disturbed mainly because of the old-fashioned technique of excavation, some insights into their chronology are given by the discovery of similar materials in reliable assemblages from other sites in the surrounding regions. In this paper I focus on some of these materials which can add fresh evidence to the debate on the origins of the site and its earliest phases, posing some questions to be answered in future investigations.

Possible 2nd-early 1st Millennium BC Evidence

The ceramics collected by Paribeni in the deepest test pit he excavated at Adulis were handmade and characterized by gray to black burnished surfaces and decorations consisting of ‘graffiti’ (Paribeni 1907: col. 448-50, 547-48, Tav. III-VI). These sherds, whose fabric and decoration could not be fully un-derstood on the basis of the report and figures published by Paribeni, are cur-

———— 1 For an overview of the investigations at the site of Adulis see Manzo (1993: 116-21; 2010: 18,

n. 11), and more recently Samuel Yemane, Tsegai Medin (2008).

30 A. Manzo

rently kept in the National Museum of Eritrea, Asmara.2 They are often deco-rated with impressed wavy lines forming decorative patterns along the rim and on the body of the vessels, most likely obtained by impressing the edge of shells in the wet paste before firing (fig. 1a).

The dating of the phase characterized by this black pottery is uncertain. A not very ancient date was suggested by Paribeni on the basis of the discovery of a fragment of glass associated with the black sherds and of the discovery of bronze (or copper ?) slags at the base of the stratigraphic pit where the black-gray sherds were collected (Paribeni 1907: col. 450, 558-59).

Nevertheless, some chronological insights can come from comparison be-tween the materials from Adulis and from other sites in coastal regions of the Red Sea. Gray to black ceramics decorated with wavy impressions likely to have been obtained with the edge of shells characterize the site of Asa Koma, close to Lake Abbé, at Djibuti (fig. 1b) (Gutherz et al. 1996: 273-79, figs. 8-9; Joussaume 1995: 33, fig. 12). The chronology of these finds from Djibouti is based on two radiocarbon dates (Gif 7404: 3440+90 BP and Gif 8183: 3510+70 BP; Joussaume 1995: 32; Gutherz et al. 1996: 276), which when re-calibrated with the most recent calibration curve3 seem to confirm that the site goes back to the early 2nd millennium BC (fig. 2). That the shell impressed gray-black ware from the African coast of the southern Red Sea may go back to the early 2nd millennium BC is also confirmed by the discovery of such a sherd at Mersa-Wadi Gawasis, on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, at the site of the Middle Kingdom harbour for the land of Punt, in a Middle-Late 12th Dy-nasty assemblage (ca. 1800-1770 BC) (fig. 1c; Manzo 2012: 50, 54, fig. 6:3, d). Gray burnished vessels with banded decoration obtained by impressing the wavy edge of shells on the clay before firing were collected at Sabir, an ar-chaeological site close to Aden, in the Yemeni Tihama, where they are con-sidered as African imports, in assemblages dating from the very beginning of the 1st millennium BC (Buffa, Vogt 2001: 445, figs. 4, 13, 15; Vogt, Sedov 1997: 49).

———— 2 In 2005 I had the chance to look at the collections from the excavations conducted by Roberto

Paribeni during a short visit to Asmara with my colleague Chiara Zazzaro. I thank Dr. Yosief Libsekal, Director of the Museum for giving us this opportunity. The drawings of these finds were made by myself and inked by Chiara Zazzaro, who also could take a complete photo-graphic record of the collection in 2011. A list of the finds from Adulis in the National Mu-seum is available in the PhD dissertation of Chiara Zazzaro, defended in 2005 at the Univer-sity of Naples “L’Orientale”, which also included a list of the objects from Adulis kept in the collections of the former Istituto Italo-Africano and Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente. For preliminary publications of these materials see again Zazzaro (2006, 2009). For similar sherds collected in the 2011 field season at Adulis by the joint Expedition of the CeRDO and National Museum of Eritrea see also Zazzaro, Manzo (2012: 237, fig. 6).

3 IntCal09, see Reimer et al. (2009), the graphs were obtained with OxCal 3.10.

Adulis before Aksum? 31

Fig. 1 – Fragments of black/gray ware vessels decorated with shell impressions from Adulis (a, courtesy of the National Museum of Eritrea), Asa Koma, Djibouti (b, after Gutherz et al. 1996), and Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Egypt (c, courtesy of the UNO-BU Joint Archaeological Expedition), 2nd-1st millennium BC.

Fig. 2 – Results of the calibration of radiocarbon dates from Asa Koma, Djibouti, with software OxCal 3.10, calibration curve IntCal09 (see Reimer et al. 2009).

Therefore, a ceramic horizon characterized by gray-black wares and deco-rations obtained by impressing the edge of the shell on the wet clay occurring at Djibouti and on the Eritrean coast is emerging from these admittedly scanty finds. This horizon may date from the early 2nd to the early 1st millennium BC.

32 A. Manzo

The slight differences – mainly thinner walls and more accurate surface treat-ment – shown by the Adulis finds in the collections of the National Museum in Asmara when compared with the sherds from Asa Koma may be related to the geographic distance between the two sites and/or to a possible chronologi-cal difference. The fact that some of the shell-impressed gray to black ware sherds from Adulis may also date to the 1st millennium BC is suggested by their carination (fig. 3a), reminding of types from the earliest phase at Matara (fig. 3b) (Fattovich 1980: 37, Tav. XXXV, 5). Of course these chronological problems will be clarified by the ongoing and future investigations.

Interestingly, the recent investigations at Adulis recovered other ceramic types which may go back to the 2nd - 1st millennium BC apparently in assem-blages to be ascribed to the earliest phases of occupation so far brought to light but unfortunately not yet dated: these are fragments of bag shaped jars or bottles with a flat or rounded rim and a slender shoulder (fig. 4a) (Zazzaro, Manzo 2012: 237, fig. 8). Fragments of similar vessels were again discovered at Mersa-Wadi Gawasis, in generic Middle Kingdom or late 12th-early 13th Dynasty (ca. 1800-1700 BC) assemblages (fig. 4b) (Manzo 2012: 51-52, 54), while a single sherd of this type was collected at Malcayba in the Yemeni Ti-hama in an assemblage of phase 1B, dating from ca. 1850-1600 BC (Buffa 2007: 64, 140, Pl. 40, 251). As has been pointed out (Manzo 2012: 51-52), jars with a similar shape occur in the 1st millennium BC Ona assemblages of Hamasien. This may suggest the existence of an earlier not yet identified phase of the Ona culture, or, alternatively, that the production of these jars started in the 2nd millennium on the coast or somewhere else in ancient Eritrea and continued up to the early 1st millennium BC in Hamasien. A further matter to be investigated.

Finally, in general, the widespread occurrence of decorations consisting of patterns of burnished lines in the earliest Adulis ceramics (Zazzaro, Manzo 2012: 237) also parallels the brown/gray surfaces decorated with burnished lines forming linear patterns typical of the 2nd-early 1st millennium BC Yem-eni Tihama (Buffa, Vogt 2001: 443-44; Vogt, Sedov 1997: 46).

Adulis before Aksum? 33

Fig. 3 – Fragments of black/gray ware cups with carination from Adulis (a, courtesy of the National Museum of Eritrea) and Matara (b, after Fattovich 1980), early 1st millennium BC.

Fig. 4 – Fragments of brown burnished ware bag shaped jars or bottles with a flat rim and a slender shoulder from Adulis (a, courtesy of the CeRDO–National Museum of Eri-trea archaeological research project, 2011 field season) and Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Egypt (b, courtesy of the UNO-BU Joint Archaeological Expedition), 2nd-1st mil-lennium BC.

34 A. Manzo

Early to Mid-1st Millennium BC

A first, very preliminary insight into the history of Adulis in the 1st mil-lennium BC may be given by two fragments of carved alabaster slabs discov-ered by Paribeni at an unfortunately unspecified location during his investiga-tions of the site, and currently kept in the National Museum of Eritrea, Asmara (fig. 5a-b). A first remark is related to the kind of stone these objects were made from: alabaster, widely used in South Arabia, is very rare and likely to have been imported from the western side of the Red Sea, although not un-known on the site of Adulis itself (Munro-Hay 1989: 49, nr. 1868, 10-5, 15; Paribeni 1907: coll. 456, 469, 487, 491-92, 495, 505-06, 537, 539-40, 542, 557-58, figs. 22, 30-31).

The first of the two fragments is characterized by parallel grooves form-ing a grill window pattern, a quite common decoration in South Arabia, often in conjunction with other patterns related to the imitation of architectural structures (Ahmed Fakhry 1951: 51, fig. 19 A, 124, fig. 71, Pl. XX A, XXVI, XXXVII B; Breton 1997: 105; Calvet, Robin 1997: 127-28, nr. 52, 134-35, nr. 64, 139-41, nr. 68; Caton Thompson 1944: Pl. XXI, 2; Cleveland 1965: Pl. 92, TC2012, Pl. 94, TC 1190, Pl. 95, TC642, TC 1295; Grohmann 1963: Abb. 76-77, Abb. 80, Abb. 90-91, Abb. 94, Taf. IX, 2; Groom 1997: 72; Müller 1997: 127; Rathjens 1953: figs. 107-109; Roux 1997: 208; van Beek 1969: 267, Pl. 43 a, 268, Pl. 45; Vogt 1997a: 108; 1997b: 141, 143). Of course, these decorative patterns also occur in pre-Aksumite Ethiopia and Eritrea (Krencker 1913: Abb. 177, 180, 181,190; Grohmann 1963: Abb. 68).

The second fragment is characterized by rectangular bands of a recessed pattern forming an angle with a horizontal rectangular band to the left and a second angle on the right, close to the upper edge of the fragment, with a rec-tangular carved area having a small triangular element inside. Parallel to this rectangular area, there is a beautifully carved element whose end is fitting on the carving of the recessed pattern.

The second fragmentary slab can be safely identified with an element from a throne and its decoration reproduces the leg of a wooden chair, as in many examples from South Arabia (fig. 5c) (Pirenne 1965; van Beek 1959). Some similar fragments pertaining to a stone throne erected on a decorated platform were collected at Marib.4 Other fragments whose decoration closely recalls the fragment from Adulis are in the Sana Museum; they can be as-cribed to a throne, but its original location unfortunately remains unspecified (Grohmann 1963: Abb. 111). In particular, the rectangular recessed pattern characterizing the second fragment from Adulis may be a part of the usual imitations of the façade of monumental buildings which are widespread in ———— 4 For the different fragments see Ahmed Fakhry (1951: 127-28, figs. 80-81, 129, figs. 83-84, Pl.

L, A-B), Grohmann (1963: Abb. 110), Vogt (1997: 109); for a proposed reconstruction of the original monument see Pirenne (1965).

Adulis before Aksum? 35

South Arabian art and characterize the decoration of all the South Arabian thrones recorded above. As been pointed out, also the first fragment of slab with parallel grooves can be related to carvings imitating architectural ele-ments. In fact the two fragments from Adulis may come from the same object, although of course this cannot be proved.

Very different dates were suggested for some of the elements pertaining to thrones discovered in South Arabia, also because the debate on South Ara-bian chronology was still ongoing at the time of the identification of these fragments: the fragments of stone throne from Marib were dated to the 1st cen-tury AD (van Beek 1959: 272; Pirenne 1965: 334) and, more recently, to the 5th century BC (Vogt 1997a: 109), while the 1st century BC-1st century AD was originally suggested for other fragments from Huqqa and Timna (van Beek 1959: 272; Pirenne 1965: 334). Two complete and one fragmentary stone throne from the village of al-Maslub, in the region of the Wadi al-Jauf firmly demonstrated that this type of monument originated in South Arabia well before the mid-1st millennium BC, and they may date back to the 8th-6th century BC (Garbini, Francaviglia 1997: 241, 249-51). The stone thrones from al-Maslub are stylistically very different from the fragments from Adulis and the other South Arabian thrones, as the imitation of architectural elements is here limited to the ornamentation of the upper part of the back of the throne, whose vertical edges are bordered by standing figures of ibexes (ibid.: 241-46). Nevertheless, the dating of the thrones from al-Maslub to the earliest phase of the South Arabian civilization makes possible a date in the mid-1st millennium BC for the Marib and related fragments, which seems compatible with their general stylistic features (Vogt 1997a: 109). A similar date may be suggested for the iconographically and stylistically similar second fragment from Adulis.

Of course, the parts of a throne which the two fragments discovered at Adulis may come from could have been used as ballast in ship(s) even several centuries after their production and may thus have been brought from the east-ern coast of the Red Sea. Nevertheless, the rarity of 1st millennium BC South Arabian settlements in the Yemeni Tihama (Beeston 1995: 241-42; Phillips 1997: 287, 292-93) makes this unlikely.

If the throne did originally stand at Adulis, which remains hypothetical, this may constitute further evidence of South Arabian monumental buildings at Adulis to add to the fragment of pillar with a recessed niche and eight-sided section, very different from the square cross-section pillars common at the site (Paribeni 1907: col. 541) recorded by Théophile Lefebvre (Manzo 2002: 48-50, fig. 2; Krencker 1913: 86, Abb. 191). To date no other monuments of South Arabia type have been recorded on the Eritrean coast: if this is confirmed by future investigations, the rarity of sites with similar remains on the African coast may parallel the already mentioned well-known situation on the Arabian side of the Red Sea (Beeston 1997; Phillips 1997).

36 A. Manzo

Apparently at Adulis as on the Ethio-Eritrean highlands in pre-Aksumite times, the South Arabian style of the architectural decorations related to monumental structures and the South Arabian type of some monumental buildings is not paralleled in other humbler classes of material culture, like e.g. pottery. So far, the pottery types which may go back to the first part of the 1st millennium BC discovered at Adulis are apparently typically local, perhaps related to the above described coastal tradition, with some elements related to the traditions of the highlands. This is shown mainly by the occurrence at Adulis of black-topped pottery, a type widespread in the 1st millennium BC Ethio-Eritrean ceramic traditions of Akele Guzai, Agame, and Tigrai (Fat-tovich 1980: 28-29; Zazzaro, Manzo 2012: 238-39), and by the discovery of few fragments of very open bowls or dishes with incised decoration on the internal surface, a type characterizing mainly pre-Aksumite assemblages in Agame but not unknown in Tigrai (fig. 6a-b) (D’Andrea et al. 2008: 165, fig. 7 B). Also in the case of these pottery types it is hoped that future investigations will give undisturbed contexts going back to the first part of the 1st millennium BC and, therefore, will allow a full description of the ceramic assemblage.

Fig. 5 – Fragments of carved alabaster slabs possibly parts of a stone throne from Adulis (a, b, courtesy of the National Museum of Eritrea) and schematic drawing of an element of a stone throne from Marib, Yemen (c, after Ahmed Fakhry 1951), the gray circles show the parts corresponding to the fragments from Adulis, mid-1st millennium BC.

Adulis before Aksum? 37

Fig. 6 – Fragments of very open brown ware bowls or dishes with wavy incised decoration

on the internal surface and notches on the lip from Adulis (a, courtesy of the CeRDO-National Museum of Eritrea archaeological research project, 2011 field season) and Mezber, in Eastern Tigrai, Ethiopia (b, courtesy of the Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada), early to mid-1st millennium BC.

Late 1st Millennium BC

Some brown ware thin walled fragments of slender flasks were identified in the Paribeni collection in the National Museum of Eritrea in Asmara (fig. 7a). These small slender flasks with long cylindrical neck and knobbed base, a type possibly originating in the western Mediterranean in the 4th century BC and widely occurring in Egypt and Palestine in the 2nd-1st century BC (fig. 7b; see Dayagi-Mendels 1989: 133; Wodzińska 2010: 31, type Ptolemaic 5), are the only ceramic class so far collected at Adulis which may be ascribed to Hellenistic times, thus confirming an occupation of the site at the end of the 1st millennium BC, and at the same time contacts with Hellenistic Mediterranean for this phase. They may correspond to the ‘lacrimatoi’ mentioned in the re-port by Paribeni (1907: col. 523). Most likely, these objects were unguentaria, i.e. containers intended to contain perfumed oils (Dayagi-Mendels 1989: 133) widely occurring before the use of glass blown perfume flasks became wide-spread in Roman times (ibid.: 105-6).

38 A. Manzo

Fig. 7 – Fragment of slender flasks (unguentaria) from Adulis (a, courtesy of the National Museum of Eritrea) and from Karnak, Egypt (b, after Wodzińska 2010: vol. IV), late 1st millennium BC.

Final Remarks

If related to the general sequence of the site originally proposed by Paribeni (1907: coll. 565-72), recently reviewed (Fauvelle-Aymar (2009: 147-49), and consisting of four phases (pre-Ptolemaic, pagan Greek-Roman, Chris-tian and late Christian), and to the one proposed by Anfray (1974: 753 – pre-Aksumite, pagan, and Christian Aksumite), the above described finds add fresh elements for chronological and cultural remarks and suggest a greater complexity for the history of the site.

The region of Adulis may have been part of a widespread ceramic hori-zon of the Eritrean and Djibuti coast characterized by gray/black ware ceram-ics decorated with the impressions of seashells, dating from the early 2nd mil-lennium BC. This ceramic horizon may have been the expression of a local coastal adaptation, perhaps rooted in early Holocene local cultures, to whom some recently studied coastal sites can be firmly ascribed (Amanuel Beyin, Shea 2007: 12-13.). In any case, as shown by the discovery of some sherds of this distinctive pottery in sites of the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea and in the Yemeni Tihama, the African coast of the southern Red Sea was from very ancient times already deeply involved in the regional exchange network, at that time polarized by Egyptian trade with Punt (see in general Manzo 2012).

Adulis before Aksum? 39

As previously stressed, this local ceramic tradition may have continued well into the 1st millennium BC.

For the early to mid-1st millennium BC phase, the occurrence of both fragments of South Arabian style monuments and of ceramic types related to the contemporary cultures of the Ethio-Eritrean highlands had gone unnoticed to date (see e.g. Anfray 1974: 753). Of course, these objects also show the involvement of the region of Adulis in the intense relationships linking the Ethio-Eritrean highlands and South Arabia at that time. This could have been also suggested by the occurrence of cursive South Arabian inscriptions on the edge of the Kohaito plateau, where the Haddas river, reaching the Gulf of Zula and touching Adulis, originates (Ricci 2000; 2002: 63-77). Unexpectedly, the date suggested for the South Arabian style alabaster slabs from Adulis may be slightly later than the one suggested for several of the South Arabian style monuments recorded inland and especially in Yeha (Manzo 2010: 292). Of course, this needs to be confirmed by future explorations and, if confirmed, this issue will need to be properly investigated. In any case we may wonder if this apparent inconsistency could be related to the already suggested (see e.g. Cerulli 1960: 9-11) use of alternative routes to get to different regions of the highlands in different historical phases.

If the hypothesis that a throne of South Arabian type was erected in Adulis proves correct, this would be the earliest known example on the west-ern side of the Red Sea of a monumental type which was widely distributed in the Eritrean-Ethiopian highlands in the early 1st millennium AD (Manzo 1995: 161-62). Of course, it is highly unlikely that these are fragments of the famous throne described in the early 6th century AD by Cosmas Indicopleustes in his Christian Topography (II, 54; Wolska-Conus 1968: 364-67), and reputed to be of a later although debated date (see Fauvelle-Aymar 2009: 143-47). Never-theless, this earlier throne may have been an antecedent for the later one, per-haps also in the programmatic perspective of reusing earlier symbols to le-gitimize a new political program by an unfortunately anonymous king. For the same reasons he may also have deliberately stressed his links with the Ptole-maic hegemony in the Red Sea by erecting his inscribed throne near an in-scription of Ptolemy III (see below). Anyway, these fragments of throne from Adulis may also confirm that this kind of monument was adopted on the west-ern side of the Red Sea well before Aksumite times (Manzo 1995: 170, 172).

Finally, as far as the late 1st millennium BC is concerned, the fragments of Hellenistic unguentaria are the only available evidence with the inscription by Ptolemy III Evergetes recorded by Cosmas (II, 58-59; Wolska-Conus 1968: 370-73) for the existence of a settlement at the site in this phase (contra An-fray 1974: 753; Kirwan 1972: 171-72). Nevertheless, it should be said that the original location of the inscription is questionable (see Kirwan 1972: 172). Like the alabaster fragments of South Arabian type, the inscription may have arrived here as ship ballast, or it may have been brought from somewhere else

40 A. Manzo

and re-erected near the inscribed throne of an unspecified local Aksumite or Adulite5 king recorded by Cosmas Indicopleustes (II, 60-63; Wolska-Conus 1968: 372-79; Fauvelle-Aymar 2009: 139). This may have been done in order to establish a link with the Ptolemaic dynasty and, therefore, to legitimise a fledgling, real or pretended, hegemony on the Red Sea (Fauvelle-Aymar 2009: 140-41; Manzo 1999: 361). On the contrary, it is highly unlikely that the ce-ramic unguentaria found by Paribeni were in use and moved long time after the period of their occurrence in the Mediterranean context. Although cer-tainly less impressive than the tantalizing inscription, these sherds may consti-tute evidence for the existence of a settlement at Adulis at the end of the 1st millennium BC as well as for contacts with Hellenistic Mediterranean that is even more reliable than the famous inscription. Moreover, also in this case the type of object is remarkable in itself: the use of perfumed oils imported from the Mediterranean not only suggests that Adulis continued to be fully involved in a broad network of relationships perhaps originating in the 2nd and 1st mil-lennium BC (see above), but also testifies to an elaborate way of life at the site, perhaps prefiguring king Zoskales, who ruled over Adulis in the 1st century AD and described in the Peryplus of the Erythrean Sea as «a fine person and well versed in reading and writing Greek» (§ 5; Casson 1989: 52).

Andrea Manzo Università degli studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” amanzo@unior.it

REFERENCES

Ahmed Fakhry (1951) An Archaeological Journey to Yemen (March-May, 1947). Cairo. Amanuel Beyin, John J. Shea (2007) Reconnaissance of Prehistoric Sites on the Red Sea Coast

of Eritrea, NE Africa. Journal of Field Archaeology 32, 1-16. Anfray, Francis (1974) Deux villes Axoumites: Adoulis et Matara, in IV Congresso Internazio-

nale di Studi Etiopici. Atti, 745-65. Roma. van Beek, Gus W. (1959) A New Interpretation of the So-Called South Arabian House Model.

American Journal of Archaeology 63, 269-73. — (1969) Hajar Bin Ḥumeid. Investigations at a Pre-Islamic Site in South Arabia (Publications

of the American Foundation for the Study of Man V). Baltimore. Beeston, Alfred F.L. (1995) Sabaeans in Tihāma. Arabian archaeology and Epigraphy 6, 236-45. Breton, Jean-François (1997) Villes et villages, in Yémen. Au pays de la reine de Saba’, 103-6.

Paris. Buffa, Vittoria (2007) Ma˓layba et l’Âge du Bronze du Yémen (Archäologische Berichte aus dem

Yemen XII). Wiesbaden. Buffa, Vittoria, Burkhard Vogt (2001) Sabir – Cultural Identity between Saba and Africa, in

Ricardo Eichmann, Hermann Parzinger (hrsg.), Migration und Kulturtransfer (Kolloquien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte 6), 437-50. Bonn.

Casson, Lionel (1989) The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Princeton.

———— 5 On the debate on the author of the inscription see lastly Fauvelle-Aymar (2009: 141-47).

Adulis before Aksum? 41

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SUMMARY

In this paper some finds likely dating to the 2nd and 1st millennium BC from the site of Adulis, on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea, are discussed. These artifacts, discovered in the excava-tion conducted at the site by Roberto Paribeni in the early 20th century, are now kept in the Na-tional Museum of Eritrea, Asmara, and were so far unpublished. They throw new light on the earliest phases of the site whose importance is well known for Late Antique times and pose new questions to be answered by future investigations at the site. Keywords: Adulis, archaeology, proto-history

A. M

AN

ZO, Adulis before Aksum

PLATE I

Map showing the location of Adulis.

Stampa: Tipolito: Istituto Salesiano Pio XI – Via Umbertide, 11 – 00181 Roma – tel. 067827819 – fax 067848333 Finito di stampare: dicembre 2012

SUMMARY Foreword (1-3); PAOLO MARRASSINI, Ancient Semitic Gods on the Eritrean Shores (5-16); RODOLFO FATTOVICH, Eritrea in the 2nd and 1st Millennium BC: an Archaeological Overview (17-27); ANDREA MANZO, Adulis before Aksum? Possible 2nd and 1st Millennium BC Evidence from the Site of the Ancient Port (29-42); GIANFRANCESCO LUSINI, The Monastery of Ǝnda Abunä Täklä Haymanot in Wägäriqo. I. A Historical Sketch (43-50); LORENZA MAZZEI, The Monastery of Ǝnda Abunä Täklä Haymanot in Wägäriqo. II. Aesthetic Analysis of a Hand Cross (51-59); SILVANA PALMA, Colonial Lessons: the School of Arts and Crafts in Segeneiti, Eritrea (1914-1921) (61-72); KLAUS WEDEKIND, More on the Ostracon of Browne’s Textus Blemmyicus (73-81); GIORGIO BANTI, MORENO VERGARI, The Saho of Eritrea and the Documentation of their Language and Cultural Heritage (83-108); MARIE-CLAUDE SIMEONE-SENELLE, Relative Clauses in Dahalik (109-123); SALEH MAHMUD IDRIS, Outline of Analysis of the Kinship Terms of the Tigre Language (125-132); MASSIMO VILLA, The Broken Plural in Arabic and South Semitic (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen). History of the Research and Some Unsolved Questions (133-190). REVIEWS (191-211) Peter R. Schmidt, Matthew C. Curtis, Zelalem Teka (eds), The Archaeology of Ancient Eritrea (Gianfrancesco Lusini); E.J. Bickerman, Studies in Jewish and Christian History. A New Edition in English Including The God of the Maccabees (Riccardo Contini); Á. Sáenz-Badillos, Storia della lingua ebraica (Giancarlo Lacerenza); S. Pernigotti, L’Egitto di Ramesse II fra guerra e pace (Massimiliano Nuzzolo); Ẓahīr al-Dīn Nīshāpūrī, The Saljūqnāma (Michele Bernardini); Francis Richard, Maria Szuppe éds., Écrit et culture en Asie centrale et dans le monde turco-iranien, Xe-XIXe siècles/Writing and Culture in Central Asia and the Turko-Iranian World, 10th-19th Centuries (Michele Bernardini); M. Bais, A. Sirinian (a c.), Atti del seminario interna-zionale «I Mongoli in Armenia: storia e immaginario» (Michele Bernardini).

ISSN 0393-3180