Aksum (Axun)
A powerful kingdom from the first through the seventh century C.E., the little known kingdom of Aksum remains an enigma to modern historians. A large trading Kingdom based in Ethiopia, Aksum was able to rival the size and intricacy of culture of Ancient Egypt, while maintaining individuality from any known civilization of the ancient world. While Egypt and Meroë funded civilization with agriculture gifted to them by the predictable and slow-moving waters of the Nile, Aksum built commerce by becoming a large trade kingdom, with trade routes spreading from across the Red Sea to Byzantium, down the Nile into Egyptian Africa. They imported many luxury goods, from ivory and gold, to spices and incense, all in exchange for salt, cattle, and iron. Such wealth was accumulated that Aksum minted a currency of it’s own, unlike any other African kingdom outside of Egypt or Meroë. The currency had both the Aksum Ge’ez script on it and Greek, which leaves us a written history of the kingdom in addition to the currency giving us a lineage of the kings of Aksum for about 300 years. Aksum was lead by a “king of kings”, and had some petty kings mentioned in the written history as well, suggesting that the Aksumites, as the Roman’s before them, conquered the surrounding areas and left the local administration to pay tribute rather than attempting to directly control all the areas under their rule. The tremendous stelae that still stands today is a testament to the skilled stonework of the people of Aksum, and also give insight into their architecture and religious leanings prior to their conversion to Christianity.
Legend has it, the city of Aksum was home to the Queen of Sheba, and her son by Solomon was to become the first king of the Solomonic dynasty in Aksum.
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