Aksoum or Axoum (አክሱም, Aksum ) is a town of Ethiopia, in the septentrional province of the Tigré. It counts 14 000 inhabitants. It is the religious capital of the orthodoxe Ethiopian Église. The archaeological site of Axoum was registered on the Liste of the world heritage in 1980.
An ancient kingdom
Aksoum was the capital of the kingdom of the same name. Founded at the 1st century like simple Principality, this one knows a rapid growth and extends to the plate from the Tigré and the valley from the the Nile, annexing the small close kingdoms. It reaches its apogee at the 5th century, it is then a commercial great power , and the first African State to beat Monnaie. It launches even forwardings on other side of the Red Sea, as in 571 against Mecque.
Since the 3rd century and the king Ezana, the kingdom is Christian, and the Ethiopian first évêché is founded in 340 by holy Frumence.
The kingdom ends up disappearing at the 12th century, undermined by the emergence of the southernmost Ethiopian kingdom and the influence of the Moslem nomads in north.
Origins
The Sabéens, Minéens and Homérites arrive of the kingdoms of the “Arabia Heureuse” (Yemen) in Ethiopia between 1.000 and 400 before J. - C.The institutions of southernmost Arabia penetrate with the immigrants: at the old times, the capacity remains monk, exerted by the moukarrib , high priest and governor at the same time, like Melchisédech, king and priest of Salem in the Old Testament. The nagashi , collectors of the tribute, play the part of prince for the government of certain areas. The title of king appears little by little ( malkán ) and replaces (with Sheba) that of moukarrib . The patriarchate of the colonists is established in the Ethiopian families, where before the authority belonged to the women.
The inscriptions reveal that the colonists, initially, constituted of the rival provinces controlled by rather independent chiefs. They intervene sometimes at the time of conflicts to the Yemen.
The toponymy of Ethiopia, inspired of the villages sabéennes, attest colonization (Sheba: Assab, Sahart, Haouzién, Aoua, Madara, Dahané have their model in Yemen). Ruins of the cities remain on the great transportation routes (between the port of Adoulis, towards Coloë, Matara, Yéha, Aksoum, etc).
The colonists, excellent farmers, bring the art of the Irrigation, the use of the Métal, the Cheval and the Chameau. They grow rich by playing the intermediaries between the populations of the interior and the traders Egyptian, Greek and Syrian which attends the ports. Warriors, they protect the transportation routes.
Sabéens introduce their religion, of Semitic origin (they venerate primarily the Sun, the the Moon and Venus), them Architecture (temples) and them Art, a Langue written. These elements are gradually comparable by the people of the Tigré, then those of the Amhara, which give up their worships (worship of the trees and water, of the Serpent, various totemic) to adore (in Yéha, for example) Sîn, lunar god, Ashtar (Venus), and Nourou (the “resplendent one”). In Yéha still but also close to Azbi, the lunar god is adored under the name of Almouqah, and its two sanctuaries bear the name of Aoua, like the temple sabéen of the god. On the plate of Striped, the divinities are different by their role or their name from that from the fatherland from origin. At Aksoum where one venerated the sun under the name sabéen of Dzât-Badân, female divinity to which the horse, one seems devoted starts to venerate a Ashtar triad, Behér (Sea), Médèr (Earth). Then the kings adopt for guardian divinity Mahrem (war) and end up making of Behér the god of the ground and the sea at the same time. Temples and furnace bridge S are dedicated to these gods, with their crowned enclosures. One burns Encens, their offer of the Statue S of Or, money or Bronze and gigantic thrones in cut stone to them. The victories are the occasion of bloody sacrifices of cattle and prisoners. A funerary worship is attested by temples established on the tombs known as “of Ménélik” and “Caleb and Gabra-Masqal” and by tables of offerings laid out with the foot of steles. The found tombs are empty objects and shelter only skeletons for which a last sacrifice at summer offered before closing the burial.
A place privileged in Christianity täwahedo
According to the Ethiopian tradition reported in Kebra Nagast ( Käbrä Nägäst , ከብረነገሥት, delivers the Glory of the Kings ) - suitable for the canonical tradition of the orthodoxe Église autocéphale, the Ark of the Covenant would have been stolen by a king d' Aksoum, Ménélik Ier, wire of the king Solomon and legendary Queen of Sheba, then hidden in the Église Holy-Marie-of-Sion, where it would be always. The Ethiopian kings have all, until Ménélik II, makes celebrate their ceremonies of crowning in this cathedral.
Aksoum remains today the identity heart of modern Ethiopia, particularly for Tigréens.
An exceptional archeological site
The large steles - Obelisk S - aksoumites, mark according to the archeologists the site of the tombs of the sovereigns of this ancient kingdom. They appear among largest Monolithe S ever worked by the man. Largest of them was 35 meters high.
Many tombs were excavated, certain were plundered, others saved. The richnesses of the latter are with the archaeological museums of Aksoum and Addis-Abeba.
One of the obelisks of Aksoum had been brought back in 1937 in Italy during the invasion of Ethiopia by the armies of Mussolini and had been set up not far from the Cirque Maxime with Rome, in front of the building which sheltered the ministry for Italian Africa until in 1945 and which was transferred in 1951 in seat of FAO. In 1947, Italy was committed restoring it. This restitution took place finally only in 2005. Transported in three pieces, the dismembered monolith should find the site which it occupied in Aksoum since the 4th century in September 2007.
During the preparation of the surface which will accommodate it, of important archaeological discoveries were made. According to the experts, it is about a royal Nécropole of various dynasties pre-Christian women, which is prolonged well beyond the current limits of the archaeological zone. Archaeological excavations could lead to the update of richnesses of a major historical interest.
See too
- UNESCO launches the project of reinstalment of the obelisk of Axoum
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