Enda Abuna Afse
Reconstruction

Yeha -
Major Pre-Aksumite
Archaeological Site
Capital of Da'amat

Yeha Landscapes

Grat Ba'al Gibri
Reconstruction

Above left: speculative reconstruction of Enda Abuna Afse in Yeha, best-preserved pre-Aksumite ruin, taken from Littmann's 1913 Deutsche Aksum-Expedition, showing a possible original appearance of the 2500 year old edifice which most identify as a temple, perhaps dedicated to Ilumquh, but which strongly resembles royal mausoleum at Marib in Yemen. Above right: my tentative reconstruction based on 3 seasons of excavation at Grat Ba'al Gibri in Yeha (2 of which I attended), often considered to be a temple, but considered by some to have been a palace. Note: this section has been extensively enlarged. Above center: dramatic view of landscape surrounding Yeha, which I took from atop one of the surrounding spires. Click About Yeha for information about the history and archaeology of this important site. Note: click any of these photos above for much more information and many more photos about Yeha, other pre-Aksumite sites, and the relationshiip between these sites and the later Aksumite empire which grew from and supplanted the earlier kingdom of Da'amat. This section is growing regularly, so be sure to revisit these sections from time to time. Also note that the frieze patterns used as dividers on this page are decorative motifs from Da'amat representing the ibex, an animal sacred to the moon god Ilumquh; the one above is from Yeha, and the one at the top of the text section below is from a carved throne found at Hawulti, a nearby site.

     Intro
ne of the most important archaeological sites in the Abyssinian highlands, and clearly not only the grandest but also the best-known, best preserved and most studied pre-Aksumite site, Yeha deserves special notice. No doubt there are numerous other important sites of this period across the adjacent highland areas of Tigray and Eritrea. There is strong similarity among the surviving elements of architecture and artifacts known from these other sites, the most extensively studied and perhaps the largest related site being Matara in Akkele Guzai province in Eritrea. As with the Aksumite remains at Matara, Yeha provides an additional advantage for the study of its surviving pre-Aksumite architecture: there was little or no significant later construction obscuring or further damaging the remains. The pottery associated with the pre-Aksumite stone foundations in Matara is much like that of the Intermediate period identified at the excavations in Yeha, helping designate this common level as dating between the 5th Century B.C.E. or earlier and the beginning of the Common Era. Current knowledge concerning Sabaean pottery in South Arabia at the time of these excavations was insufficient to allow comparisons to determine whether this ware is of Sabaean or indigenous design.Left: small altar plate and stone hawulti (stele) standing in courtyard near Enda Abune Afse; click for larger view and more information.

     Names
hile the ancient name of Yeha is not known, one name which is found regularly in ancient sources is Da'amat, which refers to a powerful pre-Aksumite kingdom which extended evidently from Yeha and Aksum in the west at least to Kaskase and Matara in the east; the capital of Da'amat clearly was Yeha. The sketch map which I drew more than 30 years ago roughly indicates the extent of Da'amat and shows some of the places associated with this pre-Aksumite kingdom in Africa and Arabia. Little is known for sure about the relationship between Da'amat and the Sabaean kingdoms in Yemen, but it is clear that there was a strong association, cultural if not political.(some inscriptions identify kings who may have ruled kingdoms on both sides of the Red Sea) The architecture of Yeha, for example, is so similar to that of Marib in Yemen that one can envision the same architects and stone masons working on both sites, although the proportions of the Yeha structures are more massive than at Marib, a fact that may relate to available materials or to increased grandiosity. The same language (or very closely related languages) appear to have been spoken in both places, if the inscriptions are any indication, and the religion and material cultures also show strong similarities, for example the frequent use of the ibex, an animal sacred to the masculine lunar god Ilumquh, as a decorative element on both sides of the Red Sea. Yet there are very distinctive elements in the pre-Aksumite remains that set them apart from those on the other side of the Red Sea. Sorting out indiginous from imported cultural elements, and for that matter determining whether more aspects of culture were traded to the west or to the east, will require much more research in both areas. An excellent monograph on the latest information regarding the development of urban society in Eritrea and Ethiopia by Rodolfo Fattovich, an Italian archaeologist I worked with at Yeha in 1971 and 1972 and a leading authority on Aksumite and pre-Aksumite archaeology, is available for download as a PDF file (Fattovich, R., The development of urbanism in the northern Horn of Africa in ancient and medieval times, 1999. Research paper in PDF format. Click here to download Acrobat document - click here to get Acrobat Reader). One thing that is certain is that this little-known African kingdom achieved a high level of culture and exerted its influence widely, before being overtaken and supplanted by another indigenous society that grew up in the same region, either a direct descendant of Da'amat or grown from a related culture, and became the Aksumite empire.

This section will be enlarged soon, with much more photographic material as well as more information about Yeha and other pre-Aksumite sites.