David W. Phillipson

The Aksum Archaeological Area: A Preliminary Assessment

This invaluable compendium, published by the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples, arises out of research undertaken jointly by that institution and Boston University under the direction of Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard. That it is written in English will greatly facilitate its use in Ethiopia. Aksum, in the highlands of Tigray in northern Ethiopia, was the capital of a major state during the first seven or eight centuries A.C. Its local precursors and antecedents during the last millennium B.C. have been a particular focus of the research conducted by Bard and Fattovich. The area thus contains important archaeological remains illustrative of the development and florescence of a major African civilization. Despite Aksums designation by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, comparatively little archaeological field research has been undertaken there. Sadly, much of what has been undertaken remains incompletely or inaccessibly published. Aksum today is a town of some size which attracts growing numbers of pilgrims and tourists, as well as being the administrative center for the rapidly developing Central Zone of Tigray. The Ethiopian authorities are aware of the major problem presented by the need to ensure adeolen cultural heritage in rec nt years. It will provide a luable datum against which to measure cultural heritage struction in the future.

TRANS-SAHARAN GOLD TRADE AND BYZANTINE COINAGE

It is often argued that northward trade in gold from sub-Saharan West Africa began after the establishment of Islamic control late in the seventh century ad. This paper questions that conclusion, and suggests that minting at Carthage of the Byzantine gold coins known as globular solidi was related to the acquisition of metal through developing trans-Saharan contacts. Political developments in the late sixth century may have interrupted the supply of gold to Byzantine Carthage; this problem intensified during the following decades when production of globular solidi began. It is suggested that trans-Saharan imports comprised gold that was cast, for export and apparently also for local circulation, at Tadmekka in north-eastern Mali and perhaps elsewhere, into lumps of standardised weight calculated to meet the needs of the Byzantine mint at Carthage. Preliminary archaeometallurgical investigations provide some degree of support for this hypothesis, and further analyses are planned that may identify the sources of the gold minted in seventh-century Carthage. If and when such detail becomes available, it may have major implications for our understanding of the nature and instigation of ancient trans-Saharan connections.