Ancient Horn of Africa:
Axum (Aksum) (4th - 7th c. A.D.)

	1. Map of the Horn of African in Antiquity, from UNESCO, General History of Africa, vol. II.
	2. Thanks to the stimulus of growing trade, the state of Axum arose, much like Phoenicia, as a coalition of commerical towns near the Red Sea. Its social base was the old Semitic civilization of Saba, which spanned southern Arabia and the coastal areas of the Horn of Africa. 119 granite stelae such as these survive, which mark burial catecombs. Shown here is the tallest one that still stands (71 feet).
	3. Another picture of this stele at a royal tomb in Axum, 4th c. A.D.
	4. The largest Axumite stela is over 100 feet long. It was the largest single stone ever quarried in the ancient world. The carving realistically portrays architectural details. Ribble masonry walls reinforced with a timber framework, inset longitudinal beams were joined by cross timbers that were slotted over the longitudinal members and projected from the wall as round studs. The curved headstone shown here originally held a bronze plaque held by rivits, the holes of which can still be seen. The plaque probably had a representation of the crescent and disk of Ilmuquh, the Sabean moon god.
	5. The catecombs associated with the stelae in Axum are rough shafts, passages and chambers 25-feet underground, which were long ago looted. Here is the entrance to the antechamber of the Tomb of the Brick Arches, which in turn leads to 18-foot similar doorways leading to two burial chambers. In the chambers are the broken gravegoods left by the robbers: gold, silver and bronze, glass goblets and flasks, iron weapons, and pottery. The keywhole arch may derive from 4th-century Syria with which Aksum would have had commercial contact.
	6. The Gudit field of stelae, which are outside Axum. The Nubian Queen Gudit (Judith) in the 10th century A.D. destroyed Axum and attacked Christian Semitic influences in the region. However, she has no relationship with this field of stelae.
	7. While the tombs associated with the main field of stelae in Axum have not been excavated, one Gudit tomb at the bottom of a twelve-foot shaft, has been. Among the gravegoods found were 80 red-ware pottery vessels, glass goblets and flasks, probably from Egypt, 3-e. 4th century A.D. Aksum's hegemony over Red Sea trade lasted several centuries.