The kingdom of Aksumite ruled much of the northern Horn of Africa in the first millennium A. D. , stretching from Ethiopia to Arabia and a major part of the Roman Empire. Like its Mediterranean neighbor, the Aksumite leader, King Ezana, switched to Christianity in the fourth century AD, however, churches safely dated to this era are rare.
However, two churches in the vital Aksumite port of Adulis in present-day Eritrea helped fill this void. One is an elaborate cathedral, with the remains of a baptistery, which is situated near the city centre and first excavated in 1868. The other, first excavated in 1907, is to the east and has a ring of columns showing it once had a dome.
More than a hundred years after the first excavation of those churches, archaeologists are re-examining those buildings with fashionable techniques. Gabriele Castiglia, of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, is part of a radiocarbon excavation and dating team at the site. This new knowledge allowed them to reconstruct their history, as it should be, and their findings were published in the journal Antiquity.
“This provides one of the earliest examples of Aksumite churches excavated with fashion strategies and time series knowledge of fashion dating strategies,” Dr. Puglia said.
The investigation revealed that the structure of the cathedral began between 400 and 535 AD, while the domed church was built between 480 and 625 AD. of the capital. This shows a relatively immediate expansion of Christianity in the kingdom of Aksum.
“Having an accurate timeline for those churches is critical to how the procedure of conversion to Christianity has shaped the geographic and cultural area,” Dr. Castiglia said.
Basically, the buildings show that the spread of Christianity was not the result of a singleness factor, such as a mandate from King Ezana. Churches have elements of many traditions, reflecting influences on kingdom conversion. The domed church, for example, is exclusive to the kingdom of Aksumite and is encouraged by Byzantine churches. Meanwhile, the cathedral is built on a giant platform in the Aksumite tradition.
Churches can also shed light on the later arrival of Islam. Adulis experienced an era of slow decline and the churches eventually fell into disuse. Castiglia discovered that this was not the end of their lives: the cathedral was reappropriated as a Muslim cemetery. The continued use of existing sacred spaces may imply that the region’s conversion to Islam is also a multicultural phenomenon, with local customs combined with the new religion.
“This is one of the first times we have a physicist from the Islamic network claiming a Christian sacred space,” Dr. Castiglia said.
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