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OT: Settling the issues on "Ethio-Sabean" connections, "Habashat", and the related
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Supercar: [QB] Charles posted from a link: [i][b]Jacqueline Pirenne[/b] In the following year, [b]1956[/b], Jacqueline Pirenne, a scholar of early Arabian history, drastically [b]revised South Arabian chronology.[/b] Her new dating was significant to the question of Ethiopian origins, for it indicated that Sabaean immigrants to Ethiopia did not live in Ethiopia for centuries, as Conti Rossini had postulated, but only for no more than a few decades. Six years later, in 1962, the Dutch linguist A.J. Drewes, published his important Inscriptions ie l’Ethiopie antique. It revealed the existence in Ethiopia of Ge‘ez graffiti, and other inscriptions, which were quite as old as the South Arabian inscriptions in Ethiopia. This discovery showed that Conti Rossini had been mistaken in assuming that Sabaean inscriptions in the country represented the prototype from which Ge‘ez had later developed. In the following decade the Italian archaeologist Rodolfo Fattovich, working in Nubia, unearthed ancient pottery virtually identical to that which had been produced in Ethiopia prior to the founding of Aksum. This evidence suggested that the early material culture of Aksum was of essentially African origin, and had thus developed entirely independently of South Arabian immigration…. The result of such convergent investigations by scholars working in different fields was that Jacqueline Pirenne, basing herself on the area’s material culture, as well as on linguistic and paleographic data, stood Conti Rossini’s thesis on its head. She argued that migration was “not from Yemen to Ethiopia, but rather in the opposite direction: from Ethiopia to Yemen".[/i] http://www.addistribune.com/Archives/2003/01/17-01-03/Let.htm Stuart Munro-Hay said this about Jacqueline Pirenne: Jacqueline Pirenne's [b]most recent (1987)[/b] proposal results in a radically different view of the Ethiopian/South Arabian contacts. Weighing up the evidence from all sides, particularly aspects of material culture and linguistic/palaeographic information, she suggests that "[i]il est donc vraisemblable que l'expansion ne s'est pas faite du Yémen vers l'Ethiopie, mais bien en sens inverse: de l'Ethiopie vers le Yémen[/i]". [b]According to this theory[/b], one [b]group of Sabaeans[/b] would have [b]left north Arabia (where they were then established) for Ethiopia[/b] in about the eighth or [b]seventh century BC[/b] under [b]pressure from the Assyrians[/b]; they then continued on into south Arabia. A [b]second wave of emigrants[/b], in the sixth and fifth century, [b]would reign over the kingdom of Da'amat (D`MT)[/b], and would have been [b]accompanied by Hebrews fleeing after Nebuchadnezzar's capture of Jerusalem[/b]; an [b]explanation[/b] for the later Ethiopian traditions with their Jewish and Biblical flavour, and for the Falashas or [b]black Jews of Ethiopia[/b]. [b]These Sabaeans too[/b], in their turn would have [b]departed for the Yemen[/b], taking there the [b]writing and architecture which [i]they[/i] had first perfected in Tigray.[/b] In the fourth and [b]third century BC the remaining Sabaean emigrés would have left Ethiopia for the Yemen, [i]leaving elements of their civilisation and traditions[/i] firmly embedded in the Ethiopian's way of life.[/b] This ingenious [i]mise en scène[/i], so far [b]only briefly noted in a conference paper, [i]must await complete publication before it can be fully discussed[/i]; but it is expressive of the highly theoretical nature of our conclusions about pre-Aksumite Ethiopia that so complete a reversal of previous ideas can even be proposed.[/b] [b] Isaac and Felder (1988) also speculate about the possibility of a [i]common cultural sphere[/i] in Ethiopia and Arabia, [i]without giving either side the precedence.[/i][/b] Speaking of the latter point, from the link Charles posted, this was stated: Whatever the direction, dating, and details of such migration, there can be no denying that northern Ethiopia and Yemen, in the half millennium or so prior to the Christian era, shared a related civilisation, or civilisations. This is evident from the at least limited use in Ethiopia of the Sabaean language and script, as found on ancient Aksumite inscriptions and coins, and an apparently identical religion. The latter centred on the worship of the sun and moon, and the local god Almaqah. The logo of the sun and moon, used at that time in Yemen, appears for example on an ancient Aksumite obelisk at Matara, as well as on virtually all pre-Christian Aksum coins, which began to be struck in the first century A.D. Reference to Almaqah is likewise to be seen on many Sabaean inscriptions on both sides of the Red Sea. http://www.addistribune.com/Archives/2003/01/17-01-03/Let.htm Munro-Hay's take: Perhaps the most interesting phenomenon in this respect is that by around the middle of the first millenium BC — a date cautiously suggested, using palaeographical information (Pirenne 1956; Drewes 1962: 91), but possibly rather too late in view of [b]new discoveries in the Yemen[/b] (Fattovich 1989: 16-17) which [b]may even push it back to the eighth century BC[/b] — some [b]sort of contact, apparently quite close[/b], seems to have been [b]maintained between Ethiopia and South Arabia.[/b] This [b]developed to such an extent[/b] that in [b]not a few places in Ethiopia[/b] the [b]remains of certain mainly religious or funerary installations, some of major importance, with an unmistakeable South Arabian appearance in many details, have been excavated.[/b] Among the sites are [b]Hawelti-Melazo, near Aksum (de Contenson 1961ii), the famous temple and other buildings and tombs at Yeha (Anfray 1973ii), the early levels at Matara (Anfray 1967), and the sites at Seglamien (Ricci and Fattovich 1984-6), Addi Galamo, Feqya, Addi Grameten and Kaskase, to name only the better-known ones.[/b] Fattovich (1989: 4-5) comments on many of these and has been able to attribute some ninety sites altogether to the pre-Aksumite period. [b]Inscriptions[/b] found at some of these sites include the [b]names of persons bearing the traditional South Arabian title of [i]mukarrib[/i][/b], apparently indicating a ruler with something of a priest-king status, [b]not otherwise known in Ethiopia (Caquot and Drewes 1955)[/b]. Others have the title of king,[b][i] mlkn (Schneider 1961; 1973).[/i][/b] [i]Evidently[/i] the [b]pre-Aksumite Sabaean-influenced cultural province did not consist merely of a few briefly-occupied staging posts, but was a wide-spread and well-established phenomenon.[/b] [i]Until relatively recently South Arabian artefacts found in Ethiopia were [b]interpreted as the material signs left behind by a superior colonial occupation force, with political supremacy over the indigenes — an interpretation still maintained by Michels (1988).[/b][/i] But [b]further study has now suggested that very likely, [i]by the time the inscriptions were produced, the majority of the material in fact represented the civilisation of the Ethiopians themselves.[/i][/b] Nevertheless, [b]a certain amount of contact with South Arabia is very apparent, and had resulted in the adoption of a number of cultural traits (Schneider 1973; 1976).[/b] [b]**Evidently the arrival of Sabaean influences does not represent the beginning of Ethiopian civilisation**[/b]… [b]The altars, inscriptions, stelae, temples, secular structures, tombs and other material left by the Sabaean-influenced Ethiopian population occur in considerable numbers even from the few excavated sites; [i]those attributed to the Sabaeans themselves occur more rarely.[/i][/b] The [b]monuments are dated from the 5th century BC by study of the [i]letter-forms[/i] used on them (palaeography), and seem to appear in Ethiopia at [i]about the same time[/i] as they do in South Arabia (nb. The [i]reservations about the dating expressed by Fattovich 1989[/i]).[/b] The [b]disc and crescent symbol[/b] used on some of the monuments (and very much later by the pre-Christian Aksumites) was also [b]familiar on some South Arabian coins, and South Arabian altars[/b]; many of the [b]same deities were being worshipped in the two regions[/b]. It was also [b]during this period that iron was introduced into the country[/b]. In the [b]present state of our knowledge[/b], it is [b]unclear how much of Aksumite civilisation was a direct continuation of a cultural heritage from pre-Aksumite times, or how much any South Arabian aspects might be better attributed to a renewal of overseas contacts[/b] in the period after the consolidation of Aksum as an independent polity in the first and second centuries AD. [b]No clear evidence of connexions between the pre-Aksumite, Sabaean-influenced, period, and the earliest Aksumite period is at the moment available, though it seems intrinsically more likely that Aksum in some way was able to draw directly on part of the experience of its predecessors[/b]. At [b]Matara[/b], the archaeological evidence implies that [b]there was a clear break between the two periods[/b] (Anfray and Annequin 1965), but [b]this need not have been the case everywhere in the country[/b]. The solution to these questions can only [b]await further clarification from archaeology.[/b] http://users.vnet.net/alight/aksum/mhak2.html#c4-1 Charles from the aforementioned link posted this, attributed to Schneider: [i]“He contended further that Sabaean settlement was restricted to a few localities, and did not impinge greatly on Northern Ethiopia as a whole.”[/i] http://www.addistribune.com/Archives/2003/01/17-01-03/Let.htm What does S. Munro Hay have to say about this; well, this is what he says: It seems that these `inscriptional' Sabaeans [b]did not remain more than a century or so[/b] — or perhaps even only a few decades — [b]as a **separate** and **identifiable** people.[/b] Possibly their presence was [b]connected to a contemporary efflorescence of Saba[/b] on the other side of the Red Sea. [b]Their influence[/b] was only in a [b]limited geographical area[/b], [i]affecting the autochthonous population in that area to a greater or lesser degree.[/i] [b]Such influences[/b] as did [b]remain after their departure or **assimilation fused**.[/b] Indeed, [b]it may be that the Sabaeans were able to establish themselves in Ethiopia in the first place[/b] because [b]both their civilisation and that of mid-1st millenium Ethiopia already had something in common[/b]; it has been suggested that [b]earlier migrations or contacts might have taken place, leaving a kind of cultural sympathy between the two areas which allowed the later contact to flourish easily.[/b] The [b]precise nature of the contacts between the two areas[/b], their range in commercial, linguistic or cultural terms, and their chronology, [b]is still a major question[/b], and discussion of this fascinating problem continues (Marrassini 1985; Avanzini 1987; Pirenne 1987; Isaac and Felder 1988). http://users.vnet.net/alight/aksum/mhak2.html#c4-1 So, you, a nobody/lowlife troll, might want to first read Stuart Munro-Hays notes, before making unfounded accusations. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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