MARC Record from harvard_bibliographic_metadata

LEADER: 03606cam a2200361Ia 4500
001 013368124-6
005 20121105164406.0
008 110720s2012 enkab b 001 0 eng d
015 $aGBB189521$2bnb
020 $a9781847010414 (hbk.)
020 $a1847010415 (hbk.)
035 0 $aocn809909195
040 $aNLE$cNLE$dOCLCO$dYDXCP$dCDX$dBWX$dJHE$dMUU
043 $af-et---
050 4 $aDT390.A88$bP456 2012
082 04 $a963.401$222
100 1 $aPhillipson, D. W.
245 10 $aFoundations of an African civilisation :$bAksum & the northern Horn, 1000 BC-1300 AD /$cDavid W. Phillipson.
246 1 $aFoundations of an African civilization
260 $aWoodbridge :$bJames Currey,$c2012.
300 $ax, 293 p. :$bill., maps ;$c22 cm.
490 1 $aEastern Africa series
520 $a"Focuses on the Aksumite state of the first millennium AD in northern Ethiopia and southern Eritrea, its development, florescence and eventual transformation into the so-called medieval civilisation of Christian Ethiopia. This book seeks to apply a common methodology, utilising archaeology, art-history, written documents and oral tradition from a wide variety of sources; the result is a far greater emphasis on continuity than previous studies have revealed. It is thus a major re-interpretation of a key development in Ethiopia's past, while raising and discussing methodological issues of the relationship between archaeology and other historical disciplines; these issues, which have theoretical significance extending far beyond Ethiopia, are discussed in full. The last millennium BC is seen as a time when northern Ethiopia and parts of Eritrea were inhabited by farming peoples whose ancestry may be traced far back into the local 'Late Stone Age'. Colonisation from southern Arabia, to which defining importance has been attached by earlier researchers, is now seen to have been brief in duration and small in scale, its effects largely restricted to élite sections of the community. Re-consideration of inscriptions shows the need to abandon the established belief in a single 'Pre-Aksumite' state. New evidence for the rise of Aksum during the last centuries BC is critically evaluated. Finally, new chronological precision is provided for the decline of Aksum and the transfer of centralised political authority to more southerly regions. A new study of the ancient churches - both built and rock-hewn - which survive from this poorly-understood period emphasises once again a strong degree of continuity across periods that were previously regarded as distinct."--Publisher's website.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 $aPart I: Before Aksum. The northern Horn 3000 years ago ; The first millennium BC. -- Part II: The Kingdom of Aksum. Aksumite civilisation: an introductory summary; Aksumite languages & literacy ; Some written sources relating to Aksumite civilisation ; The emergence & expansion of the Aksumite state ; Aksumite kingship & politics ; Aksumite religion ; Cultivation & herding, food & drink ; Urbanism, architecture & non-funerary monuments ; Aksumite burials ; Aksumite technology & material culture ; Aksumite coinage ; Foreign contacts of the Aksumite state ; Decline & transformation of the Aksumite state. -- Part III: After Aksum. The Zagwe Dynasty.
651 0 $aĀksum (Ethiopia)$xAntiquities.
651 0 $aAksum (Kingdom)$xCivilization.
651 0 $aEthiopia$xHistory$yTo 1490.
830 0 $aEastern African studies (London, England)
899 $a415_565774
988 $a20121003
049 $aHLSS
906 $0OCLC