Water, Geography, and Aksumite Civilization: The Southern Red Sea Archaeological Histories (SRSAH) Project Survey (2009–2016)

• Published in: The African archaeological review Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 51 - 67
• Main Authors: Harrower, Michael J., Nathan, Smiti, Mazzariello, Joseph C., Zerue, Kifle, Dumitru, Ioana A., Meresa, Yemane, Bongers, Jacob L., Gebreegziabher, Gidey, Zaitchik, Benjamin F., Anderson, Martha C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-03-2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Ancient civilizations; Anthropology; Archaeology; Civilization; Geography; Historic buildings & sites; Irrigation; Original Article; Regional and Cultural Studies; Social Sciences; Water resources; Red Sea; Irrigation; Eritrea; Water management; Spatial archaeology; Ethiopia; Aksum
• ISSN: 0263-0338; 1572-9842
• DOI: 10.1007/s10437-020-09369-8

For at least four decades, archaeologists have identified irrigation as playing a potentially major role in the rise of Aksumite civilization. Based on a systematic survey covering the area between Aksum and Yeha (Ethiopia), Joseph Michels proposed that large-scale irrigation systems introduced from Southwest Arabia contributed to the rise of Yeha as a major center of Pre-Aksumite civilization. To evaluate spatial patterning of archaeological sites with respect to water availability, this paper reports on results from archaeological survey of a 100 km
2
region surrounding Yeha conducted by the Southern Red Sea Archaeological Histories (SRSAH) Project from 2009 to 2016. The SRSAH Project recorded 84 sites dating from the Pre-Aksumite to the Post-Aksumite periods (c.800 BCE to 900 CE). No ancient irrigation systems were identified and results do not show a correlation between archaeological sites and water resources. This suggests that irrigation was less important than Michels contended and that rainfed agriculture, terraces, and small-scale irrigation comparable with practices evident in the region today were sufficient to sustain ancient populations.