Urbanism and

Architecture in
Aksumite Kingdom

Lecture 2
Introduction

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 Introduction
▪ 1st Century A.D to 10th Century AD

▪ Kingdom of Aksum was developed from a group of smaller states in the region.

▪ The Aksumite state bordered one of the ancient world's great arteries of
commerce, the Red Sea, and through its port of Adulis Aksum participated
actively in contemporary events.

▪ Aksum produced a coinage, remarkable for several features, especially the inlay
of gold on silver and bronze coins.

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 Historical background
▪ development of the
vocalization of the Ge`ez or
Ethiopic script allowed
Aksumites to leave their
legacy.
▪ The Aksumites grew strong
enough to expand their
military activity into South
Arabia by the end of the
second or early third century
AD
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 Historical background

▪ As the consolidated Aksumite kingdom grew more

prosperous, the monuments and archaeological finds at
Aksum and other sites showed that there was development
of a number of urban centers.
▪ Archeological evidences also shows the Advance of
Aksumites in many indigenous arts and crafts demonstrating
high technological skills, and a vigorous internal and
overseas trade.

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 Historical background

▪ There was a radical change in the 2nd quarter of the 4th century when
the Aksumite king Ezana, ,previously a worshipper of Sabaen gods,
was converted to Christianity.

▪ From then on the coins and inscriptions show royal support for the
new religion by replacing the old disc and crescent motifs of the
former gods with the cross, though it may have taken a considerable
time for Christianity to spread into the remoter regions under
Aksumite control.
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 Historical background

▪ Pre –Christian Aksum kings were probably worshiping Greek

gods.

King Ousanas of Aksum with the pre-Christian Coins of Aksum After Christianity
disc and crescent symbol above his head.

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 Historical background

Disc and crescent to the Greek cross After conversion of Christianity the disc and
crescent was abandoned in coins

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 Cities, Towns and Villages
▪ Within the expanded Aksumite kingdom, a number of
flourishing urban communities appear to have grown up.

▪ In addition to Adulis and Aksum a number of other towns

became established on trade routes or crossroads, or
wherever particularly favorable conditions were
encountered.

▪ Water availability was an evident precondition.

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 Cities, Towns and Villages
▪ German Archeologists traced the approximate ground plans of
three very substantial buildings, i.e. Ta`akha Maryam, Enda
Sem`on and Enda Mikael
▪ The central part of the Aksum was predicted to be the residence of
poor.

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 Buildings and Domestic Architecture

▪ Elite residences in Aksum were basically of one plan; a central

lodge or pavilion, raised on a high podium approached by broad
staircases, surrounded and enclosed by ranges of buildings on all
four sides.
▪ The central pavilion was thus flanked by open courtyards.
▪ The plan shows a taste for the symmetrical, and the buildings are
square or rectangular, with a strong central focus on the main
pavilion.

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 Buildings and Domestic Architecture

Palace of Ta`akha Mariam .

▪ Most of the surviving podium walls of Aksumite structures were

furnished at all corners with large and carefully cut granite corner
blocks, which protected, linked, and supported the weaker parts of
the walls.
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 Buildings and Domestic Architecture
▪ Occasionally a podium might be strengthened by a complete row
of cut granite blocks
▪ Granite was also used for architectural features such as columns,
bases and capitals, doors, windows, paving, and the like, and
particularly for the massive flights of steps which sometimes
flanked two or three sides of the pavilions.

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 Buildings and Domestic Architecture
▪ Walls in podia exhibited indented formed by a series of recesses and
projections.
▪ the building material was mostly random rubble bound only with mud
mortar.
▪ Sometimes the wall is constructed thinner as the height increases.
▪ The rebated walls with re-entrants and salient are one of the chief
distinguishing marks of Aksumite architecture.

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 Buildings and Domestic Architecture
▪ The ends cross members projected from the external wall (and were
sometimes visible internally as well) in rows, forming the characteristic
`monkey-heads' often seen solidified in stone in other examples of
Ethiopian architecture.

Ruins of an Aksumite Temple at Agula

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 "Monkey-head technique"
▪ was the structural method in the
Aksumite Period.
▪ A technique which wooden beams as a
strengthening element (masonry)
within the walls.
▪ A square horizontal beam set in the
wall supported rounded cross-members
embedded in the stonework and
forming ties across the width of the
walls.
▪ The ends of these cross members
projected from the external wall (and
were sometimes visible internally as
well) in rows, forming the
characteristic.
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 "Monkey-head technique"

Monkey Heads in Modern Day Church

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 "Monkey-head technique"
▪ Wood in elite house walls was visible from the building exterior
and would have presented a sharp contrast to non-elite structures.
▪ historians predict that the monkey head technique was only existed
in the elite houses in Aksumite Kingdom.
▪ Only few elite afford to build their houses with timer which was
scarce in the area.
▪ Also the excessive usage of wood for external walls of residences
was the expression of power among the Aksumite elites.

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 "Monkey-head technique"
▪ window and door frames were made of timbers cut into each other,
with no nails but with shallow recesses and projections which
acted as a sort of Joining pegs
▪ Monkey head features were carved in granite on the decorated
stelae, and some can still be seen in the surviving ancient rock-cut
or built churches of Tigray and Lalibela.

Lalibela Bete Georgis

Grave of Ezana
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 "Monkey-head technique"

Some geometrical motifs such as the Greek cross

and its variants date from Late Antiquity. The
stylized vegetable motifs of leaves with chamfered
lobes are like those which appear in Mediterranean
Byzantine Sculpture.
Aksumite half timbering, showing beams and
monkeys' heads(wall at Debra-Selam)
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 "Monkey-head technique"

Note that there was no timber and no

"monkey heads" near the ground

Reconstruction of Aksumite palace By

German Archeologists

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 Cont.…
▪ pavilions were raised high on their podia, isolated by the courtyards
surrounding them, and approached by massive flights of usually about
seven steps.
▪ Such a design may be an expression of the special position of the rulers
translated into architectural terms.
▪ There may have been an intention to isolate the pavilions as a convenience
for security, but although the whole ensemble of pavilion, courtyards, and
outer ranges was evidently to some extent defensible.

Ground plan of Ta’akha Maryam Palace

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 Cont.…
▪ The rectangular Aksumite
format has been adapted to
the demands of the
Christian worship: the
central nave has been
thrown into relief by the
removal of the upper storey
and its transformation into
two galleries with
Aksumite-style windows
giving out onto the nave.

Debre Damo , Tigray ▪ The church is of a rectangular, single-storey

construction with a floor-plan which recalls
the layouts seen in the Aksumite buildings.
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 Proportioning System in Aksum
▪ Principle of "equal-equal” generates the square, the cube and the
45° angle as well as octagonal shapes.

▪ The system may have Semitic origin based on 10 digit system

▪ This method of "equal-equal" can also be applied for repeated

division “middle-middle middle" which produces the number
series.

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 Proportioning System in Aksum
▪ Greeks used Golden section( also Called Divine Proportion)
▪ Where as Aksumites used straightforward arithmetical -counting
of numbers and units.
▪ Diagonals through corners would not be conceived as the carriers of
proportions throughout a composition

Golden Section
if AC/AB = CB/AC the ratio
has the numerical value 0.618

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 Proportioning System in Aksum

▪ "equidimensional‘ of the old Ethiopian tradition as different from

"central symmetrical“ of e.g. the Byzantine tradition; sometimes the
two may be mixed in medieval Ethiopian church architecture.

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 Dry stone construction
▪ Walls of such structures ( at least the lower parts) were made in the
same technique in all Aksumite sites
▪ Typical technique of dry-stone masonry with
1) large and squarely dressed stones at the corners,
2) small broken stones for the main bulk of walls, and
3) slabs of schist or similar thin flat stones to cover the many narrow
spaces which are formed because the walls are stepped inwards at
regular intervals.

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 Stelae
▪ There are six carved and decorated monuments,
▪ There are six carved and decorated monuments, the largest, now
fallen and broken, formerly exceeding 33 m in height,
▪ with a measurement at the base of about 3 2 m. It is carved on all
four sides and shows 12 storeys.

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 Stelae
▪ It is possible that the original inspiration for the design of the
decorated stelae came from the South Arabian mud-brick multi- storey
palaces familiar to the Aksumites from their involvements in that
country, rather than from Ethiopian examples.
▪ The Aksumite palaces in contrast were probably limited to single storey.

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 Stelae
▪ Probably, the door and the first row of small square windows shall be
read together as both as one floor, then the following "T-divided"
windows to the first floor upstairs, and possibly the more decorated.
▪ The second largest is about 24 m high, and 2 ×1 m at the base.

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 Stelae

Aksumite capital

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 Tombs
Example Tomb of Kaleb and Gebre Mesqal

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 Tombs

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 Tombs

Necropolis of
Askum

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 Tombs

Original Intended
layout of Stelae

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 Tombs

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 Tombs

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 Cont.…

The Corners and Stone work of old St.

Marry Zion Church exhibits the
characters of Aksumite Architecture.

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 Cont.…
Old St. Marry Zion Church interior
Reconstructed By David Buxton .

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 Cont.…

Old St. Marry Zion Church

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 Cont.…

Entrance Doors to
Mausoleums have stone
carved monkey heads

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 Cont.…

Arches are also used in

Mausoleums according to recent
Excavations

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 Cont.…

Interior of a Mausoleum excavated in the mid 1990s

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 Cont.…

Mausoleums are accessed through

descending stairs from natural ground

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 Cont.…

Enda Michael Palace

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 Cont.…

Enda Michael Palace

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 Cont.…

Enda Michael Palace

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 Cont.…

Enda Michael
Palace, Tower
Rooms

Section Ceiling Plan and Floor Plan

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End of Lecture 1I

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