D mt (Ge’ez: ደዐመተ, DʿMT theoretically vocalized as ዳዓማት, Daʿamat or ዳዕማት, Daʿəmat) was a kingdom located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia that existed during the 10th and 5th centuries BC. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive and very little archaeological work has taken place. As a result, it is not known whether Dʿmt ended as a civilization before the Kingdom of Aksum‘s early stages, evolved into the Aksumite state, or was one of the smaller states united in the Kingdom of Aksum possibly around the beginning of the 1st century.
D mt (Ge'ez: ደዐመተ, DʿMT theoretically vocalized as ዳዓማት, Daʿamat[2] or ዳዕማት, Daʿəmat[3]) was a kingdom located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia that existed between the 10th and 5th centuries BC. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive and very little archaeological work has taken place. As a result, it is not known whether Dʿmt ended as a civilization before the Kingdom of Aksum's early stages, evolved into the Aksumite state, or was one of the smaller states united in the Kingdom of Aksum possibly around the beginning of the 1st century.[4]
Dʿmt ደዐመተ | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 980 BCE–c. 400 BCE | |||||||
 Dʿmt is given as "Damot" on this map, not to be confused with the later and more southwestern Kingdom of Damot. | |||||||
| Capital | Unknown, likely Yeha[1] | ||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||
| Historical era | Iron Age | ||||||
• Established | c. 980 BCE | ||||||
• in | c. 400 BCE | ||||||
| |||||||
History
Given the presence of a large temple complex, the capital of Dʿmt may have been present day Yeha, in Tigray Region, Ethiopia.[1] At Yeha, the temple to the god Ilmuqah is still standing.[5]
The kingdom developed irrigation schemes, used plows, grew millet, and made iron tools and weapons.
Some modern historians including Stuart Munro-Hay, Rodolfo Fattovich, Ayele Bekerie, Cain Felder, and Ephraim Isaac consider this civilization to be indigenous, although Sabaean-influenced due to the latter's dominance of the Red Sea, while others like Joseph Michels, Henri de Contenson, Tekle-Tsadik Mekouria, and Stanley Burstein have viewed Dʿmt as the result of a mixture of Sabaeans and indigenous peoples.[6][7] Some sources consider the Sabaean influence to be minor, limited to a few localities, and disappeared after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state.[8][9]
Archaeologist Rodolfo Fattovich believed that there was a division in the population of Dʿmt and northern Ethiopia due to the kings ruling over the 'sb (Sabaeans) and the 'br, the 'Reds' and the 'Blacks'.[10] Fattovich also noted that the known kings of Dʿmt worshipped both South Arabian and indigenous gods named 'str, Hbs, Dt Hmn, Rb, Šmn, Ṣdqn and Šyhn.[10]
After the fall of Dʿmt in the 5th century BC, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller unknown successor kingdoms. This lasted until the rise of one of these polities during the first century BC, the Aksumite Kingdom.[11]
Name
Due to the similarity of the name of Dʿmt and Damot when transcribed into Latin characters, these two kingdoms are often confused or conflated with one another, but there is no evidence of any relationship to Damot, a kingdom far to the south and existing a millennium and a half later.
Known rulers
The following is a list of four known rulers of Dʿmt, in chronological order:[7]
| Term | Name | Queen | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dates from ca. 700 BC to ca. 650 BC | |||
| Mlkn Wʿrn Ḥywt | ʿArky(t)n | contemporary of the Sabaean mukarrib Karib'il Watar | |
| Mkrb, Mlkn Rdʿm | Smʿt | ||
| Mkrb, Mlkn Ṣrʿn Rbḥ | Yrʿt | Son of Wʿrn Ḥywt, "King Ṣrʿn of the tribe YGʿḎ [=Agʿazi, cognate to Ge'ez], mkrb of DʿMT and SB'" | |
| Mkrb, Mlkn Ṣrʿn Lmn | ʿAdt | Son of Rbḥ, contemporary of the Sabaean mukarrib Sumuhu'alay, "King Ṣrʿn of the tribe YGʿḎ, mkrb of DʿMT and SB'" |
Regions
See also
References
- ^ a b Shaw, Thurstan (1995), The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns, Routledge, p. 612, ISBN 978-0-415-11585-8
- ^ L'Arabie préislamique et son environnement historique et culturel: actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 24-27 juin 1987; page 264
- ^ Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C; page 174
- ^ Uhlig, Siegbert (ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005. p. 185.
- ^ Stuart Munro-Hay (2002). Ethiopia: The Unknown Land. I.B. Taurus. p. 18.
- ^ Stuart Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: University Press, 1991, p. 57.
- ^ a b Nadia Durrani, The Tihamah Coastal Plain of South-West Arabia in its Regional context c. 6000 BC - AD 600 (Society for Arabian Studies Monographs No. 4) . Oxford: Archaeopress, 2005, p. 121.
- ^ Munro-Hay, Aksum, p. 57.
- ^ Phillipson (2009). "The First Millennium BC in the Highlands of Northern Ethiopia and South–Central Eritrea: A Reassessment of Cultural and Political Development". African Archaeological Review. 26 (4): 257–274. doi:10.1007/s10437-009-9064-2. S2CID 154117777.
- ^ a b Fattovich, Rodolfo (1990). "Remarks on the Pre-Aksumite Period in Northern Ethiopia". Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 23: 17. ISSN 0304-2243. JSTOR 44324719.
- ^ Pankhurst, Richard K.P. Addis Tribune, "Let's Look Across the Red Sea I", January 17, 2003 (archive.org mirror copy)
Kingdom of Damot
The Kingdom of Damot (Amharic: ዳሞት) was a medieval kingdom in what is now western Ethiopia.[1] The territory was positioned below the Blue Nile.[2] It was a powerful state that forced the Sultanate of Showa (also called Shewa) to pay tributes. It also annihilated the armies of the Zagwe dynasty that were sent to subdue its territory. Damot conquered several Muslim and Christian territories.[3] The Muslim state Showa and the new Christian state under Yekuno Amlak formed an alliance to counter the influence of Damot in the region.[4]
Kingdom of Damot | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 900–1317 | |||||||
 The kingdom of Damot and its neighbours circa 1200 AD | |||||||
| Capital | Damot 9°23′N 37°34′E / 9.39°N 37.56°E | ||||||
| Common languages | Sidama, Gonga, and other Omotic languages | ||||||
| Religion | Pagan | ||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||
| Motalami | |||||||
| History | |||||||
• Established | 900 | ||||||
• Disestablished | 1317 | ||||||
| |||||||
History
Damot's history as an independent entity ended after the conquest of the region by Emperor Amda Seyon in the fourteenth century and remained under the Solomonic dynasty's influence afterwards.[5] Originally located south of the Abay and west of the Muger River,[6] under the pressure of Oromo attacks the rulers were forced to resettle north of the Abay in southern Gojjam between 1574 and 1606.[7]
The kings, who bore the title Motalami, resided in a town which, according to the hagiography of Tekle Haymanot, was called Maldarede.[8] The kingdom was reduced to smaller size and the name became the Kingdom of Wolayta[citation needed]. Their territory extended east beyond the Muger as far as the Jamma.[6]
References
- ^ Shinn, David (2013). Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Scarecrow Press. p. 111. ISBN 9780810874572.
- ^ Shillington, Kevin (4 July 2013). Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set. Routledge. ISBN 9781135456696.
- ^ Bounga, Ayda (2014). The kingdom of Damot: An Inquiry into Political and Economic Power in the Horn of Africa (13th c.). Annales D'ethiopie. p. 262.
- ^ Hassen, Mohammed. Oromo of Ethiopia (PDF). University of London. p. 4.
- ^ Quirin, James (1992). The evolution of the Ethiopian Jews: a history of the Beta Israel (Falasha) to 1920. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 43. ISBN 9780812231168.
- ^ a b G.W.B. Huntingford, Historical Geography of Ethiopia from the first century AD to 1704 (London: British Academy, 1989), p. 69
- ^ The dates for this movement are discussed by Huntingford in his Historical Geography, at pp. 143f
- ^ Bouanga 2014, pp. 33–37.
Further reading
- Bouanga, Ayda (2013). Le Damot dans l'histoire de l'Ethiopie (XIIIe-XXe siècles) : recompositions religieuses, politiques et historiographiques (in French). Université Panthéon-Sorbonn.
- Bouanga, Ayda (2014). "Le royaume du Damot : enquête sur une puissance politique et économique de la Corne de l'Afrique (XIIIe siècle)" (PDF). Annales d'Ethiopie (in French). 29: 27–58. doi:10.3406/ethio.2014.1557.