Western Tigray: Home to Ancient Tigrean Polities and their people
By: Negasi Awetehey
- Tigray
Its Antiquity
Historic Tigray is home to various archeological sites that goes back millennia. The cultural traces of Tigray dates as far back as the Middle Stone Ages, 25,000 years ago. Archeological evidence in the horn of Africa and beyond affirms the claim that Historic Tigray was part of the ancient Punt polity from late prehistory. It started to appear on world maps as an organized polity in the neolithic period. It was presented as the core of the DMT state (1000 BC), a precursor to the Aksumite Kingdom. The peopling of historic Tigray including the current western Tigray were documented in various archaeological and historical sources. Besides oral traditions, folklore, toponyms, and shared memories from Western Tigray in conformity with sources from other regions in the horn of Africa supports the Tigrayaness of western Tigray and its people beginning from the remote past. Historic Tigray has passed through various historical developments. Thus, it was subjected to changes and continuities in its political and geographical centralities. These changes are also supported by archeological and historical evidence from different parts of historic Tigray in general and western Tigray in particular. This paper specifically discusses the history of western parts of Historic Tigray (western Tigray) using archaeological and historical evidence.
A Tale of its Origins and Developments
Archaeological and historical sources on the historical orbits of Historic Tigray indicate that Tigray has passed through three different phases. Firstly, Tigray in remote antiquity (the land of the Punt and pre-Aksumite and Aksumite times) up to the 19th century (hereafter: historic Tigray); secondly Tigray from late 19th century-1991 (provincial Tigary), thirdly Tigray as a semi-sovereign state since 1991 (EPRDF´s Tigray).
Its People
According to Wolbert Smidt a professor of historical anthropology, the Tigray population is the result of a complex process and internal dynamics of the millennial interaction of its people. The population has preserved ancient self-designations, usually linked with the names of their historical provinces. Etymologically, some can be linked to the Pre Aksumite/Aksumite times (Smidt, 2012). Located in the strategic position of the horn of Africa, the people were known to the outside world since antiquity.
- Tigray: Prehistory and Pre-Aksumite
A corridor and resource base of the polities
The current Western Tigray including outlying areas up to Semien mountains and Metema were integral parts of the core of the principal Pre-Aksumite polities. The area was famous for its elephant population, frankincense, and myrrh. Getachew (2022) in his ethnoarchaeological investigation on frankincense in Tigray states myrrh and frankincense have been exchanged throughout Northeast Africa and the Near East since pre-Aksumite days when Tigray served as a center of circuitous contact. They have also been transported through the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. In Historic Tigray, Frankincense and Myrrh were the principal commodities brought to the markets for over 5,000 years. They were frequently mentioned among commodities of export trade and items sold in the local markets for consumption.
Archaeologists prove the presence of putative cultural links westward of Aksum to the Sudan steppes and Nile valley. Intensive work in eastern Sudan, in the gash delta region around Kassala, has thrown considerable light on its cultural and ecological histories over millennia and the evidence indicates the presence of links with the Ethiopian Plateau in Tigray (Finneran, 2005). Additional primary evidence indicates there are road traces connecting the ancient centers of the Aksumite as well as pre-Aksumite centers with those in current western Tigray and Sudan.
Ethiopian obsidians were likely exported to Egypt around 4000 BC through trade routes that were located in the present-day North Western and western Tigray areas. This claim is also supported by archeological evidence from the Pre-Dynastic Egypt context (Hatke, 2013). Archaeologists have also stated that western Tigray might have been an entryway for the introduction of domesticated cattle, sheep, and goats from the Nile Valley in general and Sudan in particular to Ethiopia between ca. 5000 BP-3000 BP (see: Bard et.al., 2000).
During the 4th–2nd millennia BC group of people with ceramics decorated with motifs similar to those of the Kassala (Sudan) Phase are found in Aksum, the Tembien massif to the east of Aksum, and the edge of the plateau near Mekele in Tigray. Similarly, in the late 2nd or early 1st millennium BC, a group of peoples with contemporary ceramic traditions was detected in the highlands of Agame` (eastern Tigray), and central Tigray (Fattovich 2010). Tigray and eastern Sudan both have long-time contact with the people via the corridor in the current western Tigray. In addition, Pre-Aksumite rock art sites identified in Tigray and Sudan share affinities in theme, style as well as chronology. In this regard, the rock arts in Tselemti, Tembien, and Sudan are inherently interconnected.
Aksumite Period
As Hatke, G. (2013) mentions trading contacts between the Aksumites and the Kushite/Nubians during the first millennium AD were continuity from predecessors, Pre-Aksumite times.
Inscriptions published in the Aksumite Christian Topography note the presence of elephant hunting practices in Western Tigray. These elephants (Ivory) were exported overseas. According to the observation accounts of Byzantine travelers during the Aksumite times, elephants with large-sized teeth and hides were exported from the empire. In one instance around five thousand elephants were seen kept in one locality only. According to oral tradition elephants, were used to transport quarried stelae and other heavy burdens. It is hard to trace incense from the archaeological records but there are incense burners in pre-Akasumite and Aksumite including the vicinity of the Shire. Northwestern and western Tigray up to Semen and Metema were the prime sources of incense to the ancient polities in Historic Tigray.
It is a continuity of the log-spanned trend that incense was an alternative medium of exchange in Tigray in the late 18th century, and Inda Selassie remained a hub for frankincense production and processing in western Tigray (Getachew, 2022).
Cosmos Indicopleustes recorded expeditions from the center of the kingdom to obtain gold from a place called sasu near modern Sudan. According to D.W. Phillipson (2009), the ``Aksumite roots of Medieval Ethiopia,`` at times, the influence and tentacle of power of the Aksumite kings, if not their undisputed rule, extends as far as Meroitic territory in the Sudanese Nile Valley.
Geographic and physical reports on western Tigray as an integral part of Historic Tigray are corroborated in ancient inscriptions made by Aksumite kings. King Ezana’s inscription from the 4th century and the stone inscription in Aksum attributed to King Ella Amida (RIE 186) mention that the inhabitants of Semien were paying tributes to the Aksumite kings. Furthermore, inscription RIE 277 mentions a mountain covered with snow (snow-covered), (see: Phillipson, 2012) ). According to historical sources, this mountain was either the mountain chains of Lemalmo or Mt. Ras Dashen, i.e, the highest peak in the region.
According to King Ezana`s inscription, Ezana had carried out successful expeditions to Noba or Nubia and Kasu (northern Sudanese Nile valley). Although there are still debates on the furthest point of King Ezana’s forces’ footings/penetration inside Nubia, both Ethiopian and Sudanese sources acknowledge the campaigns of King Ezana which were documented in his inscriptions.
Figure 1. Map to illustrate the expansion and conquests of the Aksumite kingdom, according to prevailing identifications of names recorded in the fourth-century royal inscriptions (Phillipson, 2012).
Another ancient Aksumite inscription with toponyms from western Tigray is the inscription of Hatsani Daniel. Walqayt from western Tigray was mentioned in the inscription as part of Aksum´s domain or province. The inscription makes a passing reference to the presence of power devolutions to provincial leaders under the Aksumite kings. Common as it is clearly indicated in various inscriptions and liturgical works, in the Aksumite state, there was an inherent practice of power dispensations. There was an administrative structure cascaded with hierarchical titles catered to them as emperor, king, and local chiefs. Hence, Tigray had different local chiefs who worked for the state, of which Walqayt was one with local rulers in the proper territory.
The recent finding of Jan Nyseen ``Amhara nationalist claims over Western Tigray are a smokescreen for ethnic cleansing” refutes Amhara’s ownership claims of western Tigray as ahistorical. As it can is also indicated in the aforementioned paragraphs, the archaeological and historical evidence included in this piece further strengthens the finding of Nyssen.
Apart from archaeological and historical sources, there is mounting evidence from the church that specifically describes the Tigreaness of western Tigray. In this regard, the monastery of Walduba in Walqayt which was founded by a Tigrayan monk Abba Samuel from Aksum in the 14th century is a case in point example. This monastery is contemporary with and sibling of many churches and monasteries in other parts of Tigra including western Tigray.
A total of 575 toponyms extracted from the ethnographic work of Giovanni Ellero, an Italian administrator of Wolkayt during the Italian occupation in the 1930s show that all the toponyms in western Tigray are derived from the Tigrigna language (Jan Nyssen, 2022). To the dismay of the counterarguments flowing from the Amhara side based on fictitious irredentist claims, all the toponyms in Walqayt and in its vicinity are identical to the names in other parts of Tigray. The standard character of both those place names in Walqayt and other parts of Tigray is etymologically are ancient names of Pre-Aksumite/Aksumite times names.
The aforementioned historical evidence clearly shows the Tigreaness of Walqayt in three different periods, i.e. the Aksumite, post-Aksumite, and medieval periods as a proper territory in administration and composition as the other areas in Tigray.
Walya Ibexes are represented in the rock arts, particularly paintings of 3000BC-1000AD in Tigray. Ibex primarily included figurines, royal seals, and rock arts in Yeha, the epicenter of the DMT polity.
Figure 2: Bronze seals with ibex models dating to the early first millennium BC (left); Walya ibex from Simien national park (right)
Figure 3: Rock paintings containing Walya ibex from Tselemti (left: Tekle 2011) Walya Ibex freezes from Yeha (right: Phillipson, 2012))
Further to the south (outside of southern Tigray) at chiqa beret some 30km southeast of Desie, is a rock outcrop curved to a sphinx-like-form which is perhaps stylistically of Aksumite affinity. However, this is not the aim of this work.
Figure 4. Chiqa Beret (left) and lion head-shaped Aksumite water spouts (right) Phillipson, 2012)
There are ancient rock Painting sites of Mai Lemin-Gebriel and Bea´ati Gae’wa located across the River Tekeze in Tselemti. A continuity of these is visible in Shire, Lemlem district is Be’ati Shilum site with rock paintings. These are also among the other more than 20 rock art sites found in eastern Tigray, central Tigray, and southern Tigray (see: Tekle 2011). These are contemporaneous cultural products of people that shows despite the directional name of western and eastern Tigray.
To sum up, as core territories of the ancient Tigray polities, Western Tigray up to Semien mountains and its borders with Sudan have material evidence of ancient, medieval, and modern pasts.
Conclusion
Taking the historic nature of Tigray, modern imperial time political boundaries which created provincial Tigray were incompatible with the primordial Tigray and were imposed lines and layers in the history of making center and periphery. Despite this reduction sequence of recent rulers, 99.9% of western Tigray history falls in Tigray.
The archeological and historical evidence undoubtedly tell us these areas were part and parcel of the pre-Aksumite and Aksumite time polities and following ones. The archeological traces distributed are the continuation of ancient settlements and patterns in central Tigray and northwestern Tigray. The shreds of evidence in travel accounts and maps of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries refer to Walqayt as part of Tigray, in turn, prove prior and before had been part of the ancient polities of Tigray. The people too are Agazian, Aksumite, or Tigrayan. As millennials people, western Tigray belongs to the territory, an Aksumite territory, for example.
The fact that there is no archaeological data or any historical evidence from the Amhara irredentist camp that challenges this material and historical evidence makes their narrative myth, and unfounded. It rather is proof that the Ethiopian state-led of Amhara and Eritrean forces’ coordinated war on Tigray is motivated by the long-planned unified strategy of decimating Tigray’s millennial-old core territory, layered legacy, cohesive, and resistive society.
Abiy Ahmed (PM) makes the undisputable disputable
Amhara irredentists and expansionists have developed a false narrative that claims that ``Tigray had annexed lands from Amhara.`` This false/fictitious narrative was adopted by these elites. Finally, it was used as an instrument of ethnic cleansing against Tigraeans living in western Tigray. They have used national media and federal offices to dress their genocidal mission for legal protection. To the dismay of others, they were able to use the current Ethiopian prime minister as their principal political horse. In conformity to his political alliance with them, he had endorsed his support for their activities tuned to change the demography of western Tigray.