Day: March 31, 2022

The 1st millennium B.C. is an important period to understand changes in settlement, technology and economies that gave rise to the development of complex societies in various regions of the African continent. The Horn of Africa saw the development of extensive highland agro-pastoralist village communities as well as elite ritual centers in highland Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. The expansion of cultural exchanges and interaction patterns during the epoch had significant impacts on the development of agro-pastoralism, permanent village settlement and continuation of ritual manifestations.

The 1st millennium B.C. witnessed the culmination of socio-economic and socio-political patterns and processes that began earlier around the 5th millennium. Already established food production strategies blossomed into full-fledged intensive agro-pastoral traditions by the 1st millennium B.C. Pastoralism was coupled with intensive cultivation of domesticated cereals and pulses of both African and Near Eastern origin. Stone tool technology was linked with metal technology as already established ceramic tradition became elaborated.

The 1st millennium communities also developed long established patterns of interaction, further expanding trade engagement with people from surrounding regions. The appearance of new forms of iconography and material culture is a testimony, in one way, of an expansion or intensification of established contacts with other peoples of the southern Red Sea. The elaborate manifestations of interregional cultural contacts appear in places like Matara and Keskese during the 1st millennium B.C., a time of expanded political and commercial activity in much of Africa and the Indian Ocean world.

While continuities are apparent, there are also important discontinuities in settlement between the pre-1st millennium B.C. populations and the 1st millennium B.C. populations in northern Horn of Africa. Such discontinuity is particularly apparent in the settlements that flourished in the Asmara Plateau, where sedentary agro-pastoral communities appear around or just after 900 B.C. The absence of pre-1st millennium cultural layers in the Asmara Plateau is quite unique in the region.

The fact that the communities settled in areas and in concentrations not apparent in the preceding periods had provoked archaeologists to look into the evolution of complex communities in the Horn differently from long-held assumptions and postulations. Many interpretations by scholars interested in the development of complex societies in the northern Horn are based on a view that attributes the development of African social complexity to foreign influences and innovations, stressing one way donor-recipient relations. Near Eastern societies were portrayed as bestowing civilizations on African communities.

Interpretations focusing on external influences as the primary catalyst for complex societies and state development in the Horn of Africa were not critically assessed prior to the findings from the Greater Asmara and this edition of the column will highlight how ancient 1st millennium B.C. settled communities in the Asmara plateau have helped shape/ change previously held perspectives of social complexity in this part of the Horn. The local elements of the settled communities in the Asmara plateau are emphasized to show how they differ from contemporaneous highland civilization in the northern Horn.

The highlands around Asmara supported the earliest settled agro-pastoral communities known in the Horn between 800 B.C. and 400 B.C. These communities predate and are in one way contemporaneous with 1st millennium B.C. settlements in central highlands of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. The agro-pastoral settlements that flourished around Asmara are seen as vital precursors to the later mid-1st millennium B.C. urban settlements in the central highlands of Eritrea at sites such as Matara, Keskese and perhaps Qohaito. The demographic complexity seen at the sites around Asmara between 800 B.C. – 400 B.C. is an extraordinary period in the ancient history of the Horn.

A constellation of settlements was distributed over much of the plateau and various excavations at the sites of Sembel, Ona Gudo, Mai Husta, Weki Duba, Adi Segdo, Adi Abieto and Mai Chihot provided key insights into the variation of the settlements in the region. The excavations uncovered architectural remains and several household units further providing important evidence of daily life including diet, economy, ritual and ideological life, trade and domestic activities. Two phases of settlement history have been understood in the Greater Asmara Area, with both the earlier and later phases particularly demonstrating the nature of social organization in the region.

Dates from the archaeological sites of Sembel, Mai-Hutsa, Ona Gudo range from the 9th century B.C. to the 4th century B.C. implying the earlier phases of the settlements can be understood from these sites. Similarly, radio carbon dates from Mai Chihot site provide perspectives on the later phases of the 1st millennium B.C. settlements in the Asmara plateau. Dates from Mai Chihot fall within the spectrum of 300 B.C. to 220 B.C. and the interpretation is further corroborated by the very different material culture and architecture at the site.

The settlements in general represent an agro-pastoral society living in communities of varying size from scattered homesteads to villages and small towns with a high regional population density. The settlements in the Asmara Plateau are characterized by few or little evidence of architectural features making them distinct from ceremonial or ritual centers like Matara and Keskese which flourished in the mid-1st millennium B.C. The settlement history, especially in the main settlement phases is marked by a high degree of egalitarianism and thus far with few signs of social or political differentiation, perhaps a characteristic that arises partly out of pastoral roots.

As far as diet is concerned, the communities relied heavily on domesticated animals where sheep, goats and cattle provided the bulk of the diet. The diet was supplemented by mammals, domestic chicken and game birds from the natural surroundings in sites like Mai Chihot. Moreover, macro-botanical remains that were recovered from domestic food preparation areas point that the communities were fully agro-pastoral during the earliest occupation of the region, planting crops such as emmer, bread wheat, lentils and linseed early on, and adding taf towards the mid- 1st millennium B.C.

The communities that flourished in the Asmara plateau by the 1st millennium B.C. also distinctively developed an extensive network of gold mining as communities were located nearby gold mines. Evidence from Ona Gudo and Weki Duba reveal the demographic complexity resultant of the exploitation of the gold mines. The manufacture of bull´s head fashioned out of chipped and ground stones also united the communities around ritual and ideological manifestations. The objects are commonly scattered over the central part of the Asmara plateau between 700-500 B.C.

In conclusion, the claims that peoples of the highlands of Eritrea owed their cultural genesis to interactions with the peoples of the South Arabian Peninsula of the Nile basin are not reflected in the Asmara plateau. The majority of the communities in the Asmara Plateau grew in an organic manner and evidence for monumental architecture, epigraphic evidence and specialized funerary ceramics is virtually lacking. Only towards the terminal stage of the settlements do we see instances of differences in material culture and architecture that possibly mark social differentiation.

The coming of bronze objects and beads reveal a change linked to the rise of elites in settlements like Matara in the later stages. Such objects were uncovered from Mai Chihot and Mai-Temenai and elaborate funerary treatments reflected in items like bronze tweezers, bracelets, earrings as well as beads which may point to a presence of small elite. Ceramics from Mai-Temenai show affinities to Yeha further demonstrating the rise of elites in the early 4th century B.C.

Yet, these objects are not manifest in the majority of settlements in the Asmara Plateau further compelling archaeologists to conclude that the 1st millennium B.C. communities were urban precursors to the civilizations which started to flourish in the central highlands of Eritrea by mid-1st millennium B.C. The local agency demonstrated in the settlements around Asmara also helped critically envisage the development of social complexity in the Horn of Africa during the period, a phenomenon that for long was ascribed to external influences.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

‘Now we are safe, but I don’t know what will happen next.’ Maria Gerth-Niculescu March 31, 2022 There is only one referral hospital in Ethiopia’s northeastern Afar region, and its doctors are overwhelmed. Patients have been arriving with bullet wounds and blast injuries in recent weeks. A lack of beds means many end up on bare mattresses on the ground. “We don’t know who died and who stayed [behind],” said Mouhedin Ahmed, a patient at Dubti General Hospital. He was hit by a mortar while fleeing an attack on his village by rebels from the Tigray region, who launched an offensive in Afar in mid-January. Ethiopia’s government declared a unilateral truce with the Tigrayan forces last week, promising to facilitate aid into Tigray; a months-long government blockade has left millions of people there bereft of health supplies and facing extreme food shortages. • What you need to know about the conflict in Afar? • 300,000 people have been displaced since Tigrayan forces launched a mid-January offensive. • Artillery strikes have destroyed homes and killed an unknown number of civilians. • Eritrean refugees living in Afar have been impacted by the conflict. • Tigrayans living in Afar have been rounded up into detention centres. • Aid organisations are struggling to assist people because of insecurity and attacks on their convoys. Yet efforts to end the war and ramp up humanitarian aid will be complicated by the situation in Afar, where militias that fought alongside the federal government remain locked in conflict with neighbouring Tigray. Local officials in Afar – which is now the main conflict front in Ethiopia’s ever-shifting 17-month civil war – say Tigrayan forces are currently occupying half a dozen counties in their region. The officials say 300,000 people have been uprooted since January. On 28 March, Tigrayan rebels confirmed that they were observing a “temporary cessation of hostilities”, to give the truce a chance. Yet Tigray spokesman Kindeya Gebrehiwot told The New Humanitarian on 30 March that its forces remain in “some parts” of Afar. If Tigrayan rebels maintain their positions, Afar leaders and communities may hesitate to allow the passage of aid convoys into Tigray. Afar wields power because the only overland corridor made available to Tigray-bound convoys passes through the region. Further fighting could also constrain aid operations within Afar, which have already been suspended following attacks on food convoys by unknown assailants. Malnutrition cases are now rising and supplies are running out at hospitals. The conflict has impacted other groups in Afar too. Eritrean refugees in the region were forced to flee attacks, while local Tigrayans have been rounded up in detention centres or have fled to Tigray amid reports of massacres. • Artillery strikes and dangerous journeys Both sides blame each-other for starting the conflict. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – which rules Tigray and leads the rebellion – says Afar forces and an Eritrean-supported militia made incursions into their region prior to the offensive. Afar residents told The New Humanitarian that Tigray’s forces invaded without provocation, encircling towns in northern parts of the region and firing rockets that destroyed homes and killed civilians – especially the elderly unable to flee. “The Tigrayans attacked us a lot, they killed many men, youth, even teenagers,” 30-year-old Fatouma Ali told The New Humanitarian on a mid-March visit to Afar. Ali said she managed to escape the town of Abala, which is next to the Tigray border. 39-year-old Afar militiaman Hussen Mohammed suffered bullet injuries while fighting in early March. The Afar conflict represents the latest twist in a wider war that began in November 2020, following tension between Addis Ababa and the TPLF. The Tigrayan party was the main force in Ethiopian national politics until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018. After the government’s initial military campaign failed, it placed Tigray under a siege. A mid-2021 offensive by the TPLF-aligned Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) then sought to break the blockade by pushing into neighbouring regions, including Afar. The rebels eventually retreated late last year under a hail of government drone strikes. But as fighting between the TDF and Addis Ababa subsided, friction between Afar and Tigray spiralled into a full-scale conflict. “Shelters made from strips of plastic sheeting do little to protect occupants from some of the hottest temperatures on earth.” Few were ready when the TDF arrived, said 18-year-old Abdallah Umar from Afar’s Berhale district. “They attacked us early in the morning, some were still sleeping,” he said. “There were many people in the village; some were killed and others escaped”. Those displaced embarked on perilous journeys. Some died of thirst in Afar’s punishing heat, while others suffered fatal falls in rock-strewn mountains. Scattered families ended up in different towns. Many have not heard from each other since. Displacement camps offer safety but little comfort. At a site in Afdera town – just south of the main conflict front – shelters made from strips of plastic sheeting do little to protect occupants from some of the hottest temperatures on earth. Food at displacement sites is also in short supply. At another camp in the town of Silsa, some residents ate only flatbread for a recent evening meal. Flour was shared around by generous neighbours – the first responders in so many crises. “The response in Afar is also constrained by a lack of funding and the limited presence of aid organisations.” The UN’s emergency aid coordination body (OCHA) says relief supplies have been distributed to some of those in need in Afar. But it says its work in the region is hampered by insecurity and difficult mountain terrain. The response in Afar is also constrained by a lack of funding and the limited presence of aid organisations, which are stretched across three conflict-hit northern regions where more than nine million people need assistance. The need remains highest in Tigray, where no humanitarian convoy has reached since mid-December, even as hundreds of thousands of people face famine-like conditions, according to the UN. TPLF scepticism in the government’s truce is already growing. The lack of aid in Tigray has major consequences: Households are cutting health and education costs just to afford a single meal per day; cancer patients can’t get treatment at drug-starved hospitals; airstrike victims bleed out because doctors don’t have gauze. • Eritrean refugees and detained Tigrayans In Afar, it isn’t only the local population that needs assistance. The recent fighting has also impacted some 37,000 Eritrean refugees who were settled around Berhale town, which UN officials said was attacked by the TDF on 3 February. The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, set up a temporary camp after the refugees fled. But the facility – close to Semera, the regional capital – can only host 1,700 people. Large numbers of refugees remain unaccounted for. “Now we are safe, but I don’t know what will happen next,” said Meriam Ali, a refugee living in the temporary camp who described giving birth while escaping Berhale. “Many people are missing, families were trapped there,” she added. This isn’t the first time Eritrean refugees have been attacked during the wider civil war. Two camps were destroyed in Tigray last year, and their residents were abused by both the TDF and Eritrean soldiers who had crossed the border to support Abiy’s forces. 18-year-old Abdallah Umar joined a militia group in Afar after his village near Barhale town was attacked. He was shot then while fighting. “Refugees have been the unintended target of what is happening in the conflict”, said Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR’s country representative in Ethiopia. He added that the attack in Berhale has had “a huge psychological impact” on the refugees. Also affected by the fighting are Tigrayan civilians who live in Afar. An unknown number are thought to have fled Abala town in December amid reports of massacres carried out against the group by Afar militias. The New Humanitarian could not verify these reports. Some 7,000 Tigrayans in Afar are also currently living at a centre in Semera that Afar officials say was opened to protect Tigrayans from the fighting and from reprisal attacks by militias. Yet a diplomat who visited the centre told The New Humanitarian they had spoken to residents who had not witnessed any fighting and did not know why they were being held. The diplomat asked for their name to be withheld due to the risk of reprisals. The New Humanitarian also spoke to a man from Semera – which has not experienced fighting – who said he was detained at the centre for a week. The site opened in December during a state of emergency that saw Tigrayans arrested across Ethiopia. UNHCR’s Balde described the centre as a displacement camp, adding that the site is overcrowded and has “challenges of water and sanitation”. He said his agency is working with authorities to relocate residents. Tigrayans have also been detained in an industrial park in Semera, according to an Afar-based aid worker and the Tigrayan man from Semera who had friends detained there. Both individuals asked not to be named due to security concerns. The same site is used by relief groups to park trucks and store food supplies, the aid worker added. The New Humanitarian asked Afar officials for access to the complex but received no response. • Outgunned but still fighting Local anger in Afar is not only directed at the TDF. Many residents are also frustrated with the federal government, whose soldiers are physically present in the region but have not provided support to the militias since January. That wasn’t the case last year when the Tigray conflict first spilled over into Afar. As the TDF tried to capture a crucial economic highway in the region – a way to exert pressure on the government – Prime Minister Abiy travelled to the battlefield to command troops. Now, however, Afar fighters say they have been forgotten, left to combat the well-armed TDF with little more than ageing Kalashnikov rifles and their knowledge of the hardscrabble terrain. “I don’t know why they are keeping silent,” said 56-year-old militamen Idriss Mohammed, who spoke from the village of Gudi Koma, some 25 kilometres from the frontline. “Until now, we haven’t received help from the federal army,” he added. Two women sit on a mattress at Dubti General Hospital in Afar. The health centre has been overwhelmed by patients with serious injuries in recent weeks. Idriss said militias account for the majority of casualties in the past three months of conflict. Yet fighters who spoke to The New Humanitarian seemed in no hurry to throw in the towel. It is unclear if Addis Ababa’s new truce will change their minds. “My brothers and sisters are dying… so I need to go back and fight,” said 18-year-old Umar from Berhale district. He lay on a hospital gurney with an arm injury at a clinic near Semera. “I won’t stay still once I recover,” Umar added. His view was shared by 39-year-old fighter Hussen Mohammed, who suffered bullet injuries to both his legs while fighting in early March. “They attacked us in our region,” Mohammed said. “We will not leave them our land.” ~~~~`~~~~~~~~~~~ * A 15-year-old girl sits at home after sustaining an injury during recent fighting in Ethiopia’s Afar region. 300,000 people have been displaced in the region since January. (Tiksa Negeri/REUTERS) SEMERA, Ethiopia * 39-year-old Afar militiaman Hussen Mohammed suffered bullet injuries while fighting in early March. “Our objective was to defend our land,” he told The New Humanitarian. Maria Gerth-Niculescu/TNH0 * 18-year-old Abdallah Umar joined a militia group in Afar after his village near Barhale town was attacked. He was then shot while fighting. Maria Gerth-Niculescu/TNH * Two women sit on a mattress at Dubti General Hospital in Afar. The health centre has been overwhelmed by patients with serious injuries in recent weeks. Maria Gerth-Niculescu/TNH

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online