The Kingdom of Aksum: Origins, State, and Trade

The Kingdom of Aksum developed in the highlands of what are now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, roughly between the first and seventh centuries CE, its antecedents tracing back to the kingdom of D'mt, a pre-Aksumite polity of the tenth to fifth centuries BCE influenced by contacts with South Arabia. The Ge'ez language became the classical and liturgical language of the region, showing influences from ancient South Arabian epigraphic script, and pre-Aksumite settlements such as Yeha, with its seventh-century-BCE Sabaean-style temple, document the gradual evolution from D'mt toward fully developed Aksumite civilization, a transition placed roughly between the fourth and first centuries BCE.