From the historian's notes

Aksum, 340

Ethiopia · Sub-Saharan Africa · March 340 · spring (dry)

What it was medium

a royal city of stone palaces and carved granite stelae, capital of a trading empire that reaches the Red Sea; its population is unknownthe Aksumite kingdom's capital since around the 1st century

That year

• A royal conversion told through money: Aksum is one of very few states of its age to strike its own coins, in gold, silver and bronze, and they now carry a cross Ezana's reign, around 330–350 higha kingdom changing faith in public
• Frumentius, a Syrian Christian who arrived as a shipwrecked boy, serves as the first bishop, later remembered as Abba Salama the 330s–340s highone man, a whole church to follow
• Ivory, incense and gold go out through the port of Adulis to Roman Egypt, Arabia and India; Indian cotton, Roman glass and wine come in ongoing highthe reason the city is rich

Who held it medium

the Kingdom of AksumKing Ezanathe king has become a Christian, baptised by the Syrian Frumentius, whom Athanasius of Alexandria consecrated as the first bishop of Aksum; the cross is replacing the disc and crescent on the coinage

Its name medium

Aksum (Ge'ez)Written in Ge'ez, which begins to mark vowels in exactly this reign; Greek on the coins and in royal inscriptions

The date, there low

unknownregnal years; no fixed era is known to be in useThe sun and the seasons; the agricultural year turns on the rains.

Money low

Aksumite coinage in gold, silver and bronzeunknownunknown: bronze for the market, gold for the long-distance trade

Weather medium

March: the end of the long dry season, warm days and cool nights; the small rains may begin

Things

Objectsgold, silver and bronze coins, the new ones marked with a cross; elephant ivory for export; frankincense and myrrh; inscribed stone thronesFoodbarley, wheat and teff; honey; beer brewed from grainClothimported Indian cotton; linen; leatherGetting aboutdonkeys and mules; caravans to AdulisIn the airincense; wood smoke in highland air; dust of the dry season

What she'd hear

Ge'ez is the kingdom's language; Greek is the language of trade and of the royal inscriptions; travellers from Egypt and Arabia bring their own.

Where she could stand

• the stelae field — carved granite stelae, some cut to look like many-storeyed houses with false doors and windows
• an elite stone residence — walls of rubble and timber in the Aksumite 'monkey-head' style, the beam ends showing
• the market — Red Sea goods, ivory, salt and coins changing hands
• the road toward Adulis — the caravan road down to the port, about a week's travel

Researched for this card · confidence medium