|
Malao
Malao ( grc, Μαλαὼ) was an ancient proto-Somali port in present-day Somaliland. The town was situated on the site of what later became the city of Berbera. It was a key trading member involved in the Red Sea-Indian Ocean commerce in the early centuries CE. The town also maintained an important monetary market for merchants exchanging goods in the currencies of the Roman Empire. History and trade The ancient port city of Malao was positioned in the historic Somali city of Berbera. It is mentioned in the 1st century CE ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'': Other than Arabia, goods were also purchased and transported to the Greek, Roman and Egyptian empires. Malao gained its high level of trade from its nexus position, by being the closest African port to Arabia and the more peaceful nature of the city, as compared to other potential trade areas. See also * Mundus *Sarapion *Opone *Mosylon *Essina *Hannassa Hannassa is a proto-Somali historic town in southern Somalia. Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Periplus Of The Erythraean Sea
The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' ( grc, Περίπλους τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης, ', modern Greek '), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice Troglodytica along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along Horn of Africa, the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, including the modern-day Sindh region of Pakistan and southwestern regions of India. The text has been ascribed to different dates between the first and third centuries, but a mid-first-century date is now the most commonly accepted. While the author is unknown, it is clearly a first-hand description by someone familiar with the area and is nearly unique in providing accurate insights into what the ancient Hellenic world knew about the lands around the Indian Ocean. Name A periplus ( grc-gre, περίπλους, ''períplous'', ."a sailing-around ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avalites
Avalites ( grc, Αὐαλίτης or ) was a small port in what is today Somalia that dominated trade in the Red Sea and Mediterranean. Location There has been a series of disputes as to the location of Avalites According to the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'', Avalites was located west of Adulis near the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. Now called Zeila, it is located in western Somaliland, near the border with Djibouti. Avalites was a small port located in the east of Barbara, very close to neighbouring Arabian city-states such as Muza and Ocelis. However, early Arab historians disagree with ''Periplus, they say'' that Avalites wasn’t located in the Barbra region, but it was located in the heart of Axum, Assab. ''Periplus'' mentions that Avalites was the first port in the Barbar region, followed by Malao, Mundus and Mosylon. Jewish traveller Benjamin Tudela identified Avalites as a possible location of Havila. Origins The people of Avalites were probably proto-Somalis, ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berbera
Berbera (; so, Barbara, ar, بربرة) is the capital of the Sahil region of Somaliland and is the main sea port of the country. Berbera is a coastal city and was the former capital of the British Somaliland protectorate before Hargeisa. It also served as a major port of the Ifat, Adal and Isaaq sultanates from the 13th to 19th centuries. In antiquity, Berbera was part of a chain of commercial port cities along the Somali seaboard. During the early modern period, Berbera was the most important place of trade in the Somali Peninsula. It later served as the capital of the British Somaliland protectorate from 1884 to 1941, when it was replaced by Hargeisa. In 1960, the British Somaliland protectorate gained independence as the State of Somaliland and united five days later with the Trust Territory of Somalia (the former Italian Somalia) to form the Somali Republic.Encyclopædia Britannica, ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'', (Encyclopædia Britannica: 2002), p.835 Located s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Somali
Proto-Somalis were the ancient people and ancestors of Somalis The Somalis ( so, Soomaalida 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒆𐒖, ar, صوماليون) are an ethnic group native to the Horn of Africa who share a common ancestry, culture and history. The Lowland East Cushitic Somali language is the shared ... who lived in present-day Somalia. Literature on proto-Somalis largely uses a time-frame pertaining to the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD. History The Land of Punt, Puntites were ancient Cushites who are believed to have traded myrrh, spices, gold, ebony, short-horned cattle, ivory, and frankincense with neighbouring Ancient Egypt and with ancient Mesopotamia through their commercial ports. An Ancient Egyptian expedition sent to Punt by the 18th dynasty Queen Hatshepsut is recorded on the temple reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, during the reign of the Puntite King Parahu and Queen Ati. In the Classical antiquity, classical era, the Macrobians, who have been ancestral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somali People
The Somalis ( so, Soomaalida 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒆𐒖, ar, صوماليون) are an ethnic group native to the Horn of Africa who share a common ancestry, culture and history. The Lowland East Cushitic Somali language is the shared mother tongue of ethnic Somalis, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, and are predominantly Sunni Muslim.Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, ''Culture and Customs of Somalia'', (Greenwood Press: 2001), p.1 They form one of the largest ethnic groups on the African continent, and cover one of the most expansive landmasses by a single ethnic group in Africa. According to most scholars, the ancient Land of Punt and its native inhabitants formed part of the ethnogenesis of the Somali people. An ancient historical kingdom where a great portion of their cultural traditions and ancestry has been said to derive from.Egypt: 3000 Years of Civilization Brought to Life By Christine El MahdyAncient perspectives on Egypt By Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosylon
Mosylon ( grc, Μοσυλλόν and Μόσυλον), also known as Mosullon, was an ancient proto-Somali trading center on or near the site that later became the city of Bosaso. History Mosylon was the most prominent emporium on the Red Sea coast, as outlined in the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea''. With its large ships, it handled the bulk of the cinnamon trade arriving from the ports of ancient India. Dioscorides consequently noted that the city became known as the source of the best variety of the spice in the ancient world. A specific species of cinnamon exported from the harbour was known as ''Mosyllitic''. Due to its high quality and rarity at the time in Ancient Rome, the imported cinnamon was typically deposited in the Romans' Royal Treasury. According to classical writers such as Pliny and Herodutus, the inhabitants of Mosylon imported flint glass and glass vessels from Ancient Egypt, unripe grapes from Diospolis, unmilled cloths for the Berberi markets, including t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somaliland
Somaliland,; ar, صوماليلاند ', ' officially the Republic of Somaliland,, ar, جمهورية صوماليلاند, link=no ''Jumhūrīyat Ṣūmālīlānd'' is a ''de facto'' sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still considered internationally to be part of Somalia. Somaliland lies in the Horn of Africa, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, and Somalia to the east.Encyclopædia Britannica, ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'', (Encyclopædia Britannica: 2002), p.835 Its claimed territory has an area of , with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which, as the briefly independent State of Somaliland, united in 1960 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic.''The New Encyclopædia Br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heis (town)
Heis ( so, Xiis, ) is a historic coastal town located in the Sanaag region of Somaliland. The town was important for trade and communication with the Somali interior and was used to export frankincense to Arabia. History Antiquity The site said to be identical with the ancient trading post of Mundus ( grc, Μούνδος) that is described in the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'', an anonymous account by a Greek Alexandrian salesman from the 1st century CE. A large collection of cairns of various types lie near the city. Excavations here have yielded pottery and sherds of Roman glassware from a time between the 1st and 5th centuries. Among these artefacts is high-quality millefiori glass. Dated to 0-40 CE, it features red flower disks superimposed on a green background. Additionally, an ancient fragment of a footed bowl was discovered in the surrounding area. The sherd is believed to have been made in Aswan (300-500 CE) or Lower Nubia (500-600 CE), suggesting early trading tie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Somaliland
The history of Somaliland, a country in the eastern Horn of Africa bordered by the Gulf of Aden, and the East African land mass, begins with human habitation tens of thousands of years ago. It includes the civilizations of Punt, the Ottomans, and colonial influences from Europe and the Middle East. Prehistory Somaliland has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic. During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished. The oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BC. The stone implements from the Jalelo site in the north were also characterized in 1909 as important artefacts demonstrating the archaeological universality during the Paleolithic between the East and the West. According to linguists, the first Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic period from the family's proposed urheimat ("original homeland") in the Nile Valley, or the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opone
Opone ( grc, Οπώνη) was an ancient proto-Somali city situated in the Horn of Africa. It is primarily known for its trade with the Ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Persians, and the states of ancient India. Through archaeological remains, the historic port has been identified with the city of Hafun on the Hafun peninsula in modern-day Northeast Somalia. It is possible that it corresponds to the Land of Punt as known by the ancient Egyptians during the Old, Middle, and New Kingdom. History and trade Opone, like other city states such as Malao, Mundus and Mosylon, came into existence with the collapse of the Macrobian kingdom. Pottery found in Oponean tombs date back to the Mycenaean Kingdom of Greece that flourished between the 16th and 11th century BC. Its major periods of activity were during the 1st century BC and the 3rd to the 5th centuries AD. Opone was mentioned by an anonymous Greek merchant in the 1st century AD ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea''. The town is f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Essina
Essina ( grc, Εσσίνα) was an ancient Proto-Somali emporium located on the southeastern coast of Somalia in the Horn of Africa.Ptolemy's Topography of Eastern Equatorial Africa, by Henry Schlichter Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography © 1891 - pg 443 History Having risen to prominence in the 2nd century CE, Essina was mentioned in Ptolemy's ''Geographia.'' Several modern scholars have positioned the ancient harbour in the vicinity of the early medieval cities of Merca and Barawa in modern-day southern Somalia based on Ptolemy's work. Alternatively, it has been suggested that Essina was buried somewhere along the Benadir coast. However, due to a general lack of excavations in the area, the old city's exact geographical location is unknown. See also *Sarapion *Toniki *Malao *Opone *Mosylon *Mudun * Damo * Heis *Hannassa *Gondershe *Qandala *Miandi Miandi is a proto-Somali small town in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarapion
Sarapion ( grc, Σαράπιον, also spelled Serapion) was an ancient proto-Somali port city in present-day Somalia. It was situated on a site that later became Mogadishu. Sarapion was briefly mentioned in Ptolemy's ''Geographia'' as one of the harbours a trader would encounter after sailing southernly on the Indian Ocean, passing along the way by the ''Market of Spices'' ( Damo) and the emporium of Opone. The town is believed by modern scholars to have been positioned in the vicinity of Mogadishu and Warsheikh in present-day south-central Somalia.Boats of the World: From the Stone Age to Medieval Times By Seán McGrail p. 52 See also *Maritime history of Somalia Maritime history of Somalia refers to the seafaring tradition of the Somali people. It includes various stages of Somali navigational technology, shipbuilding and design, as well as the history of the Somali port cities. It also covers the histori ... References Ancient Somalia City-states African civilizations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
