Dʿmt (Unvocalized
Ge'ez: ደዐመተ, ''DʿMT'' theoretically vocalized as ዳዓማት, *''Daʿamat'' or ዳዕማት, *''Daʿəmat'') was an Ethio-
Sabaean kingdom located in present-day
Eritrea
Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...
and the northern
Tigray
The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...
region of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
. The exact dates of its existence remain unknown. However, a timeframe spanning from the end of the 8th century BC to the 6th century BC is a hypothesis. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive, and very little archaeological work has taken place. As a result, it is not known whether Dʿmt ended as a civilization before the
Kingdom of Aksum
The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...
's early stages, evolved into the Aksumite state, or was one of the smaller states united in the Kingdom of Aksum, possibly around 150 BC.
History
Given the presence of a large temple complex, the capital of Dʿmt may have been present-day
Yeha, in
Tigray Region
The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...
,
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
.
At Yeha, the temple to the god
Ilmuqah is still standing.
The kingdom developed irrigation schemes, used plows, grew
millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae.
Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...
, and made
iron tools and weapons.
Some modern historians including
Stuart Munro-Hay
Stuart Christopher Munro-Hay (21 April 1947 – 14 October 2004) was a British archaeologist, numismatist and Ethiopianist. He studied the culture and history of ancient Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa region and South Arabia, particularly their his ...
,
Rodolfo Fattovich,
Ayele Bekerie,
Cain Felder, and
Ephraim Isaac consider this civilization to be indigenous, although
Sabaean-influenced due to the latter's dominance of the
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...
, while others like Joseph Michels, Henri de Contenson, Tekle-Tsadik Mekouria, and Stanley Burstein have viewed Dʿmt as the result of a mixture of Sabaeans and indigenous peoples.
[Nadia Durrani, ''The Tihamah Coastal Plain of South-West Arabia in its Regional context c. 6000 BC – AD 600 (Society for Arabian Studies Monographs No. 4) ''. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2005, p. 121.] Some sources consider the Sabaean influence to be minor, limited to a few localities, and disappeared after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state.
Archaeologist Rodolfo Fattovich believed that there was a division in the population of Dʿmt and northern
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
due to the kings ruling over the ''
'sb'' (Sabaeans) and the ''
'br'', the 'Reds' and the 'Blacks'.
Fattovich also noted that the known kings of Dʿmt worshipped both South Arabian and indigenous gods named ''
'str'', ''Hbs'', ''Dt Hmn'', ''Rb'', ''Šmn'', ''Ṣdqn'' and ''Šyhn''.
After the fall of Dʿmt, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller unknown successor kingdoms. This lasted until the rise of one of these polities during the first century BC, the
Aksumite Kingdom.
[Pankhurst, Richard K.P. ''Addis Tribune'',]
Let's Look Across the Red Sea I
, January 17, 2003 (archive.org mirror copy)
Known rulers
The following is a list of four known rulers of Dʿmt, in chronological order:
See also
*
History of Eritrea
*
History of Ethiopia
*
Kingdom of Aksum
The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...
*
Land of Punt
References
Sources
*
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dmt
Countries in ancient Africa
5th-century BC disestablishments
States and territories established in the 8th century BC
States and territories disestablished in the 5th century BC
8th-century BC establishments
Former kingdoms