Prehistoric Ethiopia
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Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
is considered the area from which
anatomically modern humans Early modern human (EMH) or anatomically modern human (AMH) are terms used to distinguish ''Homo sapiens'' (the only extant Hominina species) that are anatomically consistent with the range of phenotypes seen in contemporary humans from extin ...
emerged. Archeological discoveries in the country's sites have garnered specific fossil evidence of early human
succession Succession is the act or process of following in order or sequence. Governance and politics *Order of succession, in politics, the ascension to power by one ruler, official, or monarch after the death, resignation, or removal from office of ...
, including the hominins ''
Australopithecus afarensis ''Australopithecus afarensis'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago (mya) in the Pliocene of East Africa. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not ...
'' (3.2 million years ago) and ''
Ardipithecus ramidus ''Ardipithecus ramidus'' is a species of australopithecine from the Afar region of Early Pliocene Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago (mya). ''A. ramidus'', unlike modern hominids, has adaptations for both walking on two legs (bipedality) and life in ...
'' (4.4 million years ago). Human settlements in present-day Ethiopia began at least in the
Late Stone Age The Later Stone Age (LSA) is a period in African prehistory that follows the Middle Stone Age. The Later Stone Age is associated with the advent of modern human behavior in Africa, although definitions of this concept and means of studying it ar ...
, and the agricultural revolution took place in the third millennium BCE. Ethnolinguistic groups of Afroasiatic speakers (namely Semitic,
Cushitic The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As o ...
, and
Omotic The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region. The Ge'ez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. They are fairly agglutinative and have com ...
) and Nilo-Saharan speakers—defined by new ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identities—emerged around 2000–1000 BCE.


Archeological findings

One of the most prominent and precursor excavations in Ethiopia was conducted by Gerard Dekker at the Stone Age site of
Melka Kunture Melka Kunture (መልካ ቁንጥሬ) is a Paleolithic site in the upper Awash Valley, Ethiopia. It is located 50 kilometers south of Addis Ababa by road, across the Awash River from the village of Melka Awash. Three waterfalls lie downstream of ...
in 1963. There, he recognized that the exposed layered rock on the bank of a flood-prone river represented a fossil record dating back 1.7 million years. French paleoanthropologist Jean Chavallion conducted a systematic expedition of the site between 1965 and 1995. Several ''
Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...
'' fossils aged 1.5 million – 1.7 million years have been uncovered at the site, as well as cranial fragments of early ''
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
.'' Between 1967 and 1974, the
Omo remains The Omo remains are a collection of homininThis article quotes historic texts that use the terms 'hominid' and 'hominin' with meanings that may be different from their modern usages. This is because several revisions in classifying the great apes h ...
were excavated in the southwestern
Omo Kibish The Omo Kibish Formation or simply Kibish Formation is a geological formation in the Lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia. It is named after the nearby Omo River (Ethiopia), Omo River and is subdivided into four members known as Members I-IV. ...
area and have been dated to the
Middle Paleolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleoli ...
, around 200,000 years ago. In 1974, American paleoanthropologist
Donald Johnson Donald James "Don" Johnson (born September 9, 1968) is an American former professional tennis player who reached the World No. 1 doubles ranking in 2002. Although born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he was raised and learned the sport of tennis i ...
excavated a 3.2-million-year-old early female ''
Australopithecus afarensis ''Australopithecus afarensis'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago (mya) in the Pliocene of East Africa. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not ...
'' (nicknamed "
Lucy Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Luci ...
") in Hadar in the
Awash Valley The Awash (sometimes spelled Awaash; Oromo: ''Awaash'', Amharic: አዋሽ, Afar: ''We'ayot'', Somali: ''Webiga Dir'') is a major river of Ethiopia. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia and empties into a chain of ...
. Ethiopians refer to the fossil as "Dinqnesh". Lucy weighed about 60 pounds and stood three and a half feet tall. Between 1992 and 1994, a team led by paleoanthropologist Tim White discovered the first ''
Ardipithecus ramidus ''Ardipithecus ramidus'' is a species of australopithecine from the Afar region of Early Pliocene Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago (mya). ''A. ramidus'', unlike modern hominids, has adaptations for both walking on two legs (bipedality) and life in ...
'' (nicknamed "
Ardi ARDI is the Access to Research for Development and Innovation program, a partnership between the World Intellectual Property Organization and major scientific and technical publishers. ARDI provides access to nearly 10,000 online journals, books and ...
") fossil in the Middle Awash area of Ethiopia, dating to 4.4 million years ago. Subsequently, 100 fossil specimens of Ardi were uncovered. These hominins lived in
Early Pliocene Early may refer to: History * The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.: ** Early Christianity ** Early modern Europe Places in the United States * Early, Iowa * Early, Texas * Early ...
and were likely omnivores, consuming plants, meat, and fruit but not hard abrasive foods like nuts and tubers. In 2009, scientists formally announced and published their findings on Ardi. Ardi has certain human features—including smaller diamond-shaped canines and some evidence of upright walking—and is said to descend from the predecessor ''
Ardipithecus kadabba ''Ardipithecus kadabba'' is the scientific classification given to fossil remains "known only from teeth and bits and pieces of skeletal bones", originally estimated to be 5.8 to 5.2 million years old, and later revised to 5.77 to 5.54 million ye ...
'', found in the same area. In 2000, scientists led by paleoanthropologist
Zeresenay Alemseged Zeresenay "Zeray" Alemseged (born 4 June 1969) is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist who was the Chair of the Anthropology Department at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, United States. He recently joined the faculty of the Un ...
discovered a veiled 3.3-million-year-old ''Australopithecus afarensis'' baby nicknamed " Selam". Searches continued in 2001 when
Yohannes Haile-Selassie Yohannes Haile-Selassie Ambaye (born 23 February 1961) is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist. An authority on pre-''Homo sapiens'' hominids, he particularly focuses his attention on the East African Rift and Middle Awash valleys.Mangels, John (20 ...
discovered fossils of a 5.2-million-year-old ''Ardipithecus ramidus'' family, from
Aramis René d'Herblay, alias Aramis, is a fictional character in the novels ''The Three Musketeers'' (1844), ''Twenty Years After'' (1845), and ''The Vicomte de Bragelonne'' (1847-1850) by Alexandre Dumas, père. He and the other two musketeers, Atho ...
. Recently, Yohannes has also found fossil specimens of human ancestors in the
Afar Region The Afar Region (; aa, Qafar Rakaakayak; am, አፋር ክልል), formerly known as Region 2, is a regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the paved ...
.


Human settlements


Neolithic Revolution The Neolithic Revolution, or the (First) Agricultural Revolution, was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, making an incre ...

During the
Late Stone Age The Later Stone Age (LSA) is a period in African prehistory that follows the Middle Stone Age. The Later Stone Age is associated with the advent of modern human behavior in Africa, although definitions of this concept and means of studying it ar ...
in 9000 BCE, there were at least two bladelet-making archeological cultures in Greater Ethiopia: the
Wilton culture The Wilton culture is the name given by archaeologists to an archaeological culture which was common to parts of south and east Africa around six thousand years ago, during the Stone Age period. The culture is characterized by a greater number of to ...
(small stone blades) and the Hargeistan (long obsidian bladelet). Humans associated with these cultures were semblance of "Afro-Mediterranean", while there is no
Khoisan Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in t ...
and
Negroid Negroid (less commonly called Congoid) is an obsolete racial grouping of various people indigenous to Africa south of the area which stretched from the southern Sahara desert in the west to the African Great Lakes in the southeast, but also to i ...
population in the region. It is unclear whether or not these people transitioned to
animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...
until their successors. Rock paintings of human and animal figures in
Hararghe Hararghe ( am, ሐረርጌ ''Harärge''; Harari language, Harari: ሀረርጌይ ''Harärgeyi'', Oromo language, Oromo: Harargee, so, Xararge) was a provinces of Ethiopia, province of eastern Ethiopia with its capital in Harar. History Hararg ...
region and
Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
illustrate the domestication of
cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
and crafting of
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
,
hand ax A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a Prehistory, prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. It is made from stone, usually f ...
es, hoes, and grinding stones. This suggests that by the late third millennium BC, rudimentary agriculture commenced in many parts of western Ethiopia. There is evidence of stone hand tools, blade instruments, and drawings in the limestone caves found in
Dire Dawa Dire Dawa ( am, ድሬዳዋ, om, Dirree Dhawaa, 3=Place of Remedy; so, Diridhaba, meaning "where Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", ar, ديري داوا,) is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia and Somali Re ...
. Recent findings suggest that crafting was introduced to Ethiopia from
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
via the Blue Nile Valley. The early inhabitants of Ethiopia began domesticating grains during the
Chalcolithic Age The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and  ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...
(6200–3000 BCE). The development of plough-based agriculture may imply the domestication of cattle around the same time. By the
Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
(3000 BCE), animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys were being domesticated.


Ethnolinguistic diffusion

Linguistic analysis indicates that proto-Ethiopians spoke Hamito-Semitic or
Afroasiatic languages The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
in the third millennium BCE; these languages probably originated from the Eastern
Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...
after its
desertification Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused by ...
. In the 1950s, scholars agreed that only the Afroasiatic language was an ancestor of five major languages: Ancient Egyptian,
Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
, Semitic, and
Cushitic The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As o ...
. Harold Fleming proposed including a sixth language group,
Omotic The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region. The Ge'ez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. They are fairly agglutinative and have com ...
(previously considered a branch of Cushitic), and speculated that the Afroasiatic homeland might be in southwestern Ethiopia. The split between proto-Cushitic and proto-Omotic began by the fourth or fifth millennium BCE, and proto-Semitic separated to
Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
. Inconclusive research suggests the Afroasiatic superfamily began to diffuse by 13,000 BCE, a period of Omotic slight migration southward. I.M Diakonoff surmised Afroasiatic people in Ethiopia were attributed to North Africa, specifically from the Sahara to the
Nile Delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...
and over the
Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a l ...
. Gover Hudson hypothesized that proto–Semitic migrated to
West Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
across
Bab-el-Mandeb The Bab-el-Mandeb (Arabic: , , ) is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Name The strait derives its name from the dangers attendin ...
into
South Arabia South Arabia () is a historical region that consists of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen, yet it has also historically included Najran, Jizan, Al-Bahah, and 'Asi ...
. Also, independent linguistic analysis shows the presence of Semitic speakers in Ethiopia in at least 2000 BCE. Linguistic and cultural fission of proto-Ethiopians occurred in this period. Proto–Ethiopians are classified into five stable groups: # Northern Cushites – known by the ancient Greeks as "
Blemmyes The Blemmyes ( grc, Βλέμμυες, Latin: ''Blemmyae'') were an Eastern Desert people who appeared in written sources from the 7th century BC until the 8th century AD.. By the late 4th century, they had occupied Lower Nubia and established a k ...
" or " Beja", they developed a single dialect cluster called "Bedawie". They lived as nomadic pastoralists in the desert lowland of the
Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. # Central Cushites – they spoke the dialect cluster "
Agaw The Agaw or Agew ( gez, አገው ''Agäw'', modern ''Agew'') are a pan-ethnic identity native to the northern highlands of Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. They speak the Agaw languages, which belong to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic la ...
" and occupied northwestern Ethiopia. Their culture and language are thought to be spoken within an enclave. They are known for the plow cultivation of cereal grains. # Eastern Cushites – they lived southwest of the
Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it i ...
. Their dialects of the
East Cushitic language The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As o ...
were split among two dozen tribes. These people practiced hoe cultivation of cereal grains and tubers, and terraced agriculture advanced for ancient times. They, along with neighboring people in northern
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
, are known for distinct
social organization In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and social groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, s ...
systems with classes recruited through a fixed cycle of grades and intervals. # Semitic speakers of Ethiopia – their origin is generally obscured. By the first millennium BCE, the group was split into two branches: the northern plateau region and the central part of the country. The group consists of seven ethnic clusters with varying characteristics (such as size, customs, and lifestyle). # Omotic speakers in southwest Ethiopia – they practiced hoe cultivation of cereal grains and tubers, and are known for their ritual monarchy. The Omotic is considered the most diversified society, being divided into fifty subgroups with distinct languages and cultures. The
Nilotic peoples The Nilotic peoples are people Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous to the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. ...
of Sudan migrated to Greater Ethiopia in different phases. Pre-Nilotes arrived in Ethiopia about the third millennium BCE. They were mostly agriculturalists who developed the cultivation of
sorghum ''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...
and tuberous plants like
enset ''Ensete ventricosum'', commonly known as enset or ensete, Ethiopian banana, Abyssinian banana, pseudo-banana, false banana and wild banana, is an herbaceous species of flowering plant in the banana family Musaceae. The domesticated form of ...
and yams. Today, they are settled in western parts of Ethiopia namely Berta, Gumuz, and Koma. The second phase of Nilotic migration took place in the first millennium BCE. They are marked by cattle raising, millet cultivation, and dualistic social organization. Their settlement constitutes the western periphery of Ethiopia. The Nilotic represents two tribes, known as
Anyuak The Anyuak, also known as Anyua and Anywaa, are a Luo peoples, Luo Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting parts of East Africa. The Anuak belong to the larger Luo family group. Their language is referred to as Dha-Anywaa. They are primarily found in Gambe ...
and
Nuer Nuer may refer to: * Nuer people * Nuer language The Nuer language (Thok Naath) ("people's language") is a Nilotic language of the Western Nilotic group. It is spoken by the Nuer people of South Sudan and in western Ethiopia (region of Gamb ...
.


Further reading

* * * *


References

{{Reflist History of Ethiopia Prehistoric Africa Neolithic