Sembel, located in the capital of Asmara, Maekel Region of Eritrea, is East Africa's oldest

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

, dated back to as early as 800

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

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, Oldest African settlement found in Eritrea, BBC News 22 May 2002

Overview

Sembel was the site of a village near Asmara. It was subsequently made a suburb of the capital to its south. Immediately after the

Eritrean War of Independence The Eritrean War of Independence was a war for independence which Eritrean independence fighters waged against successive Ethiopian governments from 1 September 1961 to 24 May 1991. Eritrea was an Italian colony from the 1880s until the ...

, a large government subsidized housing project was constructed in the area. During its construction and that of a nearby

Intercontinental Hotel Intercontinental is an adjective to describe something which relates to more than one continent. Intercontinental may also refer to: * Intercontinental ballistic missile, a long-range guided ballistic missile * InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG ...

, evidence of ancient settlement was found. The National Museum of Eritrea later constructed a building to allow viewing of the excavation. The excavations at Sembel found evidence of an ancient pre-

Aksumite The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in wh ...

civilization in greater Asmara. This Ona urban culture is believed to have been among the earliest pastoral and agricultural communities in the Horn region. Artefacts at the site have been dated to between 800 BC and 400 BC, contemporaneous with other pre-Aksumite settlements in the Eritrean and Ethiopian highlands during the mid-first millennium BC. Additionally, the Ona culture may have had connections with the ancient

Land of Punt The Land of Punt ( Egyptian: '' pwnt''; alternate Egyptological readings ''Pwene''(''t'') /pu:nt/) was an ancient kingdom known from Ancient Egyptian trade records. It produced and exported gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory an ...

. In a tomb in Thebes dated to the reign of Pharaoh Amenophis II (Amenhotep II), long-necked pots similar to those made by the Ona people are depicted as part of the cargo in a ship from Punt.

References

Notes

Sembel - Ona culture
• Schmidt, Peter (2002). " Oldest Africa Settlement found in Eritrea".http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2000297.stm BBC. History of Eritrea Archaeological sites in Eritrea Former populated places in Eritrea {{Eritrea-geo-stub

Overview

See also

References

Notes