Mai Adrasha and Its Neighbors

Summary

A team from UCLA in cooperation with the Tigrai Culture and Tourism Agency and the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage of Ethiopia has completed two excavation seasons at the site of Mai Adrasha located about 70 kilometers west of the ancient capital of Aksum. With the information gathered in these excavations, we can now begin to compare Mai Adrasha to neighboring sites and place it within its regional framework. Radiocarbon dates from the first season of excavation yielded dates from the twelfth century BCE to the second century CE, making Mai Adrasha contemporary with nearby Seglamen, Biata Giyorgis, and ancient Aksum. Besides relating Mai Adrasha to neighboring pre-Aksumite and Aksumite sites, being the westernmost Aksumite settlement to be systematically investigated, Mai Adrasha can also be compared to sites further west, potentially as far as Sudan. This paper will outline the results of the first two seasons of excavation and relate Mai Adrasha more broadly to neighboring sites and polities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Regional Connections in Northern Ethiopia and Eritrea: Relationships between the Eastern, Western, and Central Highlands

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15076