Near Zula, on the Red Sea coast, Eritrea
Adulis
1st century to the early 7th (a possible gap, and churches late in the span)
Five kilometres from the Red Sea, Adulis was the port the highland kingdoms used. A copied inscription has a king sacrificing there to Zeus, Ares, and Poseidon, and does not give his name. The churches, on new radiocarbon, belong to the sixth and early seventh centuries.
Why this is extraordinary
Adulis stood about 5 kilometres inland from the Red Sea, south of a seasonal river, the Haddas, which may once have joined the town to the coast and to the highlands. The archaeological area is about 30 to 40 hectares. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, in the first century, calls it a fair-sized village ruled by a sovereign named Zoskales, and lists the trade. Later writers call it the harbour of the Adulites and a naval station. By the sixth century it is the port an Aksumite king uses. The same place, in the earlier pages, can be read as a port of coastal people, and only later as Aksum’s door.
A traveller in about 520 copied an inscription at the town, the Monumentum Adulitanum. What he wrote down is two texts run together. One belongs to Ptolemy III of Egypt, who ruled from 246 to 221 BC. The other is an Aksumite inscription, perhaps of the third century, cut on a stone throne. The royal name at the start is missing. The text says the king came to Adulis in his 27th year to sacrifice to Zeus, Ares, and Poseidon. Those are Greek names for gods of sky, war, and sea. The copy is the evidence. The stone is not in the photograph, and the preamble that would name the king is gone. A sacrifice to a sky god is a religious fact in a text. It is not a measured sunrise.
Churches are the late chapter. New radiocarbon work dates two early Christian churches to the sixth and early seventh centuries, with more than one building phase. An older monument called the Ara del Sole, a massive substructure with a church on top, was argued a century ago to be earlier than the church. Dating pieces for that substructure did not survive the old excavation. Similar highland basilicas are estimated from the early sixth to the late seventh century. In the 2011 to 2013 trenches, a shell from a domestic layer gave a calibrated range of AD 140 to 330, and a charcoal sample under a wall gave a terminus after the late fourth or early fifth century. A survey date on the southwestern surface falls in the first to third centuries. The same survey could not say whether the town grew without a break or was empty for a while between the first and the fourth century. That gap, if it is a gap, is the chronological dispute. The port itself is not.
Why it matters
If the town was empty between the first and the fourth century, the early village and the Aksumite port are two occupations, and the inscription has to sit in one of them. If the town was continuous, Adulis is one long harbour, coastal and then Aksumite, with a change of gods you can watch.
The photograph is an open trench. The inscription and the churches are not identified in that frame. The pin is the site near Zula.
Photo tour
1 photograph, unedited. On a phone, swipe the row. Choose one to look closely.
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What is still unexplained
These sit beside the consensus account, with the same visual weight. None of them is marked solved.
Location and dating
- Location
- Adulis, about 5 kilometres inland near Zula and Afta, south of the Haddas. The pin is 15.264 north, 39.661 east. The area is about 30 to 40 hectares.
- Period label
- Current consensus — open to revision Trade noted in the first-century Periplus. Churches in the sixth and early seventh centuries. A possible interruption between the first and the fourth century is unresolved. The inscription’s Aksumite portion is perhaps third century, and its royal name is missing.
- How this dating was done
- Radiocarbon on shell and charcoal, pottery comparison, and the literary dates of the Periplus and of the traveller who copied the inscription around 520. The gods’ names are in that copy. They are not an archaeoastronomy azimuth.
- What could change it
- A sequence of dates through the southwestern sector, including any sterile layer, would confirm or close the gap. A stone of the inscription, if it still exists, would separate the Ptolemaic text from the Aksumite one.
What is actually there
- The site is about 5 kilometres inland and about 30 to 40 hectares.
- The Periplus calls it a fair-sized village under Zoskales.
- The copied inscription joins a Ptolemy III text to an Aksumite text with the king’s name missing.
- The sacrifice named is to Zeus, Ares, and Poseidon, in the king’s 27th year.
- Churches date to the sixth and early seventh centuries.
- No gate azimuth is published.
Open questions
| Question | Status |
|---|---|
| Was the town empty for a time between the first and the fourth century? | Open. The survey says it cannot tell. The trenches have early shells and later walls, not yet a continuous stack. |
| Which gods did the Greek names stand for? | Open. The copy says Zeus, Ares, and Poseidon. It does not give the local names, and it does not give the king’s. |
The current narrative
Where publication stands today. It is the best-supported reading, and it is open to revision. It is not a verdict.
The current narrative — open to revision
One long harbour, coastal and then Aksumite
Adulis was a Red Sea port from the early centuries AD into the seventh, first among coastal people and then as Aksum’s harbour. The churches are the late religious layer. A gap is not required.
What supports this
- The Periplus, later historians, and the traveller of about 520 all know a port here.
- Radiocarbon hits the second to third centuries and the sixth to early seventh.
- The area of 30 to 40 hectares is a town, not a camp.
What pushes back
- The survey could not exclude a break between the first and the fourth century.
- Early and late masonry differ, which the excavators read as a change through time that might include a pause.
- Shell dates can be pulled by the ocean’s carbon, so the early end needs care.
What would settle it
It is the current narrative because the texts and the dates overlap more than they separate. The unclosed gap is why the room stays open.
Emerging narratives
Other published readings. Each may be right. None is adopted here unless the evidence carries it.
An emerging narrative
An early village, a pause, then an Aksumite port
The first-century village and the sixth-century churches are two occupations. The inscription’s king belongs to the second beginning, not to an unbroken town.
What supports this
- The survey leaves a break between the first and the fourth century as a live option.
- Different wall styles were already noticed a century ago.
- A church on an undated platform can mark a restart rather than a renovation.
What pushes back
- No sterile layer is published here as the proof of abandonment.
- A shell at AD 140 to 330 and a wall after the late fourth sit close enough that a pause could be only a missing sample.
- The literary port does not go silent in a way that demands an empty town.
What would settle it
It takes the survey’s own doubt seriously. It does not yet have the empty layer.
Should the current view be reevaluated?
Open to revision
Adulis as the Red Sea port holds. The churches’ centuries hold on the new dates. Whether the town was continuous, and which king sacrificed to the three Greek-named gods, are open because the name is missing and the middle centuries are thin.
What drives this
- A copied inscription that mixes two texts and omits the king’s name.
- A survey that cannot decide on a gap.
- Church dates in the sixth and early seventh centuries, and an undated platform under an older church.
This is the museum’s own weighing of the evidence. It is not a visitor vote, and it is separate from the slider.
Weigh it yourself
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If the contested reading is right
What would follow if a reading that is not the consensus turned out to be true, and what could settle it. This explains the stakes. It does not adopt the reading.
The inscription records a sacrifice to sky, war, and sea gods
Before the churches, a king marked his 27th year at Adulis with a sacrifice under Greek divine names, whether or not those names translated local ones.
Why it is still worth a test
The original stone, or a second copy that separates the two texts.
Sources
- Towards a chronology of the Eritrean Red Sea port of Adulis Journal of African Archaeology
- An archaeology of conversion? Evidence from Adulis Antiquity
Image credits
- A trench at Adulis. Stone and earth balks, red strings for the survey. The file places the work on the coastal site south of Massawa. It does not name which building is in the frame. . David Stanley, CC BY 2.0. Shown unedited.