A recent study re-examining two churches in northeast Africa sheds light on the spread of Christianity and Islam in the region. As a result of this most recent excavation, archaeologists have identified some of the oldest securely dated churches in the Kingdom of Aksum.
Using modern techniques, including radiocarbon dating, a team led by Gabriele Castiglia of the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, has collected new data on two churches located in the Aksumite port of Adulis (now in present-day Eritrea).
One of the churches, an elaborate cathedral near the center of the city with remains of a baptistery, was built between AD 400 and 535. C., the researchers found. The second, located to the east of the city and with a ring of columns that would have supported a dome, was erected in 480–625 CE. Those dates make the churches some of the oldest securely dated churches in the Aksumite Kingdom, and the oldest known outside the heart of the capital. The findings were published this month in the journal Antiquity. The churches were originally excavated in 1868 and 1907, respectively.
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The Kingdom of Aksum was an ancient great power in northeast Africa. In the first millennium, the Aksumite Kingdom ruled much of the northern Horn of Africa, from Ethiopia to Arabia. In the 4th century, the Aksumite leader, King Ezana, converted to Christianity. The spread of Christianity was not the result of a single factor such as a mandate, but rather reflected a diverse influence among a converting nation.
Although the churches demonstrate a relatively rapid spread of Christianity through the Kingdom of Aksum, the buildings themselves include elements from different traditions. The domed church, for example, seems to have been inspired by Byzantine churches, while the cathedral was built on a large platform reflecting the Aksumite tradition.
During the later arrival of Islam in the Aksumite Kingdom, Adulis went through a period of gradual decline that left the churches unused. The cathedral, however, was reappropriated as a Muslim cemetery. The continued use of these sacred spaces also shows that the region’s conversion from Christianity to Islam was a multicultural phenomenon that blended local customs and incoming religious practices.
Taken together, these two churches indicate diversity in aesthetic traditions, which occurred amid gradual changes in religious practices in the Horn of Africa.
