:558 REPORT— 1893. 



possible that these very caves above Teha may have been the origin of 

 the term. 



Aksum is about forty miles inland from Yeha, and after the destruction 

 of Ava was for many centuries the capital of the Aksumite kings, and 

 subsequently of the emperors of Abyssinia. In subsequent years Aksum 

 -was abandoned as the political centre of the country, and gave place to 

 Gondar, and now to Ankoba in Shoa ; but it has always remained as the 

 religious capital of Abyssinia, the sacred city of the Ethiopians. Owing 

 to the disturbed state of the country we were only able to spend ten days 

 there, instead of two months, as we had originally intended; but in those 

 ten days we were able to amass a large quantity of valuable archfeological 

 material ; to take squeezes of the various early Ethiopian inscriptions, 

 some of which had only been indifferently copied before, and others are 

 new to science ; to take photographs of the various ruins still standing ; 

 and to make a few excursions in the neighbourhood. 



I can only give here the actual results of our work, and say what the 

 objects we found definitely prove : First, the long line of monoliths 

 form an excessively interesting study in rude stone monuments. We 

 Tiave at Aksum the monolith in all its several stages of development, from 

 the rudest unhewn stone stuck in the ground like those at Yeha ; then 

 we have one with notches on it, another divided into storeys with beams 

 carved thereon ; and finally the highly finished monolith, with an altar at 

 its base, a door carved above this, and nine storeys represented on the 

 stone with imitation windows, and divided from one another by beams 

 which are pIso cut in the stone : these nine storeys culminate in a repre- 

 sentation of the heavenly luminary, and point to what the worship wa3 

 which originated them, namely, the old Sabaean sun-worship ; and these 

 decorated monoliths represent the Bethel, or house of God, in its most 

 finished conception. The altars below are of very finished work, and 

 were made to fit tightly on to the monolith : one is surrounded with a well- 

 inown Himyaritic pattern, and has holes in the centre for the reception 

 of the blood of the slaughtered victims ; another has steps in it and 

 receptacles for the blood, carved in the representation of Greek vases, 

 with channels cut for the blood to run down each of the steps on to the 

 ground. There is no doubt about it that at Aksum existed a form of 

 Mithraic worship which came from Southern Arabia, and was introduced 

 "by the Himyarite merchants, who traded with the interior for ivory, gold, 

 and other rare produce valued in the ancient market. 



There are about seventy of these monoliths in and around Aksum, 

 some elaborately worked, others mere unhewn stones. Two of the largest, 

 decorated like the one above described, with an imitation door and 

 storeys, are fallen and broken into colossal fragments : they are both con- 

 siderably larger than the standing one, and must have been very imposing 

 objects when erect. Another monolith, 27 feet high, and presumably of 

 later date, shows a curious Greco- Egyptian influence in its decoration : 

 it had a representation of a Greek tomb or temple in antis at the top, 

 supported by an Ionic column made in the form of a lotus, with the two 

 little ivy leaves on either side so characteristic of Greek art in the first 

 centuries before and after Chi-ist. This Greek influence at Aksum is 

 especially remarkable, and may be easily accounted for by the Greek 

 influence and enterprise which were felt in the Red Sea after the conquests 

 of the Ptolemies and the opening out of commerce. Adnlis was the 

 port of this commerce, and Aksum seems to have been the capital of the 



