CHESTER R. CAIN Animal Exploitation in Northern Ethiopia in the First Millennium AD: Zooarchaeology at Axum     LEFT: A view of Stele Park in Axum.

Throne base for a statue. Zooarchaeology 'lab' at Axum.

The British Institute in Eastern Africa conducted excavations between 1993 & 1997 at ancient Axum, the capital of the first millennium AD state in the northern Ethiopian Highlands. During the 1996 and 1997 field seasons, I joined the team to study the faunal remains from these excavations that explored both mortuary monuments and non-elite occupations areas. I am using the data in my dissertation to understand local subsistence and domestic economy in the occupation areas of Axum. The significance of animals and subsistence has been largely ignored in previous archaeological projects at Axumite sites. Other areas of Axumite culture being explored by the British Institute team are the use of plants in the domestic economy, the local use of exotic luxury goods, clarification of the ceramic sequence for this culture, local craft production, and the Later Stone Age antecedents to the Axumite economy. My results indicate that the Axumite economy was largely dependent on domesticated animals. Although the majority of remains come from cattle, some sheep, goat, and chicken were exploited. I have also identified occasional finds of fish, wild bird, cat, dog, domestic equid, and wild bovids. I have not been able to demonstrate changes related to the transition from the Pre-Axumite society to the Axumite society. Rather, I believe that various areas of the Axumite were specialized: having varying amounts of connection to food production, of non-subsistence economic activities, and of provisioning of animal products. More info about Axum can be found at www.biw.co.uk/aksum.