Kingdom of Aksum

===Early history===
Before the establishment of Axum, the Tigray plateau of northern Ethiopia was home to a kingdom known as [[Dʿmt]]. Archaeological evidence shows that the kingdom was influenced by [[Sabaeans]] from modern-day Yemen; scholarly consensus had previously been that Sabaeans had been the founders of Semitic civilization in Ethiopia, though this has now been refuted, and their influence is considered to have been minor.<ref name="Munro-Hay57">{{Cite book|url=http://www.dskmariam.org/artsandlitreature/litreature/pdf/aksum.pdf|title=Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity|last=Munro-Hay|first=Stuart|publisher=University Press|year=1991|location=Edinburgh|page=57|access-date=February 1, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123223427/http://www.dskmariam.org/artsandlitreature/litreature/pdf/aksum.pdf|archive-date=January 23, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Efn| According to Munro-Hay, "The arrival of Sabaean influences does not represent the beginning of Ethiopian civilisation.... Semiticized Agaw peoples are thought to have migrated from south-eastern Eritrea possibly as early as 2000 BC, bringing their 'proto-Ethiopic' language, ancestor of Geʽez and the other Ethiopian Semitic languages, with them; and these and other groups had already developed specific cultural and linguistic identities by the time any Sabaean influences arrived."<ref name="Munro-Hay57" />}}<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.addistribune.com/Archives/2003/01/17-01-03/Let.htm|title=Let's Look Across the Red Sea I|last=Pankhurst|first=Richard K. P.|date=January 17, 2003|newspaper=Addis Tribune|access-date=February 1, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060109162335/http://www.addistribune.com/Archives/2003/01/17-01-03/Let.htm|archive-date=January 9, 2006|author-link=Richard Pankhurst (academic)}}</ref> The Sabaean presence likely lasted only for a matter of decades, but their influence on later Aksumite civilization included the adoption of [[Ancient South Arabian script]], which developed into [[Geʽez script]], and [[Ancient Semitic religion]].<ref name= Munro6162>{{cite book |last= Munro-Hay|first= Stuart|date= 1991|title= Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity|location= Edinburgh|publisher= Edinburgh University Press|pages= 61–62|isbn= 0748601066}}</ref>

The initial centuries of Aksum's development, transitioning from a modest regional center to a significant power, remain largely obscure. Stone Age artifacts have been unearthed at [[Lioness of Gobedra|Gobedra]], two kilometers west of [[Aksum]]. Excavations on Beta Giyorgis, a hill to the northwest of Aksum, validate the pre-Aksumite roots of a settlement in the vicinity of Aksum, dating back to approximately the 7th to 4th centuries B.C. Further evidence from excavations in the Stele Park at the heart of Aksum corroborates continuous activity in the area from the outset of the common era. Two hills and two streams lie on the east and west expanses of the city of Aksum; perhaps providing the initial impetus for settling this area.<ref name="users.clas.ufl.edu">[http://users.clas.ufl.edu/sterk/junsem/haas.pdf Archived copy] ufl.edu {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329065343/http://users.clas.ufl.edu/sterk/junsem/haas.pdf |date=2018-03-29 }}</ref><ref name="whc.unesco.org">{{Cite web|url=http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/15|title = Aksum}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Uhlig |first1=Siegbert |title=Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C |pages=173}}</ref>

Archeological evidence suggests that the Aksumite polity arose between 150 B.C. and 150 A.D. Small scale district "kingdoms" denoted by very large nucleated communities with one or more elite residences appears to have existed in the early period of the kingdom of Aksum, and here Stuart Munro-Hay concludes that; "Quite probably, the kingdom was a confederacy, one which was led by a district-level king who commanded the allegiance of other petty kings within the Axumite realm. The ruler of the Axumite kingdom was thus 'King-of-Kings' — a title often found in inscriptions of this period. There is no evidence that a single royal lineage has yet emerged, and it is quite possible that at the death of a King-of-Kings, a new one would be selected from among all the kings in the confederacy, rather than through some principle of primogeniture."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Uhlig |first1=Siegbert |title=Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C |pages=181}}</ref><ref>S. C. Munro-Hay (1991) ''Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity''. Edinburgh: University Press. p. 40. {{ISBN|0748601066}}</ref>