Adulis

Adulis was an ancient city along the Red Sea in the Gulf of Zula, about 40 kilometers (25 mi) south of Massawa. Today, its ruins are found in the modern Eritrean city of Zula.

It was an important trading place, known as an emporium, and was part of the D’mt and later the Kingdom of Aksum. Because of its location, Adulis was close to Greece and the Byzantine Empire, which helped it become a key spot for moving luxury goods and other trade items.

The area around Adulis was also known to ancient civilizations. The ancient Egyptians called this region the Land of Punt, and it might be the same place they recorded as Wddt in the geographical list of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt.

History

Archeological digs at Adulis showed that there was a very old settlement there, dating back to between 1500 BC and 1 AD. Some think Adulis might be the same as a place called Wddt, which old Egyptian records mention.

The Roman writer Pliny the Elder was one of the first Europeans to write about Adulis. He thought the town’s name meant it was founded by escaped slaves from Egypt. He said it was an important trading place for people from nearby lands such as the Troglodytae and Aethiopia. A guide called the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes Adulis as a busy port where things like ivory, hides, and slaves were traded. Roman merchants used this port a lot during the second and third centuries AD.

The city was actually a bit far from the sea, about 20 stades away, with its own separate harbor called “the harbour of the ʿAdulītā”. Even travelers like Cosmas Indicopleustes visited Adulis in 520 AD. He found important inscriptions there, including one about old battles led by a king named Ptolemy Euergetes, who used war elephants in his wars.

We don’t really know when Adulis was finally left. Some think it might have been destroyed by Muslims around the 8th century AD, but the facts are not clear. The port was slowly abandoned, and the power of the nearby kingdom of Axum on the sea faded away.

Archeological excavations

Adulis was one of the first places in the Axumite kingdom to be studied by scientists. In 1840, a French team made a map of the area and marked three buildings they thought were temples. In 1868, people working with a British army leader named Napier looked at Adulis and found the bases of buildings, including what looked like a church from the Byzantine time.

The first careful excavations happened in 1906 by a man named Richard Sundström. He found a big building he called the "palace of Adulis" and some old coins. The next year, an Italian scientist named Roberto Paribeni dug and found more buildings and many homes. He also found lots of pottery, including special jars that came from places near modern Aqaba.

Many years later, in 1961 and 1962, scientists from Ethiopia dug at Adulis and found items that showed links to the later Axumite kingdom. They also found a layer that looked like the place had been damaged, maybe by an attack from Arab people in the middle of the 7th century, though this idea is not fully accepted today.

In the lowest layers, pieces of glass cups were found that looked like ones from ancient Egypt. One special cup found there had a picture of a saint named Menas with two camels, and it may have been brought by someone visiting from Egypt.

Since Eritrea became independent, the National Museum of Eritrea has asked Ethiopia to return items found during these excavations, but so far, they have not been given back.