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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2004-04 > 1081221606


From: (Jared Linn Olar)
Subject: Re: POSSIBLE GATEWAY: FROM AFRICA TO EUROPE
Date: 5 Apr 2004 20:20:06 -0700
References: <c57e4f24.0403141731.5b931209@posting.google.com> <00f601c40aee$508f9da0$9b0d0043@hppav> <010401c40af0$dd3b5b20$9b0d0043@hppav> <7004aa4b.0403161328.2409e930@posting.google.com> <40582A2C.1070409@interfold.com> <7004aa4b.0403171315.e1450fe@posting.google.com> <40591FC1.6080000@interfold.com>


Regarding the excerpt below, it's worth noting that at least some of
the names in the traditional Ethiopian kinglist were real. For
example, if I remember correctly, the kinglist names the Kushite kings
Piankiy, Shabaka, Shebitku, Taharka, and Tanuatamon, who also reigned
in Egypt. Classical history remembered Shabaka and Taharka (who is
also named in the Bible), but knowledge of Pianki, Shebitku, and
Tanuatamon was lost -- until they were rediscovered by Egyptologists
-- forgotten, that is, except in Ethiopia, which appropriated some of
the history of the Kingdom of Kush in modern Sudan and claimed it as
its own history.

That's not to say that the Ethiopian kinglist is a reliable,
historical document -- but at least some of the ancient, legendary
kings it names were real (though they may not have been kings in
Ethiopia proper).

Jared L. Olar

> The real events in Ethiopia's history before the present two
> millenia are lost in the mists of antiquity, but valiant attempts
> were made by Ethiopian chroniclers to fill in the immense gap
> between the reign of Menelik I and the time of the kings of
> Aksum. The king lists they developed (all those now surviving are
> of comparatively recent date), name a long line of rulers,
> covering the whole span from Menelik through the Aksumite period
> and on to the later Zagwé and `Solomonic' dynasties (Conti
> Rossini 1909). There is little point in reciting the majority of
> these names, but some of the most important of the reputed
> successors of Menelik I are worth noting for their importance in
> Ethiopian tradition."

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