The Ethiopians in South Arabia. What information do we have on Ethiopia? The archaeological drama

Most of the nowadays archaeologists and scholars of Ethiopian studies are always and mostly interested in few topics: reconstruct the ancient exchange network with the South Arabian kingdoms during the 1st millennium BCE; imprint the developments of the first societies, communities or chiefdoms in Ethiopian during the same period of time, and understand which was the influence and the role played by the South Arabian kingdoms in that socio-political Ethiopian formation. After that, we suddenly jump to the study of the rise and collapse of the powerful kingdom of Aksum (ca. 50 BC-700 AD): the conversion to the Christian faith, the strong relations with the Alessandria and Byzantium patriarchates, the trade contacts with the Mediterranean area, and afterwards the possible multiple explanations of Aksum’s collapse. The Aksumite Negast subjugated the neighbouring tribes, invaded the Meroitic territory in the Sudanese Nile Valley and controlled, apparently for two times, part of South Arabia. What do we really know about the Ethiopian military expansions in South Arabia during the 3rd and 6th CE, from the Ethiopian sources, if we don’t take in account the detailed linguistics studies. And above all, why there is a lack of interest of the archaeologists and historians in the Ethiopian warfare and weaponry? This experiment will not go deeper into the linguistics matter but, using the inscriptions and the literature sources, I will try to develop an archaeological interpretation of what the Ethiopians had done and what they did not register in their own accounts.