History of Ethiopia

It has been said that the line of conventional demarcation between prehistory and history is the existence of written and dated records of human events.

In this respect from the time when the pharaonic Egyptians identified the coastal region and inhabitants of North-East Africa as Punt and the Habasha, respective, in the mid 3rd millennium B.C., to the advent of the Greek, Roman, and Arab writers in the subcontinent between 300 B.C. and 1400 A.D., there were no surviving written accounts of the lands and peoples of southern and eastern regions of the subcontinent.

The Greek, Roman, and Arab writers found and recognized the two independent and sovereign states of Ethiopia and Azania (Zanj) in the North-East African subcontinent. The Greek and Roman writers commonly and vaguely identified the stateless tribes of the coastal regions of North-East Africa simply as the – “Troglodytes” and the “Barbares”.

Indeed the Greek and Roman writers described the tribal people of the eastern lowland of the subcontinent not by their ethnic or linguistic names, but only by their ethnic and cultural habits; calling them, according to their cultural practices, simply as the:

• Ichthoyophages (fish eaters)
• Strouthophages (ostrich eaters)
• Acridophages (locust eaters)
• Chelonophages (tortoise eaters)
• Crephages ( flesh eaters)
• Elephantophages (elephant eaters) 

On the other hand, the medieval Arab writers, with the exception of the people and state of Azania (Zanj), did view and recognize the vast and diverse regions and inhabitants of the subcontinent as integral parts of the Ethiopian Hatse state, that is, the lands and peoples of the Ethiopian Hatse (Atse) or the “king of kings” in Geez.

Nevertheless, the documentary accounts of the pharaonic Egyptians, the ancient Graeco-Romans, and the medieval Arabs on the North-East African subcontinent being limited to its northern and coastal regions, do not help us to understand the peoples and the cultural evolution of the southern regions before they became integral parts of the medieval Hatse State of Ethiopia at the beginning of the fourteenth century A.D.

The undated monolithic stone monuments of the cemetery type in Shewa and Sidamo, the archaeological sites of stone – built necropolii, cisterns, store pits, and houses in the southeastern region of Awash-Chercher, some of which are dated at about 3700 years ago the 3500 years old paintings of animals at the Laga Oda site in Harerge, and the 3000 years old engravings of cattle at the Shabe Site in Sidamo are some of the material evidence that the southern interior of North-East Africa, like its northern and eastern counterparts, have been an area of human and cultural evolution and progress over several millennia.

It seems that the Harla, Shewa, Yifat, Argoba, Warjih, Adal, Hadiya, Sidama, Dawaro, Fatagar, Arababini, Sharka, Bali, Dara, Waj, Gurage, Damot, Ganz, and Omotic peoples and regional states emerged in the region under investigation during the last centuries of the 1st millennium A.D., before they became parts of the Ethiopian Hatse State in the 14th century.

Keywords: Ethiopia, Azania, Zanj, Hatse, Atse, Harla, Shewa, Yifat, Argoba, Warjih, Adal, Hadiya, Sidama, Dawaro, Fatagar, Arababini, Sharka, Bali, Dara, Waj, Gurage, Damot, Ganz