At the Origins of the Built Environment in the Horn Africa
The Case Study of Adulis Eritrea
Edited by Serena Massa Edited by Nelly Cattaneo Edited by Abraham Zerai Edited by Tsegai Medhin
Paperback (Published)
(November 2025)
ISBN: 9788891327741
8.46 x 11 inches
Price: $250.00
In stock
In antiquity the town of Adulis, 50 km ca. south of Massawa (Eritrea), was one of the most important harbours of the Red Sea and the main hub of long-distance maritime routes and African caravan itineraries of the Horn, within the net of cultural and trade contacts between Mediterranean, Orient and Africa. Ancient literary sources frequently refer to Adulis, destroyed and abandoned in the VIII century, rediscovered at the beginning of the XIX. Episodic excavations along the late XIX and the XX century, provided fragments of a history of flourishing culture which developed over a span of several centuries and gave rise to a thriving urban settlement, rich of stone buildings and monumental complexes, most of them still buried.
The archaeological research started in 2011, thanks to the collaboration between the Eritrean Commission for Culture and Sports and several Italian Universities, coordinated by the Research Centre on Eastern Desert (Ce.R.D.O.), aims at providing a broader understanding of Adulis, both in time and space, in relation to the debated theme of the development of urbanisation in the region.
The region where Adulis is located offers evidence of a rich environment, exploited since prehistory by human groups, and likely inhabited since. The time span object of the research also includes the communities currently living in the area, who deal with the management of this immense heritage and whose culture has been refining strategies to address environmental challenges.
Besides the current results of the research, the aim is to outline the method delineated along ten years of fieldworks and investigations, in optimizing excavations, in sharing with local communities the targets and the outcomes and to set up a truly transdisciplinary and multiscale approach to the archaeological site, involving archaeologists, architects, geologists, hydraulic and civil engineers and the local stakeholders.
1. The Communities of the Western Bay of Zula: Memories of the Past. Permanence, Discontinuity and Oblivion
2. Adulis and the Zula Plain: an Overview of a Strategic and Vulnerable Area
3. Preliminary Archaeobotanical Evidence from Adulis: the Role of Emmer and Barley
4. Brief Prehistoric Evidence from the Gulf of Zula
5. The Influence of the Geomorphological Evolution on the Port of Adulis
6. Hydrology: Water as an Asset and a Threat
7. Premises for the Rise of Urbanisation
8. Archaeological and Historical Context: New Perspectives Adulis 2011-2021
9. Excavating Adulis: Stratigraphy and methodological approach
10. Understanding Ancient Cultural Network through Cutting-Edge Pottery Analysis
11. Funerary Evidence from Adulis: Two Centuries of Research
12. Building Techniques and Architectural Skills in Ancient Adulis
13. Adulis: Diagnostic Investigations on Building Materials
14. Geometry and Measurements of three Monumental Buildings in Adulis
15. Multi-scale 3D scanning of the Adulis site area as a support for archaeological activity: challenges, strategies and results
16. From understanding to planning: the archaeological site of Adulis within its context
- Edited by Serena Massa
- Edited by Nelly Cattaneo
- Edited by Abraham Zerai
- Edited by Tsegai Medhin
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