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Ancient Somali City-States
In antiquity, ancestors of the Somali people were an important link in the Horn of Africa connecting the region's commerce with the rest of the old world. Proto-Somali sailors and merchants were the main suppliers of frankincense, myrrh and spices, items which were considered valuable luxuries by the Ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans and Babylonians. During the classical era, several ancient Somali city-states competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the wealthy Indo-Greco-Roman trade. History The ancient Somali city-states were founded upon an indigenous network involving caravan trades going back approximately four thousand years, and is supported by archaeological and textual evidences. Opone like other city-states such as Avalites, Malao, and Mosylon came into existence with the collapse of the Macrobian kingdom, and could be regarded as successors. Ancient Greek travelers including the likes of Strabo and Cosmas Indicopleustes made visits to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old World
The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously thought of by the Europeans as comprising the entire world, with the "New World", a term for the newly encountered lands of the Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas. Etymology In the context of archaeology and world history, the term "Old World" includes those parts of the world which were in (indirect) cultural contact from the Bronze Age onwards, resulting in the parallel development of the early civilizations, mostly in the temperate zone between roughly the 45th and 25th parallels north, in the area of the Mediterranean, including North Africa. It also included Mesopotamia, the Persian plateau, the Indian subcontinent, China, and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. These regions were connected via the Silk Road trade route, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Antiquity
Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the interwoven civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, Rome known together as the Greco-Roman world, centered on the Mediterranean Basin. It is the period during which ancient Greece and Rome flourished and had major influence throughout much of Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. Classical antiquity was succeeded by the period now known as late antiquity. Conventionally, it is often considered to begin with the earliest recorded Homeric Greek, Epic Greek poetry of Homer (8th–7th centuries BC) and end with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. Such a wide span of history and territory covers many disparate cultures and periods. ''Classical antiquity'' may also refer to an idealized vision among later people of what was, in Ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somali Peninsula
The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and Geopolitics, geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), p. 26 Located on the easternmost part of the African mainland, it is the fourth largest peninsula in the world. It is composed of Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Although not common, broader definitions include parts or all of Kenya and Sudan.John I. Saeed, ''Somali'' – Volume 10 of London Oriental and African language library, (J. Benjamins: 1999), p. 250.Sandra Fullerton Joireman, ''Institutional Change in the Horn of Africa'', (Universal-Publishers: 1997), p.1: "The Horn of Africa encompasses the countries of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. These countries share similar peoples, languages, and geographical endowments." It has been described as a region of geopolitical and strategic importance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosmas Indicopleustes
Cosmas Indicopleustes (; also known as Cosmas the Monk) was a merchant and later hermit from Alexandria in Egypt. He was a 6th-century traveller who made several voyages to India during the reign of emperor Justinian. His work '' Christian Topography'' contained some of the earliest and most famous world maps.''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2008, O.Ed, Cosmas Indicopleustes. Cosmas was a pupil of the East Syriac Patriarch Aba I and was himself a follower of the Church of the East. Voyage Around AD 550, while a monk in the retirement of a Sinai cloister, Cosmas wrote the once-copiously illustrated '' Christian Topography'', a work partly based on his personal experiences as a merchant on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean in the early 6th century. His description of India and Ceylon during the 6th century is invaluable to historians. Cosmas seems to have personally visited the Kingdom of Axum in modern day northern Ethiopia, as well as Eritrea. He sailed along the coast of Socotra, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see things at great distance as if they were nearby was also called "Strabo". (; ''Strábōn''; 64 or 63 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek geographer who lived in Anatolia, Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is best known for his work ''Geographica'', which presented a descriptive history of people and places from different regions of the world known during his lifetime. Additionally, Strabo authored historical works, but only fragments and quotations of these survive in the writings of other authors. Early life Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amasya, Amaseia in Kingdom of Pontus, Pontus in around 64BC. His family had been involved in politics s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and communities. Prior to the Roman period, most of these regions were officially unified only once under the Kingdom of Macedon from 338 to 323 BC. In Western history, the era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period. Three centuries after the decline of Mycenaean Greece during the Bronze Age collapse, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and the colonization of the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the age of Classical Greece, from the Greco-Persian Wars to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, and which included the Golden Age of Athens and the Peloponnesian War. The u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosylon
Mosylon (), also known as Mosullon, was an ancient proto-Somali trading center on or near the site that later became the city of Elaayo. History Mosylon was the most prominent emporium on the Red Sea coast, as outlined in the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea''. With its large ships, it handled the bulk of the cinnamon trade arriving from the ports of ancient India. Dioscorides consequently noted that the city became known as the source of the best variety of the spice in the ancient world. A specific species of cinnamon exported from the harbour was known as ''Mosyllitic''. Due to its high quality and rarity at the time in Ancient Rome, the imported cinnamon was typically deposited in the Romans' Royal Treasury. According to classical writers such as Pliny and Herodutus, the inhabitants of Mosylon imported flint glass and glass vessels from Ancient Egypt, unripe grapes from Diospolis, unmilled cloths for the Berberi markets, including tunics and cloths manufactured at Arsino ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malao
Malao () was an ancient port city in present-day Somaliland. The town was situated on the site of what later would become the city of Berbera. It was a key trading center involved in the Red Sea-Indian Ocean trade during Late Antiquity. The town maintained an important monetary market, exchanging goods in the currencies of the Roman Empire. History and trade The ancient port city of Malao was positioned in the historic Somali city of Berbera. It is mentioned in the 1st century CE ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and Roman commerce, trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports lik ...'': Other than Arabia, goods were also purchased and transported to the Greek, Roman and Egyptian empires. Malao gained its high level of trade from its nexus position, by being the closest African port to Arabia and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avalites
Avalites (also spelled Abalitês, from or ) was an ancient port city in present-day Somalia. It corresponds with what later became the city of Zeila. According to the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'', Avalites was located on the Far-Side market south of Adulis, stood near the entrance of the Red Sea, where the Gulf narrowed at the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. The port city has been identified with modern day Zeila. Avalites exported spices, some ivory and a little myrrh, but the Periplus claims, better products could be obtained elsewhere. Some of these exports were transported on small crafts navigated by local people of the area and was shipped to Arabian port cities on the other side of the Red Sea. The Somali coast was an important part of the global incense trade, alongside Southeast Asia, South Asia, and southern Arabia on the Red Sea. Incense was widely used in the Mediterranean region and all of Europe, used for religious and everyday purposes. This made incense a notew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opone
Opone () was an ancient seaport and emporium located in present-day Somalia. It is primarily known for its trade with the Ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Persians, and the states of ancient India. The historic port has been identified with the city of Hafun through archaeological remains. It is possible that it corresponds to the Land of Punt as known by the ancient Egyptians during the Old, Middle, and New Kingdom. History and trade Opone, like other city-states such as Avalites, Malao, and Mosylon, came into existence with the collapse of the Macrobian kingdom. Pottery found in Oponean tombs date back to the Mycenaean Kingdom of Greece that flourished between the 16th and 11th century BC. Its major periods of activity were during the 1st century BC and the 3rd to the 5th centuries AD. Opone was mentioned by an anonymous Greek merchant in the 1st century AD ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea''. The town is featured in the ancient document's thirteenth entry, which in p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greco-Roman
The Greco-Roman world , also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco-Roman or Graeco-Roman in British English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were directly and intimately influenced by the language, culture, government and religion of the Greeks and Romans. A better-known term is classical antiquity. In exact terms the area refers to the "Mediterranean world", the extensive tracts of land centered on the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins, the "swimming pool and spa" of the Greeks and the Romans, in which those peoples' cultural perceptions, ideas, and sensitivities became dominant in classical antiquity. That process was aided by the universal adoption of Greek as the language of intellectual culture and commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean and of Latin as the language of public administration and of forensic advocacy, especi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. (subscription required) Although the terms "Indian subcontinent" and "South Asia" are often also used interchangeably to denote a wider region which includes, in addition, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the "Indian subcontinent" is more of a geophysical term, whereas "South Asia" is more geopolitical. "South Asia" frequently also includes Afghanistan, which is not considered part of the subcontinent even in extended usage.Jim Norwine & Alfonso González, ''The Third World: states of mind and being'', pages 209, Taylor & Francis, 1988, Quote: ""The term "South Asia" also signifies the Indian Subcontinent""Raj S. Bhopal, ''Ethnicity, race, and health in multicultural societies'', pages 33, Oxford University Press, 2007, ; Q ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
