Salt is not only an indispensable condiment for seasoning food but is also an essential nutrient for supporting the life of humans and other organisms. Its procurement, distribution, and use by early and modern societies around the world has been a topic of interest for decades. In The Boundaries of Ancient Trade, Helina Solomon Woldekiros provides a previously unavailable assessment of the dynamic persistence of Indigenous mining and circulation of salt in the remote region of Afar in northeastern Ethiopia. By integrating ethnohistoric, archaeological, and ethnoarchaeological data, this study provides a holistic appreciation of how the Afar salt market emerged, transformed, and endured over time. with an emphasis on ancient Aksumite, a state-level polity that developed in northern Ethiopia between 450 BC and AD 900.
The first chapter proposes that we rethink trade and power within the scholarship on Aksumite, which integrated populations with different linguistic and subsistence backgrounds in a geographically diverse landscape that extended from the highlands of Tigray and Amhara to the lowlands of the Red Sea and the northern Horn of Africa. Connecting these regions, caravans of camels and donkeys procured salt from the Danakil Depression: situated as low as 125 m asl, it is not only one of the lowest places on Earth but also one of the hottest, reaching temperatures as high as 65°C (150°F). Following up on the theme of power, the second chapter addresses how ancient caravans reproduced both hierarchical and heterarchical economic and social networks by leveraging salt as a commodity that created its own specific niche economy. Woldekiros fleshes out some of the prospects and constraints experienced by expanding polities such as Aksumite or the modern Ethiopian state in reference to an expansive historical context that intersects research from disciplines as varied as geography, political science, and economics. The third chapter provides a critical and updated summary of what is known about the ancient Aksumite Empire, debating alternative propositions about the political and economic nature of this complex polity. By connecting historical research with archaeological work carried out over the last century, Woldekiros provides an updated, balanced discussion of Aksumite's chronology, expansion, and manifestations outside its core hinterland. The fourth chapter links the past with the present by providing a detailed historical, geographical, and cultural description of the Afar salt trade and how, despite landscape, religious, and ethnic differences, it dynamically persevered over time.
The fifth chapter provides detailed descriptions from an ethnoarchaeological perspective of the journeys taken by contemporary caravans. Mapping out the three major caravan routes that currently connect the Ethiopian highlands and lowlands, this chapter presents nuanced and detailed descriptions of daily activities, the material culture involved, and socioeconomic interactions encountered during these lengthy trips. The economic and social constraints faced by the miners, caravanners, warehouse owners, middlemen, shop owners, and other participants involved in this multifaceted chain of operation are immensely valuable for reconstructing the workflows connecting salt procurement, distribution, and consumption. Some economic risks connected to these activities are explicitly addressed, but other potential hazards such as chronic dehydration caused by the scorching heat or raids that could deprive one of essential provisions are implicitly assumed. The sixth chapter provides a detailed classification and systematic description of a series of archaeological sites encountered and excavated along the Afar salt caravan trail. Three types of sites associated with the salt trails were excavated in three different areas: settlements, camps, and churches. Analyses of paleoethnobotanical data, radiocarbon dates, and various categories of artifacts will be valuable for researchers working on the region and beyond. Given that the construction of roads and an increased reliance on trucks and other technologies will likely affect how salt is procured and distributed in the future, the detailed account of the caravan journey and the traditional and archaeological locations encountered on the way is remarkable.
The seventh chapter addresses Afar salt trade from a diachronic perspective by discussing how different political economy models could account for factors controlling the flow, access, and benefits of trading salt. Through relational analogies, this chapter also provides interesting perspectives on how to identify geographic, economic, and social constraints that might have affected these networks over time. The concluding chapter summarizes key findings made in the course of this work by connecting this research with current scholarship focused on Aksumite, as well as comparative approaches to the study of caravans, networks, roads, and the social organization of trade. The book includes an extensive and up-to-date bibliography about the history, archaeology, and anthropology of northeastern Ethiopia.
The Boundaries of Ancient Trade offers a glimpse into how the complex economic practices and social relationships that intersect salt provisioning were embedded into the fabric of complex institutional polities such as the ancient Aksumite and modern Ethiopian states. I find it significant that much of the fieldwork involved in this investigation was carried out between 2010 and 2011 and currently would be impossible because of the armed conflict that Ethiopia (and Tigray in particular) experienced between 2020 and 2022. I am also left hopeful about the potential positive effect that the persistence of social networks and seemingly economic activities such as salt trade could have on the social reconciliation required to overcome such a historical crisis.
By providing both a synthesis and new information about salt procurement, this book will be invaluable to researchers interested in how certain resources can become vital commodities that fuel hierarchies, as well as material and relational wealth. It not only explains the logistical challenges that accruing certain products involves but also how those challenges and the relationships they generate materialize in a concrete archaeological record that spans hundreds and even thousands of years.
