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From: hbokure@aol.com
Date: Sat Nov 27 2010 - 01:16:23 EST
Thanks again for bringing into our attention some of the references submitted to Dehai forum by Sam. Following is one of the references that I found in the Internet:-
http://books.google.com/books?id=hXAZnnkFJDoC&pg=PA268&lpg=PA268&dq=The+%22Ona%22+Culture+of+Greater+Asmara&source=bl&ots=wNJVWmHGiK&sig=tf7Ry3KqcDbNSuJkAJ2uLG9T7hE&hl=en&ei=B5jwTPL8JILGlQfH0NWRDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20%22Ona%22%20Culture%20of%20Greater%20Asmara&f=false
Prof, Schmidt in his book " Historical Archeology in Africa" defines preaxumite civilization in Eritrea debunking the commonly held belief " Sabaean elements" which have been hitherto the base for studying the Abyssinian cultural elements and racial stock. Please read from page 259-270.
Haile
-----Original Message-----
From: Habte-Giorgis, Berhe <habte@rowan.edu>
To: dehai <dehai@dehai.org>
Sent: Fri, Nov 26, 2010 11:57 am
Subject: Re: [DEHAI] Asmara - one of the highest capital cities in the world (Hasbrouck)
Sam B. sent Haile Bokure and me relevant scholarly references that can be helpful in understanding the topic of discussion and debunking the myth.
Sam’s message
References:
Peter R. Schmitd
The "Ona" Culture of Greater Asmara: Archaeology's Liberation of Eritrea's Ancient History from Colonial Paradigms
Matthew C. Curtis (this one is the most recent)
Relating the Ancient Ona Culture to the Wider Norther Horn: Discerning Patterns and Problems in the Archaeology of the First Millennium BC
Daniel Habtemichael
"The Sabean Man's Burden:" Questioning the Dominant Historical Paradigm with New Archaeological Findings at Keskese Valley
also, Richard Greenfield's
New Discoveries in Africa Change Face of History
from which I am quoting:
"The early history of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia will have to be rewritten in the light of dramatic new discoveries. And they have relevance to the worldwide demand for balanced historical and cultural studies freed from arrogance, prejudice and racism. .... Up on the mountainous plateau of northeastern Africa, Eritrean scholars and their international colleagues at the University of Asmara have been conducting new excavations and utilising the latest carbon-dating techniques to revolutionary effect. This research has already revealed incontrovertible evidence of settled pastoral and agricultural communities dating way back to 800 BC -- earlier by far than heretofore envisaged. .... Together with revised linguistic evidence, it seriously and probably finally challenges assumptions, dating from the colonial era and earlier, that it must have been immigration of Sabaens crossing the Red Sea into Africa, that introduced Semitic and related languages and gave rise to the emergence of complex societies and cultures such as that of Aksum. In noting this, we must now set this revision in context and also ask why it has not occurred earlier."
As noted Eritrea's "revolutionary effect" on Africa is not only in the field of military, politics and development but also in Archaeology and History.&nb