as hunter-gatherers starting about 8000 b.c.e.; by 1000 b.c.e.
people were cultivating crops in the eastern plains.
See also agriculture; architecture; borders and
frontiers; building techniques and materials; cit-
ies; economy; empires and dynasties; employment
and labor; exploration; food and diet; government
organization; health and disease; hunting, fishing,
and gathering; language; metallurgy; migration and
population movements; mining, quarrying, and salt
making; natural disasters; nomadic and pastoral so-
cieties; roads and bridges; seafaring and navigation;
settlement patterns; ships and shipbuilding; social
organization; storage and preservation; towns and
villages; trade and exchange; transportation; war
and conquest.Th e country deep in the interior is called Tenessis
[modern-day Eritrea]. It is occupied by those Egyptians
who took refuge from the government of Psamtik III.
Th ey are surnamed Sembritae, as being strangers. Th ey
are governed by a queen, to whom also Meroë, an island
in the Nile near these places, is subject.... From Meroë
to this sea is a journey of fi fteen days for an active
person. Near Meroë is the confl uence of the Astaboras
[modern Atbara], the Astapus [the White Nile], and of
the Astasobas [Blue Nile]....
Far in the interior was a place called Endera [modern
Axum], inhabited by a naked tribe [the Gymnetae]
who use bows and reed arrows, the points of which
are hardened in the fi re. Th ey generally shoot the
animals from trees, sometimes from the ground. Th ey
have numerous herds of wild cattle among them, on
the fl esh of which they subsist, and on that of other
wild animals. When they have taken nothing in the
chase, they dress dried skins upon hot coals, and
are satisfi ed with food of this kind.... Further still
towards the south [near modern-day Addis Ababa] are
the Cynamolgi, called by the natives Agrii, with long
hair and long beards, who keep a breed of very large
dogs for hunting the Indian cattle which come into
their country from the neighboring district, driven
there either by wild beasts or by scarcity of pasturage.... Next to the harbor of Antiphilus is a port called
the Grove of the Colobi (or the Mutilated), the city
Berenice of the Sabae, and Sabae a considerable city;
then the grove of Eumenes.
Above is the city Darada, and a hunting-ground
for elephants.... Th e district is inhabited by the
Elephantophagi (or Elephant-eaters), who are occupied
in hunting them. When they descry from the trees a
herd of elephants directing their course through the
forest, they do not then attack, but they approach by
stealth and hamstring the hindmost stragglers from the
herd. Some kill them with bows and arrows, the latter
being dipped in the gall of serpents. Th e shooting with
the bow is performed by three men, two, advancing in
front, hold the bow, and one draws the string.... Th e
nomads call the hunters Acatharti, or impure.
Above this nation is situated a small tribe—the
Struthophagi (or Bird-eaters), in whose country are birds
of the size of deer, which are unable to fl y, but run with
the swiftness of the ostrich. Some hunt them with bows
and arrows, others covered with the skins of birds....
Bordering on this people is a nation blacker in
complexion than the others, shorter in stature, and
very short-lived. Th ey rarely live beyond forty years; for
the fl esh of their bodies is eaten up with worms. Th eir
food consists of locusts, which the south-west and west
winds, when they blow violently in the spring-time,
drive in bodies into the country. Th e inhabitants catch
them by throwing into the ravines materials which
cause a great deal of smoke, and light them gently. Th e
locusts, as they fl y across the smoke, are blinded and
fall down. Th ey are pounded with salt, made into cakes,
and eaten as food. Above these people is situated a
desert tract with extensive pastures. It was abandoned
in consequence of the multitudes of scorpions and
tarantulas,... which formerly abounded to so great a
degree as to occasion a complete desertion of the place
long since by its inhabitants.
Next to the harbor of Eumenes, as far as Deire and the
straits opposite the six islands, live the Ichthyophagi,
Creophagi, and Colobi, who extend into the interior.
Many hunting-grounds for elephants, and obscure cities
and islands, lie in front of the coast. Th e greater part are
nomads; husbandmen are few in number....
Th ere are three islands which follow in succession, the
island of Tortoises, the island of Seals, and the island of
Hawks. Along the whole coast there are plantations ofStrabo: Geography, excerpt on Africa, ca. 22 c.e.
Africa(cont inued)climate and geography: primary source documents 269