Social and Economic Developments in Pre-Islamic Somalia: Introducing African-Arabian-Mediterranean Interaction

Abstract

Although the history of Somalia is poorly studied, occasional researches show that the nation has a rich, ancient history. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the evolution of Somali society and aspects of their economy throughout circa 3000 BCE–500 CE. During 1960s–1980s, it has been postulated that the Somalis originated from the region of Omo-Tana around 1500 BCE and eventually expanded toward the north until 1400 CE. The chapter reassessed this hypothesis and further used new or less utilized data from linguistic, genetic, archeology, and ancient documentary sources. The integrated data suggest that the ancestral home of the Macro-Somali was the northern part of their Peninsula from about 3000 BCE and in due course, they expanded toward the south and west throughout 1500 BCE–500 CE. The data also explain the nature of their pre-Islamic socioeconomic system and their interaction with the Arabian-Mediterranean region upon which the Greco-Roman geographers of 150 BCE–550 CE elaborated.

1. Introduction

Since 1854 European explorers were speculating that the Somali is a young nation that was preceded in the Horn of Africa by Galla (Oromo). This was mainly because they confused the term Galla with two Somali words—gaal (infidel) and gaal (camels)—although these words, with their similar structures, have different meanings. Oscar Neumann, an explorer, rejected these speculations in 1902 after he observed that the Bayso community, around lake Abaya (Figure 1), and his Somali workers from the north speak almost a similar language. Rather, he suggested that the existence of an archaic Somali community down to Rift Valley evidences the presence of an ancient Somali nation across the Horn [1]. Prior to these, professor Heeren made in 1833 a long comment on a mercantile ancient nation of Somali in reference to Greco-Roman records and others. Connecting that antiquity to his time, he concluded: “The Somalis, a very dark race with woolly hair, neither completely Negroes nor Arabians … are friendly, well-disposed race. Their country is a natural staple for the commerce between Africa and Arabia, in it, the greatest marts are found. The Somalis send in their own vessels (for they have a sort of navigation act to carry for themselves and to lade no Arabian vessels) to Aden”. Whilst this “navigation act” partly refers to a Greek statement of nearly 2000 years ago, the historian comprehended the nature of that historical socioeconomic course as he added: “This trade, therefore, has continued full a thousand years, notwithstanding all the religious and political changes which have taken place, simply because the nature of the country itself” [2]. Referring to Zaylac/Harar-based State of Awdal, Schmidt Max almost came to a similar view in 1926 [3]. It was generally a period in which most Egyptologists have already identified northern Somalia with the kingdom of Punt in the Egyptian records [4].

Figure 1.

The area of the study: Sanaag: region; Rendille: people; towns. All locations are approximate, the author 2021.

The inferences of Heeren and others should have required additional work for elaboration. However, Enrico Cerulli, who got colonial assignment to update Somali history, did not feel to waste a time in identifying his Somalia with historical Somalia. Instead, he simply renewed the modern speculations in 1957. He claimed that the Somalis conquered the Horn from Galla through sustained movements from the shores of the Red Sea just for the last ten centuries. Misinterpreting again the historical meaning of the name Zanj,¹ he added that the Somalis superseded a Bantu community in the inter-riverine region [5]. I.M. Lewis immediately embraced this idea of Cerulli [6] and remained on it [7]. Galla themselves were seen as new people for it was said that before the nineth century CE, the Somali hinterland was held by hunters, and origins of the coast residents were searched from Indonesia to Persia, Arabia, and nonexistent Cushites [8]. However, after a review of linguistic data from Bayso and Rendille and comparing them with the main Somali, Harold Fleming did not accept the idea in 1964. Rather, he proposed that the Somalis originated in pre-historic times in Bali highlands, near Bayso, where they afterward expanded into the Horn [1]. Herbert Lewis also questioned the historicity of the hypothesis of Cerulli and I.M. Lewis in 1962 [9] and invalidated it in 1966. He based his view on a revisit of East Cushitic linguistic classification presented in 1940 by M.M. Moreno and modified by Joseph Greenberg in 1963. He proposed the existence of 24 languages under “four coordinate branches” which consist of (1) Main Somali, Rendille and Bayso; (2) Afar and Saho; (3) Oromo and nine others; and (4) Hadiya and eight others. So, his conclusion was that since 21 of these 24 languages are spoken in the Hadiya-Tana belt, that region must constitute the ancestral home of the entire Eastern Cushites. Applying the so-called “least-moves principle,” he then suggested since more Cushite languages and Somali segments are found therein, the main Somali and Afar-Saho must have left for the north [10].

But little was known in 1966 about the subdivisions of the East Cushitic. Many of these 24 segments were in fact dialects. In 1970s, they were reduced to three or five groups: Lowland East Cushitic (LEC), which consists of Macro-Somali, Afar-Saho, and Oromo-Konso; Highland East Cushitic (HEC), which comprises Hadiya, Sidamo, Kambata, and Darasa; Dulay; Burji; and Yaku in central Kenya. But whether Dulay or Yaku are independent branches or Dulay is a fourth branch of LEC and Yaku relates to Dulay is yet to be determined. With more knowledge about macro-Somali languages across the Omo-Tana region, an origin from that region for the Somali was sustained in more studies of the 1970s [11]. Before showing the resultant picture of the Somali differentiation in those studies, some other information within it must be reported here. In a recent observation, Cabdalla Mansuur, a linguist, grouped Dabarre and Gariirre with Bayso and Jiido, [12] which had previously been indicated by L. Martelli [13]. Garre claims the origin of Samaale. If that is the case, they emigrated from the north of Mogadishu and eventually adopted the dialect of Madalle, Aweer, and Saakuye. Madalle, a historic major tribe, underwent for the last four centuries influence of the conquering Oromo, where they are finally Oromized and are currently known as Gabra which means “subjected” or “subdued”. Since this study does not accept the idea of Omo-Tana origin, it adopts the appellation “Omo-Baḋ” for Arbore, Dasanech, and Elmolo instead of the former “Omo-Tana West”. Baḋ which means “sea” is the name they call the Lakes Turkana and Stefanie as Hayward has already noted [14]. The current generally accepted Somali separations and their approximate dates is thus as follows:

1. Pre-Somali [3500 Before Present (BP)]:

   1. Omo-Baḋ (Arbore, Dasanech, and Elmolo)

   2. Proto-Somali

2. Proto-Somali (3000 BP):

   1. Bali group (Bayso, Jiido, Gariirre, Dabarre)

   2. Somali II

3. Somali II (2500 BP):

   1. Rendille

   2. Somali III

4. Somali III (2000 BP):

   1. Ganane-Tana (Madalle, Aweer, Saakuye, Garre)

   2. Somali IV

5. Somali IV (1500 BP):

   1. Central Somali (alias May)

   2. Northern or Standard Somali (alias Maxaa).

With this, some scholars conceive that the idea of Omo-Tana is based on a shaky ground, and thus, it is questionable. In 1977, Ali Hersi based his thesis on analysis that date the presence of the Somalis in the Peninsula from the third millennium BCE toward [15]. Although M.N. Ali circumstantially built his thesis on the idea of Omo-Tana he, nevertheless, rejected the existence of substratum in the Peninsula [16]. He further admitted that the role of the tradition was supposed to be considered [17]. Questioning the validity of the Omo-Tana story, prof. Raphael Njoko has recently noted: “this hypothesis cannot be taken uncritically because cave paintings, dating back to 9000 BCE, found in northern Somalia, as well as studies of ancient pyramids, ruined cities, and stone walls, confirm that an ancient civilization thrived here at least from the late Paleolithic or Stone Age … along with the fact that the ancient Kingdom of Punt once flourished within Somali borders” [18]. These departures were warnings on the big gap between the hypothesis of the southern origin and the nature of Somali history.

2. Shortcomings of Omo-Tana hypothesis

Firstly, the least-move principle does not appear to be a rule that is applicable to all movements and differentiation of human societies. In a level of related nations, the original home of the Semitics was usually located in northern Arabia. But most of their languages existed or exist in Iraq-Levant and southeast Arabia. In a level of national communities, two regions brought together the largest communal varieties in the Somali Peninsula. In the south, besides the historical southerners, sections of other major tribes, such as Hawiye, Darood, Dir, and Isaaq, have resided in the inter-riverine region. But only the communities of Mirifle, Ayle, a few Digil, and some northern speakers who were later marginalized by other immigrant northerners at the coast can consider the region as their ancestral home. In the west, the region of Jigjiga-Harar has contained a large collection of communities coming from Darood, Dir, Isaaq, Shekhaal, Hawiye, and other independent or assimilated tribes. These communities variously inhabited the region from the pre-Islamic era to the Middle Ages. But the Daaroods, who placed 10 of their 12 basic clans in the region, as well as the Dir and Isaaq communities buried their progenitors in Sanaag during 700–1100 CE. This communal distribution, therefore, does not agree on the idea of the least-moves principle. The principle is not right for the current and future assumption of locating the origin of these communities in the Jigjiga-Harar or inter-riverine region.

Secondly, there is a lack of clarity, if it is not confusion, in the available linguistic studies on whether the period of Somali presence in the south was longer than that of theirs in the north. There is no evidenced information for the primary location of the embryonic Somali and other Lowland East Cushitic languages. C. Ehret recently proposed that a Lowland East Cushitic population which he does not specify was gradually occupying from the tip of the Horn to the Harar-Bali highlands suggestively over 5000–2000 BP [19]. This is the same period as the whole East Cushites supposedly radiating out from Omo-Tana-Ganane. The two views spoil one another. In fact, there are many important linguistic developments whose context has not been explained in the historiography of the region. Examples include the fact that macro-Somali experienced at least five stages of separation while, in contrast, each one of Oromo-Konso and Afar-Saho split up only one time. The apparent explanation is the existence of historical differences in their respective population size and geographical distribution. Among the macro-Somali, there had been three main stages of losing Afroasiatic or Proto-Somali phonemes. In the earliest stage the dentals đ, and ṣ were lost. They were replaced by other letters or totally removed from the original word. In the second stage, more dentals or such as th, ẓ, z, ṭ, and ḋ were in different times mutated or removed. They are revocable today in certain tongue practices. In the third stage, the emphatics ḥ and ‘a; and the velar q were lost by all Southern macro-Somalis and the other East Cushitics, with a few exceptions in Afar-Saho, Rendille, etc. The reason why only Northern Somali hold the explosives ḥ, ‘a, and q has not been explained. Among the macro-Somali, it was found that five linguistic areas, out of 45, are particularly closer to the Rendille of Lake Turkana. One of the five is Bari [20]. Further interesting evidence is the words like Cal or ‘Al, loft mountains, which is retained only by Bari and Rendille with Elmolo also having ‘El for stone. Rendille does not live in mountainous habitats, so they call the hills Cal or Ḥal. Since the people of Bari did not come from the south, Rendille must have originated from the north.

Thirdly, there are no human and tradition remains in the south from these imagined immigrants. In mass migrations, the immigrants usually leave behind their own remnants. For example, some communities in Lower Shabelle emigrated from different regions in which they have remnants. Jiida migrated from Bali where they left behind a section of them, and that is probably the case of Dabarre of the central Ganane. Tunni emigrated from Lower Tana and they survived there by extended linguistic evidence and some human left-outs. The neighboring Garre came from the west, where the rest of the community still remains over the border of Kenya-Ethiopia. The main section of Geledi came from Harar area, where they have distant relatives, according to their tradition. At least Jiida, Garre, and Tunni left their origins due to security reasons in the late Middle Ages. Similarly, the overwhelming majority of Dir reside today in places that are far from Sanaag but still they have representatives in Sanaag and the neighboring regions. In the Omo-Tana idea, we do not have remnants but offshoots. It is difficult then to imagine how the huge family tribes of Mirifle, Samaale, and Jabarti (Daarood) underwent such a long course of an exodus without leaving any traces.

Fourthly, the hypothesis contradicts the records and the traditions. Greco-Roman records and urban archeology regarding over 150 BCE–550 CE show that there had been a socioeconomically organized nation along the Somali coast. Some of the Greco-Roman named towns, such as Avalites, Mundu, Gaza, Pano, and Opone, are respectively identified with the historical and still enduring towns of Awtal > Awdal, Xiis, Gawa, Bina, and Ḥafūn. Additionally, these names and also mokhar, a Greek-mentioned tree of frankincense, are etymologically Somali. As a fall out of the Omo-Tana idea, it has alluded that during 1000–1400 CE Northern Somalia faced a sweeping sociopolitical change as the ancestors of the living northern Somalis advanced from the Shabelle Valley toward the Red Sea coast, where they eventually destroyed and replaced another unknown powerful nation ([19], pp. 243–254). This claim is totally against the history of the region. Why that is not indicated by nearly the 30 Muslim historians who made comments on the region across the nineth-fifteenth centuries? These documentary sources as well as archaeology and the distribution of the known ancestral tombs together with the narratives about social interactions and movements disagree with the idea of Omo-Tana origin. They show that throughout the eighth to fourteenth centuries the north experienced the largest Somali-driven social, economic, and political developments in the known history of Somalia. The northerners in question already established themselves along the Ḥamar-Zaylac region during the period in question [21].

With these steady developments in Somalia, ethnic conflict in other areas in the Horn were reported. Ibn Ḥawqal in 960s, and other sources, noted that the Christian Abyssinians were conquered by a neighboring people [22]. Ibn Said stated in 1370s that a people called Damdam overran the Southern Nubian regions in the early twelfth century [23]. Again ibn Said, al-Mas‘udi 935 [24] and al-‘Umari 1345 [25] mentioned movements of the Amhara Abyssinians from Tigrey to Shawa by continually changing their centers. If this idea would then be correct, we would have some information about a strong nation, which the Somalis destroyed just 600 years ago. Additionally, such a change would unequivocally have had ethnical, linguistic, and material relics, which do not exist at all. This lack of any sign of substratum and the steady information on the same nation is an adequate explanation for existence of a sustained socioeconomic system even in the pre-Islamic era. The Somali traditions further provide information about the older Somali communities of which the largest one was Tiirri, a pre-Islamic tribe. Tiirri means “people of pillars,” as the construction of the numerous cairns in the region is attributed to them. The cairns are themselves called Taallo-Tiirriyaat, which means monuments of Tiirri ([21], pp. 261–265). Stories of different features relate to aspects of the power of the Tiirri generation. These traditions also state that the Tiirri were undergoing a marginalization process during the Middle Ages when the current northerners were in expansion. The Tiirri are usually compared with the Madalle of the south.

Finally, the hypothesis does not provide any reason for the supposed mass migration. It is true that almost only one dialect is spoken in the north. But there is no explanation why the ancestors of over 80% of the Somali population emptied their supposed land, south of the Shabelle River, and their descendants ended up in the arid terrain toward the north of Shabelle without apparent economic and sociopolitical reasons. The hypothesis absolutely failed to comprehend the historical socioeconomic experience of Northern Somali.

3. The genetic factor

The issue of Somali origin is brought almost to conclusive status by a genetic study published in 2005, which has found that Somali is an ancient, homogenous nation. The scientists genotyped markers on the Y chromosome in 201 male Somalis in Denmark and also considered data from other 23 Somalis from places, including Norway. They found that a special type of gene marker, E3b1, cluster y, defines the Somalis. Sample findings from other investigations on Y chromosome markers in diverse populations that are relevant to the Somali case were compared to the finds from the Somali samples. While the majority of Y chromosome genotypes observed in populations of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia belong to haplogroup E3b1 M78, its frequency in the studied Somali population is 77.6%, a unique high majority among the Somalis. Further, a specific branch of it (E3b1, cluster y,) uniquely characterizes the Somalis with a frequency of 75.1%. Comparatively, the frequency of this branch in the other populations of E3b1 lineages was found as follows: the Oromos in the neighborhood of the Somalis (35.9%), Amharas (22.9%), mixed Ethiopians (22.4%), Egyptians (20.0%), Sudanese (17.5%), Iraqis (6.3%), Northern Africans (6.1%), the highest frequency in southern Europeans (5.1%), Omanis (1.7%), Turks (1.7%), and various Sub-Saharan Africans (0.7% and lower).

Hence, among the non-Somalis, the highest frequency of E3b1, cluster y, was found in the Oromos, particularly those geographically relate to the Somalis and eventually assimilated sizeable Somalis during the last four centuries, with Oromo are the closest Somali relatives. These Oromos are followed at a lower rate by the other peoples of the Horn such as various Ethiopians, Egyptians, and Kenyans. And even it is almost absent in the populations outside this region of Northeast Africa. Moreover, the other three clusters of haplogroup E3b1, which were found in Arabs, North and Northeast Africans, and Europeans were found only in few Somalis and none of Oromos. Hypothetically, the E3b1, cluster y lineage, originated in Northeast Africa around 9600 years ago. However, it was estimated that the lineage was introduced to the Somali around 5000 years ago with later expansion. Generally, 81.1% of the Somalis, including 75.1% E3b1, cluster y, belong to major clade E3b. Most of the remaining Somalis consist of 15.0% from two different Eurasian lineages; 3.0% from three different Sub-Saharan African haplogroups; and less than 2.0% from the Northwest African E3b2 genotype. The interpretation of these genetic findings was the existence of extremely localized, coherent Somali lineage [26].

A new study focusing on medical genomics almost agrees with that of 2005. The researchers analyzed nearly 900,000 genomic markers from 95 unrelated individual Somalis of whom 91 were born in the NE Puntland State of Somalia. They found that their “data reveal a remarkably homogenous Somali population” who share their ancient origin with the Cushitic and Semitic-speaking Ethiopians as well as the populations of the Middle East. Probably due to the difference in the genetic focus between the two studies, one for anthropology and the other on medical genomics, ancestry components in the Somali population were shown differently. The later found that nearly 60% of Horn of Africa and 40% of West Eurasian gene markers among the Somalis. The West Eurasian components consist of 25% Near East and 15% North Africa. The new researchers tend to suggest ethnographic marching in the finds of the two studies. Their finds in the gene markers are common among the subjects which further determined the homogenous aspect of the Somalis [27]. In agreement with linguistic genetics, these chromosomal findings thus eliminate any perspective of substratum in the Somali Peninsula as both types of genetics determine the extent of one society’s contact with other societies.

4. Linguistics and socioeconomic developments

On the basis of linguistic comparisons, and to some extent archaeological and botanical accounts, the development of food production in the Horn has been rooted in grain cultivation and animal adoption that took place around 9000 BP. Archaeologically, the cultivation was itself developed from an intensive collection of wild grains, which date back to 15000 BP and earlier in the Nile valley over the Sudanese-Egyptian border. Interrelated crop collection was generally practiced in the broad region of North and Northeast Africa together with Near East or Fertile Crescent. Still Northeast Africa, particularly that part of the Nile Valley, has signaled to be the region in which grass collecting was first invented and its eventual spread occurred. As they could consist of Sorghum, barley, wheat, daafi or teff, eleusine, chickpea, and bun or coffee, the types of these crops were naturally subject to their respective climatical geography. It has been estimated that the African side of the Red Sea had a climate of Mediterranean winter rainfall during the early period of crop collection. The cultivation of these crops is attributed to the rise of the Afroasiatic societies as a tool that enabled them to expand over a great part of Africa and the Near East. The timespan of Proto-Cushitic separation, as a branch of the Afroasiatic was estimated to be 7000–9000 BP [28]. The nature of those developments led some researchers to postulate that the Horn of Africa is one of two primary candidates for being the ancestral home of the Afroasiatic, with another one being Iraq-levant area [29]. In the Horn, the domestication of at least the sorghum, daafi, and chickpeas and animal species were attributed to the Cushites, while the eleusine was related to the Omotic. But was this domestication invented in the Horn or elsewhere?

Researchers have recognized three stages of crop and animal domestication. (a) Independent domestication of indigenous crops and animals. For example, wheat, pea, and olive were indigenously domesticated in the Near East around 11,500 BP, while sheep and goat were tamed about 10,000 BP. (b) Importing the idea of domestication from primary or secondary origin. For instance, domestication of the wheat in Egypt and the rest of Northeast Africa, and chickpeas in the Somali region, is regarded to be imported from the Near East because of the date of domestication and presence of the indigenous wild plant in the Fertile Crescent. (c) The learned domestication could trigger the domestication of indigenous food producers [30]. For example, the adoption of some food producers such as sorghum and cattle may led the adoption of others such as barley and camels, which have themselves been raised in the Horn for thousands of years. But it is not adequately known if the earliest ancestors of Cushitics and Omotic invented their domestication or if they modeled the idea from a former culture of domestication that they themselves imported from the Near East or the lower Nile Valley. Even it is not known if those ancestors had always been native Africans or if they swept the Horn from Levant. However, in 1951, Nikolai Vavilov considered Somalia and the rest of the Horn as one of the world’s independent centers of agricultural development. As an agronomist, he based his view on the existence of 38 indigenous species of grain crops, vegetables, oil plants, spices, and stimulants in the Horn [31].

The speakers of the first-known speeches in the Horn were not apparently waiting always for external help in modeling how to use every available resource. The following economic lexical comparisons may give us a good hint and also reduce the lag of our archaeological knowledge of the Somali region as a part of the evidence package for exploring the time and location of the evolution of Somali nationhood. I have found here a useful tool to reproduce most of the lexical inventory that was compiled by Christopher Ehret (1979). I omitted a few of his lexemes due to less clarity for the purpose. But more many words are taken from Somali, Arabic, and Egyptian. A few words are also added to the other ECs, SCs, NC (Beja or Buja), and Central Cushitic (Agaw), but non to the Chadic. In total, more than 52 lexemes are compared of which 18 relate to grain production, 18 regard animal adoption, 8 shows the use of metal. The last eight words suggest that the Proto EC, at least, shared some practices of clothing, housing, and village formation with the Egyptians and some Semitics.²

1. Ber (farm): Somali beer; SC: Rift baar (grain); Egyptian pert (crop)

2. Adb (farmland): Somali adab; Egyptian adb

3. Abur (cultivate): Cushitic: Somali abuur; HEC: abuurto; Agaw, baruw; S Cushitic: Alagwa burubure (cultivation ground)

4. Harqot (plough): EC: Hadiya and Kambata harqota (ox), Oromo harkot, Somali harqot (qotti: farmer), Saho aro’ut³

5. qambar (yoke): EC: Sidamo qambari, Oromo kambari, Somali qambari; Agaw: Chamira qamara

6. Nw (to plough): Agaw nuw; Beja niu

7. ‘ar (cultivate): Somali ‘arra (soil, land); Egyptian arit (plough); Arabic ḥarth (cultivate)

8. Sarn (wheat): Cushitic: Somali sareen (also soor), Afar-Saho sareen, Hadiya serat (sorghum), Beja seram (barley); Egyptian sart (wheat, barley)

9. masanga (sorghum): Cushitic: EC: Somali masango, Oromo misinga, Hadiya masinka, Duley masinka; S Cushitic musange (grain); Omotic (Kafa) masingo

10. dr (sorghum): Chadic: Hausa dawa, Dira dawro (pennisetum), Matkam dawn; Arabic ḋarra; Omotic: Chara dara; Cushitic: Afar daro (grain)

11. Daaf: LEC: daafi, Somali also dheef (food); Agaw taf, tab; Egyptioan: dfa (food); Omotic: Gimira tempo, Kafa teppo (wheat); Ethiopic teff; Chadic: def (porridge); Arabic: Ḥadramawt ṭahaf (local grain).

12. Baad (food): Somali baad; Egyptian pat

13. bur (flour): Arabic bur; Somali bur; Agaw: Chamira bura (grits); Chadic: Bachama burey (gruel)

14. bḋ (flour): Cushitic: Somali buḋo (flour), Oromo-Konso buḋiina (bread); Chadic: Bole budu (flour); {the root is apparently from Arabic bath, and Somali buḋo, biḋi, also bus (powder, dust)}

15. hr (grain): Cushitic: Beja harro (sorghum), Agaw ar (sorghum), Somali shura (porridge); Chadic: Bura vari, Sura war, Hwona yara (gruel)

16. kbz (bread): Semitic khubz; Somali kimis/kimiz; Egyptian kebes (cultivate, a sack for cereals)

17. Fut (soap, flour): LEC: fuut/futa, Bega futi; Chadic: Banana futa, Ngizima epta (flour)

18. Mooye (wooden mill for grain): Somali mooye, Oromo mooye, Afar-Saho motoka

    The Proto-Cushitic widely knew the terms for farm, cultivate, and plow. They shared some of them with the Egyptians and in less cases with the Semitics. These Cushitics were had widely been consuming, at one place or another, sorghum, daafi (teff), barley, and wheat with knowledge of processing these cereals into a form of flour, porridge, or bread.⁴ Although the term Masanga for sorghum was dominant among the Cushitics, it was elsewhere called dar, har, etc. It appears that the Proto-Cushitic domesticated the daafi and were part of the domestication of the sorghum. In calibrated evidence, sorghum was cultivated by 7000 BP in Sahel, a land strip from central Sudan to Senegal ([30], pp. 98–100). By calibrated evidence also, it was grown by 6000 BP near Khartoum in central Sudan [34]. Generally, the use of the names of these four cereals was flexible among the Cushitic, Omotic, Chadic, Egyptian, and Semitic societies. For example, the term sarn or sart was used for wheat, barley, and sorghum by different societies. Interchanging the names of these crops may suggest that they were adopted one after the other within several centuries so when a society experienced an existence of a new product, they gave it a name to which they were already familiar. The eighteen words used here for the agricultural production only ar and har for sorghum were not identified in Somali. In the Eastern Horn, the high-altitude zone of Hargeysa-Harar-Bali is a candidate for early cultivation of daafi, wheat, and barley, and even medieval times for the barley. Since the lexemes for cattle, goat, sheep, and donkey were common among the Cushitic and they were shared by at least two other Afroasiatic branches, it is positive that the Proto-Cushitic were breeding these animals.

19. Lo’ (cattle): Cushitic Somali lo’; Afar la; Oromo loa; Werezi lo’o (cow); Chadic: Mubi la; Semitic Akkadian lu (bul)

20. Sa‘ (cow): all EC: Somali sa‘ or se; Burji se; Beja sa/sha; Chadic: Hausa sa

21. Ywo (bull): S Cushitic yawo; NC (Beja) yo; Egyptian yow (cow)

22. ‘oot (livestock): Somali ‘oot; Egyptian ‘ot

23. Soof/m (going to graze): Somali soof; Arabic soom

24. Raa‘ (sheepherding): Somali raa‘; Arabic raa‘

25. har (donkey): Cushitic: Oromo hare, Saho hera; Agaw (Bilin) huwer; Dahalo (SC) hella (zebra); Semitic: hamir; thus, damer (Somali) may show a transition between Semitic and Cushitic.

26. Ar (goat/sheep): Cushitic: Somali ari (goat and sheep); Semitic: Southeast Arabian Languages erin, etc. (goat and/or sheep), Arabic aram, ri’am (white deer); LEC ri’ (goat)

27. ‘anz (young goat): Somali ‘enzan or ‘eesan; Arabi ‘anz, Akkadian ‘anzan

28. org (he-goat): Cushitic: Somali orgi, Oromo orge, Konso orket, Werezi orke; Burji yirga; Yaku org (male giraffe); Beja argin (ram); South Cushitic ogur; Somali agoor (young he-camel)

29. Sanga: Cushitic: Somali and Afar sange (castrated stallion or he-goat), Oromo sanga (ox); South Cushitic sanga

30. Ida (sheep, plural): Cushitic: Somali ido, Afar ida; (Sumerian: udu)

31. La (sheep, singular): Cushitic (LEC): la; South Cushitic la (he-goat);

32. beg (sheep): Cushitic: Agaw bega; Chadic: Fali bega; Omotic: Kafa baggo

33. Rangena (ewe lamb): Beja rangana; South Cushitic rangina

34. Yab (goat kid): Egyptian yb (kid); Beja ab (kid); South Cushitic af (goat)

35. Gamal (camel): Semitic: gamal; LEC: gaal < gamal

36. Awr (he-camel, bull): Somali awr, Afar awr (bull); Arabic thawr (bull)

37. Bir (steal): LEC: bir (Oromo lost bir and borrowed sibiil from Duley); Semitic (N and W) brzl; (Sumerian an-bar)

38. Tum (metallurgy): all Lowland East Cushitic tum; Werezi of Duley tuu’

39. Toor (dagger): Somali toori, Yaku toor; S Cushitic: Mbugu toora; Omotic groups toora

40. Bilawe (dagger): macro-Somali bilaawe, Konso bilaawa, Oromo bilaa, Afar balade

41. Waram (spear): Somali waram > waran (Bayso jeren), Oromo waran, Konso worana, Werezi woran, Afar maḥadha (Somali maḥaad: long spike for weaving mattress, etc.)

42. Samay (waram grip): Somali samay, Duley samay, Afar soomaya

43. Gudum (axe): Somali gudum > gudin, Afar gudma; Arabic qaduma; but Konso erka, Burji irka or yirgi; Omotic yere or yergi

44. Gud (cut by knife): Somali gud, guz/gus, Omotic: Maji kudz/khudz

45. Dhis (build): Somali dhis, Afar dhis, Konso dhis (farm), Oromo dhis (extend)

46. Min or man (house): almost all E Cushitic min or man; Arabic manzil also maskan from sakan,

    Somali sugan (settled)

47. Ghurf (hause): Somali guri (house), guur (moving house), gurbi (picking up house stuff);

    Arabic ghurfa (room), ghurf (picking up house stuff)

48. Hoy/hu (house/cloth): Somali hoy (house, living environment), Egyptian ho (living environment), also Somali hu’ (clothes), Oromo-Konso u’ (clothes)

49. Ham (water or milk vessel): Somali ham > han; Egyptian hm

50. makhr/bakhr (grain storage): Somali bakhar; Egyptian mkhr (grain storage)

51. Hap/hab (system, order): Somali hab < hap?; Egyptian hp⁵

52. Wat/wad (drive, road): Somali wat/wad (drive), wado (road); Egyptian wat/wad (drive)

In addition to the above-shown economic comparison, I also treated 168 core words, which were compiled by Paul Black as a cognate comparison for 14 EC languages, which consist of the following: (a) Six macro Somali members, namely main Somali, Rendille, Bayso, Dasanech, Arbore, and Elmolo; (b) Four Oromo-Konso languages, namely Boran Oromo, main Konso and two dialects that relate to it; (c) Afar-Saho, (d) Gwada: a member of macro Dullay; and (e) Hadiya: a member of HEC. The aim was to recognize from the Black collection the vocabularies that can fit for being Afroasiatic by comparing with non-Cushitic Afroasiatic languages without any sign of borrowing. Arabic was the one fully available to me. However, I also used what survived from the Egyptian. In total, there are 52 words that can be considered as Afroasiatic cognates. Since details of the data are available in Black’s work, and I documented the details of this consideration elsewhere,⁶ I only list here those 52 words in English as follows: All, back, breast, call, catch, die, dog, dust, earth, eat, fall, far, finger, go, grass, green, hair, he, hear, hit, I, kill, know, meat, milk, moon, mountain, mouth, neck, nose, pull, red, river, road, scr-atch, see, seven, sing, sky, smoke, sun, tail, three, throw, tie, two, water, we, what, who, wipe, and you. This is 30% of the Black’s 168 core words.

In detail, the Somali-Egyptian cognates contain: all, dog, hair, nose, moon, river, road, sky, sing, sun, tie, and water. They share with the Arabic three of these (all, nose, and water). So, the Somali-Arabic cognates are 43 words, which are 25% of the 168. Almost all EC share with the Arabic 10 words, for example, catch, he, I, nose, scratch, seven, three, we, who, and you. But either Afar-Saho or Oromo-Konso can add to them eight more words: far, grass, mouth, red, see, sun, tie, and what. The non-Somali LEC, thus shares with the Arabic 18 of the 43 lexemes of the Somali-Arabic cognation. Gawada of Duley also adds at least one word (call).

The big difference between the Somali and other EC for their cognation with the Arabic and Egyptian can be due to knowledge bias since the present author can more ascertain the Somali than the other Cushitic. However, this ascertainment may temporarily represent the EC for indication of what can be expected the cognation between the Cushitic and the two other languages. Pre-Islamic Arab loan words may disguise as cognates but even this is not favorable for southern origin since the Northerners were not anyway from the south. A new study which is to be revised reveals that the relationship between Somali and Arabic is far deeper than that usually expected in the lexical, phonological, morphological, and grammar comparisons. The Somali-Egyptian cognation is also at in unexpected level. For instance, why is Somali the only language of the Cushitic that shares with the Egyptian the word “dog” (Somali ay, Egyptian ayu)? All other LECs call the animal “karre,” a word that is not found in the main Somali. But this is one example among many [37]. Taking the economic and Black lexemes together, it is clear that a substratum does not exist within Somali. The Somali language did not lose contact with Arabic and Egyptian as it was not exposed to antedate or stronger culture. Residence in a wide peninsula and within the interior border surrounded by relatives helped it to sustain a relative closeness to Proto-Afroasiatic.

5. Social development in surface archaeology: rock art link

Some characters require here more comments because of their economic importance. Mostly they appear on rock art, a widespread ancient pastoralism-oriented industry (Figure 2). Although the discoveries are increasing, around 80 rock art sites have so far been marked across the Somali Peninsula. The rock art and the hundreds of thousands of cairns must have been built by the same people during the same period. The pattern of their distribution and the quality of both suggest that they were based in the northern part of the Peninsula. The most up-to-date researches on the rock-art culture also suggest that the base was in the north [38]. The creators of that culture are viewed as a people of “advanced, sophisticated, and affluent culture consistent with a more settled society”. They took time to adorn their cattle with ceremonial attire and ornaments fashioned from artistic metal or semimetal objects. Their specialized craftsmen produced a high-quality of art in their paintings and drawings. Despite the effects of age, human activities, weather decomposition, and other natural conditions, the quality of their work endured thousands of years and retained its clear designs and solid colors ([18], pp. 28–29). Some cairns required, in fact, many years to be completed (Figures 2 and 3).

Figure 2.

A Tiirri cairn on a hill, 30 km S of Garowe, with 58 m circumference, and 4.6 m high, photographer Cabdul-khaliq Said Shidad.

Figure 3.

Apparently late Tiirri or early Islamic stone slabs of the tomb in Sallaxley, southern suburban of Garowe, with an outside wall of 94 m circumference and 30 cm height. The inside tomb is 8 m east-west and 6 m north-south.

Bakhar or mahkar: It appears that a system of underground structures that were designed to preserve the freshness of harvested grains existed both in Somalia and ancient Egypt. The possible similarity of bakhar in Somalia and mkhr in Egypt is supported by the similarity of this reservation technique. So, the technique and the terms may carry similar economic information. The technique regards the augmentation of grain consumption. The grains are stored in underground construction or in another storing device for two main purposes: saving a portion of the harvest for long-term consumption in case the agricultural production fails; preserving the freshness of the grain by keeping them within their ears. In Egypt, the practice was mentioned in a story that relates to the experience of Joseph, son of Jacob, in Egypt about 3800 years ago. In that Qur’anic story, we are told that the Egyptians were storing some of their harvests within their ears for long-term consumption.⁷ The existence of the practice is affirmed by archeology. It shows that even the pre-dynastic Egyptians were storing the surplus of their harvests in large clay bins [39]. So at the time of Joseph, the Egyptians probably developed an underground or overground food storing system named makhar. Similarly, the Somalis adopted an ancient system of underground grain storehouse for similar aims. The farmers dig a 3 to 5-meter hole, quadratic or semi-quadratic, to reserve some of the newly harvested grains, and probably the incense, within their ears and a convenient bag for long-term consumption. The system is called Bakhar, or Bakar, Bakhar > Bakar. The similarities in the name, the purpose, and the technique in the two countries may represent self-explaining evidence for the same root as we also noted here other economic terms that the Cushitic, particularly the Somali, share with the Egyptians (Figure 4).

Figure 4.

Nearly 100 superimposed engravings in Xuunshaale rock art site consisting of humans, humped and humpless oxen, camels, horses, giraffes, and a goat. The wall is 12 m horizontal long, but its height varies from 2 m to 30 cm, the author 2023.

The toor (dagger, saber): Toori which is also called Billaawe, Amley, and Golxob was found to have a special history. As we noted above, the origins of the item trace back linguistically to Proto-Cushitic. Although a variety of it has historically been made and worn with the belt by Yemenis and Afars, it has been observed that the Somali variety is a unique, indigenous model. An ancient brand of it was painted on a cave wall near Buur Haybe to the west of Mogadishu. Vinigi Grottanelli observes: “The Somali … have long had, and still retain, a typical cutting weapon, a straight-bladed dagger of a design peculiar to them alone. That this weapon is traditionally old among them, is proved by the ancient Somali rock-engravings … which faithfully reproduce the unmistakable shape of their hilts and straight double-edged blades”. When later this tool was developed, he further explains, “the Somali departed so unwillingly from this particular type [and] remained faithful to the same model, merely making the blade longer” [40]. It was identified with the dagger that was worn at the belt by the Punt king, which was shown on the Deir-el-Bahri wall paintings after the Puntites received an Egyptian naval mission from queen Hatshepsut ([15], pp. 32–33).

The cattle: The role of the oxen was very historic in the Somali culture as cattle herding was attached to special importance. Some observers suggest that the pre-historic ancestors of the Somalis were in regard of “privileged relationship” with the oxen. This is made clear by numerous rock art sites. The oxen were the most important species among the animals that were painted or incised on the walls of the caves. The rock art generally suggests that the rearing of the humpless oxen date back to 3000 BCE with humped oxen replacing them around 500 BCE ([38], pp. 19, 22–24). But, linguistically, we have seen that cattle herding was adopted long before that date in the Horn.

The camel: Nearly half of the camels around the world are owned by the Somalis [41]. Despite their apparent antiquity, the date of raising camels in Somalia is yet to be known. It has been postulated that the camel was introduced to Somalia from Arabia. In recent investigations on a vast area of Northwest Arabia, pictures of live-size camels are assigned up to 5000 years ago [42]. However, growing evidence suggest that the camel domestication time difference in Arabia and Somalia was relatively insignificant. In both regions, camels were engraved on many rock art sites in a wide area. In Somalia, most of the known camels were painted in historic times. Only two single camels in two different sites can be considered as dating to pre-historic times for they are found with hump-less cattle. A live-size camel was observed among different herds of well-shaped cattle in the Karin-Heegan rock art site to the west of Boosaaso [43]. In the Xuunshaale site, about 300 km to the SW of Karin-Heegan, a determined artist managed to carve at least one camel on a standing wall of a huge basalt in a less accessible area of fallen basalts. It appears that it was engraved at the time of incising the hump-less cattle on the rock of the floor (Figure 5).

Figure 5.

Incised camel, probably prehistoric, on a hidden separate boulder of the Xuunshaale rock art site. The camel’s vertical height is 20.3 cm with a horizontal width of 40.4 cm, the author 2023.

Linguistically, we have mentioned above a few Arabic-LEC cognates, gamal and awr. But there are many other words for that cognation. Examples include darr (Arabic darrat, Somali darartay): a moment of the highest or most fresh milk production by a lactating animal after a rainfall; ram (Arabic raamat, Somali reemtay): the welcoming voice of a she-camel when her baby is to suckle; ḋowd (Arabic ḋowd, Somali dowd): preventing animals from proceeding to water or pasture; and doh (both languages): a voice of directing the move of a grown he-camel. Bernd Heine also shows that there is almost no difference in the camel terminology of Rendille and the main Somali who split up about 2300 BP [44]. What appears here is that the Proto-EC were familiar with the camel but it was widely adopted during the early first millennium BCE. The rock art also suggests that it was that time when camels replaced cattle for importance. After all, some of our economic lexemes should have been exchanged through ancient trade networks.

6. Developments of external trade

It has been noted that the international trade in Somalia dates back nearly 5000 years ago with different nations participating in that trade at different times. They seemingly or certainly include Arabs, Egyptians, Sumero-Akkadians, Phoenicians, and Israelites, followed by Persians and Indians, and Greeks and Romans. As Heeren has indicated, the type of products of the country, its location, and its trade-oriented culture sustained the popularity of the Somali market. Among these nations, ancient Egypt is seen as the one that made the first and largest involvement. But the evidence is mostly indirect as it is based on the apparent location of the Land of Punt in the Egyptian records. For about the last 150 years, most of Egyptologists, and historians, sustained to identify Punt with Northern Somalia because of its unique fit for being the home of rare products that the Egyptians badly demanded [45]. The Puntite factor in Egyptian history may exist since the pre-dynastic period, but the recorded data for trading with Punt approximately covered throughout 4570–3150 BP, the greatest era in the history of ancient Egypt. The traditional belief that the Egyptians were sailing for Punt through Marsa Gawassis near the western end of the Red Sea, is now archaeologically confirmed. Well-preserved remains of seagoing ships and harbor installations, which include ancient rigging ropes of large ships, their timbers, and anchors were recently excavated from the Marsa Gawassis. The archaeologically discovered materials date back to the periods of a number of Pharaonic sovereigns. The finds also include forty boxes of ship cargo of which some were inscribed with the name of Pharaoh [Amenemhat IV of about 3800 years ago], and with “wonderful things from Punt” [46].

Given the religious factor in the trade of the Egyptians, and other Near-Eastern societies, Puntite supplies were not demanded only for commercial needs but also for religious satisfaction as the Egyptians also called Punt the “land of gods”. This is supported by receiving determinedly from Punt the products that were found in Egypt or the nearby countries such as gold, dogs, and ebony. It is also marked by calling those products collectively “wonderful things from Punt”. Among those things, myrrh, frankincense, and cinnamon were their primary imports from Punt. Since different Egyptian generations were mentioning Punt throughout nearly two millennia, it is possible that different places in Northeast Africa were occasionally called Punt as generalization and specification of ancient names were usual in the region. However, there was certainly Punt proper, which had always been defined by its supplies and the character of being a spiritual symbol for the Egyptians. One of the earliest and most detailed imports from Punt was brought by a mission sent by Pharaoh Saḥure (2476–2490 BP) of the new Kingdom. Incense was the main part of the Cargo brought back by the mission which consists of 80,000 aromatic units, 6000 gold and silver units, and a lot of ebony woods, with first Puntite Pictures ([4], pp. 25–26). Nearly after ten centuries, the imports were still the same. The detailed expedition dispatched by Queen Hatshepsut around 3500 BP, whose destination was reckoned to be shortly before Qarfuuna (Guardafui or Cape of Aromatics), also brought back from Punt various kinds of myrrh, incense, gold, ebony, eye cosmetic, monkeys, dogs, and skins of leopards [47].

Incense (from Latin incendere, to burn or kindle) has the same literal meaning as the term perfume, which is the aroma yielded by odoriferous substances with smoke when burned. The two genuine and best-known types of incense are frankincense and myrrh. Both are fragment gum resin, but there is a difference between their colors and size. Frankincense is usually larger or elongate longer within a color of mostly looks like wheat, while myrrh is mainly brown.⁸ Using it at temple rituals and funerals, incense trees were considered holy plants among the Near-Eastern and Mediterranean societies from time immemorial and their resin could be the most precious vegetative product [48]. From about 4600 BP, incense was one of the most common subjects mentioned in the Egyptian records and pictured in temples and tombs. Incense and burners have also been found in some graves [49]. Unlike the incense, the animals from Punt mostly figure in the records by 3500 BP with the earliest probable date being 3800s. The author of Periplus nearly 2000 years ago, and other Greco-Roman geographers before and after him, stated that the northern Somalia and southeast Arabia were the only regions that were producing the incense. Even the other parts of Somalia and the neighboring regions such as Eritrea were not exporting or producing the incense in question [50]. Herodotus around 450 BCE reported even an organized and informed Sudanese kingdom that was situated in interior, midway region between the coast and the Nile and Eritrea and Egypt, which was rich in gold but did not otherwise know about existence and use of incense [51]. The last port that was exporting any amount of incense was Zaylac.

The historical material discoveries within the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen (c. 3330 BP) in 1922, provided an explanation for the origin of the Egyptian imported incense. There was an interesting find among what was excavated there. The air of the tomb was still smelling off, a pleasant odor at the time of the excavation because of frankincense from Punt. This Puntite incense was later examined and described by A. Lucas, a chemist, who found that it is the variety that grows in Somalia and not any other place in Africa ([49], pp. 91–93). Varieties of these incense also grow in Arabia. A tradition in Arabia holds that al-khowjari of South Oman can be compared with the Meydi of Somalia as the best type of incense in the two regions. But there is still a qualitative difference between the Somali and Arabian products. It is generally observed that “the Somali frankincense were often superior to the Arabian”. The Somali one was seen as a native true one (Boswellia neglecta) while the Arabian variety (Boswellia serrata, etc.) was considered as a later cultivation. The incense grown in both regions was addressed in the Periplus. Its author attested that the type produced in the tip of the Somali Peninsula, the Qarfuuna region, was “in great quantity and of the best grade”. The Arabians were themselves importing Somali incense to deliver to the eastern Mediterranean ([48], pp. 25–27, 33–35, 80).

As to the cinnamon, while its primary source, Southeast Asia or Somalia, is debatable, Somalia was otherwise a great market for its distribution. This was made clear by the Egyptians and later Mediterranean civilizations. Israelites and Greco-Roman writers talked about its source for their region. These civilizations used it as incense and food flavor. In Queen Hatshepsut’s inscriptions, it was one of the wonderful things of Punt. Herodotus knew that it was the region of Gulf of Aden that produces or exports the incense and cinnamon. Probably combining Arabia and Somalia as the source of the products, he mentioned Arabia since the Arabians were delivering them to the eastern Mediterranean. His statement on the region as “the last of inhabited lands towards the south” was usually reference to the both sides of that Gulf. He gave another hint for the then Somali role in the trade of the Sinnamon. He said that the Arabs did not tell its origin but some “relate that it comes from the country in which Dionysus was brought up”. Dionysus was an Egyptian idol which was also adopted by the Greeks ([51], pp. 148, 276, 278) who began to reside in Egypt by 600 and conquered it in 332 BCE. Since that country was related to Egyptian culture, Arabia, Aromatics, and the extremities of the greater Aethiopia and the Southern Sea which is certainly the Gulf of Aden, that country must have been Somalia.

Dioscorides says that it grows in Arabia and Somalia, but he adds that “The cinnamon has many names, from the different places where it grows. But the best sort is that which is like the cassia of Mosyllum, and this cinnamon is called Mosyllitic, as well as the cassia” ([48], pp. 82–83). Mosyllum was an important trading city, probably Ceelaayo or Butiyaalo in the area of Boosaaso. Pliny, a Roman Scholar (d. 79 CE) described Mosyllum as “the port of export for cinnamon”. He adds that the natives of the region were bringing it to Yemen in large amount [52]. Writing around 24 BCE Strabo, another Roman, and in Periplus, cinnamon was depicted as a specialty of Somalia and is located in the same places as those of the incense. Strabo described the inland of Qarfuuna as the myrrh, frankincense, and “the cinnamon country”. This inland was well familiar to the Greeks as they gave its localities Greek names. Periplus addressed its varying grades in quality or quantity. While Berbera was exporting “the harder cinnamon’’, from Mosyllum, “there are shipped … a great quantity of cinnamon, so that this market-town requires ships of larger size’’; and also, Caluula area “produces incense of fine quality”. Beyond it, Tabai, “the port of spice trade … produces cinnamon, gizir, asypha, aroma, magla, moto, and frankincense,” and in Xaafuun “the greatest quantity of cinnamon is produced.’’ The region itself was called regio Aromatifera or cinnamomifera ([48], pp. 25-27, 82-83, 86). Here, no distinction was made between cinnamon and cassia (and even spices) which both belong to laurel tree family.

The apparent connection here is that the Greco-Roman Cape of Aromatics or Spices and Arabian Barr Khaza’in or country of treasuries is identical with the Egyptian Kheto Anti, aromatic terraces. As the finding from Tutankhamen’s tomb accords well with the Egyptian records, some of the human figures in the Laasgeel rock art also make a fascinating linkage. It is well-known that a Puntite sovereign who welcomed around 3500 BP the queen Hatshepsut’s expedition had at the ankle of his right leg been adorned by rings of yellow metal ([47], p. 23). Interestingly, important persons in Laasgeel rock art similarly adorned rings at the ankles ([38], p. 18). Since the Greeks learned the Egyptian traditions from the very beginnings of the dynastic era with enthusiasm of Hellenizing Egyptian heritage, ([51], pp. 171-80, 206-207), it can be detected that the Greco-Roman “Land of Aromatics” referred to Egyptian tradition. There are other cases which show these references to which Roman scholars also utilized after their nation took Egypt from the Greeks in 30 BCE. Pliny called Zaylac ‘Port of Isis’, with which he also associated myrrh production and the name Abalito, Avalite of Periplus. Zaylac or Port of Isis, which had on its gate “stone monuments with inscriptions in unknown alphabet” was here linked with symbols of Egyptian culture. Isis is a Greek form of Iset, an important deity which was mother of Huur, another main deity. Huur (Falcon) was identified with a big Somali bird also called Huur. Biset (cat), another idol, also involved in these issues while biset also means cat in the Somali. Pliny also states that Pharaoh Sesostris led his army to Mosyllum ([52], V1: 34). This move is also indicated by Herodotus who additionally describes this Pharaoh’s great conquests in Levant and Anatolia and beyond ([51], pp. 173-76). There were three Sesostrises during the 19th century BCE, whose period Egypt dispatched significant naval missions to Punt. But it is also suggested that Sesostris in question was Seti of around 1294-1279 BCE, who was also a great conqueror and thus was confounded with the original one ([51], p. 173, n. 4). In any way, interrelated Egyptian-Greco-Roman information addresses an Egyptian involvement in the extremities of the Horn. The Sesostris’s action was apparently an ideological mission of providing Puntite products as Herodotus also attributed to Pharaoh Necho c. 600 BCE an ambitious, non-military expedition down to Indian Ocean ([51], p. 319).

The Egyptians may even trigger international common interest in the Somali market, which eventually contributed to the advancement of shipbuilding in the region. Other nations sent their seafaring missions to the same region of the Horn. It has particularly been noted a sea trade of the Sumero-Akkadian with Melukhkha from the late third millennium to late second millennium BCE. This was also the case of the expedition of King Solomon of Israel to Ophir in the tenth century BCE. Melukhkha and Ophir are identified with Punt or Northern Somalia on the basis of the destination area and the time length of the expeditions together with types of plants, animals, and precious stones imported from there [53]. It was proposed that Melukhkha could be both Somalia and Yemen although the Iraqis described it as a country of black men [54]. Solomon’s expedition was led by Phoenicians, an indication that they may have already gained experience in trading with the Horn since the period of their rise coincidence with that of Egyptian decline. Herodotus later noted that Phoenician sailors led an expedition that apparently reached at least the ancient port of Xaafuun, which was dispatched around 600 BCE by Necho, the last Pharaoh who attempted to reinstate the power of dwindling Egypt [55]. However, it was the Yemenis who were mostly importing and then conveying the Somali aromatics to Levant and Iraq in this period.⁹ The competition for Somali products has thus been rekindled by the Sabaeans. We can recall the well-known visit of Queen of Saba or Sheba to King Solomon. It was also a period that the caravan trade across Arabia-Levant was coming out. Solomon’s interest in the exotic products of Somalia should have then been hinted at by the Yemeni-Israeli contact, as F. Albright noted.

Somalia itself yielded evidence for common international interest in receiving aromatic products from the Qarfuuna region. The evidence relates to prehistoric Somali-Yemeni commercial relations. A set of monumental inscriptions on seven large stone blocks have recently been discovered by local treasury-seekers in a cave temple 150 km southwest of Qarfuuna and 110 km north of Xaafuun. The Sabaean writers of these “homogenous inscriptions” were more concerned to express a religious devotion to Sabaean idols. But the commercial factor in the epigraphy is testified by statements for a naval expedition sent by a Yemeni king to this region of Somalia. The site of the inscriptions is not archaeologically investigated, but it is identified with a place of ruins that was reported by a French explorer in 1880, near Abdixan well. The experts of the Sabaean epigraphy date the inscriptions at approximately 2700 BP. Other sites also yielded these kinds of inscriptions, which reveal that the Sabaeans heavily depended on Somali products for their big trade in incense. A Sabaean inscription consisting of only four letters on a stone block, which is part of a tomb, was also observed near the coastal town of Shal‘aw 25 km southwest of the ancient port of Xiis [56]. Two stone blocks recently found at Xaafuun also carry Sabaean inscriptions (Figure 6).¹⁰ The date of the Abdixan inscriptions was about two centuries after the visit of Queen of Saba to King Solomon. This may serve as evidence for the inspired judgment of Cosmas Indicopleustes, who journeyed through the northern coast of Somalia around 525 CE and stated that Queen of Saba “brought to Solomon spices from this very Barbaria [Somalia], which lay near Saba on the other side of the sea” [57]. It is noteworthy here that in this late time, 547 CE when Cosmos completed his book, it was still believed that Somalia was the home of the products even by a knowledgeable, Egyptian merchant who traveled as far as Sri lank and his nickname, Indicopleustes, expresses his experience on India. The unique role of Somalia in the Horn for the regional trade was also noted by Claudius Ptolemy c. 150 CE. He singled out the country for being a commercial partner of Yemen with the largest number of trade centers ([21], citing The Geography of Ptolemy; 1991. pp. 38, 107).

Figure 6.

(a and b) Fragmented Sabaean inscriptions on two stone blocks of 1.1 m width and 40 cm height, newly found at Xaafuun. If taken together, the inscriptions may read: “Barham bin Baran (gifts) … Yasran and s ayd and Yada‘ and Barham …”, according to Nu‘man Khaldun and A.N. Sawal, experts of Sabaean epigraphy in Yemen, (Mahad Jebiye, 2023).

The trade between Somalia and Arabia must have existed long before and after the date of the inscriptions. Agatharchides noted around 150 BCE an increase the trade by a Yemeni presence in Somalia. Describing the Sabaeans and the Phoenicians as the richest nations in the world, he reported that the former were traveling and had settlements in the land of the aromatics ([55], p. 45). This mention of the Aromatic Land represents a period in which the Greeks were struggling to join the commerce in the Qarfuuna region. Agents of a Greek king of Egypt, Ptolemy Euergetes (d. 223 BCE) were said to have reached Mossylum ([48], p. 82). Meanwhile, the Greeks sent out to Somalia a certain traveler, Ariston, who named northern Somalia after the Greek Sea idol ‘Poseidon’. A Greek tradition also mentioned that some travelers led by Yambul were captured in Northern Somalia [58]. A non-Greek sailor, possibly from the region, also led some Greeks to Qarfuuna and further to India around 118 BCE [59]. The nature of information offered by Agatharchides 150 BCE and Artemidorus 100 BCE, point out that Greek Egyptian merchants were visiting ports in Qarfuuna region by these times.

Strabo’s report of about 26 BCE, is an indication of immediate Roman interest in the trade in Somalia. This interest was always directed to the region of aromatics as even it took the Greeks nearly four centuries to reach the southern coast of Somali after they began to deal with the northern one. Strabo expressed the geography and commercial importance of the Qarfuuna region. Explaining the sources of commercial revenue in Egypt, he states: “Large fleets are dispatched as far as India and the extremities of Aethiopia, from which the most valuable cargoes are brought to Aegypt and thence sent forth again to the other regions” [60]. At those times extremities of Aethiopia were the region of Qarfuuna, which he himself called the “Southern Horn”. A Roman ruler of the Moroccan coast, Juba (d. 23 CE) also had a report on the region though he confounded Boosaaso with Qarfuuna. His mistake is stated by Pliny who says: “Juba holds that at Cape Mossylites begins the Atlantic Ocean, navigable with a north-west wind along the coast of his kingdom of the Mauretania” ([52], p. VI, 34). It appears that Juba had a clue about the tip of the Horn so he was differentiating the northern Somali coast from the southern one, calling the latter ‘Atlantic’, and thinking that it immediately joins the Mauretanian coast. The rest of the Pliny’s remarks reconcile Strabo and Jubba’s statements, as he adds: “Some writers place one Aethiopian town on the coast beyond this point [Mosyllum]”. However, Xaafuun was the last point of the Greco-Roman known world as they knew not about the southern coast of Somalia. But the mention of the “Horn” means that Strabo at least learned from other sources that Qarfuuna is the point of coast trend toward the south. He further says “after doubling this cape toward the south, we have no more descriptions of harbors or places, because nothing is known of the seacoast beyond this point” ([60], pp. XV1, 1V, 14). A knowledge about the southern coast had thus to wait for the author of Periplus who himself followed the footsteps of the Yemenis.

Those pre-historic Yemenis should have later been assimilated by the Somalis. But the Yemeni presence was still obvious in the far south of the region. Periplus reports that the Yemenis were sailing all way down to the town of Rhapta, somewhere between Lamu and Malindi, [61] for trading with its Cushite-like population or Berber, as the Greco-Romans were calling the Somalis. There, the Yemenis were intermarrying with locals and speaking their language. The expansion of ancient Somalis over the Tana region around these times may led the Yemenis this trade move of a further afield. Further increase of the trade was reported by Cosmas. He observed a large Somali contribution to the regional trade network as they were exporting products of their land to countries, which included Arabia, Persia, India, and Eritrea ([57], pp. 51–52). The author of Periplus already noted that the Somalis were crossing to Arabia on their own small boats. And on the basis of population exchange between Somalia and Yemen during the Islamic era, it is possible that the Somalis were also residing in the Yemeni coast in the Pre-Islamic era. Pliny noted that cinnamon merchants from the Horn were staying southern Yemeni ports about five years for business ([52], p. XXI, 42).

Archaeological finds greatly corroborate the documentary sources. Besides the previously-known ancient wares from Xiis, Daamo and Xaafuun, recently-investigated two other ancient ports yielded interesting materials from the ancient trade. Again in the small barren port of Xiis, Mundu of Periplus, the investigators collected from tombs and nearby surface materials that include: fine ware, abundant types of amphoras and glasses from Roman Empire and areas of its influence from south France to south Turkey, and Syria; numerous Organic Storage Jars and at least cooking pottery from South Arabia; abundant Mesopotamian glazed pottery; decorated glass inlays, amphoras, millefiori dishes, and fine ware from Egypt; glass beads and stone beads from India; wheel-made kitchen pottery, necklace, and anklets; and rubble and short walls. These materials date from the first to third centuries CE. Still, South Arabian Organic Storage Jars dating back from the first-century BCE to the first half of the first-century CE were found in Siyaara 35 km to the east of Berbera [62].

Many larger abandoned towns are yet to be investigated. Illegal excavations, through which priceless materials were destroyed at many places, contribute to the explanation (Figure 7). For example, besides a Roman glass vessel of possibly 1^st-3^rd century CE (Gonzalez-Ruibal pers. Comm., 11 April 2023), multiple beads of apparently Indo-pacific origin were illegally unearthed from cairns in ancient port of Butiyaalo (Figure 8). These beads include the banded ones made of agate apparently from western India, glass beads, and rock crystal ones. They are almost similar to numerous beads found recently in ruins of Harla which was occupied around 550-1580s CE, 35 km NW Harar (Timothy Insoll Pers. Comm., 4 April 2023). The fact that these beads were buried with the deceased humans in the cairns represents a funeral aspect of pre-Islamic cultural legacy. Butiyaalo, 80 km east of Boosaaso, on the head of a sea canal off the coast of Qandala, can be Mosyllum. It was a center for at least the medieval sultanate of Bari

Figure 7.

Illegally excavated cairn showing a Roman glass vessel at the ruined town of Butiyaalo. The vessel is reportedly 37 cm long, 15 cm diameter in the middle, Mahad Jebiye, 2023.

The types and quantity of the wares from the area and the selective commercial nature of their respective sources show that this was in the plan by urbanite community who were making choices for their lifestyle. This material selection for urbanite routine priorities is also indicated by the items mentioned in the Periplus. The imports contain glass, tin, copper, iron, various metal-made items, gold, and silver coin; dressed clothes, tunics, cloaks, cotton cloth, girdles; wheat, rice, sugar, sesame oil, clarified butter, herbal medicines, dye or varnishes, grape juice, wine by a few places; and Rhinoceros-horn in the far South ([50], pp. 55–61). Some goods like clarified butter, sesame oil, and others were imported from India probably to export them to Arabia, and Egypt. Gold was also imported for exportation. It appears that in the Periplus, it was particularly interested in internationally-traded items for it was not paid much attention to animal products, which were probably a significant part of Somali exports to Arabia. The age-old Arabian animal importation from Somalia is featured by a mention of horses of Berbera (Somalia) in a poem of the famous Arabian poetic, Imru’ul-Qays, 500–545 CE ([23], pp. 81, 211). Probably because of seeking a better breed, there was a longstanding tradition in the Near East to import horses as was noted in Periplus for Yemen ([48], pp. 31, 33) and in Israelites for King Solomon ([53], p. 135). With this great trade in Somalia, a pro-consumption norm at the expense of saving and investment as well as geographical problems preluded the growth of the towns ([21], p. 260).

Figure 8.

A sample of numerous beads illegally excavated from a cairn at ruins of Butiyaalo, Mahad Jebiye, 2023.

7. A cultural dimension

Despite these strong external relations, there are no visible effects of the contacts on Somali society, while, on the other hand, the contacts deeply affected other regions of the Horn such as Northern Ethiopia, Central Eritrea, and the Nile Sudan. Still, the causes of demographic and cultural changes in these regions existed also in Somalia without effects. A sense of self-identity and accompanied religious factors appear to have prevented the Somalis from acceptance of the change. Unlike the founders of Abyssinia, the pre-Islamic Yemeni immigrants were not allowed to influence the Somali identity but they were rather apparently assimilated. An example can be drawn from the case of large Muslim immigrants in Somalia who could not avoid to be immediately Somalized. Ibn Ḥawqal noted in the 960s that there were some Muslim immigrants who were interacting with the natives in eastern Sanaag ([22], pp. 50, 63); and al-Ḥamawi reported large Muslim immigrants in Mogadishu in 1220. But there was no ever other mention of a non-Somali community in the country, although many communities descended from Arab origin. Even those in Mogadishu immediately coalesced into the Somali. After one-century ibn Baṭuṭa, who was their guest in 1330, called them Berber and they were speaking Somali [63]. But what about acceptance of a pre-Islamic religion?

Although the Near East is the home of the divine Religions, the Eastern Cushitic were more Abrahamic than most of the Near-easterners prior to the advent of Islam. The former believed in a monotheistic creed whose God was called Waaq. For the Somalis, Waaq is also called Eebe and both are still Islamic names together with the name “Allah”. When the Somalis were converted to Islam they did not find a big difference between Waaq and Allah and their basic attributes. Waaq is also the creator and controller of the universe, and cherisher of mankind. The literature about Waaq provides that the meaning of the name is “eternal”. The name and its manifestations still vigorously remain in the religious literature. Almost every Somali clan has an ancestor who lived sometime in the Islamic era whose name is X+Waaq, for example, BiddaWaaq, JidWaaq, CaabidWaaq, etc., which means slave of God like Abdallah in Arabic. The Somali names have thus the same meanings as those of the Semitic religious names, such as Gabriel, Israel, and Abdallah. Agaw and Sudanese Cushites did not show that they shared this creed with the East Cushites. This means that one of two things occurred: the non-EC Cushites corrupted the belief in Waaq; or the ancestors of the East Cushites have been converted through the religious legacy of Abraham or Solomon, a period that the Proto-Cushitic separation already took place.¹¹

8. Conclusion

Pinpointing the birthplace of the Cushites must wait for intensive Afroasiatic linguistic analyses. However, on the basis of linguistics and the distribution and structural techniques of the cairns and rock art, the original homeland of the Somali as a major tribe by the early third millennium BCE must fall on the northern coast of their country. The southernmost corner of their early hinterland could encompass the Nugaal Valley to Harar Plateau. Moving out from that plateau and probably pushing the Proto-Oromo-Konso toward the south, the Bayso-Jiido group settled in Bali during the first millennium BCE. By the middle of the millennium, the Rendille-Madalle group occupied the lower part of the inter-riverine region, that is, the hinterland of Ḥamar coast. Around the end of the millennium, they were on the southern side of Jubba River. They were preceded by the Omo-Baḋ group but were followed by Tunni. The Proto-Mirifle and others replaced the Madalle-Rendille group in the inter-riverine region. The north was left for the Tiirri generation until the ancestors of the current northerners began to rise around 500 CE. Although there were fishing, hunting, and gathering communities throughout that long history, the majority of the society practiced herding and, in less degree, farming livelihoods. International trade at the coast was also effectively developed. This allowed economic choices, which further encouraged political decentralization within relatively well-established sociopolitical institutions.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mahad Saciid Jebiye for sharing with me invaluable newly found data from Bari. I am similarly thankful to professor Timothy Insoll and Dr. Alfredo Gonzalez-Ruibal for their comments on the artifacts from Butiyaalo. I appreciate the technical help of Abshir Xasan Cabdullah (Burci).

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest is reported by the author.

Funding

The research reported in this chapter was funded by the author.