Dʿmt

Dʿmt ደዐመተ
c. 980 BCE–c. 400 BCE
Dʿmt is given as "Damot" on this map, not to be confused with the later and more southwestern Kingdom of Damot.
Capital	Unknown, likely Yeha[1]
Government	Monarchy
Historical era	Iron Age
• Established	c. 980 BCE
• Disestablished	c. 400 BCE
Preceded by Succeeded by Land of Punt Kingdom of Aksum

D mt (Ge'ez: ደዐመተ, DʿMT theoretically vocalized as ዳዓማት, Daʿamat^[2] or ዳዕማት, Daʿəmat^[3]) was a kingdom located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia that existed between the 10th and 5th centuries BC. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive and very little archaeological work has taken place. As a result, it is not known whether Dʿmt ended as a civilization before the Kingdom of Aksum's early stages, evolved into the Aksumite state, or was one of the smaller states united in the Kingdom of Aksum possibly around the beginning of the 1st century.^[4]

Part of a series on the
History of Eritrea
Pre-colonial Prehistory Kingdom of Punt (c. 2500–980 BC) Kingdom of Dəmot (c. 980–400 BC) Aksumite Empire (c. 80 BC–AD 960) Sultanate of Dahlak (Late 11th century–1557) Kingdom of Medri Bahri (c. 1137–1889) Ethiopian Empire (1270–1974)
Colonial Eyalet-i Habeş (1554–1872) Italian Eritrea (1882–1936) Eritrea Governorate of Italian East Africa (1936–1941) East African Campaign of World War II (1940–1941) British Military Administration (1941–1952)
Post-Colonial Autonomy within Ethiopia (1952–1962) Eritrean War of Independence (1961–1991) Annexation as the Eritrea Province (1962–1993) Ethiopian Civil War (1974–1991)
State of Eritrea 1990s in Eritrea Eritrean–Ethiopian War (1998–2000) 2000s in Eritrea 2010s in Eritrea
Eritrea portal
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Part of a series on the
History of Ethiopia
Early history Prehistory   Dʿmt 980 – 400 BC
Middle Ages Aksum 100 – 940 AD Zagwe dynasty 900–1270 Early Solomonic period 1270–1529
Early modern history Ethiopian–Adal War 1527–1543 Oromo migrations 1543 – 17th century Habesh Eyalet 1557 – 17th century Early Gondar period 1632–1769 Aussa Sultanate 1734–1974 Zemene Mesafint 1769–1855
Modern history Unification 1855–1913 First Italo–Ethiopian War 1895–1896 Pre-Italian Modernization 1913–1936 Second Italo–Ethiopian War 1935–1936 Italian East Africa 1936–1941 East African Campaign 1941 Italian guerrilla war 1941–1943 Post-Italian Modernization 1941–1974 Federation with Eritrea 1952–1962 Eritrean Independence 1961–1991 Ogaden War 1977–1978 Ethiopian Civil War 1974–1991 Eritrean–Ethiopian War 1998–2000
Recent history Ethiopian general election 2005 Ogaden conflict 2007–2008 War in Somalia 2006–2009 The Qerro Revolution 2014–2018 Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present) (Tigray conflict) (Gedeo–Guji clashes) (Oromo–Somali clashes) (Afar–Somali clashes) (Benishangul-Gumuz conflict) 2018–present
Topics Emperor Aristocracy Military Army of the Empire Currency Aksumite Famines
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History

Given the presence of a large temple complex, the capital of Dʿmt may have been present day Yeha, in Tigray Region, Ethiopia.^[1] At Yeha, the temple to the god Ilmuqah is still standing.^[5]

The kingdom developed irrigation schemes, used plows, grew millet, and made iron tools and weapons.

Some modern historians including , , , Cain Felder, and Ephraim Isaac consider this civilization to be indigenous, although Sabaean-influenced due to the latter's dominance of the Red Sea, while others like Joseph Michels, Henri de Contenson, Tekle-Tsadik Mekouria, and Stanley Burstein have viewed Dʿmt as the result of a mixture of Sabaeans and indigenous peoples.^[6][7] Some sources consider the Sabaean influence to be minor, limited to a few localities, and disappeared after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state.^[8][9] However other sources hold that Dʿmt, though having indigenous roots, was under strong South Arabian economic and cultural influence.^[10]

After the fall of Dʿmt in the 5th century BC, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller unknown successor kingdoms. This lasted until the rise of one of these polities during the first century BC, the Aksumite Kingdom.^[11]

Name

Due to the similarity of the name of Dʿmt and Damot when transcribed into Latin characters, these two kingdoms are often confused or conflated with one another, but there is no evidence of any relationship to Damot, a kingdom far to the south and existing a millennium and a half later.

Known rulers

The following is a list of four known rulers of Dʿmt, in chronological order:^[7]

Regions

• Barka
• Bur
• Hamassien
• Marya
• Seraye
• Yeha

See also

• History of Eritrea
• History of Ethiopia
• Kingdom of Aksum
• Land of Punt

References