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Aromata

Coordinates: 11°50′N 51°14′E / 11.83°N 51.24°E / 11.83; 51.24
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aromata (Greek: Αρώματα, lit. "spices, aromatics"), also called the Spice Port,[1] was an ancient seaport and emporium in the Horn of Africa, today a part of Somalia. It lay near the tip of Cape Guardafui, which was itself called the "promontory of spices" (Aromaton akron, Αρώματον ἄκρον).[2][3] It was notable for its produce of resins and various herbs.[4]

Location

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It is to be identified with Damo, a site protected on the south but exposed on the north.[2][5] British archaeologist Neville Chittick discovered Roman pottery near Damo, confirming the identification.[2] Previously, G. W. B. Huntingford had identified with Olok (Olog), which is 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the west.[6][7]

Descriptions

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According to the 1st-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, the "port of spices" (Aromaton emporion, Ἀρωμάτων ἐμπόριον) had a roadstead or anchorage (hormos) in the land of the Barbaroi.[8][9][10] It was one of the "far side" ports that lay in a line along the north Somali coast. They were "far" because they came after Adulis and beyond the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. Merchants left Egypt in July to reach them.[11] Aromata was the sixth port after Zeyla (Aualites), Berbera (Malao), Heis (Moundou), Bandar Kasim (Mosullon) and Bandar Alula (Akannai).[6] It could occasionally be dangerous to ships.[12]

According to the 2nd-century Geography of Ptolemy, a merchant named Diogenes, returning from India, was driven south by a north wind as he approached Aromata. He sailed for 25 days with the coast of the Troglodytae on his right (west) almost as far as Rhapta in Azania. Citing Marinus of Tyre, Ptolemy adds that a merchant named Theophilos sailed from Rhapta to Aromata in twenty days with a south wind blowing. Ptolemy emphasises that these were single sailings and he does not know the average number of days to sail between Aromata and Rhapta.[13] He places Aromata 6°N, while Marinus places it 4.25°N. He cites a certain Dioskoros for the location of Cape Prason, the southernmost point the Greeks reached in Africa, being "many days" beyond Rhapta. He then estimates the distance from Aromata to Cape Prason as 20.67° of latitude.[14] Ptolemy also says that he has heard from traders that the direction from Arabia Felix to Aromata is southwest not due south.[15] He places Aromata on the Gulf of Aden and not in the Indian Ocean.[1]

Aromata, like all other ports on the Gulf of Aden, was independent and ruled by its own chief.[1] Its major exports were frankincense and all grades of cassia (gizeir, asuphe, magla and moto).[16] It may have served as a major transshipment port for goods coming from India and Southeast Asia, the latter being the main source for cassia. It also exported grain, rice, sesame oil and cotton cloth.[17] According to the Periplus, a ship warned at Aromata of an approaching storm on the Indian Ocean could take refuge at Tabai (Chori Hordio), two days' sailing and on the other side of the cape.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Lionel Casson (ed.), The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary (Princeton University Press, 1989), p. 115.
  2. ^ a b c d Casson 1989, pp. 129–30.
  3. ^ G. W. B. Huntingford (ed.), The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Hakluyt Society, 1980), p. 25.
  4. ^ Glasgow, University of (1955). Transactions. p. 26. South of the Aromatic Coast, the present Somali country in which frankincense was gathered, he mentions Zengisa Acra, Cape Zenj or Zengg
  5. ^ Neville Chittick (1979), "Early Ports in the Horn of Africa", International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 8(4), 273–277. doi:10.1111/j.1095-9270.1979.tb01131.x
  6. ^ a b Huntingford 1980, p. 83.
  7. ^ Neville Chittick (1976), "An Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Horn: The British-Somali Expedition, 1975", Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 11(1), 117–133. doi:10.1080/00672707609511233
  8. ^ J. W. McCrindle (ed.), The Christian Topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian Monk: Translated from the Greek, and Edited with Notes and Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2010 [1897]), pp. 34 n3, 38 n5. Cosmas and the Periplus place it at the end of Barbaria, while Ptolemy makes it the start of Barbaria, which he extends to Rhapta.
  9. ^ Huntingford 1980, p. 58.
  10. ^ Casson 1989, p. 57.
  11. ^ Casson 1989, pp. 59, 115.
  12. ^ Casson 1989, p. 277.
  13. ^ J. Lennart Berggren and Alexander Jones (eds.), Ptolemy's Geography: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters (Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 68.
  14. ^ Berggren and Jones 2000, p. 76.
  15. ^ Huntingford 1980, pp. 173–74.
  16. ^ Huntingford 1980, p. 124.
  17. ^ Sunil Gupta, "Aromata Emporion", in Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine and Sabine R. Huebner, The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Wiley, 2012), p. 754.

11°50′N 51°14′E / 11.83°N 51.24°E / 11.83; 51.24

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