Sunday, February 19, 2017

First Contacts

Building off of Ethiopian theories the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba visited Solomon in Jerusalem. 1 Kings 10 discusses in great details Queen of Sheba’s visit. “Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.” (1 Kings 10:2-4) As we know from the story, the Queen returned back to her country and with new found knowledge of the one true God. This is the earliest reported contact with the outside world for Ethiopia and with this contact came immersion of a new religions. Also this interaction formed the foundation of the Solomonic Dynasty which fell around 1974.
            Italy and Ethiopia had an interesting bond because they shared interest involved each other’s cultures back in the Middle ages. Ethiopians were very interesting in experiences other countries religious practices especially Christians one. Italy’s ties with Ethiopia also opened educational doors as well. The field of cartography and sea exploration increased greatly. The Ethiopians did have interactions with Greece and Asia but they had more of a trade relationship than anything else.

            In the early 1400’s a European man by the name of Pietro Rombulo visited Ethiopia for the first time. However, this is not the first interaction between the two countries. According to our text by Reader he says “Ethiopians regularly visited Egypt and Cyprus, and made pilgrimages to the holy places of Palestine, where they met European travelers and established links between Ethiopia and the rest of the Christian world” (Readers, 351).  Also in the early 1400, King Henry IV sent a letter to Ethiopia’s King named Prester John. Henry wanted an alliance with Ethiopia involving a crusade against Islam. 


References:
Reader, John. Africa: A Biography of the Continent. New York: First Vitage Books, 1999.
New International Bible

1 comment:

  1. Hi Paige, you have created a really good Blog. I enjoyed reading your post. I like the fact that you used the Bible as a historically accurate account of the past. Many people will not or can not accept that the Bible is in fact, a historical record. More and more each day, archaeologists are finding a great deal of information which proves that what is written in the Bible is indeed, what happened.

    There is one article which I read that talks about some scientists finding some DNA from an Ethiopian which lived well over four thousand years ago. The amazing thing about this is, besides the fact that usable DNA was found in a human skeleton which is over forty- five hundred years old, the Ethiopian man had bot Asian and European ancestry. This article shows without a doubt that people from the Middle East was in contact with Africans long before the historical record shows.[1] There are other researcers who feel that the contact between the Africans and the Middle East went back much further, maybe twice as far. [2}

    Thank you for your post and for taking the time to read my reply. Your fellow student, Rodney Slone.


    [1] "Science" Gibbons, Ann

    [2] Ancient Egypt-Bowman,Alan K.


    References


    Bowman, Alan K. & Wente, Edward F., ect.2017. Ancient Egypt: Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Egypt accessed 02/20/2017.

    Gibbons, Ann. 2015. First DNA Extracted From an Ancient African Skeleton Shows Widespread Mixing With Eurasians: Science. Retrieved from http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/first-dna-extracted-ancient-african-skeleton-shows-widespread-mixing-eurasians on 02/20/2017.

    ReplyDelete