The Colonial Shadow Over Ethiopian Pottery

Does the Musnad script found on 7th-century BCE kitchen bowls in Yeha, Ethiopia, prove a Sabaean colonization from Yemen, or does it signify a deep, indigenous Semitic heritage evolving locally?

A decades-long scholarly debate rages over the origins of the D’mt Kingdom in the Horn of Africa, centering on two opposing interpretations of archaeological evidence. The “Karabist” or structural view, championed by Hermann von Wissmann the Younger, argues that the presence of the South Arabian Musnad script on domestic pottery and the specific political title Mukarrib (Federator) indicates a direct migration of state structures from the Kingdo...