Abyssinian and Horn of Africa (II/62) - orchards

Author: Duncan Head

Synopsis: Add orchards and vineyards to permitted terrain

Proposal:

Replace

WW, Rv, H(S), H(G), RGo, Rd, BUA

with

WW, Rv, H(S), H(G), O, V, RGo, Rd, BUA

Justification:

From Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Civilizations (Macmillan, 2000) p.302-3:

"Throughout Ethiopian traditional literature, green fingers are marks

of sanctity or royal legitimacy. St Pantalewon's waste was a high

hill without trees or water which he turned into an irrigated garden

by a mixture of effort and miracle. St Aaron, famed as a miracle-

worker, in the fourteenth century planted and irrigated olive-groves.

To plant orchards of citrus fruits was a kingly act in many

chronicles. In the late fifteenth century, for instance, Baeda

Maryam 'established many new plantations' of citrus trees, vines and

sugar cane on a new colonial frontier he opened in the east and south-

east of his kingdom."

Reference is to R K P Pankhurst (ed.) The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles (Addis Ababa, 1967).

From David W Phillipson, Ancient Ethiopia - Aksum: Its Antecedents

and Successors (British Museum, 1998): p.59 notes the presence of

grape-seeds in 4th-7th century excavations, and vines carved on

Aksumite architecture of the 3rd-4th centuries AD, plus rock-cut

tanks interpreted as fruit-presses, perhaps for wine: "Thus, whilst

it is possible that the seeds recovered at Aksum came from imported

raisins, there is evidence to support the view that grapes were

locally grown and used for making wine."

See also East African Coastal 100 BC - 1505 AD