Summary

Apart from being the home of many ‘firsts’ and ‘onlys’ in Africa, the Horn of Africa has also played an important role in the development of global, commercial, and religious processes over the last two millennia. Due to the problems in navigability of the Red Sea north of Aydhab and Suakin, traders seeking routes to the Mediterranean had two choices: make port at Mocha or Jeddah and take the overland routes up the western coast of Arabia or make port at the Eritrean ports and take the shorter overland route to the Nile and sail up the Nile to Alexandria and Aleppo. The continuity of ports and the overland routes in the Horn attest to the significance of the second passage for Indian Ocean and Mediterranean trade. Though the religious conflict in the Horn is far more complex than a simple picture of isolated Christian highland versus the traditional hinterlands, the Islamic lowlands, and/or the coast, it is also true that these divisions played a role in the generation of larger conflicts such as the jihad of Imam Ahmad Graft and the Portuguese involvement, as well as the major Oromo and Somali migrations. It could also be argued that the nineteenth-century Mahdist revolt in Sudan was linked to similar and concurrent processes in the Horn of Africa. Current sociopolitical situations are not conducive to archaeological research, especially along the coasts and immediate hinterlands of Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. Even so, future projects (especially those focused on regional approaches and on late first and second millennium developments) will prove immensely significant in understanding the role played by the Horn in the development of African and global modernity.

See also: Africa, East: Ethiopia and Eritrea; Foragers; Madagascar and Surrounding islands; Swahili Coast; Africa, North: Nubia; Plant Domestication.