Dʿmt

Kingdom of Dʿmt ደዐመተ
980 BC–c. 650 BC
Dʿmt is given as "Damot" on this map, not to be confused with the later and more southwestern Kingdom of Damot.
Capital	Yeha[1]
Government	Monarchy
Historical era	Iron Age
• Established	980 BC
• Disestablished	c. 650 BC
Preceded by Succeeded by Sheba Kingdom of Aksum

Dʿmt (Unvocalized Ge'ez: ደዐመተ, DʿMT theoretically vocalized as ዳዓማት, *Daʿamat^[2] or ዳዕማት, *Daʿəmat^[3]) was a kingdom located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia which existed between the 10th and 5th centuries BC. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive and very little archaeological work has taken place. As a result, it is not known whether Dʿmt ended as a civilization before the Kingdom of Aksum's early stages, evolved into the Aksumite state, or was one of the smaller states united in the Kingdom of Aksum possibly around 150 BC.^[4]

Part of a series on the
History of Eritrea
Pre-colonial Prehistory Land of Punt (c. 2500–980 BC) Kingdom of Dəmot (c. 980–400 BC) Aksumite Empire (c. 150 BC–AD 960) Sultanate of Dahlak (960–1557) Zagwe Dynasty (c. 1137–1270) Ethiopian Empire (1270–1974) Dankali Sultanate (c. Late 13th century–18th century) Sultanate of Aussa (1734–1936)
Colonial Eyalet-i Habeş (1554–1872) Italian Eritrea (1882–1936) Eritrea Governorate of Italian East Africa (1936–1941) East African Campaign of World War II (1940–1941) British Military Administration (1941–1952)
Post-Colonial Autonomy within Ethiopia (1952–1962) Eritrean War of Independence (1961–1991) Annexation as the Eritrea Province (1962–1993) Ethiopian Civil War (1974–1991)
State of Eritrea 1990s in Eritrea Eritrean–Ethiopian War (1998–2000) 2000s in Eritrea 2010s in Eritrea
Eritrea portal
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Part of a series on the
History of Ethiopia
Early history Prehistory   Dʿmt 980 – 400 BC
Middle Ages Aksum 100 – 940 AD Zagwe dynasty 900–1270 Early Solomonic period 1270–1529 Amda Seyon's Expansions 1314–1344
Early modern history Ethiopian–Adal War 1527–1543 Oromo migrations 1543 – 17th cent. Habesh Eyalet 1557 – 17th cent. Gondarine period 1632–1769 Zemene Mesafint 1769–1855 Ottoman border conflict 1832–1848
Modern history Unification 1855–1913 Menelik's Invasions 1878–1904 First Italo–Ethiopian War 1895–1896 Modernization 1913–1974 World War I 1914–1918 Second Italo–Ethiopian War 1935–1936 Italian East Africa 1936–1941 World War II 1941 Italian guerrilla war 1941–1943 Federation with Eritrea 1952–1962 Eritrean Independence War 1961–1991 Ethiopian Civil War 1974–1991 Ogaden War 1977–1978
Recent history Eritrean–Ethiopian War 1998–2000 Eritrean border conflict 1998–2018 Police massacre 2005 War in Somalia 2006–2009 East Africa drought 2011–2012 Oromo protests 2014–2016 Ethiopian civil conflict 2018–present Tigray war 2020–2022
Topics Economic history Emperor Aristocracy Military Army of the Empire Expansion Currency Aksumite Famines
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Given the presence of a large temple complex, the capital of Dʿmt may have been present-day Yeha, in Tigray Region, Ethiopia.^[1] At Yeha, the temple to the god Ilmuqah is still standing.^[5]

The kingdom developed irrigation schemes, used plows, grew millet, and made iron tools and weapons.

Some modern historians including Stuart Munro-Hay, Rodolfo Fattovich, Ayele Bekerie, Cain Felder, and Ephraim Isaac consider this civilization to be indigenous, although Sabaean-influenced due to the latter's dominance of the Red Sea, while others like Joseph Michels, Henri de Contenson, Tekle-Tsadik Mekouria, and Stanley Burstein have viewed Dʿmt as the result of a mixture of Sabaeans and indigenous peoples.^[6][7] Some sources consider the Sabaean influence to be minor, limited to a few localities, and disappeared after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state.^[8][9]

Archaeologist Rodolfo Fattovich believed that there was a division in the population of Dʿmt and northern Ethiopia due to the kings ruling over the 'sb (Sabaeans) and the 'br, the 'Reds' and the 'Blacks'.^[10] Fattovich also noted that the known kings of Dʿmt worshipped both South Arabian and indigenous gods named 'str, Hbs, Dt Hmn, Rb, Šmn, Ṣdqn and Šyhn.^[10]

After the fall of Dʿmt in the 5th century BC, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller unknown successor kingdoms. This lasted until the rise of one of these polities during the first century BC, the Aksumite Kingdom.^[11]

The following is a list of four known rulers of Dʿmt, in chronological order:^[7]

• Barka
• Bur
• Hamasien
• Marya
• Seraye
• Yeha

• History of Eritrea
• History of Ethiopia
• Kingdom of Aksum
• Land of Punt