At the origins of the built environment in the Horn Africa : the case study of Adulis Eritrea

In antiquity the town of Adulis, 50 km ca. south of Massawa (Eritrea), was one of the most important harbours of the Red Sea and the main hub of long-distance maritime routes and African caravan itineraries of the Horn, within the net of cultural and trade contacts between Mediterranean, Orient and Africa. Ancient literary sources frequently refer to Adulis, destroyed and abandoned in the VIII century, rediscovered at the beginning of the XIX. Episodic excavations along the late XIX and the XX century, provided fragments of a history of flourishing culture which developed over a span of several centuries and gave rise to a thriving urban settlement, rich of stone buildings and monumental complexes, most of them still buried. [Publisher's text]

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