Sabean colonization of Africa

The Sabean colonisation of Africa was a process of colonization by Sabeans that occurred in the Horn of Africa during the first millennium BC.

History
One of the oldest colonisation process in history occurred around 1000 BC, when the Sabeans of Southern Arabia, with a civilization based on agriculture, began to colonize the highlands of northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Some significant elements from this event, include the adoption of Ancient South Arabian script by Ethiopians, where it would later evolve into the Ge'ez script.

Cultural features
The Sabean occupation and influence allowed for Ethiopia to develop several civilizations like D'mt as well as the Kingdom of Aksum and left a very important mark in Ethiopian history and culture, a team of German archaeologists also recently concluded that all fundamental characteristics of Aksumite society derived from earlier populations in the Near East and South Arabia. Cultural transmission from the Sabean region to the Horn of Africa extended beyond architecture and stone-masonry, reaching far into the sociopolitical, religious, and cultic spheres The Sabean character of the pantheon is clearly evident in the worship of 'Almaqah, to whom, in addition to the Great Sabean Temple at Yeha, four other sanctuaries are known. Some of these are accompanied by the building dedications of Sabean stonemasons and can be identified archaeologically. Many other archaeological sites of this period in Ethiopia where some inscriptions have also been found which were executed in a Sabean-Himyaritic script, near Makalle, for example where a seated female figure was found with a South Arabian inscription on the pedestal which also makes reference to South Arabia. Older inscriptions were found at Yeha, which some scholars identify with Ava, a city built by Sabean colonists, and which apparently fell into decay after the building of Aksum the "Sacred City of the Ethiopians." Not only Yeha but also the ancient city of Aksum is considered by some scholars to have been founded by these Sabeans, where old Sabaic inscriptions have also been found.

Genetic influences
A 2010 study found that their phylogenetic clock estimates of the Haplogroup J1 in the Horn of Africa, were indirectly supported by a linguistic model for an introduction of Semitic from Arabia 2800 years ago.

In 2014, a paper concluded that a likely source of some of the west Eurasian admixture in East Africans, especially the Amhara and Tygray who speak Ethiosemitic languages, could have been from southern Arabia and associated with the D’mt kingdom. They also noted the archeological work during this time period, shows architecture in the Ethiopian culture of D’mt has an “unmistakable South Arabian appearance in many details.” However, the team acknowledges there is debate as to whether these are from large movements of people, or simply adopted elite-driven cultural practices.

The population geneticist and professor David Reich noted in his 2018 publication on human origins: "There is significant archaeological evidence of intense contact and migration between Ethiopia and southern Arabia around 3,000 years BP. During the first millennium BC, southern Arabians from the Saba territory established a polity in the Abyssinian highlands of Ethiopia, and a new conglomerate cultural landscape called the Ethio-Sabean society emerged. This event overlaps with the timing of Eurasian genetic admixture signals in Ethiopian populations and is a good candidate for the source of Eurasian admixture in East Africa."