The last decades have marked a decisive progress in our understanding of the early layer of Ethiopian literary heritage. This is the result of the increased accessibility of a large amount of additional manuscripts. This process has implied a new appreciation of features of manuscript culture, but is still on-going for other less apparent but not less important textual aspects. Of paramout importance among these latter is a better assessment of the early Aksumite corpus and of its significance for the relationships of Aksum to other areas of late antique Christianization.