EXPLORING
UNEXCAVATED AKSUMITE AND PRE-AKSUMITE SITES
by Paul B. Henze
The Archaeology of
Aksum.
Only a century has passed since thhe work of Enno Littmann called the
remarkable monuments at the ancient Ethiopian capital to the world's
attention. The Littmann expedition also
explored important sites to the north in Eritrea.[1]
Since that time, in spite of interruptions,
there has been significant further progress at Aksum exposing early settlement
in the area. North Ethiopian
civilization centered there reached its classic period in the second to sixth
centuries of the Christian era. As
major sites were surveyed and in part excavated it became clear that the rise
of Aksum was preceded by at least a thousand years of earlier development in
the region to the north and east.
Scarcity of funds as well as a shortage of archaeologists prepared to
undertake excavation has delayed work on the pre- and proto-Aksumite
periods. No sustained excavation has
yet been undertaken at Yeha, site of a huge temple generally judged to date
from 700 BCE and the area has still not been thoroughly surveyed. Nevertheless the work that has been
undertaken during the past two decades by British, Italian and American
archaeologists with reference to earlier French research has made possible the
development of a tentative framework of pre-Aksumite history. Laurel Phillipson, for example, has recently
developed a convincing theory that the rise of Aksum as an urban center and its
evolution into the major political and economic power in the region was based
on the working of gold.[2]
The search for early hominids in Ethiopia
has been so successful since the early 1970s and continuing discoveries so
dramatic that they have had the effect of drawing attention away from the
antecedents of the civilization that reached the peak of development at Aksum. The political condition of Eritrea has,
unfortunately, brought most serious archaeology there to a halt for the time
being. At the same time the improvement
of roads and communications in Tigray has made far more sites of potential
archaeological interest accessible in recent years. I have taken advantage of this development to visit promising
sites each year during the past decade with the support and assistance of the
Tigray Culture and Tourism Bureau. In
this paper, which will be accompanied by a visual presentation, I report on the
sites which seem most promising for comprehensive survey and excavation. I have reported many of these at the two
Littmann conferences that took place in Munich in 2002 and in Aksum in 2006.[3]
Sacred
Sites.
There is a remarkable continuity bbetween sites that in Aksumite and
pre-Aksumite times were places of worship or burial and places where Christian
churches (and in many cases monasteries) were established. In a sense, Aksumite civilization and
traditions seem to have been incorporated into Ethiopian Christianity. Aksumite attitudes and practices are not
perceived as antithetical to Christianity but seen as a precursor of it. At the sites described below the direct
continuity of use is striking.
Foremost among these is Yeha,
already mentioned, where the great temple is built on foundations that exhibit
a feature that has been characteristic of pre-Aksumite and Aksumite buildings
since very early times: several stepped-back rows of carefully cut stones that
form a solid base for stable high walls of cut stone, usually without
mortar. Such sites have retained a
sense of holiness through changes of religion, a characteristic common in many
parts of the world. At Yeha a large
Christian church has been constructed adjacent to the temple. Inscriptions found in the area are preserved
as sacred objects in its eqabet.
A frieze of ibex heads resembling similar carvings found in many places
in Yemen, has been incorporated in its facade.
Local people regard the temple itself as having the same holiness as a
church. Several small stelae and other
cut stones can be observed on the surface of the terrain around the temple and
the church. Excavation would no doubt
expose many more.
A comparable site is the church of Maryam
Taqot [Tehot] Nequal Emni located a short distance to the right of the main
highway south of Edaga Hamus. Here a
rectangular church rests on distinct Aksumite foundations which must originally
have been laid to support a pre-Christian structure the age of which is
difficult to determine in the absence of excavation. In the surrounding yard small stelae and other cut stones
stand. Most striking is a tall
rectangular standing slab at the rear of the church with a square opening cut
through. Its purpose is not clear.[4]
Mariam Taqot is surrounded by a euphorbia grove filled with recent
graves, but has apparently been a burial site since ancient times. I was told two years ago that local authorities
had persuaded parishioners to cease making new burials because so often new
digging resulted in exposing bones and objects from earlier burials. I was shown an example of a well preserved
round pot that had just been dug up. In
March of this year, however, I drove past a huge funeral procession en route
from Edaga Hamus to this church where a burial would be made.
Another remarkable site is Parakleitos
in northern Agame. It is located on the
edge of a deep, gaunt gorge not far off a seldom-used track leading from
Adigrat to Debre Damo. The track turns
west off the highway north of Adigrat.
We soon found ourselves entering a military encampment with trucks and
artillery lined up facing Eritrea.
Soldiers were friendly but insisted we return to their headquarters in
Adigrat to get permission to pass through.
The officer in charge immediately authorized our passage provided we
returned the same way and did not stray from the route. The track led on over largely treeless
uninhabited country, through deep valleys and over barren hills till we caught
sight of the monastery. parked and walked 500 m. down a long slope. Passing through the gate we were immediately
struck by the sight of Aksumite remains: pillars and carved stones on all
sides. The abbot told us the foundation
of the monastery was credited to Emperor Ella Amida. According to tradition he was the father of Ezana who accepted
Christianity in the 4th century. This
ascription may well be anachronistic but there can be little doubt that the
site has been occupied since very early times.
The large church, richly painted inside, is recent but there are many
other buildings of indeterminate age in the compound and walls that appear very
early. The church incorporates several
Aksumite pillars, as do other buildings.
We examined stones and other objects in the churchyard before going to
the eqabet. From it monks
brought out a cloth-wrapped Ethio-Sabaean inscription. I sent photographs of it
to Stefan Weninger of Marburg University.
He judges it to be 5th-6th Century Sabaean.[5] We
did not have the opportunity to explore areas outside the walls of the
monastery compound, but a survey of the area might well reveal other remains of
interest as well as potsherds which could be dated. The area allocated to Canadian archaeologists in Agame does not
extend to this region, but Catherine d'Andrea, who accompanied me on this
visit, noted the major features of the site.
Two churches which I visited in Wejerat
in early 2007 have Aksumite or pre-Aksumite remains. Both are built on mounds rising 5-6 meters above the surrounding
lowland terrain. One, Genti Arbatu
Insesa, has an entrance gate framed on both its outer and inner side by
square-cut Aksumite-type pillars. At
the second, Mariam Chilot, villagers brought us to a small mound in a
thicket below the church where they recounted digging they had recently done.
They had discovered three large buried stelae.
Local authorities ordered them to halt digging and fill it in until
archaeologists could come to investigate--which had not yet happened, though
Tekle Hagos, the principal Ethiopian archaeologist active in Tigray, was said
to have been notified of the place.
Churches have sometimes been built over
tombsites cut deep into rock. Examples
are Kerneseber Mikael north of Adigrat and Arbatu Insesa in Aksum
itself. Both are large well endowed
churches. Priests willingly show the
openings to the multi-chambered tombs carefully cut into solid rock 3-4 m.
below the surface. Bones and sarcophagi
(if they were used) have long since been removed. At Degum, at the east end of the Geralta massif, a series
of three skillfully cut Aksumite tombs were long openly exposed to the
elements. Over southernmost a new
church, Degum Selassie, was built in the early 1990s. Its maqdas extends into an upstanding
rock behind the church. A crypt beneath
the floor extends deep downward. The whole region appears to have been an
area of Aksumite activity and probably served as an early pilgrimage site.[6]
Three Aksumite stelae stand in the center of Hauzien's marketplace. The market was the site of an unprovoked
Derg bombing attack on a busy market day in the 1980s in which hundreds of
people were killed. For many years an
unexploded bomb lay beside the stelae, but has recently been removed and the
stelae surrounded by a low wall. A tall
stela has recently been constructed as a memorial at the north end of the town.
Two very different churches not far from
the village of Welowalo in southern Agame, 17 km. east of Edaga Hamus, are
particularly interesting. One, Welowalo
Maryam Tseyon Kelakel sits high on an outcropping well above the
surrounding landscape about 3 km. southwest of the village. A sizable rock-cut chamber is now utilized
as its maqdas, while a substantial building has been erected in front. The interior of the church has recently been
crudely painted in vivid red which draws attention away from the distinctly
Aksumite columns which support its upper structure. On the terrain below the church lie a great many loose stones,
some of which show evidence of possible ancient workmanship.
On the broad plain below to the
northwest, a short distance south of the center of the village, Welowalo
Cherqos stands in a compound shaded by a few young cedars that have been
recently planted. Outwardly the
building appears to be a standard rectangular Tigrayan church. Stepping inside one finds oneself in a broad
center aisle with two massive Aksumite square pillars supporting the
superstructure on either side. Above
the pillars are friezes formed of carved wooden sections. The impression is that of an Aksumite temple
converted to use as church or, alternately, an Aksumite-period church built in
the style of a pre-Christian temple incorporating earlier columns. The local priest told me that the present
church was rebuilt on the site of a much older one. He claimed that the original church was built by a son of Emperor
Gebre Meskal.
Other
Sites.
These sites all have little direct
connection with churches and/or a less obvious relationship to presumed
Aksumite religious buildings, but reveal evidence of Aksumite and pre-Aksumite
occupation which may be very early. At Seqira,
9 km. north of Atsbi-Dera at the end of a very rough track, a broad meadow has
three standing stelae 8-9 m. apart. One
is fully vertical, one leans slightly and one leans at almost a 45-degree
angle. All of them appear to be deeply
anchored in the soil. Exposed portions
of these stelae measure 3.12 m., 2.97 m. and 4.44 m. Another long stela (8 m.) lies nearby in the ground, partly
covered by soil. Several smaller
stones, perhaps portions of stelae, can be observed in the immediate
vicinity. Numerous pottery fragments
litter the surface of the area.
According to Italian archeologist Andrea Manzo, who had examined the
shortly site before our visit, the pottery appears to be mostly
pre-Aksumite. Local people told us they
found no coins or metal objects, but they pointed to more Aksumite remains upon
a hillside to the northeast. When a
farmstead was recently built nearby, they said, ancient walls and a stairway
were uncovered. Seqira thus appears to
have been a center of substantial early occupation. A survey of the surrounding area to chart location of walls and
foundations would be desirable.
Excavation could determine whether the stelae were erected over
tombs. A small church in a grove of
gnarled cedars sits on a rise about 500 m. south of the meadow. It was built in 1941, replacing a much older
one. The churchyard contains no obvious
Aksumite-type stones.
At Mariam Anza, 5 km. north of
Hauzien, a church has been built on top of a mound which, like those in
Wejerat, rises 4-5 m. above the land around it. A series of cut slabs has been placed in front of the church. None of them has inscriptions. In a shallow valley about 300 m. to the
southwest lies a partially buried large stela of which 6 m. extend out of the
ground. The side facing the earth is
said to have an inscription which has been partly exposed by digging out the
earth below it but it has never been read.
Two fragments of other stelae lie in the ground a short distance
beyond. Lifting and turning all these
stelae would require major manpower or heavy machinery. A systematic survey of the site might reveal
evidence of other remains beneath the surface.
In Shire east of Enda Selassie is a site
which has already had preliminary excavation, Mai Adrasha. Here a generally flat area perhaps 4
hectares in extent is covered with small rocks. On its south side it slopes down to a small stream. Villagers were found to be digging here and
finding coins and other metal objects which they took to sell to dealers in
Aksum. During the rainy season as many
as 200 local people were reported to be at work, taking soil to the stream for
washing. The cultural office in Enda
Selassie encouraged two young archaeologists associated with excavations in
Aksum and two Ethiopian assistants engaged in a surface survey of Shire to map
and examine the site. It appeared so
promising that Dr. Jacke Phillips of the British Institute in Eastern Africa
conducted test excavations in the winter of 2003-4 and the Tigray Cultural
Commission declared the site protected and hired a guard to prevent villagers
from continuing their digging. When I
visited the site a few weeks after they had completed their excavations, I was
greeted by the guard who led me to several places where the archaeologists had
dug, exposing walls, some with neatly cut blocks visible. They had found grinding stones, pottery and
metal objects which were placed in the branch cultural office in Enda
Selassie. These include a crude metal
cross and coins with crosses which indicate that the site continued to be
occupied after conversion to Christianity.
The original expectation that this site was a major provincial
settlement over a long period of time was thus further substantiated. Lack of funds has prevented further
excavation.
A site with some similar features, except
that it has not been the scene of as
much attention by local villagers is located in northern Agame in a broad
valley on the north side of Emba Fasi approx. 3 km. east of the main highway--Menebeiti. Here, in a grove of small trees is a large
pile of cut stones of distinctly Aksumite type. Overgrown with vines and bushes, they appear to be the fallen
components of a sizable building that collapsed or was destroyed long ago. An undistinguished church dedicated to Tekle
Haymanot has recently been built nearby, perhaps incorporating some stones from
the nearby pile. The most striking
feature of the site is an area of several hectares evenly covered with loose
small rocks, as at Mai Adrasha, to the depth of at least a meter. As at Mai Adrasha, these appear to be the
remains of buildings originally made of stones with clay as mortar. The clay has been washed away by centuries
of rain. As at Mai Adrasha, digging
might expose potsherds and perhaps metal objects. Higher up this broad valley beyond a village called Chimara
a small rectangular church stands under small trees. Here local people called our attention to cut stones lying on the
ground around the church. They said
there was a tomb inside the church, but no priest could be found to open it.
Convinced that the area around Welowalo
would repay more investigation I returned here in 2006. Here I found that villagers were actively
digging in search of ancient artifacts.
They readily admitted that the authorities were discouraging their activity
but discouragement had not led to prohibition.
They led me to recent digs north of the road over terrain that was
littered with pottery fragments. They
said they found no coins. At a site
where men were at work, they had exposed walls far below the surface. They were rather crude in style but seemed
to have belonged to large buildings.
The men proudly displayed a large round pot which had just been
unearthed and a chunk of what could have been slag left from smelting. A young lady ran to her house to bring a
cross which had recently been found. It
was of iron with a very eroded cruciform head on a long stem, but no
ornamentation was evident. I have been
unable to find references to visits by others to Welowalo, but in addition to
the presence of the two churches with Aksumite features described above, the
great quantity of potsherds throughout the whole area as well as the results of
local digging seem to be evidence of substantial early occupation. The fact that no coins are found here could
be evidence that the area was occupied at a time before coinage came into use. The region clearly merits serious
investigation.
In southern Tigray on the south shore of
Lake Ashangi an impressive site was brought to the attention of cultural
authorities by reports that villagers were carry away stones from what appeared
to be the remains of a historic building.
Approximately two dozen large cut red stones[7] lie scattered on top of a small mound that
rises 2-3 meters above the level of the surrounding area and affords an
excellent view of the lake. The site is
called Mifsas Bahri, which means outflow of the lake and refers to the
fact that when higher Lake Ashangi drained out to the south through the low
valley beyond. Since the lake remains
fresh, it presumably still has an underground outlet through the same
route. Archaeologist Tekle Hagos was
called in and dug at the center of the mound.
He found extensive walls, pottery, charcoal, evidence of dagusa
storage, bones of several kinds of domestic animals and a few human bones. Some of the material excavated was taken to
Addis Ababa and the rest kept in the office of the branch cultural bureau in
Mai Chew. These finds confirm the
importance of the site but have not yet been systematically studied or
carbon-14-dated. Many of the large
blocks are decorated with crosses and scroll ornamentation reminiscent of
designs sometimes found in harag in manuscripts. No inscriptions are in evidence. Many of the large blocks appear to have been
cut to fit carefully with others, for holes approx. 10 cm. across have been drilled
in their ends, perhaps to accommodate wooden joints. Since villagers may have carried off stones over a long period of
time, it is difficult to get an impression of what sort of building these
components would have formed, but the presence of crosses may indicate a
church. The site would appear to be
late--6th or 7th century AD. Villagers
who gathered as we were examining the site pointed to other places in the
nearby hills where they said there were cut
stones and walls. The stones on
the small mound may be only the center of a broad area of late Aksumite
occupation.
Very
Early Churches.
The Atsbi plateau, at an elevationn which often reaches 3,000 meters,
offers evidence of both very early pre-Aksumite settlement and continuation as
a major center of population during the late Aksumite period following
Christianization. This is not
surprising, for it is the easternmost portion of the Tigrayan plateau where
early immigrants from South Arabia would have first come. At its northern end, it merges into the
Atsbi plateau continues into Agame, where there is also a good deal of evidence
of pre-Aksumite occupation, and from here into highland Eritrea. Portions of highland Atsbi, especially the
area north of Atsbi town, are still thickly forested with tid.
Several churches in Atsbi show Aksumite
construction characteristics analogous to Enda Abuna Aregawi on Debre
Damo. The smallest of these, Agobo
Cherqos, is the one of the most attractive.[8] It
is in an isolated area sheltered by an overhanging cliff which has undoubtedly
contributed to its preservation, though it bears evidence of reinforcement and
repair at various times in the past.
This church is believed to date from as early as the 6th century. Its outside walls are of the classic
alternating layered rock-and-wooden-beam type with well preserved "monkey
heads" protruding, the ends of reinforcing cross-beams. The elaborate interior structure of this
church, all in carefully cut wood, is its most distinctive feature.[9]
The inner structure of Agobo Cherqos is
duplicated in stone in later early churches.
One of the best examples, in the same region, is Debre Selam Giorgis,
a larger and more elaborately conceived and painted cave church, high on a
cliff, where most of the inner architectural features are carved in stone.[10] In
2001 I was allowed to photograph freely within the maqdas of this
church. It is essentially a larger
replica of the interior of Agobo Cherqos.
One chamber has an intricately constructed ceiling, like that atop Debre
Damo. There is a beautifully executed
chancel in wood and a few other features are also of wood.
The remarkably well-preserved early
Aksumite church at Zarema is the oldest completely preserved church in
Ethiopia. It is located on a gentle
rise 15 km. north/northwest of Atsbi town from where a broad view to the west
extends all the way to Tsada Emba, famous for half a dozen medieval-period rock
churches. Cruciform in plan, Zarema
Giorgis exhibits many features of early Christian Mediterranean architecture
of the 4th-6th centuries in less altered form than Enda Abuna Aregawi on Debre
Damo (which has experienced frequent repair and restoration): a well preserved
chancel in front of the sanctuary, elaborately patterned composite wooden
ceilings in two side rooms, an elaborate wooden superstructure with rich
ornamentation on wooden capitals on stone pillars. The church was visited by the Oxford Exploring Club in 1974 and
described by Ruth Plant (she visited it about the same time) with a ground plan
in her Architecture of the Tigre[11] but seldom seen subsequently because of its
inaccessibility and, more recently, because of the unusual circumstances of its
preservation. After overruling some
local men who wished to pull it down, parishioners built a new church over it,
completed it in 1997, and preserved the old church inside as the maqdas
of the new one. The old church suffered
some damage in being accommodated inside the new one but is now regarded with
great reverence. Visitors are allowed
to enter only when the tabot is out.
Even after visitors have entered it without the tabot, a monk
must be brought from Atsbi to reconsecrate it.
On our first visit we, of course were
unsuccessful trying to persuade local elders to permit us to enter, though we attributed
the problem to the hostility of some the villagers. The Tigray Cultural and Tourism Director in conjunction with the
Bet Kahenat in Atsbi finally arranged for us to enter at Timqat in 2006 in the
evening after the tabot had been ceremonially removed and taken to a
nearby spring. Inside, we immediately
noted similarities with Agobo Cherqos and Debre Selam Mikael. Skillfully constructed Aksumite walls are
constructed of layers of stone and masonry separated by long wooden beams. Doors and windows are framed in classic
Aksumite fashion with cross beams at each of the four corners. Elaborately carved friezes rest on large
square columns. The beautifully carved
chancel stands before the sanctuary under a perfectly symmetrical wooden
arch. Jacques Mercier judges Zarema
Giorgis to date from the period between the 6th and 9th centuries.[12] The
church has always been free-standing.
There are no cliffs or large rocks nearby, only an area of flat rock
surfaces to the north of the churchyard.
Some of these have large numbers of curious hole, all 5-6 cm. across and
up to 20 cm. deep for which priests had no explanation. The cemetery on the eastern side outside the
compound wall has a small, crude stela about 70 cm. in height set solidly in
the soil, but there are no other Aksumite remains. The whole site and its surroundings should be surveyed for
pottery, artifacts and evidence of early burials.
A unique rock-cut church, one of the
largest in Tigray, with very early Aksumite characteristics, deserves mention: Yohannes
Mitmaq, Gazien.[13] It
is located at the northernmost extremity of Atsbi overlooking a cultivated area
called Sen'afe, which forms the edge of the plateau where it breaks off into
the escarpment. 34 km. north of Atsbi
town, it can be reached over a rough route from Atsbi-Dera as well as over a
longer route eastward from Edaga Hamus to a market town called Robwe. The church was visited by LePage in 1973, by
the Oxford Exploring Club in 1974 and by Ruth Plant. Several features link to perhaps both the Aksumite period and
early post-Aksumite times. It is cut in
light sandstone with massive octagonal pillars, a ceiling with
"beams" in stone which imitate wood, remnants of wood which were used
as interior dividers and a network of funerary chambers. There is no front structure and no evidence
of other structures nearby, but at the foot of the cliff in which it is carved
there are tombs which can be reached by a shaft which recalls those at Kerneseber
and Arbatu Insesa in Aksum. If this church
had its beginnings as a pre-Christian sanctuary, it may have been chosen for
expansion after the adoption of Christianity, for its elaborate interior can be
compared only with other major rock-cut churches in Tigray such as Enda Medhane
Alem Adi Kasho in Tsada Emba.
Mysterious
Maryam Nazre
The final site I have chosen to describe
deserves higher priority for professional examination and serious excavation
than all the others: the huge building with Aksumite foundations at Adi Abona
in southeastern Enderta. It is reached
on a rough track that turns left off the main highway 1-1/2 km. south of the
large village of Mai Nebri on the main highway south. The first part of the track is still reinforced with stone,
having been part of an Italian-constructed route to Wejerat. It then turns away from the stone and leads
on over largely treeless countryside.
It crosses a small stream before entering the village, 12 km. from the
main highway.
The huge rectangular building has
obviously gone through several phases of reconstruction. It measures nearly 30 meters in length along
a north-south axis. The interior
averages 6 meters in width and is divided by a thick, high wall into two
not-quite-equal halves. The eastern
half is divided into four generally square chambers which rise more than two
stories and are topped by cupolas.
These chambers display Islamic architectural features--rows of niches
with pointed arches on the upper level and possible mihrabs below. Interior doors are of both arched and
flat-topped style. Exterior walls rise
to a height of 5-6 meters. Foundations
exposed on the east are constructed like those of the Yeha temple. West-side foundations are covered by
soil. The western exterior wall has a
series of regular holes that appear to have been made to accommodate roof beams
of a lateral structure. Both original
and presumed later construction is of classic Aksumite technique with wooden
beams inserted to reinforce and stabilize layers of stone at intervals of about
half a meter. Wood has also been used
for door lintels and to form ceilings of window openings.
The immediate surroundings of the
building are littered with Aksumite columns and other cut and shaped
stones. Several Aksumite columns have
been incorporated into various parts of the building. More than a dozen columns and other cut stones can be seen
outside the building; inside another ten can be identified. Others may be buried in the
surroundings.
The site has been known since the 1940s
but I have found only two scholarly notices of it, by the Italian Mordini in Rassegna
di Studi Etiopici #5, 1946, and by the French archaeologist Anfray in Annales
d'Ethiopie in 1970. Mordini
reported finding a few coins of Hatez and Gersem (rulers of the late 6th and
early 7th centuries AD) in a trench he dug near the building in the early
1940s. When Anfray visited the site
in 1969, he was told by local people
that it had been a palace of Emperor Amde Tseyon. Tigray Director of Culture and Tourism, Kebede Amare, judged it
important enough in 2005 to qualify for stabilization and erection of a
protective roof which was completed in 2006.
Fragmentary information gathered by
Stuart Munro-Hay during his researches on the early Ethiopian patriarchs
justifies speculation that Mariam Nazre may have served as their primary
residence during the late Aksumite period before the rise of the Zagwe. Munro-Hay speculates that as many as six
patriarchs from this period may have been buried here. The name of the place, Adi Abona,
"Village of the Fathers", lends credence to this theory.
When I first visited the site in June
2005, an articulate shimagille gave an extensive account of its serving
as a refuge for King Lalibela and his wife Meskal Kibra when they had been ousted
from Roha by his brother Harbe. A
century later, he recounted, Amde Tseyon, out of respect for Lalibela, chose to
rebuild the structure as his palace when he came to campaign in the north. He is known to have been active in this
region during the latter years of his reign (1314-44). Amde Tseyon's reputation rests on his
energetic campaigning to bring the country fully under the authority of the
restored Solomonic dynasty. He was
determined to secure the highlands against the chain of Muslim states that
arose in the preceding three centuries from Zeila inland to Shoa and northward
through the region below the escarpment.[14]
Additional local traditions and features
of the building and its surroundings provide the basis for further speculation
which Tigray Cultural and Tourism Director Kebede Amare and I have gathered for
articles in the third volume of Encyclopaedia Aethiopica and the
Proceedings of the Second Littmann Conference (both forthcoming). A further development relating to the site
is especially intriguing. In 1954
villagers at the small settlement of Adi Qalebes, 5 km. east of Mai
Nebri, began to rebuild their dilapidated church which had been attacked and
damaged by Ahmed Gragn in the 16th century.
Clearing the southern section of the Qene Mahelet, they uncovered a
stone sarcophagus covered by a stone slab.
Inside they found the body of a man but no clothing, weapons or other
objects except some items of gold which were taken to Mai Chew for examination
but never returned. Near the coffin
they found a stone plaque with the inscription Atse A.M. When Anfray visited Adi Qalebes in 1969
villagers told him that it was likely that Amde Tseyon would have been buried
at this site, for he had a palace at Mariam Nazre, 7 km. away. The name Adi Qalebes they explained
as derived from qay lebs, "place of the people with red
clothing", a reference to attendants of the Emperor who dressed in red.
At the end of February this year (2007)
Kebede Amare and I visited Adi Qalebes with a shimagille long
familiar with the area and its traditions.
The small village is remarkable for the unusual number of walls built up
of cut stones. Its recently built
church is flat roofed and undistinguished.
He led us to the site of the old church where the location of the tomb
with the burial was pointed out to us in a walled enclosure shaded by a few
acacias. The shimagille offered
to gather a team of local men to remove the stones and earth to prove that the
sarcophagus was intact and undisturbed.
An hour and a half of energetic digging revealed the lid of the
sarcophagus. We photographed and
measured it--2-1/2 meters in length. 68 cm. wide at the head and 41 cm. at the
foot--then had it recovered. Kebede
Amare has decided to call archaeologists to have it thoroughly excavated and
examined and perhaps moved to the treasury of the modern church. What the local shimagille recounted
while the digging was under way matched in most details what we had already
heard and read earlier.
What we have learned so far heightens the
mystery which surrounds Mariam Nazre.
Islamic features of the building in its present state are particularly
puzzling. Did Amde Tseyon employ
architects from Egypt or Yemen familiar with buildings there? Was it used by Muslims at some stage? As long ago as the 17th century the
inhabitants of Adi Abona turned the north end of the building into their parish
church but recently decided to build a round church nearby. They still regard the large building with
reverence and refer to it as a church, though there is nothing in its structure
that indicates its original purpose was ecclesiastical. If the site was important in the early
history of the Ethiopian patriarchs, did they too adapt the building for
religious purposes or use it only as a palace?
What was its original purpose when it was built on Aksumite
foundations? Only serious, sustained
excavation can begin to answer these questions. Excavation may, however, raise new questions as well. There are still links between this site and
the region of Wejerat to the southeast.
At Genti Arbatu Insesa this February we met a monk from Mariam Nazre who
explained that he had come for meditation during Lent--an old tradition he
said--and would return to Maryam Nazre after Easter.
An early church at Sawne, Sawne Mariam,
far down the escarpment below 1,000 meters has become accessible thanks to a
skillfully engineered new highway that leads into the Afar lowlands. It has doorways with pointed Islamic-type
arches resembling those in Maryam Nazre.
It also has a composite wooden ceiling of early Aksumite type. It has been extensively repaired and
renovated in recent times but its clergy maintain that the first church at this
site was built in EC445 by a son of Emperor Gebre Meskal. They say it was partially rebuilt by the son
of Yekuno Amlak, Widim Arad (1299-1324), and finally took its present form
during the reign of Zara Yakob (1434-68).
It became a monastery in the reign of Fasilidas in the mid-17th
century. The region was known as Sasie
in Aksumite times. Villages that paid
tribute to Sawne extend all the way north into Eritrea, though Sawne has no
religious relationship to the great monastery of Gunda Gunde, located 5-8
hours' walk to the north at approximately the same altitude. Sawne was the birthplace of Sebgadis Woldu,
who came into prominence in Tigray in the 1820s following the death of Ras
Wolde Selassie of Cheleqot. He gave the
monastery a richly illustrated 15th century Gospel, one of the most beautiful
in Ethiopia.
Washington,
Virginia
March
2007
[1]Steffen Wenig (ed.), Im Kaiserlichen
Auftrag, die Deutsche Aksum-Expedition 1906 under Enno Littmann, Band I,
Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut, Forschungen zur Archaeologie
Aussereuropaeischer Kulturen, Band 3.1, Aichwald, 2006.
[3]"Unexplored Aksumite Sites in
Tigray" in Walter Raunig and Steffen Wenig (eds.), Africas Horn, Akten
der Ersten Internationalen Littmann-Konferenz, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden,
2005, pp. 67-78; "Unexplored Aksumite Sites in Tigray - II",
forthcoming in the Proceedings of the Second Littmann Conference.
[4]Finding priests to open this church has been
difficult. I have not been able to
determine whether it may be built over a subterranean tomb.
[6]Claude LePage & Jacques Mercier, The
Ancient Churches of Tigray, Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations,
Paris, 2005, pp. 46-55.