Photography – Page 26 – Larkvi.com Weblog

Stela 1, the “Great Stela,” Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

The remaining pieces of the fallen megalith.

A detail of the carvings.

a view showing a large crack in the stela; the door is the modern entrance to the Mausoleum.

The unworked stone of the base. Given the size of the stela, the centre of gravity would have been much to high to be stable.

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Stela 1, the ‘Grand Stela,’ is the largest and most ornate stela ever made. Its creation marked the apogee of stela-craft; its failed erection and consequent destruction signaled the decline and abandonment of the same. Conceived, like stelae 2 and 3, as an Axumite palace, complete with false doors and representations of wooden beams, it marked two tomb structures, ‘The Mausoleum,’ a complex with ten side-chambers, and the ‘East Tomb,’ currently un-excavated and thought to be unfinished.

Though the collapse shattered the top of the stela, obscuring measurement, it is estimated to have been 32.6m long and massed 517 tonnes. Of the original length, only 8.5%/2.9m was meant to be underground; the monument would have had a high centre of gravity and was almost certainly unstable. Due to its calculated instability and lack of base-plates (the final stage of construction), among other factors, it is thought to have fallen upon erection, falling upon the unfinished Nefas Machaw tomb, shattering the stela and collapsing the tomb after breaking its massive stone supports. No ambitious stelae seem to have been attempted after the failure of Stela 1 in the mid-4th century, which also sees King Ezana’s conversion of the Axumite Empire to Christianity in 330; whether or not there is a causal relationship is a matter of speculation, but the spectacular failure of the most colossal monument of the old order, no doubt in front of all the residents of the ancient capital, must have been a thoroughly jarring experience. Some have even suggested that the monument was deliberately sabotaged in order to hasten conversion, but there is no evidence for this, and, as stated above, the monument was already likely to be highly unstable.

See Phillipson, David. Excavations in Aksum, Ethiopia: 1993-7. vol 1. London: The British Institute in East Africa 2000. pp. 157-224, 252-254.

Stela 2, the ‘Rome Stela,’ North Stelae Field, Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

Stela 2 in front of the new Maryam Tsion Church.

The false-door on the Rome Stela, granting access to the palace which the stela represents.

A side-view of the Rome Stela, showing the carving representing the ends of wooden poles and alternating layers of stone and wood, characteristic of Axumite building.

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Stela 2, known as the ‘Rome Stela,’ stands in the North Stela Field in Axum and is, at 24.6m tall (2.9m of which is underground), the largest stela ever to be successfully erected (the ‘Great Stela,’ though considerably larger, seems to have fallen during the process of erection). It was erected just before the apogee of stela-building, which greatly declined with the fall of the Great Stela, concurrent with the Christianization of the Axumite Empire. All the stelae appear to mark tombs or graves of important individuals from Axumite times. The tombs associated with Stela 2, like many others, seem to have been extensively pillaged in the 17th century; the disturbance from such excavations as well as the generally under-studied nature of the field, complicates dating.

At some point in the medieval period, the stela was deliberately sabotaged by the digging of a destabilizing trench; its subsequent collapse shattered the stela into five major and numerous minor pieces. The myth of Queen Gudit attributes destruction of stelae to Gudit’s general devastationof Axum in the 12th century, but the Gudit legend is problematic, conceived as political attack and possibly conflating several historic figures (if it indeed represents any) in its more recent version. It was in this (fallen) state that the stela was recorded by the first Europeans travel-writers in the 17th century, and in this state that it existed at the time of the Fascist occupation when, at Mussolini’s personal order, (most of) the fragments were removed to Rome, reassembled and erected in the Piazza di Porta Capena.

It continued to stand in Rome until 2005; in 1997 Italy and Ethiopia agreed on the return of the monument to Axum, which was not effected until the later date. Further complicating matters, unexplored tombs under the ground around the stela meant that heavy cranes could not be used, and it lay in pieces next to the parking lot for three year. When it was re-assembled in 2008, it stood in its original place for the first time in centuries.

For more information on Stela 2 and Axumite stelae more generally, see:

Phillipson, David. Archaeology at Aksum, Ethiopia, 1993-7, vol. 1. London: The British Institute in East Africa 2000. pp. 139-156.

Munro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinbugh: Edinburgh University Press 1991. pp. 125-143.

Legumes, Old Market, Mek’ele, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

Bags from various places hold legumes on display in the old market area of Mek’ele, capital of Tigray. Legumes are greatly consumed during the fasting season, and an important part of the diet year-round, as people fast on vegetables at least twice a week in the Christian parts of the country.

Cats Hate Fasting Season, Mek’ele, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

Marigeta Birhanu’s cat was loudly letting himself be heard throughout our interview, and practically attacking the skin for parchment while stretched on the frame, before the meat was removed. It only occurred to me part-way through that the cat was subject to fasting season, just as the people are, because he eats leftovers from the table. Injeera may be sustaining for a cat, but rancid goat-meat was more to his preference.

Palm-Frond Ring, Adigrat, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

For Palm Sunday, many locals have crafted rings like this out of the palm fronds for the celebration, and have been wearing them for Holy Week.

Binding, Marigeta Birhanu, Mek’ele, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

Marigeta Biurhanu tooling cross patterns on the leather covers he has added to a printed book. You can see the stamping tools warming in the coals behind him.

Bet Ammanuel Maako Panoramic (mockup), Negash, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

This is my preliminary mockup of a 20-image panoramic of Bet Ammanuel Maako church and its environs, from my recent trip to Negash. I don’t have enough memory or processing power to work on the full version out here in the field, but click through to the flickr page and select “all sizes” to see a much larger image (which still only represents 10% of the full-size image).

It is not unusual to see Ethiopian churches built in highly-inaccessible places; in fact, it is considered quite appropriate. Accordingly, I walked from where I shot this over three ridges and through two valleys, to get to the hill of the church, only to find, upon my arrival, an easy road which diverged from the highway only 100M from where I had begun my laborious journey. At least the walk back was easy. . .

Fasting Meal, Bet Ammanuel Maako, Negash, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

During the fasting season (which is two weeks longer than Lent in Ethiopia), monks and priests, in addition to abstaining from meat and animal products, do not eat until 9 o’clock (which we foreigners would call 3PM). I happened to be at the church just as services ended, and the priests invited me to share their fasting meal. Exhausted from the substantial hike I had taken from Negash, over three ridges and through two valleys,* I readily accepted.

What is pictured is a very typical rural meal, especially during fasting season. It consists of injera, the stable fermented pan-bread of Ethiopia, made of a grain called teff** with a ‘wot’ (stew) of shiro (chickpea paste). The drink is ‘tella,’ a small local beer made of sorghum and barley, fermented with a leaf called ‘gesho,’ which serves in place of hops.*** The injera is dipped in the shiro and eaten, with the stew serving mainly as a flavorant for the injera, which is most of the meal. More injera (and always more tella) is provided, and one is usually prevailed upon to eat much more than one wishes to. A simple and nutritious meal.

That said, I am getting rather tired of injera.

*There was, of course, an extremely moderate road to the monastery which left the main road very near to my starting place, but which I could not see when I ventured to walk to the church, which is on an imposing height, standing out from the neighboring valleys.

**Almost unique to Ethiopia, teff is a cereal grain very high in both protein and iron. The tiny seeds are easily beaten off the stalk by rain, which contributes somewhat to Ethiopia’s prone-ness to famine (a larger factor is the gross overpopulation of the country, which has grown over 120% since 1960.)

***But is nowhere near as good. One foreigner describes tella as ‘looking like muddy lake-water and tasting much the same.’ That said, this tella was significantly better, though rather full of detritus.

Keshi Mengistu Eyesus, Mek’ele, Tigray, April 2009

Keshi Mengistu Eyesu is a woodworker, scribe, and painter working in Mek’ele. He is a consummate artist, and, though he focuses on woodworking (more profitable) now, his scribal works are excellent. Though he produces them with an ink wash, to "antique" them, they need no selling as antiques, as they are excellent modern examples of traditional Ethiopian art (I’m thinking of buying one myself). Here you can see him finishing off a healing scroll with red detailing, while a carved wooden processional cross of his production sits in the background.

Magic scrolls exist in a continuum with church scrolls in Ethiopian Christianity. As in many societies with low literacy rates, writing is associated with the ability to perform magic. In a Christian society like Ethiopia, this is doubly so, as people are familiar with the magical/miraculous abilities granted to the priesthood through the recitation of written documents of the Church. The learned liturgical specialists of the Church, däbtäras, are also suspected as magicians–the word for magician is däbtära–because they have access to knowledge which is secret, both because it requires literacy, and because it is actually secret. Church scrolls, containing prayers invoking the names of angels, Jesus, and the BVM transition into magic scrolls when, in order to grant additional power or a different kind of power, the secret names of devils, demons, and magical entities are used. Apparently, some of these names are written invisibly in a process that I was poorly able to understand, though I am working on it. In addition to scrolls, Ethiopians keep alive a tradition of amulets, both those familiar from Orthodox Judaism, containing biblical passages, and those of a less religious and more magical nature.

Mosque, Negash, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

The mosque in Negash, by tradition burial site of several followers of Mohammed of the 116 (including his daughter and two of his wives-to-be) who, during his lifetime, fled to the Ethiopian kingdom to escape persecution in Mecca. They were received and sheltered by Negus Asihima** of Ethiopia, who was friendly with Mohammed during his lifetime. This hospitality is the basis for the Hadith*** exempting Ethiopia from Djihad,**** ‘so long as [the Ethiopians] leave [Moslems] alone.’ The mosque is also known as the ‘Tomb of Seid Ahmed al Negash,’ after the king, who allegedly converted to Islam and was buried there.***** Ethiopian Moslems consider Negash the most important site of worship after Mecca, though it seems to be little-regarded by those outside the country. The current mosque may be a medieval construction, built on the site of a 7th-century original, but the head of the local Heritage Preservation department has expressed doubts regarding the authenticity of the 7th-century construction, since it is unlikely that Christian Ethiopia would allow a mosque to be built over their (Christian) king’s grave and in light of the miniscule presence of Moslems in the area.

This photo has been corrected for perspective distortion.

* Ethiopian word for king. The name of the village, Negash, is from the Arabic form, Nejashi.

** Accounts of the name vary.

*** A report of a saying of the Prophet, the second level of Islamic tradition informing law, after the Qu’ran.

**** Djihad is the only form of warfare permissible under Islamic law; when the conditions are met, there is a religious obligation to carry out that war. Ethiopia, though part of the ‘Land of War’ (non-Moslem lands which are obliged to be converted, preferably by peaceful means, but, failing that, by conquest–as opposed to the ‘Land of Islam,’ where Islamic governments and established Islamic religion hold sway) is an (intermittent) exception.

***** The king was a Christian monarch and likely buried in Wukro, 10km away. Only later Moslem accounts claim that the Negus converted to Islam and was deposed for it. While certainly false, such reports have formed the basis for declaration of Djihad against the Ethiopians, since religious persecution (of Moslems–others do not count) is always cause for the waging of Djihad. Acts of past (Ethiopian Orthodox) and current (allied with the same) governments could similarly be seen as persecution by those looking for a justification for war, as Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union found (incidentally, the U. S. Dept. of State agrees–regarding persecution, not the war).