Tigray – Page 3 – Larkvi.com Weblog

Stela 4, Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia, May 2009

Stela 4 has the best-preserved altar of any of the stelae, its altar depressions being well-preserved, as opposed to those of stela 3, which were used by local women as mortars. The head-piece, separated from the rest of the stela during its fall, now rests in the compound of the old St. Mary of Zion Church.

It has been suggested that the round representation on the head is a traditional ethiopian bread, but I am somewhat skeptical as to the importance and symbolism of bread in such a case, given what we know of Sabean religious customs, and wonder if it couldn’t be the sun or a traditional shield instead.

New Church of St. Mary of Zion, Axum, Ethiopia, April 2009

A boy walks past the entrance to the new Church of St. Mary of Zion (Maryam Tsion), in the compound of the old church (which women are not allowed in). The new church is a Haile Selassie I foundation, and reflects the Emperor’s (one might say questionable) taste for modernist building. The St. Mary of Zion church compound is the holiest in Ethiopia, as the chapel which is supposed to hold the true Ark of the Covenant lies between the new church and the old.

Waiting for services at the Old Church of St. Mary of Zion, Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

Old men wait outside the door of the old Maryam Tsion (St. Mary of Zion) Church, arriving early for the start of Easter festivities. Most worshippers will celebrate in the new church, which was built in the reign of Haile Selassie, and is found in the same compound.

Dungur and the Gudit Stelae Field, Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia, May 2009

Dungur, locally known as “The Queen of Sheba’s Palace,” in front of the “Gudit” Stelae Field.

Dungur is the smallest of four major ‘palace’ structures discovered in Axum. Unfortunately, the largest, the 80 x 120 m Ta’akha Maryam structure, was obliterated when the Italian occupying forces decided that they didn’t want to re-route a road around it, and built it right through the centre of the remains. The Enda Mikael and Enda Semon structures are extensively built-over by locals.

The Gudit Stelae Field is apparently lower-status graves than the other two stelae field. It maintains a lower-status even in the modern Axum–as you can see, the site is still being farmed. Only limited archaeological work has been done, with trenches dug in 1973-4 (Chittick) and 1995-6 (Phillipson).

More about both of these sites can be found in:

Phillipson, David W. (comp. and ed.). The Monuments of Aksum: an illusstrated account based on the work in A. D. 1906 of the Deutsch Aksum-Expedition by Enno Littmann, Daniel Orenker and Theodor von Lüpke (Berlin, 1913) translated by Rosalind Bedlow and including previously unpublished photographs from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Addis Ababa: A. A. U. Press and The British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1997.

for a glossier version of the same, see:

Phillipson, David W. Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum: its Antecedents and its Successors. London: British Museum, 1998.

Haleka Woldegabriel, Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

Haleka Woldegabriel is a artisan in Axum, primarily producing fairly low-quality woodcrafts for the tourist shop market, but in the past, he produced books and magic scrolls. Like many other scribes, he says that he has had to give it up because the economic situation of the scribe is no longer tenable, and other crafts are significantly more profitable. Haleka Woldegabriel is interesting for being the first scribe I have met so far to use steel pen-nibs in his writing, rather than bamboo pens.

He’s holding an incomplete magic scroll–he sends them to others for painting when the writing is done.

Bazen’s Tomb, Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia, May 2009

The interior chamber of Bazen’s tomb. There are seven funerary niches in the walls.

Stairs to the surface. Another four niches are at the base of the stairs, just outside the main chamber–two can be seen in this photo.

The side-street leading to Bazen’s tomb, which is under the shelter and marked by the stela on the hill. I hope the image shows how closely the town abuts on the Ancient sites–near the North Stelae Field, people actually have stelae in their backyards and roads (though UNESCO is trying to clear them out).

—–

Bazen’s Tomb is the most notable feature of one of three main (known) concentrations of Ancient burials in Axum, the other two being the North Stelae Field and the ‘Gudit’ Stelae Field. It was extensively looted in ancient times, and the clearing operations in 1954 produced no evidence for dating. A rock-cut trench near the entrance to the tomb contains additional funerary niches, and several shaft-tombs indicate more burials in the area (but remain unexcavated). The original (French) expedition was short on publication of results, but a brief (English) note on the tomb may be found in: Phillipson, David. Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum: its Antecedents and its Successors. London: British Museum, 1998. pp. 95-96.

For the interior photos, I set the exposure for shaft of light, then moved camera left and used an LED torch to paint light into the dark areas of the tomb and the funerary niches. Doubled exposure time when first was not enough. The glow on the house in the exterior photo is a result of the experimentation with Pictorialism I was trying that day. All I did was smear a little petrolatum on the lens (and then clean a lot of it off–it turns out you need almost none), and, voila! instant pictorialism–or not, as the case may be. I am not sure if sharpening the image defeats the point of the smeared jelly, but I am also not sure I am really cut out to be a Pictorialist–only more experimentation will tell.

Stela 3, Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia, May 2009

The base of Stela 3, showing the false door and the altar area, with holes for offerings (or perhaps supports for some kind of furniture?) and a series of holes thought to be for an African game.

The top of Stela 3, showing the brace currently installed as part of a project to lay new concrete at the base of the stela (despite the stela not having shifted at all in the last 100 years, and being thought to have been erected at a slight angle). Stela 3 is the only ornate stela that has actually stood since its erection in Antiquity.

A detail of the offering holes (?) and the game boards (?) at the base of Stela 3.

Naptime, North Stelae Field, Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia, April 2009

A dog (one of the family that apparently lives in the Stelae Field) naps on top of the Nefas Machew ruin, with part of the Great Stela in the background.

Nefas Machew was a substantial tomb, with a huge single-slab roof, which collapsed when the Great Stela fell upon it, snapping the substantial supporting stones, which you can see scattered around where the dog is napping.

The Mausoleum,’ North Stelae Field, Axum, Tigray, Ethiopia, May 2009

The Mausoleum, under Stela 1. The side-chambers are all extensively robbed, but only partially-excavated during the Phillipson excavations (1993-7). The fallen stones at the end were a door-frame. The East Tomb (behind the camera) is thought to have been intended to resemble this one, but was never finished.

The sky-lights are, of course, a modern addition.

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.

———-

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.