DOCSLIB.ORG

Aksumite Architecture and Church Building in the Ethiopian Highlands1

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

0347-07_ECA_4(2007)_04 18-08-2008 12:55 Pagina 49 ECA 4 (2007), p. 49-75; doi: 10.2143 / ECA.4.0.2024666 Aksumite Architecture and Church Building in the Ethiopian Highlands1 Jan TROMP uncovered. The Aksumite architecture has been dis- closed by the Deutsche Aksum Expedition (D.A.E.) in 1906, for the greater part on the basis of the sculpted stelae, the ruins of a palace and one of the two extant built churches in this style. Only one of the six storied stelae is still upright. Locals attribute this stela to the very popular King Ezana, who accepted Christianity as the state’s religion in the fourth century. Under the ever growing influ- ence of the internet the stela is generally, and as an established fact, referred to as the Ezana stela. There seems to be no historical or archaeological proof for this attribution, so there is space for crit- icism. The ruins of the Ta’akha Maryam palace, exca- vated by the D.A.E., have been destroyed during the Italian occupation in the interbellum. How- ever, the Dongour complex, excavated in 1966 may fill the gap in reconstructing the Aksumite architecture. The church studied by the D.A.E. is the monastic church on the Debre Damo plateau. The problematic non-Aksumite main entrance of this building asks for an explanation. It has long been believed that the Debre Damo Church was Pl. 1. Stela 3 (© author) the only church that survived the troublesome six- teenth century. The second one, the Yemrehanna Krestos Church near Lalibela, unknown to the Any visitor of the northern highlands of Ethiopia D.A.E., will be discussed here as it corroborates will be overwhelmed by its cultural past and espe- their findings. cially by the sculpted giant stelae in Aksum, the Finally, reading articles and books in different ancient capital of the Aksumite Kingdom (begin- languages makes one realize that the terminology ning of the Christian era to ca 800), situated close used also differs greatly, both within the same lin- to the border with Eritrea (Fig. 1). The architec- guistic areas and between different ones. A com- tural features sculpted on these multi-storied ste- prehensive inventory of the characteristics of the lae, dating probably from the third and fourth cen- tury, are repeated in the rock-hewn churches of the Ethiopian highlands, almost a millennium later. As the knowledge about Aksum is not wide- 1 This article is based on my (unpublished) MA-thesis ‘Build- spread, this article will deal with the origins of the ings not built, rock and cave churches in Northern Aksumite Kingdom and its architecture, of which Ethiopia’, at the University of Amsterdam. For additional information, see www.jantromp.nl or contact the author there is so little left, or perhaps so much still through [email protected]. 49 0347-07_ECA_4(2007)_04 18-08-2008 12:55 Pagina 50 Pl. 2. Stela 3, lower part (© author) architecture is missing and in describing and com- situated, are the ruins of a moon temple from about menting on actual monuments in an art-historical 500 B.C. in Yeha, a town belonging to the pre- way, enhancing or upgrading the sometimes inad- Aksumite era. The very accurately cut stone blocks equate existing terminology is needed2. measure up to 3 m in length, fitting perfectly one upon the other and held together by an internal GENESIS OF THE AKSUMITE KINGDOM wooden construction. Seven steps lead to a plateau on which the building is constructed. These are The oldest witness to a sophisticated civilization in features that we shall meet again in Aksumite archi- the northern province of Tigre, in which Aksum is tecture. During this pre-Aksumite era Arab hunters and merchants emigrated from the east coast of the Red 2 Additional photographs accompanying this text with the Sea (Yemen) to settle permanently in Northern format JT-2005-001-001, may be downloaded from the Ethiopia3. They spoke a Semitic language called extensive Ethiopian database of the University of Toronto: http://ethiopia.deeds.utoronto.ca:8080/, username = stu- Ge’ez that was to become the language of the 4 dent, password = student, quick search = slide-number as Aksumite Kingdom . Aksum was presumably indicated in the footnotes of this article. I would like to founded at the beginning of our common era, the thank Prof. Michael Gervers for allowing access to the name occurring for the first time in an anonymous Ethiopian database. 3 Stappen 1996, 217. first- or second-century text, the Periplus maris ery- 4 Nowadays it still is the liturgical language of the priests, thraei, whereas the second-century Greek geogra- who during services read the Bible in Ge’ez. pher Claudius Ptolemeus writes about ‘Aksum 50 0347-07_ECA_4(2007)_04 18-08-2008 12:55 Pagina 51 Pl. 3. Stela 3, upper part (© author) where the royal court is’5. Inscriptions in Arabic and by taking control of the Kingdom of Cush. The the presence of perfume burners in and around kingdom now comprised the province of Tigre, Yeha6, identical to those found on the east coast of Eritrea, the eastern part of Sudan and the Kingdom the Red Sea, point to the relationship between of Sheba (Yemen)7. Yemen (then Sheba) and the province of Tigre (then Of capital interest to Ethiopia has been King part of the Aksumite Kingdom). Legend has it, that Ezana, who ruled from ca 330 to ca 356, and is the Ark of the Covenant remained at Yeha for cen- mentioned in numerous inscriptions in different turies, before it was brought over to Aksum. languages as ‘King of Aksum and various other After the second century A.D. Aksum’s renown states’, one of which was Sheba8. At the end of his grew, judging from the larger number of inscrip- life Ezana raised Christianity to the state’s religion, tions and texts found in Southern Arabia mention- replacing the god Mahram with the god of the ing the Aksumites or Abyssinians. One Arabian text Christians9. As a consequence, Ethiopia must have speaks of a treaty between the King of Sheba and Gadarat, King of Aksum. The Aksumites had a large commercial fleet in the port of Adoulis, located on the Red Sea coast, for transporting aro- 5 Anfray 1990, 65-66; Phillipson 1998, 25. matic substances and flavours. In the third century 6 Anfray 1990, 22. 7 Munro-Hay/Phillipson 1989, 7; di Salvo 1999, Ch. 1; a King Aphilas added to his name the title of ‘King Munro-Hay/Phillipson 1989, 7. of Sheba, of the Himyarites and of Raydan’. The 8 Anfray 1990, 74. fourth-century King Ezana extended the territory 9 Gerster 1968, 25. 51 0347-07_ECA_4(2007)_04 18-08-2008 12:55 Pagina 52 Pl. 4. Fallen Stela 1 (© author) been a Christian empire before the Roman Emperor sionaries, referred to later as the ‘Nine Saints’ or Theodosius made the same decision at the end of simply the ‘Nine’, arrived via Egypt in Ethiopia and the fourth century. According to the Roman author zealously started christianising the population. Rufinus, Ezana was christened by the Syrian scholar Christianity was well implanted by the ‘Nine’ for, Frumentius10. There is convincing numismatic when the countries surrounding Ethiopia embraced proof that on the Ezana coins from after 341, the Islam after the seventh century, Christianity not crescent-and-disk symbol disappeared in favour of only survived in the highlands but also developed the sign of the Christian cross11. in a unique way. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 resulted in a In the sixth century the relationship with Sheba schism dividing Chalcedonians and Anti-Chalcedo- must have been problematic as King Kaleb, pro- nians, in particular in Egypt and Syria. Naturally pelled by the Byzantine Emperor Justin I, occupied this also had an impact on the Church of Ethiopia, Sana’a, appointed a viceroy and had a great cathe- whose abuna was appointed by the Coptic patri- dral built there12. After the seventh century fol- arch. After the council, nine threatened Syrian mis- lowed a rapid decline, when trade was taken over, first by the Sassanids, then by the Arab countries, pushing the Aksumite borders back to the west coast of the Red Sea. Little is known about what 10 Phillipson 1998, 113. 11 Munro-Hay 1991, Ch. 4-6, or: http://users.vnet.net/ happened between the eighth and the twelfth cen- alight/aksum/mhak2.html#c4-6. tury, when the dynasty of the Zagwe kings came 12 Phillipson 1998, 112, 116, 124. into power. 52 0347-07_ECA_4(2007)_04 18-08-2008 12:55 Pagina 53 Pl. 5. Ruins of the Dongour complex (© author) AKSUMITE ARCHITECTURE recognized from then on as ranking among the most important ancient sites of the world. The results, Aksum as an archaeological site is mentioned for the with hundreds of drawings and photographs, were first time by Francesco Alvarès, priest and chronicler published in four bulky volumes in 1913. of the Portuguese embassy in Ethiopia in the early sixteenth century13. He writes about the sculpted ste- THE AKSUMITE STELAE lae, some of which had fallen. He also notices twelve thrones of stone, near the entrance of the precinct of In Aksum there are several necropoleis, of which the Mary of Tsion, two hypogee houses and the tombs most important one, the Northern Stelae Field, of King Kaleb and his son Gebre Masqal. Alvarès’ counts six multi-storied monolithic giant stelae writings are of great importance because they date from before the large-scale destruction of Christian buildings from 1541 onwards14 and because they 13 Anfray 1990, 87-88; Phillipson 1998, 28.
Recommended publications
  • Continuity and Tradition: the Prominent Role of Cyrillian Christology In

    Continuity and Tradition: the Prominent Role of Cyrillian Christology In

    Jacopo Gnisci Jacopo Gnisci CONTINUITY AND TRADITION: THE PROMINENT ROLE OF CYRILLIAN CHRISTOLOGY IN FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURY ETHIOPIA The Ethiopian Tewahedo Church is one of the oldest in the world. Its clergy maintains that Christianity arrived in the country during the first century AD (Yesehaq 1997: 13), as a result of the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch, narrated in the Acts of the Apostles (8:26-39). For most scholars, however, the history of Christianity in the region begins with the conversion of the Aksumite ruler Ezana, approximately during the first half of the fourth century AD.1 For historical and geographical reasons, throughout most of its long history the Ethiopian Church has shared strong ties with Egypt and, in particular, with the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. For instance, a conspicuous part of its literary corpus, both canonical and apocryphal, is drawn from Coptic sources (Cerulli 1961 67:70). Its liturgy and theology were also profoundly affected by the developments that took place in Alexandria (Mercer 1970).2 Furthermore, the writings of one of the most influential Alexandrian theologians, Cyril of Alexandria (c. 378-444), played a particularly significant role in shaping Ethiopian theology .3 The purpose of this paper is to highlight the enduring importance and influence of Cyril's thought on certain aspects of Ethiopian Christology from the early developments of Christianity in the country to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its aim, therefore, is not to offer a detailed examination of Cyril’s work, or more generally of Ethiopian Christology. Rather, its purpose is to emphasize a substantial continuity in the traditional understanding of the nature of Christ amongst Christian 1 For a more detailed introduction to the history of Ethiopian Christianity, see Kaplan (1982); Munro-Hay (2003).
  • The Old Chants for St. Gärima: New Evidence from Gärˁalta

    The Old Chants for St. Gärima: New Evidence from Gärˁalta

    84 Scrinium 12 (2016) 84-103 Nosnitsin Journal of Patrology and Critical Hagiography www.brill.com/scri The Old Chants for St. Gärima: New Evidence from Gärˁalta Denis Nosnitsin Universität Hamburg, Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian Studies, Hamburg [email protected] Abstract The article presents an old folio kept in the church of Däbrä Śaḥl (Gärˁalta, northern Ethiopia), one of a few other leaves, all originating from a codex dating to a period well before the mid–14thcentury. The codicological and palaeographical features reveal the antiquity of the fragment. The content of the folio is remarkable since it contains chants dedicated to St. Gärima (also known as Yǝsḥaq) which can be identified as the chants for the Saint from the Dǝggwa, the main Ethiopian chant book. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥǝdo Church the feast of Gärima is celebrated on the 17th of Säne. By means of the fragment of Däbrä Śaḥl, the composition of the liturgical chants for Gärima can be dated to a time much prior to the mid-14th century. Moreover, both the chants and the 15th-century Acts of Gärima by Bishop Yoḥannǝs refer to a famous mir- acle worked by the Saint. This fact proves that the miraculous account, in whatever form, was in circulation prior to the mid-14th century. Keywords palaeography – codicology – manuscripts – Ethiopia – Aksum – “Nine Saints” – Ethiopic script – Gǝˁǝz – liturgical chants – hagiography – Acts – miracles Introduction This essay aims at presenting an old manuscript fragment among those discov- ered in northern Ethiopia (Tǝgray) in recent years.1 I was able to see and to 1 For other recent publications on the same issue, see D.
  • Mountain Constantines: the Christianization of Aksum and Iberia1

    Mountain Constantines: the Christianization of Aksum and Iberia1

    Christopher Haas Mountain Constantines: The Christianization of Aksum and Iberia1 At the beginning of the fourth century, Ezana I of Aksum and Mirian III of Iberia espoused Christianity, much like their better-known contempo- rary, Constantine the Great. The religious choices made by the monarchs of these two mountain polities was but one stage in a prolonged process of Christianization within their respective kingdoms. This study utilizes a comparative approach in order to examine the remarkably similar dynam- ics of religious transformation taking place in these kingdoms between the fourth and late sixth centuries. The cultural choice made by these monarchs and their successors also factored into, and were infl uenced by, the fi erce competition between Rome and Sassanian Persia for infl uence in these stra- tegically important regions. In September of 324, after his victory at Chrysopolis over his erstwhile impe- rial colleague, Licinius, the emperor Constantine could look out over the battlefi eld with the satisfaction that he now was the sole ruler of the Roman world. Ever since his public adherence to the Christian God in October of 312, Constantine had been moving slowly but steadily toward more overt expressions of favor toward Christianity through his avid patronage of the Church and his studied neglect of the ancient rites. For nearly eight years after his conversion in 312, Constantine’s coinage continued to depict pagan deities like Mars and Jupiter, and the Christian emperor was styled “Com- panion of the Unconquerable Sun” until 322.2 Christian symbols made only a gradual appearance. This cautious attitude toward religion on the coins can be ascribed to Constantine’s anxiety to court the loyalty of the principal 1 The following individuals generously shared with me their suggestions and assistance: Niko Chocheli, Nika Vacheishvili, David and Lauren Ninoshvili, Mary Chkhartishvili, Peter Brown, and Walter Kaegi.
  • Daniel Asmare the MELTING POT of the WORD and the SWORD

    Daniel Asmare the MELTING POT of the WORD and the SWORD

    Daniel Asmare THE MELTING POT OF THE WORD AND THE SWORD: ROYAL POWER AND MONASTIC ASCETICISM IN THE MEDIEVAL MONASTERIES OF LAKE TANA, ETHIOPIA MA Thesis in Comparative History with the specialization in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies Central European University CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2011 THE MELTING POT OF THE WORD AND THE SWORD: ROYAL POWER AND MONASTIC ASCETICISM IN THE MEDIEVAL MONASTERIES OF LAKE TANA, ETHIOPIA by Daniel Asmare (Ethiopia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with the specialization in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU ____________________________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________________________ Examiner CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2011 THE MELTING POT OF THE WORD AND THE SWORD: ROYAL POWER AND MONASTIC ASCETICISM IN THE MEDIEVAL MONASTERIES OF LAKE TANA, ETHIOPIA by Daniel Asmare (Ethiopia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with the specialization in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the
  • Introduction to the Oriental Orthodox Churches

    Introduction to the Oriental Orthodox Churches

    Introduction to the Oriental Orthodox Churches Society of St. John Chrysostom - Western Region November 14, 2015 Fr. Kyrillos Ibrahim Outline • Introduction to the Six Oriental Orthodox Churches: • The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria • The Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East • The Armenian Apostolic Church • The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church • The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church • The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church of India • Christology and the "Non-Chalcedonian" Churches • Theological Dialogue with the Eastern Orthodox Who are the Oriental Churches? The Oriental Orthodox churches are ancient churches which were founded in apostolic times, by apostles or by the apostles' earliest disciples. They are heirs to some of the richest and most ancient traditions in the Christian world.The majority of the members of these churches live in Ethiopia, Egypt, Eritrea, Armenia, India, Syria and Lebanon. There are also large diaspora communities in parts of the Middle East, Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Australia. Who are the Oriental Churches? The Oriental Orthodox Churches were united with Rome and Byzantium in a common profession of faith until the fifth century Council of Chalcedon (451). While the Roman and Byzantine Churches came to accept Chalcedon as the Fourth Ecumenical Council, the Oriental Orthodox Churches acknowledge only the first three. Who are the Oriental Churches? The history of the Oriental Orthodox churches has been marked by ceaseless persecutions under the Byzantine, Persian, Muslim and Ottoman powers. The sufferings have had a profound impact on their life, witness, theology and spirituality. In spite of their continuous suffering, these churches have sustained themselves through constant efforts of renewal.
  • Christian Visual Culture in Medieval Ethiopia: Overview, Trends and Issues

    Christian Visual Culture in Medieval Ethiopia: Overview, Trends and Issues

    chapter 12 Christian Visual Culture in Medieval Ethiopia: Overview, Trends and Issues Claire Bosc-Tiessé 1 Some Historiographical Trends The Christian Church established itself in Ethiopia during the fourth cen- tury, and one can suppose that it stimulated a movement of textual copying, the importation or manufacture of vestments and liturgical objects, the con- struction of churches and perhaps the creation of paintings. Under Coptic authority until the twentieth century, this Church developed specific charac- teristics. While the remains of Aksumite-era churches have been excavated, there remains nothing from the late antique period in terms of monumen- tal paintings. Members of the family of the Prophet Muhammad in exile in Ethiopia are reported to have seen ornaments in the interior of the cathedral of Aksum, which would have occurred in the seventh century, but what remains to us for study are the illuminated Gospel books of the monastery of Abba Gärima. It is thus easier to trace what medieval Christian Ethiopia inherited from the Aksumite era in architecture than in painting. It bears mention that all the surviving artistic productions of the medieval Christian kingdom con- cern the religious sphere, including representations of royalty which exist only in this context. Some efforts to survey the field have been made, in coffee-table books au- thored by scholars, in the introductory essays to exhibition catalogs or in some entries related to art history in the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica from 2003 forward. That said, no analytical synthesis of medieval Ethiopian art history – recall- ing that the Ethiopian medieval area also extends over part of the territory of present-day Eritrea – has yet been written.
  • African & Contemporary Art Collections

    African & Contemporary Art Collections

    AFRICAN & CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTIONS Skunder Boghossian Time Cycle III 1981 Embossed bark and sand with collage on board 48 × 47 ⅞ × 2¾ in. (121.9 × 121.6 × 7 cm) Museum purchase, funds provided by the Caroline Julier and James G. Richardson Acquisition Fund and the Charles P. and Caroline Ireland Foundation 2006.3 Skunder Boghossian has been hailed as a leading artist and educator of African descent who has had a profound influence on artists in the United States and in his homeland, Ethiopia. Boghossian was born in Addis Ababa in 1937. His art training began in Ethiopian art schools that departed from traditional art by encouraging representation of daily life. In 1954 he received a national award for his art, and in 1955 he was awarded an imperial scholarship to study in England. After two years at Saint Martins School of Art and the Slade School of Art in London, he moved to France, where he spent nine years studying and teaching at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Boghossian’s years in Europe were critical to his intellectual and artistic development. In France he was immersed in the Negritude movement and neosurrealism, both of which had a lasting impact on his art. A year after his return to Ethiopia, in 1965, he was offered a position at the Addis Ababa Fine Arts School, and he taught there until 1969. In 1965 the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired one of his paintings, and in 1966 a solo exhibition in Addis Ababa revealed Boghossian as a pioneer of modern Ethiopian art.
  • Patronage and the Theological Integrity of the Ethiopian Orthodox

    Patronage and the Theological Integrity of the Ethiopian Orthodox

    Johnson, Edwin Hamilton (2011) Patronage and the theological integrity of Ethiopian Orthodox sacred paintings in present day Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. PhD thesis, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies). http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/13152 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Patronage and the Theological Integrity of Ethiopian Orthodox Sacred Paintings in Present Day Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Edwin Hamilton Johnson Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in Art History 2011 Department of Art History School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 1 2 Acknowledgements In addition to giving thanks for the guidance I received from my supervisor Dr. Tania Tribe, I would like to also thank Dr. David Appleyard and Dr. Charles Gore for their advice and support. A special thank you also goes to Professor John Picton, Professor Richard Pankhurst and Rita Pankhurst as sources of iconic inspiration to pursue the study of African art history and Ethiopian culture respectively.
  • Aethiopica 20 (2017) International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies

    Aethiopica 20 (2017) International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies

    Aethiopica 20 (2017) International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies ________________________________________________________________ JACOPO GNISCI, The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, University of Texas at Dallas Article Towards a Comparative Framework for Research on the Long Cycle in Ethiopic Gospels: Some Preliminary Observations Aethiopica 20 (2017), 70–105 ISSN: 1430­1938 ________________________________________________________________ Edited in the Asien­Afrika­Institut Hiob Ludolf Zentrum für Äthiopistik der Universität Hamburg Abteilung für Afrikanistik und Äthiopistik by Alessandro Bausi in cooperation with Bairu Tafla, Ulrich Braukämper, Ludwig Gerhardt, Hilke Meyer-Bahlburg and Siegbert Uhlig Towards a Comparative Framework for Research on the Long Cycle in Ethiopic Gospels: Some Preliminary Observations* JACOPO GNISCI, The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, University of Texas at Dallas Introduction Setting aside the Gärima Gospels,1 the earliest surviving illuminated manu- scripts in Ethiopia have been dated to the late thirteenth and fourteenth cen- turies.2 Most of these pre­fifteenth­century manuscripts are Gospels,3 with some rare exceptions. However, it is still not known whether this should be taken as an indication that prior to the fifteenth century Gospel books were more often illustrated than other manuscripts or that they were subsequently less likely to be destroyed, or more likely to be preserved, for historical or religious reasons which have yet to be clarified. In these manuscripts, por- traits of the Evangelists,4 shown seated or standing, are painted facing the first * This article is drawn from research for my doctoral degree. I owe much to Dr Tania Tribe for her support as supervisor of my thesis.
  • The Shade of the Divine Approaching the Sacred in an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Community

    The Shade of the Divine Approaching the Sacred in an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Community

    London School of Economics and Political Science The Shade of the Divine Approaching the Sacred in an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Community Tom Boylston A thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, March 2012 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 85956 words. 2 Abstract The dissertation is a study of the religious lives of Orthodox Christians in a semi‐ rural, coffee‐producing community on the shores of Lake Tana in northwest Ethiopia. Its thesis is that mediation in Ethiopian Orthodoxy – how things, substances, and people act as go‐betweens and enable connections between people and other people, the lived environment, saints, angels, and God – is characterised by an animating tension between commensality or shared substance, on the one hand, and hierarchical principles on the other. This tension pertains to long‐standing debates in the study of Christianity about the divide between the created world and the Kingdom of Heaven.
  • Crosses from Ethiopia at the Dallas Museum of Art an Overview

    Crosses from Ethiopia at the Dallas Museum of Art an Overview

    Crosses from Ethiopia at the Dallas Museum of Art An Overview Jacopo Gnisci all photos courtesy of the Dallas Museum of Art except where otherwise noted arried in procession, placed at the top of a The aim of this article is to take a step in this direction by church to mark the landscape, held by a priest offering an overview of an extensive collection of Ethiopian to bestow blessings, or worn around the neck crosses at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA). In 2016, thanks for protection and to assert identity, the cross, to a collaboration between the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art in all its manifestations, has been for centu- History (EODIAH) and the DMA, I was invited to take a closer ries a ubiquitous symbol in the daily and look at this collection, which had received some attention in the religious life of Christian Ethiopians.1 Thanks to the publication literature but had not yet been systematically investigated. The of catalogs, articles, and books, the organization of exhibitions, collection includes 258 items:5 178 hand crosses;6 8 processional C 7 8 9 anthropological research, and the study of literary sources, our crosses; 5 metal prayer-stick finials; and 67 pectoral crosses. As knowledge of Ethiopian crosses has improved considerably since it is obviously not possible to analyze each item in a paper of this Eine Moore’s pioneering work on the subject (1971; 1973). length, the focus will be on some of its highlights. However, the study of Ethiopian crosses is still very much in The DMA’s collection of crosses is one of the largest outside its early stages.
  • An Ethiopian Miniature of the Tempietto in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Its Relatives and Symbolism

    An Ethiopian Miniature of the Tempietto in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Its Relatives and Symbolism

    Jacopo Gnisci An Ethiopian Miniature of the Tempietto in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Its Relatives and Symbolism Abstract: This study offers the first comprehensive review typically placed in the intercolumniation of a single deco- of the Tempietto in Ethiopian art. The motif was an indis- rated arch and distributed over two or three and over eight pensable feature in illustrated Ethiopic Gospel books, or seven pages respectively, have attracted considerable appearing systematically as an explicit to the Eusebian scholarly interest. The Ethiopian iconography of the Tem- apparatus in manuscripts from the Christian Aksumite to pietto, on the other hand, has not yet received the atten- the early Solomonic Period. While the Ethiopic version of tion it deserves. Eusebius’s Letter to Carpianus and the canon tables have Nordenfalk simply notes that the Tempietto appears attracted considerable scholarly interest, the Ethiopian in Ethiopic gospels, without developing the point further,4 iconography of the Tempietto has not yet received the whereas Underwood’s seminal study of the fons vitae deals attention it deserves. By analysing the iconography of the tangentially with the Ethiopian tradition.5 A preliminary Tempietto in Ethiopic gospel books this work shows how overview of the Ethiopian material offered over 50 years it is possible to offer a partial reconstruction of the prac- ago by Leroy6 has been followed by occasional remarks,7 tices of illuminators in Ethiopia in the century following reviewed below, rather than by systematic research.8 An the rise of the Solomonic dynasty, providing important exception to this statement is a meticulous study by Bausi insights into the elusive question of the development of which, however, focuses in detail on the textual rather manuscript illumination in Ethiopia.