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The Restoration of the Monastery Church of Debra Damo, Ethiopia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Derek H. Matthews
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Abstract

I Was enthusiastically received by the monks of Debra Damo who gave me every help and encouragement in the project of restoring their church, the most ancient surviving in Ethiopia. The scheme was first mooted by Mr D. R. Buxton, who visited the church and found it in a state of collapse. The efforts of Mr O. G. S. Crawford, the Society of Antiquaries, and the British Council, resulted in the Emperor’s agreeing to spend up to £5,000 on the works, and in my being appointed architect in charge of the restoration. I had the unique opportunity of entering parts of the building not hitherto seen and recorded by Europeans, and during the process of partial demolition I was able to discover the exact method of construction, this knowledge throwing light on ancient Axumite building methods.

It is not known exactly how old the church is. It is certainly the most ancient and perfect of the early Ethiopian churches, and an important example of an early manner of building in that country.

The method of construction is unusual (FIG. 1) ; the walls consist of tile-like stones set in earth mortar, strengthened with longitudinal beams which are themselves fixed to the walls with cross-pieces, projecting, and called ‘monkey-heads’ by the Ethiopians. Such a method of construction has been used in countries as far apart as Crete, Asia Minor, and Tibet. It also seems to have been the normal constructional method of the Axumite builders, who translated the pattern of horizontal timber, monkey-head and window framing into the decoration of the storied obelisks of Axum, nearby. This is yet another example of timber forms being translated into stone, a common architectural trend. Even today, the tradition is still alive, and modern church builders in this part of Ethiopia still use timber in a similar way to stabilize their walls.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 23 , Issue 92 , December 1949 , pp. 188 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1949

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References

1 Buxton 1 and 2 (see pp. 196, 198, below).

2 Buxton 2, Plate lid.

3 See Buxton’s two articles, passim.

4 In the Asmara Museum there are similar carved panels which were taken from a demolished church in Asmara, of the same type as Debra Damo. [It is hoped to publish a special article on these panels in a later number. Mr Matthews was able to take excellent photographs of all of them. See also Buxton (1), plate iv. ED.].

* Amba means hill or hill-top and from the use of such came to mean ‘hill-fort’, just as Debra (with a similar meaning) came to mean ‘monastery’. ED.

5 Conti Rossini, ‘Pergamene di Debra Dammó’, Rivista degli Studi Orientali, vol. XIX, 1940.

6 Not to be confuseci with the celebrated monastery of Debra Libanos in Southern Ethiopia.