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Ethiopian Rock-hewn Churches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

D. R. Buxton
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Extract

While engaged in locust investigations in Ethiopia between 1942 and 1945 I found ample opportunity to indulge my favourite hobby—the study of Christian architecture and antiquities. I knew, before coming to the country, that Ethiopia was little-explored and probably a fruitful field. I had heard of the pre-Christian monuments at Aksum, and of the extraordinary rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, both of which have been long (if not widely) known. But in the end the antiquities that came to light far surpassed my expectations, and I had the satisfaction of visiting many remarkable monuments, which have rarely been seen by Europeans, hidden away in the mountain fastnesses of the northern highlands. One or two Italian archaeologists had, it is true, begun to pay attention to some of these buildings, but I believe no connected account of the early Ethiopian style of architecture has yet been attempted, I propose in this summary article to confine myself mainly to the internal history of the monuments, only touching upon the more difficult question of the ultimate sources of the style.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 20 , Issue 78 , June 1946 , pp. 60 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1946

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References

1 Littmann, Krencker and Lüpke, Deutsche Aksum Expedition. 4 vols. Berlin, 1913.

2 Compare the precisely similar timber-and-stone construction of the prehistoric Swiss hill-fort described by Dr Bersu in our last number (ANTIQUITY 1946, xx, 5), and the accompanying plan and section. Did this style originate in the numerous hill-forts (amba) mentioned in the ancient Abyssinian annals ?—O.G.S.C.

3 Monti della Corte, Lalibeìa, Rome, 1940, to some extent meets this need, bee also Jnndlay, The Monolithic Churches of Lalibela, Bulletin de la Société d’Archéologie Copte, vol. IX, Cairo, 1943.

4 It was visited in 1939 by Monti della Corte and briefly described in his book Lalibela.

5 Henry Salt. A voyage to Abyssinia and travels in the interior of that country, London, 1814, p. 302. [It is also stated there that this church was ‘very similar to the one, which I (Salt) visited on my way to Chelicut, called Abba os Guba’.—Ed.]

6 All have since been removed to the Asmara museum.