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II.—The Rock-Hewn and Other Medieval Churches of Tigré Province, Ethiopia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

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Extract

More than twenty years ago this Society published a paper of mine entitled The Christian Antiquities of Northern Ethiopia. My present paper takes up the same theme again, describes much new material which has since come to light, and draws some new and better-founded conclusions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1971

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References

page 33 note 1 Archaeologia, xcii, 1947. Abbreviated ‘Buxton, Christian Antiquities’.

page 33 note 2 della Corte, A. A. Monti, Lalibela, Rome, 1940Google Scholar.

page 33 note 3 It would be more correct to say that they had been forgotten by the outside world. The existence of the Tigrean rock-hewn churches was well known to the priests of the Jesuit Mission in the seventeenth century. Father Barradas, a Portuguese Jesuit based on Goa, who lived in Tigré between 1624 and 1640, compared these churches to the rock-hewn temples of India and he gave an accurate account of their distribution (‘in Amba Sanayt, Wuqro, Hawzien, Gheralta and Tembien’). See Manoel (Emmanuel) Barradas, , ‘Tractatus tres historico-geographici’ in Rerum aethiopicarum scriptores occidentales inediti, edited by Beccari, C. (Rome, 1906), pp. 272–3Google Scholar.

page 34 note 1 See his ‘Introduction générate aux églises monolithes du Tigrai’ in Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa (Institute of Ethiopian Studies at the University), 1966. The same text is published in The Monolithic Churches of Tigray, Addis Ababa (Central Printing Press), 1970.

page 34 note 2 See reports by J. Leclant, H. de Contenson, Anfray, F. in Annales d'Éthiopie, iii, 1959Google Scholar; iv, 1961; v, 1963; vi, 1965.

page 34 note 3 Gerster, G., Churches in Rock, London, 1970Google Scholar.

page 34 note 4 See Ethiopia Observer, xiii (1970), no. 3.

page 35 note 1 I have not attempted to identify all the architectural the experts who may have spent longer or shorter periods at Lalibela since the establishment of easy communications. They include B. Lindahl (Sweden) who has reached important conclusions on the setting out and excavation of rock-hewn churches, and on the units of measurement employed, and S. Angelini (Italy) who is responsible for the current restoration and preservation programme. For the latter see Lalibela—Phase i. Adventure in Restoration, International Fund for Monuments, Inc., New York, 1967Google Scholar.

page 36 note 1 Buxton, ‘Christian Antiquities’, p. 32.

page 45 note 1 Although aware of the sketch-plan of Abreha Atsbeha reproduced in Gerster's Churches in Rock, p. 133. I was very sceptical, when writing up this material, about the large undivided domed lateral sanctuaries, which were there shown as extending further east than the main sanctuary. However, Roger Sauter, whose plan it was, has since informed me that he actually saw these lateral spaces, which he had the rare privilege of entering in the company of an Ethiopian ecclesiastic. He also glimpsed the central sanctuary and noted that, in spite of the semidome above, it was rectangular at ground level. The eastern extremity of my plan is therefore incorrect and based upon false conjectures. I have nevertheless left figs. 5 and 41b unaltered; I am uncertain if fig. 6 would be affected. I suspect that all three churches of this group will prove to have similar north and south sanctuaries. This new information raises additional problems, but I do not think it has any bearing on the discussion of origins in Section F(d) below.

page 46 note 1 Playne, B., St. George for Ethiopia, London, 1954Google Scholar.

page 49 note 1 A. Mordini, ‘La chiesa ipogea di Ucrò (Amba Seneiti) nel Tigrai’, Annali dell'Africa Italiana, Anno 2, no. 2, 1939. See also his article in L'Éthiopie d'aujourd'hui, nos. 6–7, 1962, which contains a complete set of the relenel vant plans and sections.

page 59 note 1 Gerster, pls. 41–53.

page 64 note 1 My attention was drawn to this church, as well as to Abba Salama, by Dr. G. Gerster whose account of his own visits appears in the National Geographic Magazine for December 1970. The existence of Abba Yohanni was recorded by an Italian traveller, Dr. Enzo Parona, in 1928.

page 66 note 1 See sketch-plan in Ethiopia Observer, xiii (1970), no. 3, p. 250Google Scholar.

page 67 note 1 See Gerster, Churches in Rock, pls. 187–95, and his article in National Geographic Magazine, December 1970, pp. 866–7.

page 68 note 1 Buxton, ‘Christian Antiquities’, pp. 34–42.

page 68 note 2 Gabriel, Wuqien nevertheless has a sort of double capital.

page 72 note 1 Buxton, ‘Christian Antiquities’, pl. xi a, b.

page 73 note 1 Ibid., p. 9 and pl. 1 c.

page 75 note 1 Mordini, A., ‘La chiesa di Aramo’ in Rassegna di studi etiopici, xv, 1959Google Scholar. For my subsequent visit to the site see Buxton, ‘Christian Antiquities’, p. 14 and pl. in c, d.

page 75 note 2 Idem, ‘La chiesa di Baraknaha nello Scimezana’ in Annales d'Éthiopie, iv, 1961.

page 75 note 3 Idem, ‘II convento di Gunde Gundie’ in Rassegna di studi etiopici, xii, 1953; and ‘Indagini sul convento di Gunde Gundie e su problemi di storia medioevale etiopica’ in Mélanges Eugéne Tisserant, iii, 1964.

page 75 note 4 Matthews, D. and Mordini, A., ‘The Monastery of Debra Damo, Ethiopia’ in Archaeologia, xcvii, 1959Google Scholar.

page 75 note 5 Sauter, R., ‘L'arc et les panneaux sculptés de la vieille église d'Asmara’ in Rassegna di studi etiopici, xxiii, 1967–8Google Scholar.

page 75 note 6 Buxton, D. R., ‘Ethiopian Medieval Architecture—the present state of studies’ in Journal of Semitic Studies, 9, no. 1, 1964CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 76 note 1 Playne, B., St. George for Ethiopia, London, 1954Google Scholar.

page 76 note 2 Pakenham, T., The Mountains of Rasselas, London, 1959Google Scholar.

page 76 note 3 Gerster, G., Churches in Rock, London, 1970Google Scholar.

page 77 note 1 Sauter, R., ‘Où en est notre connaissance des églises rupestres d'Éthiopie’ in Annales d'Éthiopie, v, 1963Google Scholar.

page 78 note 1 See, for instance, D. Buxton, Travels in Ethiopia, pls. 53–4 and 82; The Abyssinians, pls. 66–7.

page 78 note 2 Deutsche Aksum Expedition, Berlin, 1913. Vol. iii, ‘Profan- und Kultbauten Nordabessiniens aus älterer und neuerer Zeit’ by T. von Lüpke.

page 78 note 3 Mordini, A. in Rassegna di studi etiopici, xii, 1953Google Scholar.

page 79 note 1 Bidder, I., Lalibela, Cologne, 1959Google Scholar.

page 79 note 2 G. Gerster, Kirchen im Fels, Stuttgart, 1968. English edition Churches in Rock, London, 1970Google Scholar.

page 79 note 3 Barriviera, L. Bianchi, ‘Le chiese in roccia di Lalibela e di altri luoghi del Lasta’ in Rassegna di studi etiopici, xviii, 1962Google Scholar, and xix, 1963.

page 80 note 1 Buxton, ‘Christian Antiquities’, pp. 18–21.

page 80 note 2 This was argued by Bianchi Barriviera. The purely architectural features which point to the same conclusion are the ogee arches and the lack of direct access from aisles to sanctuaries, also the cruciform piers. The other later churches are Mikael/Golgota and the cruciform Ghiorgis.

page 84 note 1 Buxton, ‘Christian Antiquities’, pp. 28–9.

page 85 note 1 Krencker, D., Deutsche Aksum Expedition, ii (Berlin, 1913), 165Google Scholar; Oelmann, F. in Bonner Jahrbücher, cxxvii (1922), 165 and 197Google Scholar; de Villard, U. Monneret, ‘L'origine dei più antichi tipi di chiese abissine’ in Atti del 3o Congresso di Studi Coloniali, iv, Florence, 1937Google Scholar; Beyer, H. W., Der syrische Kircheribau, Berlin, 1925Google Scholar; Anfray, F. in Annales d'Éthiopie, iv (1961), 40–3Google Scholar; Adams, W. Y., ‘Architectural Evolution of the Nubian Church, 500–1400 a.d.in Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, iv (1965)Google Scholar.

page 85 note 2 Buxton, ‘Christian Antiquities’, pp. 4–5.

page 86 note 1 Following English usage I apply the words apse, apsidal, only to a rounded eastern extremity of the sanctuary.

page 86 note 2 See especially: Butler, H. C., Early Churches in Syria, Princeton, 1929Google Scholar.

page 86 note 3 A bank of high steps or seats following the curve of the apse. I insert this explanation to avoid possible confusion, since the term tribune, tribuna, in the Latin languages is applied to upper-storey galleries.

page 88 note 1 Vincent, L. H. and Abel, F. M., Jérusalem (Paris, 1912–26), vol. 2, pp. 155–80Google Scholar and pl. xxxiii.

page 88 note 2 M. de Vogüé, Syrie centrale, pl. 19.

page 88 note 3 Sepp, J. N., Meerfahrt nach Tyrus zur Ausgrabung der Kathedrale mit Barbarossas Grab, Leipzig, 1879Google Scholar.

page 88 note 4 Buxton, ‘Christian Antiquities’, pp. 28–9. G. Gerster (Churches in Rock, p. 93) has pointed out that I was anticipated in this conjecture by Dabbert, H. in Die monolithenen Kirchen Lalibelas in Athiopien, Berlin, 1938Google Scholar. Unfortunately I have failed to trace a copy of this book.

page 90 note 1 Tchalenko, G., Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord, Paris, 1953Google Scholar.

page 86 note 1 Crowfoot, J. W., Early Churches in Palestine, London, 1941Google Scholar. Also in Gerasa (American School of Oriental Research, 1938).

page 86 note 2 Keil, J., ‘Vorläufiger Bericht über die Ausgrabungen in Ephesos’ in Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien, xxvii, 1932Google Scholar.

page 86 note 3 W. Gerber in Forschungen in Salona, i, (Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut, 1917).

page 93 note 1 de Villard, U. Monneret, La Nubia medioevale (Cairo, 1935)Google Scholar, figs. 96, 118, 142, 170–2, 193–5, etc.

page 96 note 1 Adams (p. 107) remarks: ‘These are the best known and most architecturally distinctive of all Nubian churches; so much so that Somers Clarke [in his Christian Antiquities in the Nile Valley] accepted them as the basis for his general Nubian type plan…. In actual fact, all of its definitely known members are situated within 20km. north and south of Faras, and they are so uniform a group as to suggest that they may have been designed by a single architect.’

page 97 note 1 Butler, A. J., The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt (Oxford, 1884), pp. 1819Google Scholar.