Mifsas Bahri is an archaeological site on the southern border of the Tigray region of Ethiopia. It is located 200m southwest of present-day Lake Aksumite and has an attitude of about 2464 m.
This highland site contains the ruin of a substantial building constructed of bright red dressed ashlar which may date early as the 6th or 7th century. [1] Lying 200 m west of the shore of Lake Hashinge, the site came to the attention of antiquities authorities in 1997 as a result of alleged exploitation of its building stone on the part of the local population.[2] In 2013 a group led by Paul A. Yule from Mekelle University and Heidelberg University began to investigate the site.[3]
Ruins
editThe building at Mifsas Bahri is a church, to judge from the orientation, masonry excellence and architectural relief sculpture.[4] Preliminarily, the building appears to have undergone three phases including a squatter occupation.[5] Radiocarbon dating suggests that it went out of use in the 15th century.[6]
Historical reconstruction and local tradition had it that it was destroyed in the 1540s by the mixed forces of Aḥmad ibn Ibrahīm al-Ġazī. This contradicts a few recent unpublished radiocarbon dates, which suggest a building and construction considerably earlier. Excavation confirmed the presence of a monumental stone building some 20 m x 35 m in surface area. According to local sources the church was named Gebre Menfes Kidus.
Pottery
editHuman Remains
editSee also
editReferences
edit- ^ M. Gaudiello‒P. Yule (eds.), Mifsas Baḥri, a Late Aksumite Frontier Community in the Mountains of Tigray, Survey, Excavation and Analysis 2013‒6, Oxford, BAR International Series S2839, 2017, 245-65 ISBN 978-1-4073-1579-9. Four preliminary reports are on deposit online in academia.edu and Propylaeum-dok, keyword Paul Yule .
- ^ Tekle Hagos, Archaeological rescue investigations in southern and eastern Tigray administrative zones (Amharic), sene EC 1994, Kirs 2001, 9-14
- ^ Gaudiello, Michela; Yule, Paul A., eds. (2017). Mifsas Baḥri: a Late Aksumite Frontier Community in the Mountains of Southern Tigray: Survey, Excavation and Analysis, 2013–16. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-1-4073-1579-9.
- ^ Gaudiello-Yule 2017, 236-44
- ^ Gaudiello-Yule 2017, 261 Fig. 10.8
- ^ Gaudiello-Yule 2017, 262-5 Table 10.3
Further reading
edit- Tekle Hagos, Archaeological Rescue Investigations in Southern and Eastern Tigray Administrative Zones, Annual of the Federal Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH, 2001), sene EC1994, 9–14 (Amharic).
- W. Arnold–S. Degenhardt–Fessehe Berhe–B. Gabriel–M. Gaudiello–M. Hazarika–Hiruy Daniel–Yohannes Gebre Selassie–P. Yule, Field Report for Mifsas Baḥri, Second Preliminary Internal Report, 2014.
- M. Gaudiello‒P. Yule (eds.), Mifsas Baḥri, a Late Aksumite Frontier Community in the Mountains of Tigray, Survey, Excavation and Analysis 2013‒6, Oxford, BAR International Series S2839, 2017, ISBN 978-1-4073-1579-9
External links
edit- [1]
- [2]
- M. Gaudiello–C. Hilbrig–S. Partheil–P. A. Yule, Mifsas Baḥri, Fourth Preliminary Internal Field Report, 2016 Season
- Fessehe Berhe–M. Gaudiello–M. Hazarika–C. Hilbrig–A. Mortimer–S. Partheil–Tsehay Terefe–S. Yilmaz–Yohannes Gebre Selassie–P. A. Yule, Mifsas Baḥri, Third Preliminary Internal Field Report, 2015 Season