Major discovery on eve of obelisk’s return (Ethiopia)

The Art Newspaper ^ | Saturday, 2 July 2005 | Martin Bailey

[nickcarraway]

An important discovery has been made by Unesco archaeologists who were sent to Ethiopia to prepare for the arrival of an ancient obelisk finally returned by Italy after years of delay. At the ancient site of Axum, underground chambers and arcades were found near the original position of the obelisk, beneath an area converted into a parking lot in 1963. The Unesco team, headed by Neapolitan archaeologist Rodolfo Fattovich, found that the site had been a royal necropolis for several dynasties before the kingdom adopted Christianity in around 325 AD. Unesco director-general Koïchiro Matsuura announced that some of the tombs appeared to be intact. “Archaeological excavations would now be required to uncover possible vestiges of major historical interest”, he added. Axum, which dates from 100 BC, was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1980. The discovery, announced last month, was made in the central area of Axum, where the obelisk removed to Rome originally stood. It had been seized by Mussolini in 1937 and its return has been a long-running saga. The 25-metre-high obelisk was finally flown into Axum in three sections, between 19 and 25 April, and was greeted with major celebrations (above). The hope is that it will be re-erected by October.

[Lessismore]

http://www.addisredsea.com/

Ethiopian restaraunt in Boston on Tremont. Interesting food, moderate to inexpensive. The ethnic beer is on the sweet side.

[Cvengr]

from www.farhorizon.com/ Africa/ethiopia.htm

Eight hundred years ago King Lalibela created a marvelous gift to the world. Often called the Eighth Wonder of the World, Lalibela contains towering churches that were carved from the soft, volcanic tuff in which they stand. Some lie almost completely hidden in deep trenches, and others stand in open quarried caves. A complex and bewildering labyrinth of tunnels and narrow passageways with crypts, grottoes, and galleries connects them all. Within this mystical world, priests go about their daily tasks, seemingly oblivious of the outside world. Standing 38 feet tall with seventy-two pillars, Medhane Alem is not only the largest in Lalibela, it is the largest monolithic rock-hewn church in the world. The oldest of the churches, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Bet Maryam is the only Lalibela monolith with a porch. The remains of exquisite early frescoes can be seen on the ceiling and upper walls, and there are many elaborately carved details on the piers, capitals, and arches.

Hey! A monolith with a porch!!!,..now that's a motivating incentive to carve out all that rock!

[TASMANIANRED]

re-erected.

There is a joke somewhere.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks dread78645 and martin_fierro for the pings, and nick for the topic.

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[yarddog]

Not a very accurate description of Ethiopian military success.

They defeated the Italians at Aduwa simply because they outnumbered them by a huge amount. Also the Ethiopians were well armed including the new Maxim machine guns.

The Italians did defeat them rather easily in the late 30's, contrary to a previous post on this thread.

[ken21]

very interesting.

[woofie]

Do you have a phallic symbol ping list?

[Pagey]

That's new to me. Amazing, those pics absolutely make my mind wander.

[poindexters brother]

Hey, maybe they'll find the Ark of the Covenant!

http://www.jcsm.org/MISC/ArkofCovenant.htm

[Countyline]

extraordinary ... amazing ... beautiful ... otherworldly ...

[spetznaz]

They defeated the Italians at Aduwa simply because they outnumbered them by a huge amount. Also the Ethiopians were well armed including the new Maxim machine guns. The Italians did defeat them rather easily in the late 30's, contrary to a previous post on this thread.

The fact still remains that they were never colonized. And the 'easy victory' the Italians had over the Ethiopians in the late 30s (Oct 1935) was because the Italians used bombers, plus liberal use of mustard gas chemical attacks, coupled with attacks on civilian villages. Oh, and even with the military advantages that the Italians had over Ethiopia in 1935, plus the targets they were picking on, this 'easy victory' still took 7 months. And even after that point there were many uprisings, one which led to the Italians killing 30,000 people who were seen as 'threats' (mostly the educated people). Italy managed to get their footing established with ease in Eritrea as well as Italian Somaliland (and they settled heavily in Eritrea), but Ethiopia was always a problem. The Ethiopian resistance, with British help, had the Italians out by 1941. I believe it was 1943 (or thereabouts) that King Vittorio Emanuele III had Mussolini's power negated , and Italy was out of WW2 by 1943.

As for the battle of Adawa in the late 1800s, that battle had a number of interesting ramifications. One of the more interesting ones was the effect on Japan:

In Japan, Ethiopia became appreciated as the first non-Caucasian power to defeat Europeans, an achievement the Japanese were to duplicate in warfare against Russia in 1904. This appreciation led to a sense of affinity that bore fruit for decades thereafter. Ethiopian intellectuals looked to Japan as a model for modernizing their ancient monarchy; the Meiji Constitution served as a model for the Ethiopian Constitution of 1931. When Italy invaded Ethiopia again in the mid-thirties, many Japanese citizens (if not the regime formally) expressed solidarity with Ethiopians, sending shipments of many thousands of swords to help Ethiopians in their plight.

[radiohead]

Ha! The ancient space aliens were able to put it there in ONE piece!

LOL. No more Art Bell for you!

[SunkenCiv]

[BluH2o]

Haile Selassie made a powerful speech before the League of Nations in Geneva in which he set forth two choices--support for collective security or international lawlessness. The emperor stirred the conscience of many and was thereafter regarded as a major international figure.

Haili Selassi became the leader of Ethiopia after the Italiens were tossed out. His new title Emperor Haili Selassi.
Ethiopia had a pavilion at the 1967 World's Fair in Montreal. Happened to be visiting the World's Fair site the day Emperor Haili Selassi visited their pavilion ... he had a large entourage with him, probably much of it security. The Emperor was small in stature, not much over 5 feet tall. He was impeccably dressed in uniform with the medals and shoulder roping. I can state with some degree of confidence that I'm probably the only individual in all of FReeperland that ever saw Emperor Selassi in person.
I've lived in the U.S. forty plus years and have yet to see a President, other than on TV, in magazines, or in the paper.

[SunkenCiv]

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