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Ato Gebrmedihin, who estimates his age at about 90, remembers when Italy's invading army in 1937 looted this ancient city's 1,700-year-old, intricately carved obelisk, on the orders of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who wanted to mark his brief occupation of Ethiopia."Their van ..."
Ato Gebrmedihin, who estimates his age at about 90, remembers when Italy's invading army in 1937 looted this ancient city's 1,700-year-old, intricately carved obelisk, on the orders of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who wanted to mark his brief occupation of Ethiopia."Their van kept breaking down as they tried to rush to the airport with our heavy monument," the gray-bearded Gebrmedihin recalled with a chuckle. "But they eventually fixed the truck. Then they took our stele away."Earlier this year, the 180-ton, 80-foot granite obelisk — a tombstone and monument to ancient rulers — was returned from a square in central Rome andflown in three parts to this northern town.
A national holiday was proclaimed.
It was a
triumphant moment, a belated boost to historical pride on a continent
where antiquities were often plundered by colonial powers. But today,
the dismembered obelisk still waits in two metal shacks, covered with
blankets and a tarp, while residents debate how much of the present
they are willing to disturb to recover Ethiopia's distant past.
While investigating a
proposed site to erect the obelisk, archaeologists using high-tech
imaging discovered a network of underground royal tombs. The discovery
of more ancient artifacts has launched renewed interest in Aksum, a
powerful kingdom that ruled the Horn of Africa from the 1st to the 6th
century A.D. and was one of the four great civilizations at that time,
alongside Rome, China andPersia.
But the historical finds
have led to a confrontation with modern community concerns. In recent
weeks, community meetings have been held in which residents were asked
whether they would agree to vacate their property so historians could
dig under their huts and through their farms.
Ethiopia, one of the
world's poorest and least developed nations, is believed to contain
some of civilization's oldest archaeological troves under its rocky
soil. Experts estimate that less than 7 percent of these artifacts have
been found, meaning that Ethiopia could be on the brink of the same
kind of major archaeological discoveries that began in late
19th-century Greece or 1920s Egypt.
In 1980, Aksum was
proclaimed a world heritage site by UNESCO, which called it "one of the
last great civilizations of antiquity to be revealed tomodern
know......
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Ancient tombs found near obelisk
Early humans 'followed coast'
Stone age mass graves reveal green Sahara
The African foundations of New York
Witchcraft legalised in Zimbabwe
The Mysteries of the Dogan People
Humans, Reptilians and The Origins of the Gods
The Memories of a Distant Star (Sirius)
Comparison of Four African Creation Myths
Secrets of Great Zimbabwe
