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figure 5
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During the first centuries A.D., immense stone
palaces were constructed at Aksum in the distinctive architectural
style represented illusionistically on the stelae. Over the course
of his visit to Ethiopia between 1520 and 1526, the Portuguese chaplain
Francisco Alvares recorded the earliest account of the city to come
down to us. According to his commentary, Aksum was the residence
of several queens, most celebrated of which was Sheba (Munro-Hay,
Ethiopia, 246). Among the numerous ancient sites associated with
her is Dungur, which according to local tradition, served as her
palace. The vestiges of Dungur and an adjacent field of one hundred
stelae survive west of modern Aksum. In this case, the archaeological
record and oral history are at odds, given that as a contemporary
of Solomon, Sheba would have lived during the tenth century B.C.
whereas Aksum appears to have been settled a thousand years later
and Dungur built during the sixth century (Phillipson, Monuments,
142).
Such multiple-story structures were built
of granite blocks and timber frameworks with rubble walling fixed
in place with mud mortar. The overarching aesthetic and design
principles articulated in Aksum’s
secular structures and echoed in the stelae embraces exterior
references to the strength of the timberwork and load-bearing stone.
It is striking that structural elements not only determine the
scale and proportions of those buildings but serve as ornamental
features. The archaeologist Peter Garlake has commented on this
distinctive approach: “The
logic of building was laid bare. Truth stood unadorned. A respect
for structure as good and beautiful in itself, the basis of all
Aksumite architecture” (Garlake, 87).
It was Islamic control of the Red Sea that
gradually cut off Aksum from its trade links, leading to its decline
and the isolation of Christian Ethiopia by the seventh century.
Subsequent contact between Christian Ethiopia and Alexandria and
Jerusalem was conducted overland via Nubia. Aksum was eventually
abandoned as a capital, and the center of political authority shifted
southeast. There is no indication, however, that with its political
sidelining Aksum’s
ecclesiastic importance diminished. Sustained reverence for Aksum
is rooted in its role as the birthplace of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church dominated by its mother church, Saint Mary of Zion (Phillipson,
Monuments, 111). Because of the city's status as a major religious
and ceremonial center, kings and emperors in later periods chose
to be crowned at Aksum. |
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