Claire Bosc-Tiessé

Rock-cut stratigraphy: sequencing the Lalibela churches

The rock-cut churches of Ethiopia have long intrigued visitors and historians – and have frustrated archaeologists seeking their sequence of construction. Do they belong to one grand ceremonial monastic plan, or a long-lived ritual centre, continually refashioned over time? Since the churches are cut into live rock, the conventional signals of archaeological phasing are hard to find. The authors address these problems at the famous site of Lalibela, showing that, embedded in the cuts and openings, the spoil heaps, and even in the now vanished sediments, the stratigraphic sequence is there to be read.

Acts of Writing and Authority in Bəgwəna-Lasta between the Fifteenth Century and the Eighteenth Century: A Regional Administration Comes to Light

This presentation of a project for editing and translating documents that can be used to write the history of Bəgwəna-Lasta from the twelfth till the eighteenth century seeks to study the sorts of documents set down in writing as a function of the type of power exercised at the time and the means for writing and recording documents. Following a brief description of the corpus, the question of how these documents came to be kept in manuscripts in Bəgwəna-Lasta is examined. Through these documents, a regional administration comes to light, along with changes in it from the fifteenth till the eighteenth century. These changes are reflected in the production of written documents, which varies as a function of the powers-that-were in the region.

The Lalibela Rock Hewn Site and its Landscape (Ethiopia): An Archaeological Analysis

This article presents the methods employed at the site of Lalibela, Ethiopia during the 2009, 2010, 2011 and part of the 2012 campaigns, as well as the first results obtained. This site consists of a group of rock-cut churches attributed to the sovereign of the same name, King Lalibela, who we know to have reigned in the late 12th century and in the first third of the 13th century. Cut out of solid rock, Lalibela is an exceptional archaeological site since most of the traces of its early phases were eliminated in the process of its transformation. The site thus presents a significant challenge for historians and archaeologists. How is it possible to write its history without excavation? Geomorphological observations of the region offer new keys for understanding Lalibela; identification of the spoil heap, in which we discovered a clear stratigraphy confirming the existence of different cutting phases; the topographic and taphonomic analysis of the remains, and investigations in the cemetery of Qedemt, revealed that the site was formed in multiple phases, probably reflecting a long occupation sequence spanning at least eleven centuries (from the 10th to the 21st century).

Catalogue des autels et meubles d’autel en bois (tābot et manbara tābot) de Ṭerāsfarē Esṭifānos : jalons pour une histoire des objets et des motifs (II)

Situe dans la montagne surplombant la haute vallee du Takkazē, au-dessus de la petite ville de Kulmesk, l’eglise de Ṭerāsfarē Esṭifānos est en fait une grotte qui a probablement servi de depot pour sauvegarder des biens d’eglise et a ensuite ete amenagee et consacree. Dans le magasin de l’eglise sont gardes quatre manbara tābot ou autels en bois, sculptes de motifs geometriques, vegetaux et figuratifs. Parmi les objets liturgiques produits et utilises par l’Eglise ethiopienne, ceux-ci sont particulierement interessants pour ce que leur etude apporte a la connaissance de la liturgie, a l’histoire et a l’histoire de l’art. Ils temoignent d’une evolution de la liturgie qui a probablement eu lieu a partir du milieu du XIIe siecle. Ce catalogue les decrit, detaille les inscriptions et passe en revue leurs formes comme les motifs utilises.