François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar

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.