idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Grafik: idw-Logo

idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft

Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store



Instanz:
Teilen: 
13.01.2022 12:01

Preserving northern Ethiopia’s ancient cultural heritage

Ute Schönfelder Abteilung Hochschulkommunikation/Bereich Presse und Information
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

    A research team from University of Jena and the German Archaeological Institute (GAI) will be compiling an “Ethiopian Heritage Digital Atlas” (EHDA) over the next two years. The project, which is being carried out together with the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage of Ethiopia and Addis Ababa University, has been funded with some 215,500 euros from the Gerda Henkel Foundation. The aim of the web-based heritage information system is to ensure the conservation of Ethiopia’s historical monuments and treasures. The system will enable the monitoring of archaeological sites and contribute in this way to the scientific documentation of Ethiopia’s cultural heritage.

    “The cultural treasures of northern Ethiopia are acutely threatened by the country’s continuing political crisis,” says Norbert Nebes, Professor of Semitic Languages at the University of Jena. For more than a year, there have been armed clashes between government and regional troops in the northern Ethiopian Tigray National Regional State. This is the region where ancient Sabaeans left traces nearly 3,000 years ago. Norbert Nebes, specialised in the people of the legendary Queen of Sheba, is leading the project, with which he and his colleagues wish to respond to the serious crisis situation in northern Ethiopia.

    “The aim of the EHDA is to enable long-term monitoring of archaeological sites and to identify changes–due not just to the effects of war, but also to infrastructure measures or natural disasters–in order for appropriate protective measures to be planned or introduced on site,” says Nebes.

    Satellite images of archaeological sites

    The core of the EHDA is a geographic information system, which systematically records sites, monuments and objects, and combines them with archaeological and geographic information on a map. Together with photographs, aerial and satellite images, information from databases of museums and art dealers, as well as research data, the system will be used to create a comprehensive register of the region’s cultural sites. The basis for this project is research and restoration data that have been collected by Nebes and his team in Jena, as well as cooperation partners from the GAI, over more than a decade of joint research work in northern Ethiopia.

    Sabaeans immigrated to Africa

    Early in the first millennium BCE, Sabaean population groups set out from Yemen, their original home in the south-west of the Arabian Peninsula, towards the Red Sea, and settled in the highlands in the north of what is now Ethiopia and in southern Eritrea. In Yeha, in today’s state of Tigray in Ethiopia, they founded their political and religious centre, which can still be seen today in the remains of a magnificent palace and a monumental temple complex.

    Research centre coordinates long-term projects

    In terms of content, the new project to compile the cultural heritage register is attached to the long-term cooperation project funded by the German Research Foundation–“Cultural contacts between South Arabia and Ethiopia: The reconstruction of the ancient cultural region of Yeha (Tigray/Ethiopia)”–which Jena University and the GAI will be working on until 2028. This work, together with a further long-term project to compile a Sabaic dictionary, is based at the University of Jena’s newly established research centre “Ancient South Arabia and Northeast Africa”.


    Wissenschaftliche Ansprechpartner:

    Prof. Dr Norbert Nebes
    Institute of Oriental Studies, Indo-European Studies, Prehistoric and Early Historic Archaeology of the University of Jena
    Seminar for Oriental Studies
    Zwätzengasse 4, 07743 Jena, Germany
    Tel.: +49 (0)3641 / 944851
    E-mail: norbert.nebes@uni-jena.de


    Weitere Informationen:

    http://asaweb.uni-jena.de


    Bilder

    Sanctuary of the main Sabaean god Almaqah in Yeha (Tigray/Ethiopia).
    Sanctuary of the main Sabaean god Almaqah in Yeha (Tigray/Ethiopia).
    (Image: Pawel Wolf/DAI)


    Merkmale dieser Pressemitteilung:
    Journalisten
    Geschichte / Archäologie
    überregional
    Forschungsprojekte
    Englisch


     

    Hilfe

    Die Suche / Erweiterte Suche im idw-Archiv
    Verknüpfungen

    Sie können Suchbegriffe mit und, oder und / oder nicht verknüpfen, z. B. Philo nicht logie.

    Klammern

    Verknüpfungen können Sie mit Klammern voneinander trennen, z. B. (Philo nicht logie) oder (Psycho und logie).

    Wortgruppen

    Zusammenhängende Worte werden als Wortgruppe gesucht, wenn Sie sie in Anführungsstriche setzen, z. B. „Bundesrepublik Deutschland“.

    Auswahlkriterien

    Die Erweiterte Suche können Sie auch nutzen, ohne Suchbegriffe einzugeben. Sie orientiert sich dann an den Kriterien, die Sie ausgewählt haben (z. B. nach dem Land oder dem Sachgebiet).

    Haben Sie in einer Kategorie kein Kriterium ausgewählt, wird die gesamte Kategorie durchsucht (z.B. alle Sachgebiete oder alle Länder).