"Focuses on the Aksumite state of the first millennium AD in northern Ethiopia and southern Eritrea, its development, florescence and eventual transformation into the so-called medieval civilisation of Christian Ethiopia. This book seeks to apply a common methodology, utilising archaeology, art-history, written documents and oral tradition from a wide variety of sources; the result is a far greater emphasis on continuity than previous studies have revealed. It is thus a major re-interpretation of a key development in Ethiopia's past, while raising and discussing methodological issues of the relationship between archaeology and other historical disciplines; these issues, which have theoretical significance extending far beyond Ethiopia, are discussed in full. The last millennium BC is seen as a time when northern Ethiopia and parts of Eritrea were inhabited by farming peoples whose ancestry may be traced far back into the local 'Late Stone Age'. Colonisation from southern Arabia, to which defining importance has been attached by earlier researchers, is now seen to have been brief in duration and small in scale, its effects largely restricted to ľite sections of the community. Re-consideration of inscriptions shows the need to abandon the established belief in a single 'Pre-Aksumite' state. New evidence for the rise of Aksum during the last centuries BC is critically evaluated. Finally, new chronological precision is provided for the decline of Aksum and the transfer of centralised political authority to more southerly regions. A new study of the ancient churches - both built and rock-hewn - which survive from this poorly-understood period emphasises once again a strong degree of continuity across periods that were previously regarded as distinct."--Publisher's website.

And Still Plays the Abyssinian Damsel on Her Dulcimer is a novel based on Ethiopian history and legends. The story has thirteen chapters representing the thirteen months in the Ethiopian calendar. The narrator, a professor at an Ethiopian University, flies from Mumbai to Addis Ababa, and then to his destination. He is haunted by the Abyssinian damsel whom the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge saw in a dream and described in his poem “Kubla Khan.” The Abyssinian damsel tells the story of Ethiopia from prehistoric to modern times, revealing herself as one who visited King Solomon together with the Queen of Sheba. The Rift Valley of Ethiopia, where three-million-year-old human fossils have been discovered, is considered the birthplace of Homo sapiens. A myriad of legends like the Serpent Kings and Queen Gudit intertwine with Ethiopia’s history. Reviewing the novel, Barbara Biehler wrote, “A fine writing style and tells a great story.”

This scholarly book describes what is known about Ethiopia from primary & secondary sources.

This book is a general survey of Ethiopia as a country and its people. It focuses on many subjects about Ethiopia's history, geography, politics, ethnic groups and their cultures. The book also covers Eritrea - its people, history and culture - but the main focus of the book is on Ethiopia.

Sections include sample trips, eco-tours, travel partners, leaving a job, pets, finances, time zones, personal health, safety, lodging, and much more.

Native Colonialism examines the cause and consequence of native colonialism, the process whereby a country colonises itself with foreign institutions and ideals. The book draws its evidence from a variety of Ethiopian sources that have rarely been studied or utilised in academic research. It provides never-before seen interpretations of indigenous sources of knowledge and features ground breaking empirical research on traditional and modern schools in the county, as well as interviews with students, teachers and traditional leaders.

In 1991 the mosque at Ayodhya in India was demolished by Hindu fundamentalists who claim that it stood on the birthplace of a legendary Hindu hero. During recent conflicts in former Yugoslavia, ethnic groups destroyed mosques and churches to eliminate evidence of long-term settlement by other communities. Over successive centuries, however, a single building in Cordoba functioned as a mosque, a church and a synagogue. The Roman Emperor Diocletian's Palace in Split is occupied today by shops and residential apartments. What circumstances have lead to the survival and reinterpretation of some monuments, but the destruction of others? This work asks whether the idea of world heritage is an essential mechanism for the protection of the world's cultural and natural heritage, or whether it subjugates a diversity of cultural traditions to specifically Western ideas. How far is it acceptable for one group of people to comment upon, or intercede in, the way in which another community treats the remains which it claims as its own? What are the responsibilities of multinational corporations and non-governmental organisations operating in the Developing World? Who actually owns the past: the landowner, indigenous people, the State or humankind?

This landmark book is the first to integrate historical, archaeological, and art-historical evidence to provide a comprehensive account of Ethiopian Christian civilisation and its churches - from the Aksumite period to the 13th century.

This book provides the first truly comprehensive multi-period study of the archaeology of Ethiopia, surveying the country's history, detailing the discoveries from the late Stone Age, including the famous 'Lucy' and moving onto the emergence of food production, prehistoric rock art and an analysis of the increasing social complexity that can be obs