Rodolfo Fattovich, ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION AT AKSUM (ETHIOPIA) OF THE UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI, “L’ORIENTALE” 2010 FIELD SEASON: SEGLAMEN (original) (raw)
In November 2010 the Italian Archaeological Expedition at Aksum of the Università degli Studi di Napoli, “l’Orientale” (UNO), Napoli (Italy), conducted the 16th field season in the Aksum region under the direction of Rodolfo Fattovich. In 1992-2003 the expedition investigated Bieta Giyorgs hill to the north of Aksum as a joint research project with Boston University, under the direction of Rodolfo Fattovich (UNO) and Kathryn A. Bard (BU). In 2005-2009 the foot hill of Bieta Giyorgis and the plains to the north of the hill were investigated. In 2005-2006 the expedition surveyed the whole archaeological area of Aksum (100 sq km) in collaboration with the World Bank Ethiopian Cultural Heritage Project, Aksum Branch, and produced the detailed archaeological map of this area. In 2009 UNO expedition surveyed the archaeological site of Yeha (Adwa) and mapped with a laser scanner the Great Temple as a contribution to the archaeological heritage management of the area. Beginning in 2010 the UNO project included the valley of the Mai Nigus/Haselo from Addì Hankara (Woreda: Medegoy) to Adet (Woreda: Hawesta), with the surroundings of the modern villages of Medegoy, Seglamen, Mirina and Adet as main areas of investigation. The project is designed to survey this region along a transect about 5 × 20 km and to carry out excavations at selected sites. This segment of the Mai Nigus/Haselo valley was chosen for investigation because the valley, traditionally, was an important route from Aksum to the Tekeze river and from here to the internal regions of the Ethiopian highlands. The research activity has been designed to provide: 1) a reconstruction of the cultural and environmental history of the region to the south-west of Aksum; 2) a detailed archaeological map of this region for the cultural heritage management of Central Tigray.
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In November 2011 the Italian Archaeological Expedition of the Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” (UNO), Naples, Italy, under the direction of Rodolfo Fattovich, conducted the 17th field season of investigations in the region of Aksum, Tigray, northern Ethiopia, the second in the area of Seglamen. The project is implemented in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology of the Aksum University (AU), within the framework of a formal agreement between UNO and AU established since 2009 and aimed at conducting joint research programs and at providing undergraduate students in Archaeology with a theoretical and practical training in survey and excavation procedures and in laboratory analysis. Archaeological researches at Seglamen are part of a broader project launched in 2010 and aimed at investigating a 100 sq km transect along the Mai Negus/Haselo river valley from Addì Hankara (Medegoy woreda) to Adet (Hawesta woreda) with the territories around the modern villages of Medogwe, Seglamen, Merina and Adet as major areas of investigation. This transect has been selected as the Mai Negus/Haselo river valley represented an important traditional exchange route linking Aksum and the Tigrean highlands to the Tekeze river in the south-west and, through this, to the southern regions of the Ethiopian plateau. The research has been designed to provide: 1) a reconstruction of the cultural and environmental history of the region to the south-west of Aksum; 2) a detailed archaeological map of this region for the cultural heritage management of Central Tigray. In 2011 investigations focused exclusively on the Pre-Aksumite site of Seglamen SG1 where a monumental area and a cemetery had been identified and partially excavated in 2010. The topographic survey of the terrace, begun in 2010, has been completed in order to define the general morphology of the area of the site, using a total station Trimble M3 5”.
… of the 1st Italy …, 2003
Aksum in Tigrai (northern Ethiopia) was the capital city of a powerful kingdom, which dominated the southern Red Sea in the 1st millennium AD, and it was an important commercial partner of the Roman and Byzantine empires. An important goal of the project is to investigate origins and development of Aksum within its environmental setting. It was initially aimed at testing the hypothesis, based on traditional Ethiopian sources, that Bieta Giyorgis was an area of early development at Aksum. At present, the project involves the application of advanced digital technologies for a detailed reconstruction of the archaeological landscape: analysis and classification by remote sensing and GIS, and interpretation and presentation of the results through virtual reality and visual information systems. A relevant aspect of the project is a multidisciplinary approach, starting with the acquisition of the data on the ground and, then, creating predictive classified maps of the geomorphological and anthropic landscape, including all the paleoenvironmental factors. This part of the project is aimed to the virtual reconstruction of the archaeological landscape starting from remote sensing classifications (DGPS, multispectral classifications), spatial analyses and anthropological interpretations.
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