Archaeology and Heritage Management

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Browsing Archaeology and Heritage Management by Subject "bronze"

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    An Investigation of Metal Collections from Pre-AksumiteTombs at Yeha: Collections from the 1960/61 Excavations
    (Addis Abeba University, 2024-12-01) Gizachew Nigusu; AyeleTarekegn (Ph.D.) and Caroline Rubion (PhD)
    Burial site of Da’ero Mikael is one of a very significant part in Archaeological site of Yeha along with the great Temple and great palace of Be’alGuebri. It preserved rich intact underground archaeological structures located around these monumental structures dating to the early first millennium BCE. It covers a total area of 250 m² located about 300 m to the south east of the Great Temple near to the Valley of Shillanat. The graves are excavated by Francis Anfray in the 1960s and 1970s. There are a series of seventeen rock-cut graves that most likely belongs to the rulers who lived at the palace of GratBea’lGeubri. The grave contents of these tombs included abundant pottery, different metal objects including those made out of gold, zoomorphic seals dominantly made up of bronze, other tools such as beads and an alabaster vessel that witness the artistic and techno-cultural advancement of the time. Within holistic archaeological study of Yeha material culture, this study of metal collections tried to address the gap in research concerning nature of the metal collections further in order to better understand t he technology, distinctive metal style of Yeha people specifically, and the function of the metal objects. Through nondestructive preliminary methods of analyzing such as measuring of morphological attribute, visual observation and comparative analyses, it has been tried to categorize the objects based on their primary functions. The nation of primary function appeared to be important since it is mandatory to feed our reflections in respect to the preliminary objective in which artisans get in mind while fabricating the objects. That is synthesized from the morphological appearance of the specific object. The essence of primary function should also understood from perspectives that materials would be employed for different purposes after fabrication in which that could be termed as secondary and tertiary function. Moreover, the appearance of the objects as grave good has to be mentioned important in this case in line with the idea of mortuary practice that could asserted as one subject in cultural study of Yeha. The Morpho-typological investigation was conducted on a total of 100intact metal tools in which bronze is the most dominant raw materials they made of: and remains of broken objects o btained from various excavated tombs. These objects have been classified based on their morphological type and function in to eleven groups as; bronze hoes, bronze chisels, bronze xiv sickles, bronze hooks, bronze cups and cauldrons, bronze seals, Jewelries, Iron weapons, different geometric objects, Aksumie bronze crosses and needles and rivets.Special emphasis has been given to few selected tools in order to assess their cultural meaning in the context. Rather than the simple morphological real, comparative analysis of these objects has been studied to feed our reflections of the basic questioned I designed as guide map in this study. 85 % of the objects are made out of bronze in terms of raw material distribution: where we also have Iron objects and three gold ear rings respectively. It was obstacle for me to expand my thematic scope due to methodological restrictions. I was unable to do radiographic analysis, and elemental composition analysis which would have been helpful in quests such of origin of production. From archaeological perspective however, it was evident that some of the materials are associated with another archaeological remains such as the great structures of Be`alGuibri palace, the Al Moqah temple and the ceramics: not only they just found in the same cultural and archaeological context, but also since there is a clear direct physical relation such as that between the well-dressed block stone shafts used to construct the temple and the bronze chisels most seemingly employed to dress them. Comparative observation of the objects with culturally and chronologically contemporary sites such as Hawelti, Matara and Sobea also shows the probability of trade exchange in addition to artistic homogeneity. Typological and morphological variability’s has been interpreted from different perspective of cultural realms and cultural practices that has been deciphered. Key words:bronze,Morphology, Primary function, functional analysis, Typology, metal collection, Yeha,Da`eroMika`el