Grave in Ethiopia
 |
| The grave in Ethiopia where the woman dubbed ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was discovered. Photograph: Graeme Laidlaw |
Spectacular 2,000-year-old treasures from the Roman empire
and the Aksumite kingdom, which ruled parts of north-east Africa for several
centuries before 940AD, have been discovered by British archaeologists in
northern Ethiopia.
Louise Schofield, a former British Museum curator, headed a
major six-week excavation of the ancient city of Aksum where her team of 11
uncovered graves with “extraordinary” artefacts dating from the first and
second centuries. They offer evidence that the Romans were trading there
hundreds of years earlier than previously thought.
Schofield told the Observer: “Every day we had shed-loads of
treasure coming out of all the graves. I was blown away: I’d been confident
we’d find something, but not on this scale.”
She was particularly excited about the grave of a woman she
has named “Sleeping Beauty”. The way the body and its grave goods had been
positioned suggest that she had been beautiful and much-loved.
Schofield said: “She was curled up on her side, with her
chin resting on her hand, wearing a beautiful bronze ring. She was buried
gazing into an extraordinary Roman bronze mirror. She had next to her a
beautiful and incredibly ornate bronze cosmetics spoon with a lump of kohl
eyeliner.”
 |
| Perfume flask found at the site. |
The woman was also wearing a necklace of thousands of tiny
beads, and a beaded belt. The quality of the jewellery suggests that she was a
person of very high status, able to command the very best luxurious goods.
Other artefacts with her include Roman glass vessels – two perfectly preserved
drinking beakers and a flask to catch the tears of the dead.
There was also a clay jug. Schofield hopes that its contents
can be analysed. She believes it would have contained food and drink for the
afterlife.
Although “Sleeping Beauty” was covered only with soil, her
grave was cut into a rock overhang, which is why the finds survived intact.
The team also found buried warriors, with each skeleton
wearing large iron bangles. They may have been killed in nearby battlefields.
Other finds include another female skeleton with a valuable
necklace of 1,065 coloured glass beads, and, elsewhere, a striking glass
perfume flask.
In 2012, the Observer reported that Schofield’s earlier
excavations in the region had discovered an ancient goldmine that may solve the
mystery of from where the Queen of Sheba of biblical legend derived her fabled
treasures.
Aksum, the capital of the Aksumite kingdom, was a major
trading power from the first to the seventh centuries, linking the Roman Empire
and India. Aksumites were a literate people. Yet little is known about this
so-called “lost”’ civilisation.
“Ethiopia is a mysterious place steeped in legend, but
nobody knows very much about it,” said Schofield. “We know from the later
Aksumite period – the fourth and fifth centuries, when they adopted
Christianity – that they were trading very intensely with Rome. But our finds
are from much earlier. So it shows that extraordinarily precious things were
travelling from the Roman Empire through this region centuries before.”
In return, the Romans sought ivory tusks, frankincense and
metals. Schofield’s excavations also found evidence of iron working.
The finds will go to a new German-funded museum, opening in
October. Schofield hopes to organise a loan to the British Museum, but first
the finds must be conserved: the mirror, for example, is corroded and slightly
buckled. Germany is sending nine conservators.
Excavations were paid for by the Sainsbury family’s Headley
Trust and the Tigray Trust, a charity that promotes sustainability in the
region; and by individual donations.
No comments:
Post a Comment