Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Archaeological Investigations at Genta Mariam

William Marsh Rice University, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Susan McIntosh, Brian Clark will conduct dissertation research including surveys and excavations around the historically significant 13th-century church of Geneta Mariam in north-central Ethiopia. As in many present day nations, especially in the developing world, religion plays an important role related to governance and centers of power and influence may shift over time. This project is significant because it examines in detail one such system which served to preserve social stability within a traditional society for an extended period. As a pivotal part of historic imperial governance, the royal church of Geneta Mariam is a prime location to investigate the political structure and economy of the early Solomonic Dynasty as it reconstituted the empire following the decline of the former capital, Aksum. Three archaeological sites have been identified in the vicinity of the church; these include an extensive iron working area likely associated with the church's construction and the remains of a large community, possibly a royal camp, a mobile settlement type that replaced the use of fixed capitals. As a means to support the emperors' consolidation of control over the empire, Solomonic emperors patronized clerical communities, granting them rights similar to the feudal nobility. Such royal churches then became the political and economic centers of territories under their control and were essential nodes in the support network that permitted Ethiopian emperors to migrate perpetually around the empire, consolidating their hegemony. The mobile royal court traveled in large camps, which were in effect urban capitals by most definitions save their mobility. The proposed archaeological research project will investigate the political and economic conditions of the Empire as it emerged around such royally-sponsored churches in part by examining archaeological remains relevant to the organization of labor and industry at the iron working sites associated with the church. In addition, extensive surface and subsurface surveying and targeted excavations of the probable royal campsite will shed light on the structure of social organization and of mobile political capitals in Ethiopia and their direct associations with prominent royal churches. Aside from its significance as one of the few archaeological investigations of post-Aksumite archaeological sites in Ethiopia, this project will contribute to a number of major contemporary theoretical issues. The collection of economic, political and social data comparable to that from the Aksumite Period, for example, will contribute to archaeological understandings of how and why complex societies collapse and regenerate. The study of a mobile capital with an analytical emphasis on cross-cultural comparison to similar political systems will also contribute greatly to the understudied fields of mobile political capitals and mobile cities. This study will also contribute to our understanding of the variability of governance in complex societies and provide a further example of indigenous African urbanism that challenges normative notions of urbanism more generally. This project will permit the completion of Mr. Clark's PhD research and further train two Ethiopian archaeology graduate students from Addis Ababa University. The students already hold government positions in Ethiopia's heritage management infrastructure and further training and experience will ultimately benefit their country. Local residents also hope that greater scientific attention toward the church and its surroundings will emphasize its historical significance on par with better-known sites such as the neighboring UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lalibela. In turn, greater recognition is expected to have important impacts on local tourism and development.