Mapping Historical Sacred Spaces in Southern Ethiopia

Summary

In 2011, we began a collaborative project with Boreda Gamo communities of southern Ethiopia to understand the spatial and historical relationships between settlements and sacred areas. Community elders guided us along winding footpaths that ascended 9 mountain tops leading to settlements that were first occupied in the early 13th century and have now been abandoned for nearly 100 years. Surrounding these historic settlements are sacred groves with springs, caves, and boulders that give physical evidence in their Indigenous religion of the animation of the non-human world. Yet, the canopy of trees also harbored cemeteries, Orthodox Churches, and stacked stone walls, berms, and trenches that reveal a history of conflict. We use Geographic Information Systems software in conjunction with collected locational data, physiographic and land cover data, oral traditions, toponymical associations, historic maps, and other documents to build historic settlement and environmental models. Using spatial data in collaboration with community knowledge we can begin to understand the complex local histories related to the introduction of Christianity, conflict, and environmental change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21678