Tutu Fela
Coordinates: 6 ° 18 ′ 2.6 ″ N , 38 ° 13 ′ 41.6 ″ E
Tutu Fela (also Tuto Fela, Tutto Fela, Tuto Fella or Tuttofella) is a field of stelae in southern Ethiopia with remarkable stone sculptures. It is a burial ground with many anthropomorphic and phallic steles.
overview
Tutu Fela is located in the Gedeo Zone in the region of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples . In this area, 7,000 out of an estimated 10,000 stone sculptures in East Africa have been found. The greatest concentration of these stones is found in the area around Dilla , where there are over 50 sites. Little is known about the origin of these steles and the societies that established them. The area is listed as "Gedeo Mixed Cultural and Natural Landscape" on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
History of exploration
The German ethnologist Leo Frobenius undertook the 12th German Inner-African Research Expedition (DIAFE) in 1934/35, which was led by Adolf Ellegard Jensen . In Ethiopia, the researchers discovered the Tutu Fela field of steles and brought 17 stone sculptures back to Frankfurt (Main) , where they are still in the Weltkulturen Museum today . The artist and painter Alf Bayrle accompanied the expedition and made drawings and photographs of the phallic steles, which were first exhibited in 2012 in Frankfurt together with the grave steles.
The French archaeologist Roger Joussaume carried out extensive excavations in Tutu Fela from 1993 to 1997. The cemetery is located at an altitude of 2000 meters on the eastern edge of the rift valley and is approx. 40 m long and 20 m wide. At the beginning of the excavation, numerous stones were buried in the vegetation, only a few columns were still upright. Some steles are up to 2.50 m high, many others are between 1.50 and 2.10 m and some are only 70 cm high. 320 steles were inventoried, in addition to the 17 in Frankfurt.
Joussaume discovered human relics in different layers, including the bones of several people. The youngest shift was on the 12th – 13th Dated to the 16th century and included household items. The oldest layer goes back to the 10th century. The phallic steles may have been reused and date from the 11th-13th centuries. Century. The steles are carved from rhyolite and columnar basalt . There is another site nearby, the Chelba Tutitti field of steles, where only phallic steles have been found.
Current situation
The Tutu Fela site was restored after the excavation work in 1996–1998.
literature
- Roger Joussaume: The Superimposed Cemeteries of Tuto Fela in Gedeo Country (Ethiopia), and Thoughts on the Site of Chelba-Tutitti . In: Fauvelle-Aymar F.-X. (Ed.): Palethnology of Africa . tape 4 , 2012, p. 87–110 (English, online [PDF]).
- Andrew Duff, Ashenafi Zena, Addisalem Melesse, John Wolff: Recent Research on Megalithic Stele sites of the Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia . Presented at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archeology. Orlando, Florida 2016, p. 348p. (English).
- Roger Joussaume: Tuto Fela et les stèles du sud de l'Ethiopie . In: Éditions Recherches sur les civilizations . Paris 2007, p. 271p . (French).
- Roger Joussaume: Tiya. L'Éthiopie des mégalithes: you biface à l'art rupestre dans la Corne de l'Afrique . In: Association des Publications chauvinoises (Mémoire 11) . Chauvigny 1995, p. 385p . (French).
- AE Jensen: In the land of Gada . Trecker and Schröder (Frobenius Institute), Stuttgart 1936, p. 608p . (French).
- F. Azaïs, R. Chambard: Cinq années de recherches archéologiques en Ethiopie . Geuthner, Paris 1931, p. 348p . (French).
Web links
- Historic site Tutu Fela on megaliths.org (accessed July 19, 2018)
- The Stelae of Tutu Fela , Photoessay, The Guardian, (accessed July 19, 2018)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Philip Briggs, Ethiopia, Bradt Travel Guides, 2015
- ↑ UNESCO, Gedeo Mixed Cultural and Natural Landscape online , accessed on July 19, 2018
- ↑ a b c Roger Joussaume, 2012.
- ↑ Weltkulturen Museum, opening of the exhibition Object Atlas - Field Research in the Museum (accessed on July 19, 2018)
- ↑ Bertrand Poissionnier, restoration of sites à stèles décorées de Tuto Fela et Tiya (Éthiopie). Annales d'Éthiopie, 2000, vol. XVI: 25-34 online, accessed July 19, 2018