Compiled by LEULSEGED WORKU
Ethiopia is everyone’s homeland
Going to Ethiopia is kind of going home, as archaeological digs increasingly trace and link this area with the birth of humans, where the world’s oldest Homo sapiens fossils were discovered.
Previously, one of the most famous is the 3.2-million-year-old “Lucy,” an ape-like Australopithecus afarensis, which is believed to be an ancient forerunner to Homo sapiens.
Named for the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” she stood just over 3ft (36 in) tall. You can see her at Addis Ababa’s National Museum of Ethiopia, along the somehow less-heralded “Ardi,” a forerunner of Lucy’s who’s actually a million years older.
And Ethiopia’s role in our ever-changing history continues to become clearer. In 2015, a 2.8-million-year-old jaw was found in northeast Ethiopia, believed to mark an important gap as hominids like Lucy transitioned to blokes like us.
Raiders of the Lost Ark should have been filmed here
If you’re Harrison Ford, consider wearing a disguise here. Not many Ethiopians — nearly half of whom are Orthodox Christians — are fans of The Raiders of the Lost Ark. One Axum local explained it is about the keepsake of the Ten Commandments: “The movie says that the Ark is in Egypt. It’s not. Everyone knows it is here, in Ethiopia.”
Axum is a historic town that is heyday from 400 BC to 400 AD still weighs heavily on the modern Ethiopian conscience. It is popular destination for its ancient stelae and tombs that can be visited in a rewarding day or two.
The main site is across from the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion that dates only to the 1950s. You cannot go in. Only one person, who lives permanently in the church as caretaker, can go to its deepest chambers where — it is said with certainty here — the Ark resides.
If it is there — and skeptics note the earliest known record that it came here is the local 14th century text, Kebra Nagast — the Ark was definitely victim of a raider or two.
According to the text, the supposed son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Menelek I) seized it in Jerusalem in the 1st millennium BC and brought it to Ethiopia, where it has been held in various locations.
You can only photograph the church from the outside, but just about every Ethiopian church has a copy of the Ark, covered in blankets.
It is home to “King Solomon’s mines,” too
Speaking of stories, the legend of King Solomon’s vast stashes of gold has prompted a fair share of bad films and foolhardy explorers. Most target Ethiopia in their futile chase.
One recent example is Tahir Shah, who recently based a book’s worth of lighthearted adventure on an offhand purchase of an old map at a Jerusalem souvenir shop.
He writes in his book, ‘In Search of King Solomon’s Mines’ of happening upon a salt caravan from whom he learns how gold used to be cut from the ground in slabs.
He did not notice how suspiciously similar that is to how the caravan’s rock salt bars (called amolés) have been cut since the Old Testament days. These slabs were long used as money.
(Source: https://www.gadventures.com)
The Ethiopian Herald March 13/2021
