Ecclesiastic Landscape of North Ethiopia: History, Change and Cultural Heritage

International Workshop. Hamburg, 15-16 July 2011

Summary

The historical highlands of Northern Ethiopia (Tigray), an ancient Christian region, have experienced complex developments in the past millennia. Within the local ecclesiastic context, different religious groups and movements were born at different points in time, each time modifying and enriching the cultural landscape of the area. Having appeared, churches and monastic communities used to define, retain or change their affiliation. The emerging networks influenced the religious, cultural and social life in North Ethiopia. Studying ecclesiastic sites, one can try to reconstruct and trace back historical identities, creating a coherent historical narrative for the region.

The first workshop convened by the team of the Ethio-SPARE project and bringing together specialists in different interrelated fields focused on religious currents in Tigray and their reflection in the region’s ecclesiastic landscape. New results were presented both from Ethio-SPARE and other ongoing research projects. The comparative perspective offered by the workshop framework allowed new methodological insights into the matter.

Programme can be dowloaded here

Workshop report can be downloaded here

S. also brief report in the COMSt Newsletter 2, 2011 (PDF)

The workshop proceedings have now been published, visit http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_2006.ahtml