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Mining a Mother Lode: Early European Travel Literature and the History of Precious Metalworking in Highland Ethiopia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Raymond Silverman  and
Neal Sobania
Raymond Silverman
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Neal Sobania
Affiliation:
Hope College
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Extract

Our primary concern in this essay is with reconstructing the history of material culture. As anyone who has ever looked into the material culture of Ethiopia quickly discovers, the travel accounts of early European visitors can be a rich and varied source for illuminating any number of such traditions, including those of metal-, leather-, basket-, and woodworking, as well as pottery, weaving, and painting. Dating from the first part of the sixteenth century, the descriptions of journeys and residences in Ethiopia became more prevalent in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when they also begin to include illustrations of more than the landscape. As sources for the reconstruction of a particular material tradition, these accounts can offer valuable insights into the nature of the objects and the people who produced and used them. Conversely, they can be frustrating to work with, since the pertinent data they contain most often come in the form of a sentence here or there. Rarely are there entire sections dedicated to descriptions of particular traditions or processes, unless one happened to be of special interest to the writer.

Among those scholars who have used travel accounts to great effect is Richard Pankhurst. For many decades, as even a cursory examination of his numerous publications illustrates, he has been mining this mother lode for the scattered sentences and tantalizing suggestions they offer. His most comprehensive writing on this subject is an often-cited 1964 article, “Old Time Handicrafts of Ethiopia.” Divided into sections, each dealing with a different tradition, Pankhurst cited various descriptive accounts that mentioned specific traditions. The basic approach taken in this and other publications that have followed is one perhaps best described, in keeping with the mining metaphor, as one of “prospecting” or in some cases mining “surface deposits.”

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 31 , 2004 , pp. 335 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2004

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References

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2 Even studies of ironworking and the role of blacksmiths in society are limited, although there are a few good sources, such as Amborn, H., Differenzierung und Integration. Vergleichende Untersuchungen zu Spezialisten und Handwerkern in südäthiopischen Agrargesellschaften (Munich, 1990)Google Scholar, and Todd, J., “Iron Production Among the Dimi of Ethiopia” in Haaland, R. and Shinnie, P.L., eds., African Iron-Working, Ancient and Traditional (Bergen, 1985) 88–101Google Scholar.

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5 Moore, , Religiöse Kunst Athiopiens, 67, 78Google Scholar. In Lalibela there is a bronze cross attributed by local tradition to the reign of Lalibela (ca. 1185-1225). Another early example is maintained in the monastery of Debre Negwagwad that is said to date from the reign of emperor Zara Ya'qob (1434-68): ibid., 67.

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83 These impressive publications can serve as models for the sort of research that is needed in Ethiopia.

84 Until roughly 10,000 years ago the two areas were connected by a land bridge crossing what is today the Straits of Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow stretch of water that separates Yemen from east Africa.

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