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Description
This piece of stone, which has been in this area for millennia, was found by some farmers near the city of Aksum. It features three different languages carved into this big piece of stone, presumably a welcome note for travellers from the near by areas. What I found astonishing is the fact that it even featured Ancient Greek, which means the Axumite Civilization must have been close friends with them and no wonder. They were a big civilization and probably had many trade partners in the Middle East and the Mediterranean sea. It's really remarkable to be able to touch something that was made so long ago and to think that humans were able to communicate with one another so well. Having three different languages on this piece of stone was a really smart move and must have made the common traveller feel very welcomed to this holy town, since Greek used to be a common language in the southern parts of Europe and beyond.

The locals thought it was best to build a small house around the object to prevent it from being damaged by rain. It had been burried underground for centuries, so it had remained protected all these years. The old man guarding the house was happy to let us in, perhaps because we were travelling with the person in charge of the excavations of old temples in Aksum. He explained what the stone said in Tigrian and I was too busy studying the stone while our guide translated it for us

The only source of light in this room was that small window, which is why taking a picture there was a bit of a challenge. There wasn't enough space to set up a tripod so I had to try to keep the camera as steady as possible. The pictures I took with a flash made the stone look completely white, so the texture and inscriptions weren't visible. A shame really, because the ancient scriptures were extremely interesting.

The kingdom of Axum had its own written language called Ge'ez, which was also featured on this stone. More info @ Wikipedia [link]

AFRICAN EXPOSURE 2006 - ETHIOPIA II | See the entire collection [link]

Ancient Scripture [link] Axumite Civilization [link] Aksum [link] Obelisk [link] Tomb Raider [link]

Description
This piece of stone, which has been in this area for millennia, was found by some farmers near the city of Aksum. It features three different languages carved into this big piece of stone, presumably a welcome note for travellers from the near by areas. What I found astonishing is the fact that it even featured Ancient Greek, which means the Axumite Civilization must have been close friends with them and no wonder. They were a big civilization and probably had many trade partners in the Middle East and the Mediterranean sea. It's really remarkable to be able to touch something that was made so long ago and to think that humans were able to communicate with one another so well. Having three different languages on this piece of stone was a really smart move and must have made the common traveller feel very welcomed to this holy town, since Greek used to be a common language in the southern parts of Europe and beyond.

The locals thought it was best to build a small house around the object to prevent it from being damaged by rain. It had been burried underground for centuries, so it had remained protected all these years. The old man guarding the house was happy to let us in, perhaps because we were travelling with the person in charge of the excavations of old temples in Aksum. He explained what the stone said in Tigrian and I was too busy studying the stone while our guide translated it for us

The only source of light in this room was that small window, which is why taking a picture there was a bit of a challenge. There wasn't enough space to set up a tripod so I had to try to keep the camera as steady as possible. The pictures I took with a flash made the stone look completely white, so the texture and inscriptions weren't visible. A shame really, because the ancient scriptures were extremely interesting.

The kingdom of Axum had its own written language called Ge'ez, which was also featured on this stone. More info @ Wikipedia [link]

AFRICAN EXPOSURE 2006 - ETHIOPIA II | See the entire collection [link]

Ancient Scripture [link] Axumite Civilization [link] Aksum [link] Obelisk [link] Tomb Raider [link]