Matara
Key Points
- Matara (Metera) is an archaeological site in Eritrea. Situated a few kilometers south of Senafe, it was a major city in the Dʿmt and Aksumite kingdoms. Since Eritrean independence, the National Museum of Eritrea has petitioned the Ethiopian government to return artifacts removed from the site. However, the efforts have thus far been rebuffed.
- The archaeological site already has yielded evidence of several levels of habitation, including at least two different major cities, covering more than 1000 years. The topmost layers are associated with the Aksumite Empire and date from the fourth to the eighth centuries. This city was allied with or part of the powerful trading empire centered in the capital, Aksum, to the southwest. It appears that Matara was one of a string of cities along the trade route that ran from Aksum to its port city, Adulis, whose extensive ruins, surveyed but largely unexcavated, are in the vicinity of Zula, southeast of Massawa on the Red Sea coast. Keskese is located 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north of Matara.
- Hawulti, a pre-Aksumite or early Aksumite era obelisk, is situated here.
External Links
Hawulti (monument)
awulti is a pre-Aksumite or early Aksumite period obelisk located in Matara, Eritrea. The monument bears the oldest known example of the ancient Ge'ez script (also known as Old Ethiopic).
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References Wikipedia contributors. (2019, February 17). Matara, Eritrea. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:42, March 12, 2019, from Link
"Eritrea wants artefacts back". 2005-10-02. Archived from the original on 2006-06-20. Retrieved 2007-02-05. Link
Schmidt, Peter Ridgway (2006). Historical Archaeology in Africa: Representation, Social Memory, And Oral Traditions. Rowman Altamira. p. 266. ISBN 978-0-7591-0965-0. Retrieved 30 May 2012. Link