Ewa Balicka-Witakowska [Dept. of linguistics and philology, Uppsala university]

Orientalisches Institut (OI) und Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Regionalstudien (ZIRS) der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Gefördert durch die Johann-Wilhelm-Fück-Stiftung am OI und das ZIRS
Audimax
Universitätsplatz 1
06108 Halle

In the fourth century, Ethiopia embraced Christianity and became a part of the Christian World. The new religion, its beliefs, values, rituals and societal traditions have had a great impact on development of Ethiopia’s history and life of its inhabitants. In this process, contact played an important role with Christian countries such as Coptic Egypt, Nubia, Syria and Byzantium in the East and Italy and Portugal in the West. The influences from all these directions were added to indigenous traditions and created a multifaceted and highly original culture. Its originality and richness can be seen and studied in the domain of art, including church architecture, murals, devotional paintings, decorated manuscripts, textiles, liturgical paraphernalia, and not least in the elaborated and ubiquitous crosses. Several of these artefacts were designed by monks, for monks, and bear witness to the artistic creativity and skills that flourished in Ethiopian monastic communities.