The Archaeology of the Jesuit Missions in Ethiopia (1557–1632), by Andreu Martínez d’Alòs-Moner

Abstract

What is conventionally known as historical archaeology (15th century to the present), has had scarce fortune in northeast Africa, where the study of human evolution and the brilliant civilizations of Antiquity and the Middle Ages have captured all attention. The present book is a signifijicant step in redressing this situation. The Archaeology of the Jesuit Missions in Ethiopia studies a unique phenomenon: a missionary project gone wrong in an African country which had been Christian (but not Catholic) for over a millennium already. It was a short-lived experience but had a deep influence in the material representation of power in the country and the collective memory of its inhabitants. The archaeological record is no less intriguing: a plethora of forgotten ruins that this book examines in detail.