Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home Africana Periodical Literature Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue
Title:A Megalithic Circle from Emba Derho: Some Significant Aspects of Culture
Authors:Rao, S. Krishna
Libsekal, YosiefISNI
Year:2004
Periodical:Aethiopica: International Journal of Ethiopian Studies
Volume:7
Pages:13-27
Language:English
Geographic term:Eritrea
Subjects:archaeology
prehistoric graves
prehistory
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Anthropology and Archaeology
External link:https://doi.org/10.15460/aethiopica.7.1.278
Abstract:The archaeological evidence of megalithic stone circles found during excavations in 2000 at Emba Derho, a village near Asmara (Eritrea), sheds some light on the development of prehistoric religion, with particular regard to death and burial. Although, chronologically, the Emba Derho megalithic burial is dated to AD 260 plus or minus 100, as evident from carbon-14 dating, the belief concepts and the mortuary practices are prehistoric. In Emba Derho two types of megalithic circles were found: single stone circles and double stone circles. These may have been arranged by two different groups. Such differences, however, could also have been the result of the influence of microenvironmental variations within the same ecological zone. With regard to the ethnicity and origins of megalithic circles, there are different versions. In this respect, the authors make a brief comparison with stone circles of the lowland Danakil Depression, also in Eritrea, and megalithic cicles in India. Bibliogr., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]
Views