The introduction by (RIP) Alfredo Castiglioni:
The fifth archeological campaign in Adulis, Eritrea, has started. The works entrusted Serena Massa are continuing.
Serena Massa: This impressive structure, to a great degree squared, which is in front of the facade of the church, we can maybe interpret it as a tower. It had to be something comparable to the column of hermit stylite, that instead of standing on a pillar, stood on the tower. And during the night, he came down to go and pray in the church. (My comment; wikipedia on what stylite is; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylite )
Alfredo Castiglioni: One of the purposes of archeology, is to bring to light imposing monuments like this. But, the purposes is not just this, but also to conserve it in time. For this reason, here in Adulis, we have two architects that have the task of maintaining the structure that archeology brings to the light.
Bartolotto; From last year, we have the restoration of the ridges and the angular parts of "Ara" (my comment; the church was previously called Altar of the sun (Ara)). This year, however, we have prepared a programmed manual for maintaining to preserve the restoration work over time. One important thing, there is a sketch, a sketch with operations of before and after the care.
Cattaneo; This year, the excavation stages are completed, the interior of the "Alter of the Sun". And so, now, it is possible for us restorers and conservators to prepare what would be the decking. After this have been repositioned to its natal pavement at this altitude, which is the original altitude of the church pavement, to allow visitors to imagine how impressive the monument and even the interior of the church was.
Tesfazghi: As you can see in the map, where the excavations for the future archeological park is, which will be an attraction for the tourists who visit Adulis, in different seasons of the year. So, I hope it will be a place for tourist attraction in the future for Eritrea.
Castiglioni: Adulis is also interesting the Eritrean TV. A famous artist that will sing a song prepared for Adulis has come from Asmara.
Nappo; Today, like they said before, the temperature has risen quite a lot. We went several meters below the ground to finally bring to light the wall.
Castiglioni; In archeology, there is alway moments of great emotions. Here, we are excavating a tomb. A tomb that we think is important. The tombs, in fact, they can contain things, hence return important archeological answers.
Massa; The tomb is a helpful (?) structure. It was covered with slates, from how we found it, it seems perfectly preserved, and so we expect to remove the earth gradually.
Lampugnani; The discovery of the tomb went pretty "lucky". I noticed in fact the edge, the profile of a stone. We have started to clean the slate and we realised that the plate, sided by other plates, that they were simply saved to the floor of the structure, but in reality it had to be the cover of the tomb.
Massa; It is the first time that one documents a burial in Adulis. In fact, except for the recent Muslim cemeteries, already noted by Paribeni and other explorers before us, there is no news on the necropolis and what funeral rituals these people followed before the advent of Christianity.
Castiglioni; Eri Tv is documenting it.
Massa; The body is in a good state of conservation, unfortunately we did not find objects in the tomb, but this is not surprising, since the diffusion of Christianity (I think she means > there is smaller chance) of finding objects in the tomb to accompany the dead to the after life.
Castiglioni; The excavation of the tomb, until you reach the remains of the dead, took place with extreme attention and competence by Eritrean friends, among others, Isais Tesfazghi, who is the vice director of the Massawa Museum.
Tesfazghi; We are excavating now a tomb. It is the first in the fifth excavations campaign in Adulis. And in Adulis, it is the the first tomb ever found.
Castiglioni; The type of the soil, only the soil of this zone, have certainly contributed to the state of the bones, they have been in the tomb for more than 1500 years.
Massa; The bones are perfectly in anatomical connection. The fact that they are so close to each other can make us imagine that perhaps the body was sometimes in a sheet before the disposition in the tomb.
Castiglino; This body that we dug with great patience will now be removed. We will classify the bones in a way that will be possible to reconstruct their anatomical position in the Museum of
Massawa."
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These two first pictures, examples of stylite, would be closer to Serena Massa´s description of the excavated church in Adulis, L´ Ara del Sole. A tower instead of a pillar.
A stylite on column
A stylite on column
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