You can help us to make this site more attractive and more
interesting by posting new articles to the site. For doing
that please click
here.
Lost Eritrean Language put on record
Dahaalik is said to be similar to Afar and Arabic. Nearly a decade after accidentally discovering a previously unknown language
on an Indian Ocean archipelago off the Eritrean coast, a French linguist is fighting to save the unwritten, untaught tongue.
Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle who, with colleague Martine Vanhove, found Dahlak island fishermen conversing in the unusual vernacular
nine years ago, said: "Dahaalik is part of humanity's heritage and must be preserved." Puzzled by words and usage that did not
correspond to the two main languages of the region - Afar and Arabic - the pair at first thought it was a dialect of Tigre,
but later ascertained it was a distinct entity, she said. Although close to Arabic and Tigre, Dahaalik was determined to be a
language in itself due to its markedly different phonetics, morphology and syntax, but had languished in obscurity on the isles off
the port of Massawa.
No written tradition "Before 1996, no one had heard of Dahaalik," said Simeone-Senelle, an Afro-Asiatic language specialist at the
French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). "We have to find out how it appeared," she said. "For the moment, we don't know
when it emerged."
Spoken by only about 3000 people on the three islands, and not currently taught in schools, Dahaalik, whose origins remain a mystery,
is in danger of dying out, she said. "Before 1996, no one had heard of Dahaalik" Simeone-Senelle, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
"The understanding of this language, which has an oral but no written tradition, will ... provide us with a better knowledge
of Eritrean history and its human components," said Simeone-Senelle who recently returned from another research trip to the islands
to study the language.
In her bid to preserve Dahaalik with the help of Eritrean authorities, Simeone-Senelle has been collecting "tales, poems, riddles,
stories of traditions and vocabulary concerning daily life, animals, boats and fishing techniques".
Dahaalik dictionary
With these snippets, she has begun to compile a Dahaalik dictionary and grammar book, creating a written version of the language
in the Roman alphabet by mimicking its sounds. "It's a long job," Simeone-Senelle said. "I have already listed 1500 words,
but in all it will take several years."
The nascent dictionary is currently limited to Dahaalik into French, but she hopes the as yet unfinished lexicon will
become more multilingual, from Dahaalik into English, Arabic and Tigre. Because it was not discovered until 1996,
after Eritrea outlined its policy of linguistic pluralism, Dahaalik is not taught in Dahlak schools now,
but Eritrean officials say they intend to introduce it into the curriculum, adding it to Arabic. "The plan is that one day
Dahaalik will also be taught in schools," said Zemehret Yohannes, head of research and documentation at Eritrea's sole political party,
the People's Front for Democracy and Justice.
Summertime is prime time for beach season — when the seashore beckons much of the human race to hit the waves.
But when did humans first venture toward the oceans? New research suggests humans have been adapted to seaside living
for at least 125,000 years.
Researchers combing the Pleistocene-age Abdur Reef Limestone of Eritrea found not only edible mollusks and land mammal remains,
but also flat, teardrop-shaped hand axes alongside more technologically advanced obsidian flake and blade tools.
In the midst of a country at war with Ethiopia, the scientists found the first clear evidence of shoreline occupation.
Previous findings of seashell-littered inland rock shelters only hinted at human activity near the coast.
“We found stone tools in excellent, albeit unusual, geological context that is eminently datable,” says Robert C. Walter
of the Departmento de Geologica, Centro de Investigaciôn Cientifica de Educación Superior in Ensenada, Mexico, who led the
international team of researchers through two field seasons in 1998 and 1999.
Their discoveries suggest more than the origins of beach fever. Early coastal adaptation may add support to the “Out of Africa” theory
of early human migration.
(a) An inset map of the Red Sea basin shows red circles depicting areas of last interglacial coral terraces.
(b) A Landsat Thematic Mapper image of the study area shows the Abdur Reef Limestone and the archaeological sites near the village
of Abdur (arrow).
M. Abdelsalam, University of Texas at Dallas. Walter and colleagues reported in the May 4 Nature the latest development in a
broader investigation of East African Rift geology. “I began this project — with Dick Buffler at UT-Austin’s Institute for
Geophysics — with the notion that we wanted to do it a bit differently than had been done before in East Africa,” Walter says.
His geologic and anthropologic studies in other fossil and artifact-rich East African rift valleys convinced him that geologic
units within Eritrea would also yield an archaeological bounty.
“We were of course interested and fascinated by the human origins potential of Eritrea, but we recognized that we have an opportunity
and obligation as geologists to bring more to the story than the fossils and artifacts alone.” As a result, he and his colleagues
investigated the geological history of the Danakil Rift Valley of Eritrea, including the origin and evolution of Cenozoic rifting,
sedimentary basin formation and local rift volcanism, and the effects of climate change as recorded in the region’s sediments,
fossils and artifacts. “We are, in short, after the big picture,” Walter says. The breakthrough for the Eritrean discovery is the
relatively precise geologic context for the artifacts.
The team applied thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) to Uranium-Thorium dating, a method pioneered in part by team member
R. Lawrence Edwards of the University of Minnesota. This method for dating corals relies on the solubility of uranium-234 in sea
water, and the insolubility of thorium-230. From a set of five aragonitic coral specimens, the researchers dated the
Middle Stone Age (African Middle Palaeolithic) artifacts found on the raised fossil reef to the last interglacial: 125,000
(plus or minus 7,000) years before the present.
According to Walter and his team, shoreline occupation dating back to 125,000 years ago supports the “Out of Africa” theory of
human evolution. While scientific consensus dictates that our ancestors originated on the African continent, the timing and method
of dispersal into other continents remain controversial. The “Out of Africa” theory asserts that early humans evolved within the
continent 100-200 thousand years ago and then spread outwards, colonizing the rest of the planet and displacing other hominid species.
Walter and his team suggest that human coastal exploitation over 100,000 years ago allowed the more advanced humans to travel
along the coasts from Africa to the rest of the Old World. Later isolations may have led to the genetic variation we see today.
In contrast, the “Multiregional evolution” hypothesis asserts that our ancestors left Africa much earlier and interbred for millennia,
implying that the last major human evolutionary bottleneck occurred as much as 2 million years ago (Geotimes, March 2000).
Under this view, European, Asian and African groups resulted not from recent genetic isolation, but from a variety of environmental
factors that impacted a larger, intermingling population.
John Hawks of the University of Utah, a proponent of the multiregional evolution hypothesis, is not convinced that the Eritrea
finds strongly support the “Out of Africa” view. “While ‘Out of Africa’ requires that [coastal use] innovations occurred exclusively
in Africa, the Multiregional model makes no prediction about where new behaviors should emerge,”
Hawks says. “Africa is just as likely a place as any.”
Walter strongly disagrees. “One must conclude,” he says, “that positive evidence on one hand far outweighs a lack of evidence on
the other.” But Hawks also suggests that genetic evidence used by the “Out of Africa” theory’s proponents imply that Africa’s
population size 50,000 years ago was small. “Genetics and archaeology are not telling us one picture about what happened during
this time,” Hawks says, “and I think that’s very interesting.”
While the debate continues, the recent discoveries of Walter and co-authors prove that previously under-explored coastal sites
are now a high priority for scientific research. These sites may provide the key archaeological finds from the late Pleistocene
that eluded researchers at inland sites.
“Our discovery now opens the door for other coastal sites to be explored,” Walter says, “and for the beginning of interesting
debates on [their] significance.”
Eritrea to demand return of ancient artefacts from Ethiopia, Italy
ASMARA, Feb 10 (AFP) - Eritrea is to demand the return from Ethiopia of hundreds of archaeological artefacts
taken from ancient sites in the 1960s, an official said Thursday, threatening a new row between the feuding Horn of Africa neighbours.
In addition, Asmara will petition Italy for the return of objects it says were taken by Italian nationals before
Eritrea -- an Italian colony and then British protectorate annexed by Ethiopia in 1962 -- won independence in 1993.
"The Eritrean National Commission for UNESCO will officially ask in a few months for the return of the cultural property taken by Italy,
then Ethiopia," National Museum chief Lebsekal Yosief told AFP. Lebsekal said Eritrea, like Ethiopia, wants to preserve its cultural heritage and that items excavated from sites at the
southern town of Matara, the Red Sea port of Adulis and monastaries near Asmara, should be returned.
"Today, just as Ethiopia asks Italy to hand back the Axum stele, we ask the Ethiopians to hand back the objects found in Matara
which are currently in Addis Ababa," Lebsekal said. He referred to the ancient 160-tonne granite monument taken from the
Ethiopian town of Axum by Italian troops in 1937 that is to be returned to Ethiopia this year after a protracted dispute
that soured relations between Rome and Addis Ababa for decades.
Between 1960 and 1965, in the early years of Eritrea's struggle for independence from Ethiopia, a team headed by French archeologist
Francis Anfray conducted research in Matara, which dates from the seventh century BC. The site, located on a desert plain surrounded
by enormous rocky outcrops near the southern town of Senafe about 135 kilometers (84 miles) from Asmara, is scattered with the ruins
of ancient villas and churches. Anfray and his team unearthed hundreds of artefacts, including sarcophagi, tombs, pottery and coins,
that were taken to Ethiopia and have remained in a museum in Addis Ababa ever since, according to Lebsekal.
Beginning in the seventh century, Matara gradually disappeared as its trade declined and the Red Sea port of Adulis gained in
importance. Lebsekal said Eritrea also believed artefacts were taken from Adulis and that 12th and 13th century manuscripts
from the Debre Bizen monastary near Asmara had already appeared in exhibitions in Ethiopia. "And among the Italians, there were many
amateurs digging around who found archaeological objects," he said. Prospects for the repatriation of the artefacts are uncertain as ties between Asmara and Addis Ababa remain tense over the as-yet
unsettled final border demarcation that was the cornerstone of the accord that ended their 1998-2000 war. But Lebsekal is optimistic.
"Look at Italy," he said. "Initially, it didn't want to return the Axum stele to the Ethiopians, but in the end it is going to."
Eritrea still harbours deep resentment over what it claims was Ethiopia's intentional destruction of the Matara stele, which fell down
in 2000 while Ethiopian troops were in the region and still lies on the ground. "The Ethiopians say it was an accident,
but archaeologists showed me it had been deliberately dynamited at the base," Lebsekal said. Work is now under way on a new base
and he said the stele, which is carved with the pre-Christian symbol of a sun over a crescent moon and writing in the
ancient Semitic language of Ge'ez, should be stood back up in its original position by the end of this month.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely that of the writers; allsaho.com doesn't necessarily condone published views and cannot be held liable. allsaho.com has the right to publish or reject submitted materials without having to explain the reason. Copyright 2004 allsaho.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without written consent from the Webmaster@allsaho.com .
