 case you haven't heard, since the last tour, I modified the note card that this initial incense burner provides. It now gives a complete self-tour, complete with landmarks in the note card. So somebody can arrive here, take that note card, and conduct their own tour of the place, just exactly the one that I'm giving today. And I will be making other enhancements. I already have a few ideas. Plus, as I told Chantal earlier yesterday, I did a zoom tour with one of the members of the German archaeological team that were working in Yeha for the past several years, until the arrival of COVID and later the war in Tigray. And I gave him pretty much the same tour that I gave all of you, although a little bit more in detail, since he knows the place and has, you know, archaeological experience there. He was very, very excited about the project. I've been showing him pictures in Facebook over the months while I was building it. But still, when he saw it in person, he was amazed at what it really looks like. The pictures don't do it justice. And so, now he wants to do another tour with other members of the archaeological team, especially the one that did the draftsman, the architect who did the drawings of the plans of the temple and the palace that I used in my reconstruction. He wants to bring him in here because his trained eye will be able to give me pointers about things that I may have missed. So, this is a clear step forward. This project may be recognized by the archaeological team as a visit, a site for visiting. And certainly, when the video is available, they will want to be able to link to that. Yes, it is recognition. And it's something I'm very proud of. I mean, this has been a labor of love for a long time, two different times, actually. And especially now with Tigray being torn apart by war, I think of it not only as a museum but as a memorial. My German friend, Volbert, told me yesterday about some of the people that I had worked with 50 years ago who recently died in Jaha. I don't know whether it was from COVID or from the fighting or just from age. He didn't specify. But it's sad to know that people that I knew when I was working there who still remembered me are now passing. So again, I think of this as a memorial to their memory and the memory of all the people of Tigray who have been swept up in his conflict and famine. Welcome back, Stephen. Yes, I saw an indication that he was coming. Okay, Chantel, you give me the word when to start. I'll leave that decision up to you since you have an idea who's coming. Okay, let's give Stephen a moment to res. Right now I just see boots and pant legs. Funny how everybody sees a different version. Okay, well, resing is a normal part of Second Life or Open Sims. So I guess we might as well start and let Stephen res. He should be able to see everything. Anyway, right, Stephen? Good. Okay, Augustine Rolla. Welcome, everyone. Let me first point out that I'm tired today as a cahan or high priest of Alma God, the lunar God who was the chief deity of the region from the time represented here roughly 3000 years ago until the conversion of the region to Christianity around 350 CE when the old gods were supplanted. So far I've been unable to transfer or recreate all of the elements of this costume. So over here, a picture of front and back of the costume along with the statue that I based the costume on a statue which is similar to ones found both in Abyssinia and in South Arabia. I'll try but I'll be covering a lot of information hoping to do it within an hour. So best to hold questions until the end so I can cover everything when there will be an opera opportunity for questions at the end. I will try answering all of the questions then preferably answered in asking open chat rather than I am so everyone can see them. And if I haven't answered you after a reasonable length of time, feel free to ask again. This is an extensive tour. I've set it up with the most important parts covered first for those who can remain throughout be prepared to receive a lot of information. What do you know about ancient Abyssinia? On this tour, I'll help you find out about it. Abyssinia is the name of the land that now comprises Tigray, northern Ethiopia and central Eritrea. The name Abyssinia is a European corruption of Habashah, the name of one of the two traditional tribes that occupied the land since ancient times. The name of the other tribe, the Aghazi, appears to be the source of the word good is, which is the name of the ancient language of the region still used as the liturgical language in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox to Ahado churches. We're standing in the Adaga, a word which means marketplace or city square in the center of Yehah, the capital of the ancient kingdom known as Da'amat, a name spelled with four characters in the inscriptions of the period that can be transliterated as D apostrophe mt. These inscriptions are written in an alphabet related to those used in most other Semitic languages. Such alphabets contain only consonants, so the vocalization and the proposed pronunciation of the word is an educated approximation based on comparison with other words. The primary language spoken in the region today is Tigrinya, a Semitic language descended from Giz, which is also called Ethiopic, and the historic language of the region. Tigrinya is related to ancient South Arabian languages such as Saba'ian, and more distantly to Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician, and other ancient and modern Semitic languages, including Amharic, which is the primary official language of Ethiopia today. Yehah existed as the capital of Da'amat, beginning in around 1000 BCE and lasting for roughly 300 or 400 years. It sits in a wide basin surrounded by tall dragon's tooth mountains, including one prominent mount that seems to be topped by the head of a lion. See the photo of the temple standing beneath the lion's head mountain and beneath it one of the range of mountains stretching into the distance next to the Idaga sign where you first arrived. The space between these mountains where Yehah stands, of course, is much larger in reality than it is here due to space limitations. But these mountains were created to appear approximately the same in proportion as the actual ones do on the ground. Yehah was later replaced by another capital of a site now known as Haldimalatso, near what later became the city of Aksum, which was a capital of the well-known kingdom of the same name that became a major regional power and lasted from around 100 BCE until 800 CE. The most important instructions seen on this site were built around 800 to 700 BCE. They consist of the great temple, which you can see standing on a hill above us, and the administrative palace, which is on an artificial hill across the square from the temple. I've also included a number of houses of various types resembling some that stood in Yehah when I was there in the early 1970s and are probably very much like those that were built and used at the time of Yehah's ascendancy. Standing near us is the meeting tree. It's a sycamore fig, kind of tree known in Tigrinya as Darul. It stands in the city just outside the Idaga and is a place where meetings are held. Such trees which can reach a vast size and great age are traditional meeting places, probably due to the shade that they provide. Note, there's a carved stone sensor or incense burner standing near the tree. Looking this or the other similar sensors located at various points of interest around the site will deliver note cards with further information about the location. It has green cover text over it identifying its purpose. The large wooden pavilion covered with palm leaves that stands nearby is called a des in Tigrinya. It's a setting of a royal feast known as a guber during which the king would invite the whole populace to come to a feast. There's an array of maps and signs near the des that stretch from below the temple toward the palace. They include site maps from the German archaeological team and maps that I prepared for the novel I'm writing that is set in Yaha 3000 years ago. Those maps are over here. Let's begin with the temple. You should see a sign near you with a golden bull's head and the virtual Abyssinia logo next to the sign that says Yahaidaga. Below the logo are a number of small signs with teleport locations listed. They're useful shortcuts to major sites. But for now let's walk to the base of the grand stairway that leads up the side of the hill to the great temple and climb to the plaza above. Working at Yaha for years. He told me that such a plaza likely would have existed and it would have been composed of rough stonework not refined masonry like the temple itself. The same can be seen true of the low walls with seats on one side of the plaza and other walls which I used to display small votive statues on the other side of the plaza. They were included because of evidence suggesting that such structures probably did exist. I was also told that according to folk memory there were walls lining the stairway up the hill. None of which exist today. Although there are indications of underground structures that could be the remains of such walls. They're conjectural. I added them as they likely may have looked based on the existing examples at the administrative palace which can be seen at the far end of the Yahaidaga which we will visit shortly. We're now standing before the temple to the lunar god Al-Maqa who was worshipped both in Deh-Mat and in Saba and other South Arabian kingdoms. Saba of course is the kingdom that the Bible called Shiba. By the way these two censors in the plaza are actually burning incense, frankincense and are not intended to deliver no note cards unlike all of the others found throughout the site. So don't bother clicking Let's go inside the temple. In the center of the main room stands a libation altar. The design of this altar is conjectural although it is known that one did stand here. Pieces of a similar altar have been found here at Yaha including several blocks with parts of an inscription just like the one that you see running around the top of this altar. However this altar is a duplicate of one that was found in another temple also dedicated to Al-Maqa that was discovered some distance away in eastern Tigray. It appears to be of the same design however as the one that once stood in this temple. The altar apparently was used for liquid offerings. Four socket holes in the top of it suggests that a superstructure was mounted above the indented area on the top of the altar onto which the libations would have been poured. It's been suggested that this superstructure might have supported a cauldron that would hold the libations before they were poured onto the altar. They would then have drained down into the center of the altar through a bullheaded spout out a similar bullheaded spout on the side of the altar and then along the narrow channel that leads outside. There's no obvious explanation for this complex altar design. While the main walls of the temple are of fine ashlar masonry inside and out, the wall of the back of this chamber is constructed of half timber and half plastered stone. A technique well known throughout the history of architecture in the region. The central chamber behind this wall holds a statue presumed to be of Al-Maqa. No such statue has been found in this region but several including this one are known from Sabian sites in present day Yemen. So I included this one as an example. There's a stairway in the space to the right of the chamber that holds the statue leading up to the second floor. And if you look up you can see that the second floor is open in the center as is the roof giving an open air sparingness to the building. The chamber to the left of the statue may have been used for storage of ritual materials. Now follow me outside. Here you can see two photos that I took of the temple interior and exterior as it appeared in 1970. As you can see the walls of superb ashlar masonry are still largely intact. Note that this temple is a couple of hundred years older than the Parthenon in Athens. I also included a couple of plans of the temple to the right that were prepared by the German archaeological team. When I was there the colonnaded portico on the temple was unknown. It had been discovered in more recent excavations that continued until COVID shut them down. Since Yaha is integrated which now is being devastated by war there's no telling when they may be able to return or what they'll find when they do get there. Although I got recent information that the site is safe at the present time. Nominally the site was under the protection of the Tigray government which of course is being treated as hostile by the central government that has been largely dismantled. The priests and monks from the church in the city have been protecting it from what we have heard currently successfully so far. If you look behind the temple you'll see some small stone workshops. The discovery of remnants of walls and bits of gold work suggested that there may have been workshops there dedicated to making precious items for the temple. On the way from the temple let's take a brief look at this halty stella or monument that has a small stone basin at its base. It's not known when this halty was placed here. There used to be a pair of them but they most likely date from far later than the temple. Let me now take you to the palace. You see the sign next to me that says Yaha Gratbaugibri. That's a teleport that will take you to the bottom of the stairway leading up to the palace. Let's take that now. The land where the palace ruin stands is known as Gratbaugibri which means the field of the home of the tax collector, tax gatherer. In other words up until the present day there remains a memory of an administrative palace that stood here, the king's home. I've built this recreation according to the plans that the German archaeologists published augmented by my own memory of the two seasons of excavation in 1971 and 72 in which I participated. The foundation of the building is 42 meters on a side. The foundation walls are between two and three meters thick. The building stands above the foundation, standing above the foundation, except for this portico that you see at the top of steps was of half timber construction like the interior walls of the temple. The German team has calculated that it must have stood five or more stories tall. It was a maze of rooms, corridors, and halls judging by the foundation and surviving remnants of the half timber walls. Apparently the basements were utilized as well as this whole the building above to climb the steps to the portico. Where we're now standing the eastern side of the portico is the area where I was in charge as field director during the first season of excavation. We found remnants of ashler stone and decorative false windows as well as the shattered stump of one of the columns during the excavation of the section. The building evidently was destroyed violently by fire. There was a lot of evidence of burning including the fact that these heavy stone pillars were shattered. The pair of stone door frames that lead from the portico into the building also were broken by the heat of the fire. Apparently the building was cleared of most valuable items before its destruction as few artifacts have been found during its excavation. It's possible therefore that it may have been intentionally destroyed. Let's step into the first hallway to get a glimpse of what the building looks like inside. The half timber construction method seen here was in use both in Abyssinia and in South Arabia for centuries. This technique allows the construction of relatively thin but sturdy walls of significant height without requiring them to be heavy stone structures. The layers of wood each of which is like a horizontal ladder laid between stone layers significantly strengthen the wall. The same style was used throughout the Aximite period and up until modern times. The floors were made of flag stones laid over heavy wood beams. We found burned beams in the excavation. We could wander through the building now. Every floor is fully developed including the basement but this area gives you a good idea of what it's like and you can explore it later on your own. Let's go outside and turn to the right so I can show you photos and plans of the building and note as we pass it the stepped artificial mountain that surrounds and elevates the building. The first set of plans to the left comes from the 1906 German visit published in the monumental four-volume 1913 Deutsche Achseum Expedition. You can see the remnants of columns column bases and the door frames behind standing on the hillside. My photo next to it was taken near the end of the first season of excavation in 1971. Aside from the trench that was cut obliquely into the mound the site still appears much like it did in 1906. There's also a photo showing one of the broken stumps of a column and a socketed column base next to it where another column formerly stood which was being used by village women as a place to spread herbs to dry in the sun. Following that further to the right is a sketch plan that I made showing everything that was uncovered during three seasons of excavation. Next to it is the official plan that was published by the French team that I worked with. Beyond that further to the right is a plan of the complete foundation prepared by the German team including both what has been excavated and what is conjectural. To its right are two elevations prepared by the architect of in the team which I used as a guide in my construction. Now follow me back into the Edaga. This area called Guadalaga daughter market represents an actual marketplace. It's in roughly the location where the weekly market takes place in modern-day Yeha. However it's believed that in the ancient times markets probably will help were held in outlying villages rather than in the city itself. But it's now go up the path toward the house above. There's an ancient version of the house of the Yeha headman who hosted our archaeological team. This is an ancient version of the house of the Yeha headsman who hosted our archaeological team. We set up our tents in his compound and ate our meals in his house. I've laid it out like a typical house of a well-to-do resident of Yeha. The animals are kept in the courtyard and in one of the ground floor rooms. The other ground floor room which is to the left contains grain storage. The storage bins are made of mud and clay and dung which you can see here. By the way the animals only stay indoors or in the compound like this at night. They would be out in the fields during the day with children tending them. Let's go upstairs. This sitting room has whitewashed earthen benches around the walls covered with hides to sit or sleep on. There are also traditional beds made of a goat skin lattice over a wood fray. The next room is reached by crossing on a bridge between the two structures. In the modern head headman's house that's where we took our rooms. He was a well-to-do man and had traditional furniture both stools and chairs and had carpets hung on the walls as well as on the floor. Let's go across for a minute. You can sit on the chair. It's an exact copy of a real one that I have in my apartment that was made by the father of an Eritrean friend of mine. The stools which are similar in construction also can be set on and I've seen stools like that in Yeha today. Note the clay jar standing near the door. There would be a boy tending it during meals. It contains sua, the traditional beer. He would hold it at an angle always ready to pour to fill our cups. It sits on a woven donut-shaped support used when the boy had to set it down. The floors are made of packed earth. These traditional houses also have a wood ceiling covered with a turf roof. Now let's go back outside and cross the stream to visit what I call the sacred spring. This spring and the pond that it fills is a place that I found to be almost mystical. It had a powerful place in the traditions of Yeha also. One day during an excavation we were told that a boy had drowned in the pond. But they stated the firm belief that there was a monster that lived in the pond who had pulled him down and drowned him. I went to the spot and was so moved by it that I didn't take any pictures. So this is a restoration from memory of the gushing spring pouring from a cleft in the rocks into a deep pond. Now let's go to the pavilion. Click one of the small signs that say Yehi Adaga to get there. There's one on top of each of the signs standing here. These photos show a dust or pavilion that was built for an Eritrean village wedding that I attended. I patterned this large one after it. Inside the dust you can see jars of sewer, tables where the raw beef is ready to be cut into chunks and eaten dipped in mustard sauce and woven basketry tables laden with food. Let's go inside. Have any of you ever eaten Ethiopian food? If so, you may have seen these basketry tables called misub on which food is served and eaten at feast. The king and his court sat on a raised platform at the far end of the desk. The king was hidden from common view by a cotton cloth which either was hung from the upper beams or held in place by servants. The king's throne was actually a bed like those you saw earlier, only taller and more ornate. The other beds and stools are for princes, ministers, and other members of the king's court. They were ranked according to hierarchy with the more important persons closer to the king on beds while the lower rank were at the ends of the platform on stools. Follow me out to where the food is prepared. You can see a cooking fire where the food is the stews are prepared and the mogogo play griddle where the flat sourdough bread called injera is being made. The injeras are stacked on platters then brought to the tables where stew or chunks of meat are put on them. Pieces of injera are torn off and used to pick up and eat the food. Now let's go to the base of the the hill where the temple is located. Oral traditions told that there had been a second temple below the first one but there was no visible trace of it. Recently an excavation has discovered it right where it was said to have been. This is another example of a 3,000 year old traditional memory. So far I only have one photo of the excavation but I hope to get more. Now let's walk to the first house on this side of the temple. This house is a replica of one at the monastery of Deberodamo in Tigray. Its unique decorative stonework intrigued me enough to make this replica. Sadly Deberodamo was bombed during the recent war so this house may well be destroyed along with so much history that was preserved by that monastery. So this is my homage to its memory. Let's go this way. This is a demonstration of how haystacks are sometimes put on the roof of a house to protect them from the goats and beyond our war elephants. It's known that Damod raised and sold war elements, war elephants to kingdoms in the Mediterranean and the Middle East so I included a couple of them over here. This caravan is slightly anachronistic. They didn't have camels yet on this side of the Red Sea although they were in common use in South Arabia but for visual effect I added a couple while explaining that donkeys would have been used instead. Now let's quickly go back toward the palace to take a look at the distinctive house, some distinctive house styles. This house is called a Hidmo. Like most of the houses in the region it's rectangular made of stone walls with a turf roof over a wooden ceiling. The photos show a wide variety of styles of Hidmo found in Tigray and Eritrea. In Eritrea many of them have single or single story houses with a rounded rooftop and an extended porch roof. While many in Tigray have two stories and all have flat roofs and many of them have stone compound walls and closing much of the yard or sometimes surrounding the entire house. This one has another feature frequently seen in houses around Yaha as well as in other places where ancient ruins are found. Decorative stonework from the ancient buildings has been reutilized as decoration in the house incorporated into the walls. Often other relics are kept in the houses and brought out to be shown to visitors often in exchange for payment. Let's go over here. Unlike the rectangular houses common in Eritrea and Tigray houses in many parts of the region and many other parts of Africa have round walls and a conical fatched roof. In most places such houses are constructed of wattle and dob that is sticks and mud. In Tigrinya such houses are called Aguda but there are also round houses built of stone with a fatched roof called Sakhala some of which are single story homes while others have two stories. In Tigray round hedmos are sometimes found as well with a flat roof of turf like the rectangular variety. This circular compound contains examples of all of these except of the Aguda which is not found in this region. Beyond our two other houses hedmos along with some plowed farmland the best farmland is in the lowlands near the city but the mountains are terraced and used for farmland also. This completes the tour of Yehah. We can now jump to a couple of other spots including a small representation of Punt, the legendary land famed as a source of trade by the ancient Egyptians. We can go to Punt with a TP among those that we saw earlier at the Adaga. Let's return there now using the small teleport sign that says Yehah Adaga on top of the sign with photos and then click the sign that says Punt. It has been pretty well determined that Punt was located in Eritrea and Tigray. Badu intents are likely to have been used in the region but the traditional houses as portrayed on the walls of Hatshepsut's temple in Egypt were beehive shaped and stood on stilts. See the two sections of relief carving from Hatshepsut's temple one of which shows one of the beehive houses and the other portraying the very distinctive king and queen of Punt. Behind me and at the other end of the area as well is a reconstruction of a beehive house made of wood and straw and note next to us the sign showing the hieroglyphs for Punt and the assumed pronunciation of its name in the ancient Egyptian language. Punt is a Greek corruption of the Egyptian name. Now for one last jump click the TP for Daero marketplace a meeting place. I made this huge tree from the photo that you can see here of an immense Daero that I found integral. It was located at a crossroads and clearly was an important meeting place largely because of the wide shade it provided. In the photo of the Daero you can see my friend's land rover as well as him and his wife standing next to it giving you a good indication of the size of the tree. Hand back to get an idea of the size and shape of this tree then take a look at the stools that I put underneath it. The three small stools were purchased and are not traditional to this region but I made the one in the center. It's a copy of a traditional type of stool found in parts of southern Ethiopia. In English it's often called a Jimma stool from the name of the province where they were commonly found. It's carved from a single piece of wood much like stools that are found in many other parts of Africa. You have now seen just about everything currently ready for view. I next plan to restore at least one of the Aksumite palaces located at Metara in Eritrea. I also will create some of the characteristic structures at Aksum the Red Sea port of Adulis and perhaps the Deberodamo monastery. Now if there are questions is a good time and feel free to wander and explore now or at any time and contact me with further questions. I have a couple questions. Go ahead. Are there any government sponsored you know excavation, historical keeping that are or that are pan-Africa that are helping support this work? By this work do you mean my project? Well no I mean like the ability of people to go in and photograph or any other restoration in the area. Oh well the there was a local museum which was built jointly by the German Archaeological Team and the government of the city of Yeha which used to be open to any visitors who came from there and Yeha was a major stop on any tour of Ethiopia because it houses one of the oldest buildings in all of Africa outside of Egypt. But of course now since the war is embroiling the area it's completely out of reach and it may be another year or so before it's available again. Is the museum weathering the war okay? They haven't been directly damaged I gave a video tour yesterday to the German a member of the German team who I've been consulting with for months instantly he was very excited about what this project has turned into but he told me that Eritrean troops camped right in front of throughout Balgibre the palace and we're getting ready to start destroying but a group of monks from the church came out and stood in their way and forced them to stop. All right thanks. I have to honor those monks that they were proud and strong men and I remember that kind when I was there. Other questions? Thank you. I enjoyed taking you around I enjoyed building it and I enjoyed being able to continue with it. It's a labor of love and a memorial to a land which is suffering greatly so am I and believe me I hope to be able to give another tour showing the new areas. I guess that concludes the tour. Thank you all for coming. Some kinds of work are simply fun and this has been fun. Bye Stephen. Thanks for coming. Okay I'm closing my microphone.