Organizing field work in a conflict area

30 November 2023

The core of the project Beta maṣāḥǝft: Manuscripts of Ethiopia and Eritrea (Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung) is a systematic overview of the rich manuscript heritage. The team encodes both the descriptions of known manuscripts from published catalogues and produces new descriptions for previously unknown and/or uncatalogued manuscripts. For this latter task, reliable cooperation with local institutions in Ethiopia and Eritrea and regular field and digitization missions to the research area are of primary importance. Among the areas of primary importance is the historical core of the Ethiopian-Eritrean civilization, now divided between the northern Ethiopia (the province of Tigray, where the ancient capital of Aksum is located) and southern Eritrea. 

The outbreak of an armed conflict between the Federal Government of Ethiopia and the regional Government of Tigray in November 2020 collapsed many hopes of research projects and cooperation between western and local educational institutions. Not discouraged by the appalling situation, the project found ways to achieve its goals by reorganizing its field missions and delegating tasks to local partners. Among other measures, the cooperation with the staff of Adigrat University has been promoted; a recent report has been published at https://www.betamasaheft.uni-hamburg.de/about/situation/fieldwork.html.