Ethiopian artifact awaits a home

AKSUM, Ethiopia -- Ato Gebrmedihin, who estimates his age at about 90, remembers when Italy's invading army looted this ancient city's 1,700-year-old, intricately carved obelisk on the orders of Benito Mussolini, who wanted to mark his occupation of Ethiopia.

''Their van kept breaking down as they tried to rush to the airport with our heavy monument," Gebrmedihin said of that moment in 1937. ''But they eventually fixed the truck. Then they took our stele away."

Earlier this year, the 180-ton, 80-foot granite obelisk, which is a tombstone and a monument to ancient rulers, was returned from a square in central Rome and was flown in three parts to this northern Ethiopian town. A national holiday was proclaimed.

''We danced in the streets and threw coins," Gebrmedihin said.

It was a triumphant moment, a boost to pride on a continent where antiquities were often plundered by colonial powers.

But today, the dismembered obelisk still waits in two metal shacks, covered with blankets and a tarp. Meanwhile, residents debate how much of the present they are willing to disturb to recover Ethiopia's distant past.

While investigating a proposed site to erect the obelisk, archeologists using high-technology imaging equipment found a major network of underground royal tombs.

The discovery of more ancient artifacts has launched renewed interest in Aksum, a powerful kingdom that ruled the Horn of Africa from the 1st to the 6th century and that was one of the four great civilizations of the period, alongside Rome, China, and Persia.

But the finds have led to a confrontation with modern community concerns. In recent weeks, community meetings have been held in which residents were asked whether they would agree to vacate their property so that historians could dig under their huts and through their farms.

Ethiopia, one of the world's poorest nations, is thought to contain some of civilization's oldest archeological troves. Some specialists estimate that less than 7 percent of these artifacts have been found, meaning that Ethiopians could be approaching major archeological discoveries such as those that began in the late 19th century in Greece or in Egypt in the 1920s.

''Aksum is one of the least-known civilizations in the world," said Fasil Giorghis, a leader of a team of archeologists and historians working in Aksum. ''There are layers and layers of buildings and history here. There is major work to be done here. It's an exciting thing for our country."

In 1980, Aksum was proclaimed a World Heritage site by UNESCO, which called it ''one of the last great civilizations of antiquity to be revealed to modern knowledge."

Aksum's wealth and its architectural achievements were recorded in Greek and Arab literature of the era. Aksum is also widely thought to have been one of the first places in the world to adopt Christianity, Giorghis said.

But poor farmers here have been more likely than archeologists to find ancient artifacts.

When day laborers in 1971 began building a road, they hit what seemed like a giant slab of granite. When they tried to move it, they discovered a 4th- or 5th-century tomb, now called the Tomb of the False Door. A decade later, according to local officials, farmers happened upon a large stone tablet, engraved in 330 A.D. in the ancient languages of Sabean and Ge'ez, as well as Greek.