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Il Sahara centro-orientale: dalla preistoria ai tempi dei nomadi Tubu-The Central-Oriental Sahara: from prehistory to the times of the nomadic Tubus

addresses the fact that the churches themselves at Lalibela lack a wider archaeological context. However, I am not sure if the so-called ‘Thrones of Imraha’ at Gonja (p. 177) are significant, as they appeared on a recent visit to be impressive but nevertheless natural fracture features were consistent with volcanic geology. Finally, in chapter seven, the whole analysis is brought together, and the author presents a set of chronologies for the churches of the different areas, emphasising again the continuum rather than the rupture from the Aksumite heritage, with the churches of Tigray effectively providing an unbroken chain of development from c. AD 500 to 1400, with the Amhara structures being later developments. This is a sequence that for the north amplifies and extends avery basic and poorly explained framework proposed by Claude Lepage and Jacques Mercier (2005). This book builds upon the pioneering work of Ruth Plant and David Buxton (the former presented in her book a great deal of useful primary material, but it was bedevilled by poor reproduction of graphics) and presents a more scholarly and rigorous analysis than other recent books on the market on Ethiopian ecclesiastical architecture. For this the author is to be congratulated. Overall, production and editing is of good quality (misspelling of my own name on p. 202 notwithstanding!), and this excellent book ought to act as a springboard to a more focused buildings’ archaeology approach to these diverse and distinctive structures; the most important aspect of which is perhaps understanding their context within the landscape and their associations with secular settlements. Finally, it is a fitting and generous gesture by the author that the book is dedicated to the memory of David Buxton, who more than anyone set the foundations for the study of a fascinating and overlooked part of Africa’s archaeological heritage.