Louise Schofield has been working in Ethiopia since 2006, directing archaeological, conservation and development projects in that extraordinary country. The search for the Queen of Sheba brought her to her current site in Tigray, northeastern Ethiopia. Here her excavations have discovered a temple (probably dedicated to a moon god), an ancient battlefield, two cemeteries (including the burial of a 2,000 year-old Ethiopian ‘Sleeping Beauty’) and – most recently – a large palace. The earliest areas of the site date back to a time when it was part of the land of Sheba (9th–4th centuries BC) whilst other parts constitute a hitherto lost kingdom of the Axumite Empire (2nd–4th centuries AD).
In this talk Louise will take you with her to the atmospheric Gheralta Plateau, on her journey of discovery, against a backdrop of biblical landscapes and vast African skies.
