About Tiya

In April 1935, a couple of months prior to Benito Mussolini’s Italian invasion of Ethiopia, a German group of ethnologists made a sensational archeological discovery in the small town of Tiya, Gurage District, in central Ethiopia, roughly 90 km south of Addis Ababa. The discovery remained unnoticed due to the reigning pre-belic tensions of that time. Some settlers of Tiya accompanied the scientists to a cemetery outside of the village, where according to oral traditions, their ancestors had fought fierce battles. The scientists expected to find a normal cemetery, but where confronted with the existence of a numerous group of carved megaliths, most of them decorated with engravings representing swords and other enigmatic signs quite unlike those of other regions. Thus the “Stones of Tiya” were discovered, a protohistoric archeological site which five decades later was declared a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site of Humanity.

Swords and Stars

Besides the distinction of being a World Heritage Site, Tiya is one of the less known and less investigated sites in the world, which explains why information is so scarce. To begin with, “protohistoric” is only a formal designation since datings obtained from nearby burials, megaliths and monoliths, which the inhabitants of Tiya identify by the mysterious name of “Gragn Rocks”, place the construction of the site between the 12th and 15th century A.C.

The question remains, whether one and the other really belong to the same period and who was Gragn? Megaliths are a well known cultural testimony usually associated with the Neolithic period (9000 – 3000 B. C.) though it extends into the Copper Age (3500 – 2300 BC). For that reason it is highly unlikely that megaliths were erected as late as the dating of the “Gragn Rocks” suggest.

At the same time it is worth pointing out that the symbols carved in the megaliths
are unrelated to either Christianity or Islam, religions that influenced Ethiopian cultures during the first centuries of our Era, but belong to prior pagan cults, a deduction drawn from the profusion probably astronomical signs and others which specialists so far have been unable to interpret. The only exception constitutes the abundance of spades and spearheads which suggest a certain modernness. However, the possibility that the symbols were carved after the megalith were erected cannot be entirely discarded, since evidence of such procedures have been documented in European megaliths in the Mediterranean region where crosses were carved into megaliths after Christianization.

With regard to the term “Gragn”, it seems clear the inhabitants of Tiya referred to the alias of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (1506 – 15439), a known muslim warlord whose incursions into Abyssinia – the ancient name of what today is Ethiopia – forced the people to protect and fortify their principal cities. Nevertheless, once again it has to be pointed out that Ahmad Gragn (Ahmad the Left-handed) was born and died well after the megaliths of Tiya were officially erected which adds to the mystery of the origin and identity of the people who were buried close to the site. Judging from the scars and wounds the corpses presented it was deduced might have been warriors.

The enigma that surrounds this fascinating enclave of Ethiopia only adds to the all over magic of the country. The only thing clear is that the true history of the silent witnesses of Tiya, the 46 engraved stela, still has to be written.