FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 27, 2023
Media Contact
Elizabeth Panox-Leach
Communications Manager
Email: press@doaks.org
Tel: (202) 339-6400 x8978
WASHINGTON, DC – Dumbarton Oaks is proud to announce the publication of Bastions of the Cross: Medieval Rock-Cut Cruciform Churches of Tigray, Ethiopia by Mikael Muehlbauer. This landmark publication in the Dumbarton Oaks Studies series is the first monograph dedicated to the great cruciform churches of late-eleventh-century Tigray, Ethiopia: Abreha wa-Atsbeha, Wuqro Cherqos, and Mika’el Amba. In addition to the author’s acute architectural and historical analysis, the volume is richly illustrated with new photography of these isolated monuments, making it an invaluable resource for generations to come.
These churches, hewn directly into sandstone, are often passed over in modern scholarship on the architecture of the medieval period. Within Ethiopia, they were unparalleled in scale and in many respects anticipated the more famous thirteenth-century churches at Lalibela. But rather than treating these monuments in isolation, Bastions of the Cross situates them within the broader architectural transformations occurring at the time in Byzantium, the Islamicate, and South Asia. The result is a volume that truly contributes to a global history of the Middle Ages.
Crossing traditional disciplinary and geographical boundaries with ease, Bastions of the Cross will be of interest to scholars interested in any facet of medieval art, architecture, and history. The volume can be ordered worldwide now through Dumbarton Oaks’ distributor, Harvard University Press.
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About Dumbarton Oaks:
Dumbarton Oaks is a Harvard-affiliated research institute, library, museum, and historic garden in Washington, DC, born from the imagination and legacy of Robert and Mildred Woods Bliss, collectors of art and patrons of the humanities. The museum houses world-class collections of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art, and a third collection exists in the garden, which Mildred Bliss created in partnership with renowned landscape designer Beatrix Farrand. The garden was voted one of the ten best gardens in the world by National Geographic and is perhaps the last remaining landscape in North America that hews closely to its original design. Buildings of architectural importance on campus include the 1963 Pre-Columbian Pavilion, designed by Philip Johnson and the 2005 research library designed by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates.
Since 1940, when the Blisses gave the estate and collections to Harvard University, Dumbarton Oaks has supported the advance of knowledge in the three areas of Byzantine, Pre-Columbian, and Garden and Landscape Studies through a fellowship program and other awards; scholarly conferences; publications; and digital initiatives. In recent years, Dumbarton Oaks has extended its service to the community by developing collection-based educational programs for DC students and strengthened its profile in the arts. Learn more at www.doaks.org.