Tuto Fela (Gedeo stelae)
Also known asTutu Fela · Gedeo stelae
DatedEst. 3000 BCE–900 CE
Photo Arminius1000 · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Tutu Fela, also written Tuto Fela, Tutto Fela, Tuto Fella or Tuttofella, is a field of stelae in southern Ethiopia with notable stone sculptures. It lies in the Gedeo Zone of the Southern Ethiopia Region and is a burial ground with many anthropomorphic and phallic stelae.
Excavations in 1993-1997 recorded 320 stelae, and the surrounding Gedeo cultural landscape has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2023.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Tuto Fela (Gedeo stelae)
The burial ground lies at an altitude of 2000 metres on the eastern edge of the rift valley and measures about 40 m in length and 20 m in width.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
The burial ground lies at an altitude of 2000 metres on the eastern edge of the rift valley and measures about 40 m in length and 20 m in width. Some stelae are up to 2.50 m high, many others are between 1.50 and 2.10 m, and a few are only 70 cm high. The stelae are carved from rhyolite and columnar basalt. A second site nearby, the Chelba Tutitti stelae field, has yielded only phallic stelae.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
The French archaeologist Roger Joussaume carried out extensive excavations at Tutu Fela in 1993-1997. At the start of the excavation numerous stones were buried in vegetation and only a few pillars still stood upright. In all, 320 stelae were inventoried, in addition to the 17 now in Frankfurt.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
Joussaume found human remains, including the bones of several individuals, in different layers. The youngest layer was dated to the 12th-13th century and contained household utensils. The oldest layer goes back to the 10th century. The phallic stelae may have been reused and date from the 11th-13th centuries.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
The German ethnologist Leo Frobenius undertook the 12th German Inner-African Research Expedition (D.I.A.F.E.) in 1934/35, led by Adolf Ellegard Jensen. In Ethiopia the researchers discovered the Tutu Fela stelae field and brought 17 stone sculptures back to Frankfurt (Main), where they are still held in the Weltkulturen Museum. The artist and painter Alf Bayrle accompanied the expedition and made drawings and photographs of the phallic stelae, which were exhibited in Frankfurt in 2012 for the first time together with the grave stelae.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
The site was restored after the excavation work, in 1996-1998.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Steles in Europe and elsewhere
A stele (or stela) is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The Greek and Roman use is well known. Its surface often has text, ornament, or both, inscribed, carved in relief or painted. Steles were created for many reasons: grave steles served funerary or commemorative purposes, slabs of stone were used as Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers, and steles were occasionally erected as memorials to battles.
The Atlas applies the heading to a very mixed group of monuments: carved standing stones of the Bronze Age and Iron Age, funerary steles of the classical and medieval periods, Roman milestones and cippi, medieval cross-stones, wayside crosses, and modern memorials. A reader should treat the type "stele" as a form and not as a date. Prehistoric steles, such as the statue menhirs of the Copper Age, are usually carved with a human figure and sometimes with weapons.
Because many steles carry a date or the name of a ruler, they are among the best dated stone monuments; for those that do not, the Atlas gives a broad range based on style.
The best-known examples show the range. The Gwanggaeto Stele in China, erected in 414 CE, is the largest engraved stele in the world; Maya stelae of the Classic Period (about 250 to 900 CE) are tall sculpted shafts paired with low circular altars; the first Armenian khachkars date from the ninth century; and the Grave Stele of Hegeso in Athens was carved about 410 to 400 BCE.
When visiting, read the inscription and note the carved figure or symbol.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Stele, Wikipedia: Statue menhir, Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Wayside cross, Wikipedia: Grave Stele of Hegeso, Wikipedia: Gwanggaeto Stele · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1934
Der deutsche Ethnologe Leo Frobenius unternahm 1934/35 die 12. Deutsche Inner-Afrikanische Forschungs-Expedition (D.I.A.F.E.), die von Adolf Ellegard Jensen geleitet wurde.
Source - 1993
Der französische Archäologe Roger Joussaume führte 1993–1997 umfangreiche Ausgrabungen in Tutu Fela durch.
Source - 1996
Die Fundstätte Tutu Fela wurde nach den Ausgrabungsarbeiten in den Jahren 1996–1998 restauriert.
Source - 2012
Der Künstler und Maler Alf Bayrle begleitete die Expedition und fertigte Zeichnungen und Fotografien von den phallischen Stelen an, die erstmals 2012 in Frankfurt zusammen mit den Grabstelen ausgestellt wurden.
Source - 2023
Das Gebiet ist seit 2023 als Kulturlandschaft von Gedeo auf der Welterbeliste der UNESCO.
Source
Photographs
3 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 3000 BCE–900 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a stele in East Africa and the Horn is normally dated between 3000 BCE and 900 CE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- Type
- SteleSource: Type
- Country
- EthiopiaSource: Country
- Culture
- Gedeo stele tradition (Ethiopia)Source: Culture
Where it stands
Ethiopia
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 6°18′03″ N, 38°13′42″ EFor a GPS or map app: 6.30072, 38.22822
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Q56295507wikidata.org
Image files
- Tutu Fela Phallic Stele 2.jpgArminius1000CC BY-SA 4.0
- Tutu Fela antropomorphic stele 1.jpgArminius1000CC BY-SA 4.0
- Tutu Fela Phallic Stele 1.jpgArminius1000CC BY-SA 4.0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Tutu Fela" (German), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (German): Tutu FelaCC BY-SA 4.0
- Q56295507CC0