{"product_id":"bastions-of-the-cross-mikael-muehlbauer-9780884024972","title":"Bastions of the Cross: Medieval Rock-Cut Cruciform Churches of Tigray, Ethiopia","description":"In the late eleventh century, Ethiopian masons hewed great cruciform churches out of mountains in the eastern highlands of Tigray, Ethiopia's northernmost province. Hitherto unparalleled in scale, these monuments were royal foundations, instruments of political centralization and re-Christianization that anticipated the great thirteenth-century churches at Lalibela. \u003ci\u003eBastions of the Cross\u003c\/i\u003e, the first study devoted to the subject, examines the cruciform churches of Abreha wa-Atsbeha, Wuqro Cherqos, and Mika'el Amba and connects them to one of the great architectural movements of the Middle Ages: the millennial revival of the early Byzantine aisled, cruciform church. These were also the first to incorporate vaulting, and uniquely did so in the service of centralized spatial hierarchy. Through resuscitated pilgrimage networks, Ethiopian craftsmen revisited architectural types abandoned since Late Antiquity, while Islamic mercantile channels brought precious textiles from South Asia that inspired trans-material conceptions of architectural space. \u003ci\u003eBastions of the Cross\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the eleventh century, in contrast to its popular reputation as a \"dark age,\" to be a forgotten watershed in the architectural history of Ethiopia and Eastern Christianity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Mikael Muehlbauer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0884024970\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780884024972\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Dumbarton Oaks Research Library \u0026amp; Collection\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/24\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Mikael Muehlbauer","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48447809257727,"sku":"9780884024972","price":90.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_af531091-8e3f-4812-aaa4-ecea99b91676.jpg?v=1777234963","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/bastions-of-the-cross-mikael-muehlbauer-9780884024972","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}