The Diverse Stelae in Soddo Wereda

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Ethiopian megalithic culture

Soddo Wereda is one of the thirteen weredas of Guraghe zone.it is comprised of fifty four rural and four urban kebele. Buee town is the administrative seat of the wereda. It is located 103km from Addis Ababa, 193km from Hawassa ,121 km from Welkite town. In most previous researchers for their archeological study named the southern part of Ethiopia as the region of soddo. In this guide book for the presentation purpose we tried to access Soddo Wereda administrative area in Guraghe Zone.

Megalithic culture represents past human tradition of putting up monolithic pillars of different sizes as memorials. In Ethiopia, this practice is a common phenomenon, which goes back to2500 B.C. One can find various types of megalithic tradition in different parts of the country.

Contemporary research works on Ethiopian megalithic culture have mainly focused on two regions, which are traditionally known as the stele of the North (Aksum) and the stele of the South (Soddo). Researches on the stele of the South began in the early 20th century with the work of Chollet and Neuville in 1905. Later researches were undertaken in Tiya, Sombo, and Seden in 1923, 1924 and 1926 respectively (Francis, 1977). The Tiya monoliths site is part of the archaeological sites located in central Ethiopia, in anarea known as the Gurage Zone.

Several localities, with similar megalithic tradition were
also identified in the neighborhood of Tiya. These areas include Dimbo-Der, Bale-Motabi,
Sombo, Seden, Gattira-Dema, Gareno Agufi, Fato, Oddo Tibo, Lemo Miya, Kefel-Damo,
Mamo, Dobbi, Meskan Kachaber, Tite, Firshi, Angadu, and Silte. Amongst the one-hundred sixty similar traditions of megalithic culture, spread over the Soddo area, the megalithic site of Tiya is the most representative of the tradition. In the following section few of the identified stelae field by different research and our observation presented as follow:-

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