Hawulti (monument)

Hawulti (ሓወልቲ) is a pre-Aksumite obelisk located in Matara, Eritrea. The monument bears the oldest known example of the ancient Ge'ez script.

Description
The Hawulti monument is 18 ft high, with a disk and crescent at the top; Edward Ullendorff believes these symbols "no doubt meant to place the stele under the protection of the gods, probably of Šams, the Sun goddess, and of Sin, the Moon god". These pre-Christian symbols, as well as paleographical characteristics such as the lack of vowel marks in the Ge'ez script, convinced Ullendorff that the monument dated "to the early part of the fourth century A.D."

Ullendorff translated of the inscription as follows:
 * This is the obelisk which had made
 * 'Agaz for his fathers who have
 * carried off the youth of ‘W’
 * ‘LF as well as of SBL.

His translation differs from Enno Littmann at several points. First, Littmann believed the third line referred to the digging of canals nearby (his translation, "zog die Kannaele von `Aw`a") despite the lack of any signs of canals or ditches in the area; Ullendorff argues that the verb s-h-b in the inscription should be translated as "to drag along, to capture". Second, he believed the nouns — ‘W’, ‘LF, and SBL — were placenames, and based on discussions with local informants Ullendorff identified them with nearby communities: the earlier name of Baraknaha, the site of a 12th-century church 17 kilometers from Matara, had been subli, and the equally well-known Orthodox church at Gunda Gunde, 22 kilometers from Matara, had once been known as Aw`a 'ilfi.

Modern history
When Littmann, leader of the Deutsche Aksum-Expedition, found the Hawulti, it had been pushed over and broken in half in the distant past. The Italian colonial government had the broken monument repaired with two iron bars and set upright in what was thought to be its proper position, but was not accurate.

The Hawulti was toppled and damaged by Ethiopian troops in the short occupation of southern Eritrea during the Eritrean-Ethiopian War. It has since been repaired by the National Museum of Eritrea.