File:Unfinished Obelisk, Axum (Detail) (3160750074).jpg

Not only is this Axumite obelisk (or, more correctly, stela) unfinished, it hasn't even been separated from its parent boulder, or matrix. Because this stela is a work in progress that was just in the roughing-out stages when work ceased, I'll refer to it as a stela "blank." I call it a blank because I assume none of the fine carving would have been done until after the stela had been removed from the field and presumably brought to a stone yard for the finish work.

It looks like the masons planned to leave a thin rib at the end of the stela to connect that end to the matrix, probably to help support the stella's weight, keep it from settling down onto the matrix, and provide a gap under the stela through which planks, handles or other similar attachment points could be inserted to help move the stela blank to its next location.

Realistically, though, I think it would have been necessary to leave supporting ribs at various points along the stela's length. Otherwise, the masons would have risked having the stela blank crack under its own weight.

Wouldn't it be interesting to know why work on the stela stopped at this preliminary stage? Did the masons discover a flaw in the stone or accidentally damage it? Were mistakes made during the cutting process that rendered the piece unfit for its intended use? Did the family or group who ordered the stela suffer a reversal of fortune or status? Did they change their minds? Or did external factors, such as changes in funerary practices, war, or foreign conquest, leave this project in a forever-unfinished state?

I took this photo on a hillside near Axum where archaeologists believe stelae were quarried during the Axumite Kingdom.

The Axumite period in Ethiopian history extends from about 400 BCE to the 10th century of the common era; the Kingdom is thought to have reached its peak between the third and sixth centuries of the common era.

Archaeologists believe the stelae in and around the city of Axum mark the tombs of Axumite royals and nobles.

If this unfinished stela is representative of Axumite quarrying techniques, it shows Axumite stonemasons cut their stelae blanks from larger pieces of stone - large boulders, actually - that were found scattered on slopes below rock cliffs, having already fallen off the cliffs as a result of ordinary erosional processes.