Refugees

Information on who a refugee is in legal term

Procrastination - a Tigrinyan poem

This Tigrinya poem is based on an English poem, whose author is not known

At the Post Office

This resource contains a dialogue which takes place at the post office. It involves a woman customer who wishes to send a registered letter. The dialogue is pitched at level 3 (B1/2 accroding to the CEFR) and some exercises follow

Political interview

Paraphrasing, reading between the lines and objectivit

Tigrinya Idioms

Idioms such as the four items, which are underlined, are so linked with the tradition, it is essential for those born in the Diaspora to learn and appreciate their denotative and conotative meanings

Mapping Gossans in Arid Regions with Landsat TM and SIR-C Images: The Beddaho Alteration Zone in Northern Eritrea

Massive sulphide deposits in the Neoproterozoic Arabian-Nubian Shield are exposed at the surface as Fe-rich crusts termed gossans. Gossans are typically a few tens of metres across but are surrounded by wider clay- and Fe-rich alteration zones. Although Fe-rich gossans have characteristic reflectance spectra and surface roughness, they are often too small to be directly detected by Landsat TM or SIR-C images, both of which have about 30 m spatial resolution. In this paper, a procedure is described whereby gossans and the surrounding alteration zones can be identified and mapped by Landsat TM and SIR-C data using the Beddaho Alteration Zone and the Tebih Gossan in northern Eritrea as an example. Clay and Fe alteration index maps were generated by density slicing for Landsat TM band-ratios 5/7 and 3/1, respectively. Landsat 5/7-4/5-3/1 TM images characteristically depict small (tens of pixels) gossans in blue and the more extensive alteration zones in pinkish purple. Chh-Lhh-Lhh/Chh SIR-C images succeeded in identifying the gossan due to enhanced back-scattering of the radar shorter wavelength (6 cm) C-band by the rough gossan surfaces. This enhanced back-scattering might also be partially due to the characteristic dielectric property of the Fe-rich minerals forming the gossans. Choosing known gossans from both 5/7-4/5-3/1 Landsat TM and Chh-Lhh-Lhh/Chh SIR-C images as training sites for supervised classification helped to outline areas with reflectance spectra and radar back-scattering properties similar to those of the training sites. These results show significant correlation between supervised classifications based on the two data sets, suggesting a way to use combined visible and near infrared (VNIR) and radar imagery to explore for mineral deposits in arid regions

The role of tephra studies in African paleoanthropology as Hakoma Tuff

Beginning in the 1960s, geological and paleoanthropological exploration of the Ethiopian rift system’s basins have led to the discovery and assembly of the most comprehensive record of human biological and technological change during the last 6 million years. The hominid fossils, including partial skeletons, were primarily discovered in the Afar Rift, the Main Ethiopian Rift, and in the Omo Basin of the broadly rifted zone of SW Ethiopia. The paleoanthropological research areas within the SW Afar Rift that have yielded many diverse hominid species and the oldest stone tools are, from north to south, Woranso-Mille (aff. Ardipithecus and Au. afarensis), Hadar (Au. afarensis, Homo sp.), Dikika (Au. afarensis), Gona (Ar. kadabba, Ar. ramidus, H. erectus, and oldest stone tools), Middle Awash (Ar. kadabba, Ar. ramidus, Au. anamensis, Au. afarensis, Au. garhi, H. erectus, H. rhodesiensis, H. sapiens idaltu, and the oldest paleo-butchery locality), and Galili (Au. afarensis). Additional hominid remains were discovered at Melka Kunture on the banks of the Awash River near its source along the western margin of the central part of the Main Ethiopian Rift (H. erectus), at Konso (H. erectus and A. boisei), and at the southern end of the MER, and in the Omo Basin (Au. anamensis, Au. afarensis, Au. aethiopicus, Au. boisei, H. habilis, and H. erectus).Distal and sometimes proximal tephra units interbedded within fossilifeous sedimentary deposits have become key elements in this work by providing chronological and correlative control and depositional contexts. Several regional tephra markers have been identified within the northern half of the eastern African rift valley in Ethiopia and Kenya, and in marine sediments of the Gulf of Aden Rift and the NW Indian Ocean. Out of the many regional tephra stratigraphic markers that range in age from the early Pliocene (3.97 Ma) to the late Pleistocene (0.16 Ma), the Sidi Hakoma Tuff (SHT) has been more widely identified and thoroughly characterized than any of the others.An age of 3.446 ± 0.041 Ma was determined on the SHT according to the most recent calibration, and it is the only regional stratigraphic marker whose source has been traced to a buried caldera in the central sector of the Main Ethiopian Rift. This paper describes new SHT occurrences and presents chemical and chronological results in the context of a broader review of the importance of this key marker. Moreover, the geographic distributions, probable dispersal mechanisms, and importance of regional tephra units in determining the tectonic and sedimentological processes in the different rift basins of the eastern African rift valleys are considered

Integrative geochronology calibrates the Middle and Late Stone Ages of Ethiopia's Afar Rift.

The Halibee member of the Upper Dawaitoli Formation of Ethiopia's Middle Awash study area features a wealth of Middle and Later Stone Age (MSA and LSA) paleoanthropological resources in a succession of Pleistocene sediments. We introduce these artifacts and fossils, and determine their chronostratigraphic placement via a combination of established radioisotopic methods and a recently developed dating method applied to ostrich eggshell (OES). We apply the recently developed 230Th/U burial dating of OES to bridge the temporal gap between radiocarbon (14C) and 40Ar/39Ar ages for the MSA and provide 14C ages to constrain the younger LSA archaeology and fauna to ∼24 to 21.4 ka. Paired 14C and 230Th/U burial ages of OES agree at ∼31 ka for an older LSA locality, validating the newer method, and in turn supporting its application to stratigraphically underlying MSA occurrences previously constrained only by a maximum 40Ar/39Ar age. Associated fauna, flora, and Homo sapiens fossils are thereby now fixed between 106 ± 20 ka and 96.4 ± 1.6 ka (all errors 2σ). Additional 40Ar/39 results on an underlying tuff refine its age to 158.1 ± 11.0 ka, providing a more precise minimum age for MSA lithic artifacts, fauna, and H. sapiens fossils recovered ∼9 m below it. These results demonstrate how chronological control can be obtained in tectonically active and stratigraphically complex settings to precisely calibrate crucial evidence of technological, environmental, and evolutionary changes during the African Middle and Late Pleistocene