Early Christianity at Amheida (Egypt’s Dakhla Oasis), A Fourth-Century Church

Volume I, The Excavations (Amheida VII)

Nicola Aravecchia

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2024
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781479813490
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

An archaeological, historical, and art historical study of a remarkable early church excavated at Amheida in Egypt's Dakhla Oasis

Early Christianity at Amheida (Egypt's Dakhla Oasis): A Fourth-Century Church. Volume 1: The Excavations is an archaeological, historical, and art historical study of a remarkable basilica-church excavated at Amheida in Dakhla Oasis. This church, excavated between 2012 and 2023, dates to the fourth century CE and therefore is among the earliest purpose-built churches in Egypt. It also contains one of the oldest, if not the oldest, excavated Christian funerary crypts in the country. The church at Amheida thus offers a wealth of new data on early Christianity in Egypt, particularly with respect to the earliest phases of Christian art and architecture and burial customs. Aravecchia presents a systematic treatment of the stratigraphy, building techniques, materials, features, architecture, decoration, and finds of the church, carefully contextualized in the early Christianity of the late antique Great Oasis and Egypt more broadly.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Foreword
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Early Christianity in the Great Oasis
• Chapter 3: Area 2.3: The Church
• Chapter 4: Survey and Excavations to the South the Church
• Chapter 5: The Underground Funerary Crypts
• Chapter 6: The Painted Ceiling of the Church
• Chapter 7: Discussion of the Archaeological Evidence
• Chapter 8: Epilogue
• Table of Chronology
• Bibliography
• Index