Learning Late Antiquity: The Quarry Church at Deir al-Ganadla (Asyut, Middle Egypt) and the Lost Timber Nave
EAST OF BYZANTIUM LECTURE
This presentation presents the little-known Quarry church of Mary at Deir al-Ganadla (near Asyut) as a tool for students of Late Antiquity to visualize lost timber-roofed basilicas in Egypt as well as the Mediterranean more broadly. The church’s value lies in its mural program, which orders the Pharaonic mine from which it was consecrated into a fictive freestanding basilica. As I argue here, these paintings depict painted timber ephemera from circa 500 that are largely lost to us. By fully documenting this largely unknown church and its decorative schema we may reconstruct elements of freestanding basilicas in Egypt and the wider Mediterranean which lack extant naves. Although modest, Ganadla’s import should not be understated, as it is the most in-tact Late Antique church in Egypt known.
Mikael Muehlbauer (Ph.D Columbia) is Lecturer in the Discipline of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. He is a specialist in the architecture of Medieval Ethiopia, Egypt and the textile arts of the Western Indian Ocean world. His research, which includes a 2023 book published by Dumbarton Oaks Press (awarded finalist for the 2024 ICMA book prize), broadly examines Islamic-Christian exchange through art and architecture. Forthcoming publications include a book on late Fatimid architecture with Edinburgh University Press as well as articles on Cosmic imagery in Tomb shrines (Muqarnas, 2027), and Egyptian quarry-churches (Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 2026). Dr. Muehlbauer, in addition to having held residential fellowships in Egypt, Italy, France, and Tunisia, continues to work in Ethiopia regularly for the Franco-Ethiopian Missions “Sustainable Lalibela,” as well as the Maryam Nazret Excavations.
This lecture will take place live on ZOOM, followed by a question and answer period.
East of Byzantium 