Eglise de l'Archange-Michel Dans Le Monastere Copte de Baouit

More than a simple report of the excavations conducted by the Louvre and the IFAO from 2003 to 2007, this volume aims to present the north church at Bawit by gathering all available documentation, and in particular the recent work relating to the 1902 campaign published by E. Chassinat, Fouilles a Baouit II (MIFAO 134). The first part deals with archaeology. This is followed by reports on the architecture, the decor, and the furnishings, in an attempt to outline the past and present state of the monument. Certain elements are presented in the form of a catalogue: sculpture, woodwork, figurative paintings on wood, furnishings. The texts and inscriptions give eyewitness accounts of the church in its heyday and the indices for this section enrich the Bawit epigraphic corpus. The chronology, from the 8th to the 10th century, is based on dated documents, architectural studies, observations of repairs to the decorations, and on some carbon-14 dates. An appendix is devoted to the conservation and restoration of the monument as well as of the items that come from it, now scattered among several museums.