Excavating ‘the Pompeii of the desert’

Since 2005, Nicola Aravecchia, associate professor of classics, art history, and archaeology, has been working in Egypt’s Western Desert, uncovering the hidden history of Christianity in the Dakhla Oasis. In 2022, he became the archaeological field director at Amheida/Trimithis, a Graeco-Roman city in Dakhla where the team had previously discovered an early Christian church. In September, Aravecchia published "Early Christianity at Amheida (Egypt's Dakhla Oasis): A Fourth-Century Church." He joined the Ampersand for a conversation about the book and his decades-long mission to uncover the site.

Can you tell us a bit about the work you’ve been doing at Amheida?

Amheida (ancient Trimithis) is one of Egypt's most intact archeological sites from the late Roman/early Christian periods. It was abandoned at the end of the fourth century CE for reasons we are still investigating, but the sand that covered the site kept it well preserved.

Our excavations have provided new insights into the spread of Christianity to this geographically remote part of the Roman empire. We’ve also found evidence — a Roman-style bath, a school with Greek rhetorical exercises painted on the wall, paintings with classical themes — that people there adopted the Greek language and had an affinity for Greco-Roman-style culture and customs.

What’s your recent book about?

The book is the final archeological report on the discovery of a church at the site. It is one of the earliest Christian churches found in Egypt, so it provides excellent data about the development of early Christian architecture in the region. The church’s shape, that of a basilica, is evidence of the spread of a set of artistic idioms and architectural types common in Christianity. It shows that communities living at the fringes of the Roman Empires were very much a part of a globalized world.

Can you describe a typical day in the field at Amheida?

From March until the end of the year, the weather is too hot to physically be in the Oasis. So, our excavation season is from the end of December through the beginning of February. As the field director, I’m present the whole time we are excavating.

The Amheida project team has a house in the closest village, about 40 minutes from the site. Our group includes experts from all over the world, including ceramicists, zooarchaeologists, physical anthropologists, and numismatists who specialize in coins. We are also joined by graduate students from WashU and local workmen with whom we have strong community ties.

We wake up at 5:30 a.m., and by 7 a.m. we are excavating in the protected area. There’s a dig house at the edge of the excavation site, where we keep supplies and bulky finds that we can’t easily transport. By 1 p.m., it's too hot to continue digging. In the afternoon, we do documentation; we have a lab at the house where we can process small objects like wooden and metal items, ceramics, and coins. Our team then discusses and analyzes the day’s findings.

What are the most surprising discoveries you’ve made?

One of my most professionally exciting moments at Amheida was the 2013 discovery of three perfectly preserved funerary crypts below the sanctuary of the church. The crypts, consisting of 17 intact burials, were in pristine condition and included sealed tombs for Christians who lived at Amheida in the mid-fourth century CE, which is, as far as I know, the oldest Christian funerary crypt ever found in Egypt.

The identities of the bodies are what made the discovery so surprising. The majority were buried under the sanctuary, which traditionally would have been the most sacred spot, often reserved for bishops and priests. But out of the 17 bodies found in the church, only four were adult males and only one of the latter was interred in the underground crypts. The rest were women and children, which raises important questions and challenges preconceived notions about who would have been buried there. 

We also discovered the house of a wealthy man named Serenos. We know it’s his house because we found his personal archive, written on ostraca (broken pieces of pottery used as writing surfaces). His home was decorated with figures inspired by scenes from classical literature, including "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." It’s fascinating that someone in this remote area appreciated and understood classical culture and wanted to showcase his familiarity with it. All of this suggests that it wasn’t just Christianity that reached the Oasis through caravan routes, but also classical ideas and values.

You have been excavating at this site since 2005 but had to pause for nearly a decade due to COVID and geopolitical upheaval in the region. What's it like dealing with that kind of interruption and uncertainty?

We have great relationships with the local community in Egypt. But, in 2011, we were in the Oasis during the events of the Arab Spring and had to be evacuated — not because it was particularly dangerous, but because it was remote. In 2012 and 2013, we returned and excavated much of the church. However, the political situation and our inability to get permits prevented us from doing any excavation between 2016 and 2022.

Luckily, we had plenty of data from the church excavation, which kept us productive and busy during the break. Part of our moral and ethical imperative at the project is to share our findings, so it wasn’t all bad to have dedicated time to analyze, write, and publish.

In December of last year, I took graduate students from WashU with me to excavate but, at the last minute, we couldn't get the final permit we needed. There was still plenty for the students to see and do in Egypt, but there are never any guarantees when it comes to access.

You are a classicist, an archeologist, and an art historian. Which of those hats do you wear the most when excavating?

I have a joint appointment between two departments but I’m a field archeologist so, frankly, I’m happiest when I’m in the field. What drives my passion for the ancient world is bringing back to life the experiences of those who are no longer with us. This can be a sensitive prospect when we are dealing with human remains. We try to do it with the utmost respect: we excavate them, we test and document them, and then we carefully rebury them in the same location. My goal is to reconstruct and honor their lived experiences, especially people who perhaps did not live on in written records. Most written evidence is about literate people but by looking at material and archeological evidence, you get a glimpse of what life was like for a broader spectrum of people.

I’m also very passionate about the languages of the ancient world, including Greek, Latin, and Coptic. Understanding the languages used in the time and place I’m excavating helps me be a better archeologist.

How much more excavation is there to do at Amheida?

I often call Amheida the Pompeii of the desert. After 20 years of work, we’ve excavated possibly 1%, but it has given us much to process. There have been seven books — including my recent one — to come out of this project, and numerous articles. I am already editing the next volume of the series, which will be a collection of articles by colleagues about small finds (coins, ceramic fragments, etc.). We plan to return to the site this winter to resume our work. There's enough excavation work at Amheida to last several lifetimes.