Discovering Coptic Churches at Tebtunis

In 1931 Carlo Anti and Gilbert Bagnani excavated two Coptic churches at Tebtunis in the Fayyum. None of this was published but it has only recently come to light that reports, photos and plans survive in the Istituto Veneto, and that some of the artifacts were sent first to Rome and later transferred to the Turin Museum. In 1933 Bagnani excavated and recorded in a notebook a third church and its attached monastic outbuildings; significantly, the walls of its nave were covered with wall paintings. Above and below these representational scenes were depicted patterns presumably representing hanging tapestries, some of which were copied as watercolors by Gilbert’s wife, Stewart. In 1934 and in 1936, Bagnani had a series of aerial photos taken over the entire site. Through analysis of archival documents, historical photos and artifacts, coming from Anti’s and Bagnani’s campaigns in Egypt (1930-1936), which are now in Italy and Canada, an international team has begun working on the Coptic period in Tebtunis. The team has been able to discover the positions of the three churches, reconstruct their interior design, shed new light on the wall paintings preserved only in black and white photos, and to see the Coptic textile artifacts, now preserved in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, in comparison with the watercolor drawings of Stewart Bagnani.