Māryām Nāzrēt (Ethiopia): The Twelfth-century Transformations of an Aksumite Site in Connection with an Egyptian Christian Community1

Abstract

The monument known as Māryām Nāzrēt in Ethiopia, near the city of Mekelle, has often been visited but has hitherto remained hermetic. A fresh investigation has identified the main monument as a massive cathedral erected atop a long-pre-existing Aksumite structure. This unique monument is surrounded by satellite hermitages, among which the one at Golegota shows remains of a small church sharing common architectural features with the cathedral. Cross-referencing these remains with information provided by a written document enables to ascribe the construction of this cathedral to the twelfth-century Metropolitan Mikāʾēl. Named by the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria among Egyptian monks, the Metropolitan was head of the Ethiopian Church. Māryām Nāzrēt was most certainly the episcopal seat in the twelfth and thirteenth century, during the reign of the Zāg w ē dynasty, and hosted an Egyptian Christian community. At the crossroad of documented history and particular architectural trends, of contemporaneous developments in Ethiopian liturgy and church building, the paper deals with ecclesiastical and regal interaction in the region of Mekelle in the twelfth century.