The rock-hewn church of Nazugn Maryam: an example of the endangered antiquities of North Wallo, Ethiopia

Most of the rock hewn and cave churches of Ethiopia to the west and south of Lalibela have escaped the notices of scholars who in different times visited the rock hewn churches of Lalibela and its surroundings. Nazugn Maryam, one of the ancient rock hewn churches of this area is neither scholarly researched nor professionally conserved. The main objective of this study was to document the architecture and the conservation problems of this hypogeum. Data of the study was collected through interview, field observation and analysis of the archives. The study intimates that the church is traditionally believed to have been carved by Abunä Musé, who is regarded as the second bishop of Ethiopia. Being carved out of a single rock, it is rectangular and monolithic. Pointed and arched styles of both opened and false windows, buttresses, and horizontal beam are some of the dominant architectures of the church projected on its exterior facades. Internally it has a basilica with aisles divided by pillars, with no arches and capitals. However, its architectural values are deteriorating due to natural agents such as torrential summer rainfall and sunlight. Besides, the elements attempt at conservation since 1950s have also contributed to its deterioration. New materials like cement and basaltic stone were introduced during the restoration and this has exacerbated its deterioration endangering this important hypogeum. This paper examines how this introduction of new material poses challenges to the future conservation decisions.


Introduction
Ethiopia has a variety of built heritages of deep antiquity and thus heritage management is on top of government's agendas. Cultural heritage tourism attracts a large number of visitors to Ethiopia. The most visited sites include rock hewn structures that ranged from simply carved grotto caves to grandiosely shaped monolithic churches and buildings. As one of the early centers of Christianity Ethiopia boasts some of the most prominent rock hewn churches in the world.
These churches are a source of shared history and identity as well as assets that are used in development.
With the current drive to mobilize cultural heritage in the development process, the employment of appropriate heritage management procedures is essential. Tourism puts pressure on the fragile heritage and it is worse when the heritage places are not documented. Previous research (Layton & Thomas 2001;Feilden 2003;Cassar 2009;Elene 2010;Delmonaco et al. 2010) has shown that destructive agents around cultural heritages are uncompromising threats and can destroy significant cultural values for ever. Ethiopia thus needs to establish a viable heritage conservation programme before the expected tourism boom.
The increasing boom in tourism industry at national and global level means that new tourist destinations are identified, and Ethiopia has become one of the preferred destinations. The inclusion of the Rock Hewn churches on the World Heritage list and the rapid development in the country have created an interest in tourism products of Ethiopia. This will increase the threat to cultural heritage, making the need for inventories essential. . Finneran (2007, p. 266) notes that 'Ethiopia is best placed to play upon its heritage' implies that the country can be very competitive in the global tourism industry if it utilized its cultural resources effectively and with care. The major problem is that Ethiopia has started to market and open its cultural heritage sites before putting in place heritage management regimes that can protect it from increased tourism. The result of this could be the fast deterioration of the cultural heritage, as Ethiopia will not have heritage preservation protocols and enough conservators to protect these sites from tourism.
In the absence of documentation and conservation of the tourism resources, it will be difficult to manage the sites sustainably. Many heritage sites on the periphery like Nazugn Maryam are still neglected and their promotion as tourism products would negatively affect them. The absence of concern on the part of the state implies that the country's distant cultural heritages can be sacrificed for development. Work on Rock Hewn churches has been concentrated in Lasta, Tigray and, in some extent, Shawa. Churches in the western and the southern areas adjacent to the famous Lalibela have been ignored. This paper advocates for the inventorying of these remotelylocated, hidden cultural sites. It will give details about the architectural elements, challenges and threats that the isolated Nazugn Maryam Rock Hewn Church faces. The study is significant as it will be a document that insures that the architecture of this church is recorded and that policy makers would be made aware of how some of their policies are affecting cultural heritage places.

Archival sources and Mäqét region
The first written source by an outsider is Francisco Alvarez's16th century documentation of churches in Lasta, Tigray and Shawa. Other researchers have also written on some of these churches but have hardly given information on their conservation status (Buxton 1947;Bidder 1958;Bekingham & Huntingford 1961;Pearce 1970;Gerster 1970;Jager, O. & Pearce, I. 1974;Schuster 1994;Kassaye (1995);Mengistu 2004;Phillipson 2009;Elene 2010;Mengistu 2011, Mercier & Lepage 2012. Historical and conservation information is even scantier for the rockcut churches in Mäqét. Others like Wright (1957, pp. 7-9)  George. However, all these efforts to document the rock hewn churches ignored over 18 rockcut churches of Mäqét, including Nazugn Maryam. Tsegaye (2014) provides a comprehensive survey of these sites that have been missing in previous researches. However, the survey does not give a complete description of the conservation status of these rock hewn churches.

Methodology
The general objective of this paper is to discuss the architectural features and heritage management problems of the rock hewn church of Nazugn Maryam. It also highlights the history, architectural and structural problems of the churches and provide preliminary solutions to these problems while also identifying future work that could be carried out before these cultural places are opened for tourism.
The study examined previous archival and library sources that discuss the church of Nazugn Maryam. The church is historically and architecturally significant but is poorly managed. Data was collected through field observation, in-depth interview (with local elders), library, and archival works. Through the field work, both external and internal elements of the church were observed.

A copy of Gädlä Abunä Musé 2 (the Life of Our Father Moses) that narrates the life of Abunä Musé
was also consulted. Oral traditions about the church were also collected from local communities.
Field instruments such as GPS, digital camera and sound recording were used to document the site. Standardized transliteration system is used for Ethiopic terms. Data analysis is processed qualitatively through descriptive and explanatory approaches.

Physical and Historical Description of Mäqét
Mäqét is one of the administrative districts in North Wällo, Amhara Region. Its main town,  (1972. pp. 193-194) postulates that the Christianization of Mäqét was carried out by Abunä Aron in the 14 th century A.D. Since then, Mäqét became one of the major religious teaching centers between Bäggémdәr and Wällo.
Because of this, most people from Mäqét are dominantly Orthodox Christians and have different socio-cultural practices to other Ethiopians. Though Amharic speaking people now occupy this area, it was an area of influx of different ethnic groups including the Gafat, Oromo, and Fälasha (Wudu 1995, pp. 11-12, 227-230).

The Rock Hewn Church of Nazugn Maryam
The  To the west is the Zoga River, which is a tributary of Bäshilo River. The church has a stone-fenced yard with various indigenous trees. Much of the yard is used as a burial site by the local communities. The northern and western parts of the yard, including its courtyard, are left for spiritual activities.

Historical Background of the Church
The history of the church is mainly based on the oral traditions of the local communities.  (1972, p. 110) states, "there was more than one bishop in Ethiopia before the sixth century" which means that Adulis and Aksum had their own bishops. Here, the confusion seems to be raised due to lack of understanding about the deeds and names of the second bishop of Aksum.
There is a local tradition regarding the second bishop of Aksum which also gives different names.

Architecture of the Church
The church of Nazugn Maryam is carved out of a red sedimentary sandstone rock. It is monolithic and stands freely from its parent rock. It is rectangular and externally, it measures 15 metres in length, 10 metres in width and is 10metres in height. Trenches are excavated in the north eastern and western sides of the sunken courtyard. At its present situation, the monolithic hypogeum is deteriorated and traditionally repaired. Therefore, the discussion on its architecture is based on the existed evidences that can possibly provide a general architectural picture of the church.   Water that has salts can move through the stone in different ways, depending on the wetting and drying conditions. Due to the heavy rainfall experienced in the region, water collects on the roof and trickles through the cracks and capillary action further aggravating the deterioration.
The torrential rainfall during summer season is followed by the cold and dry winter temperatures which causes the flaking and fracturing the exterior part of the church. Despite of the local communities' attempt to repair the exterior of the church at different times this has not slowed down the deterioration as there is no conservation protocols for preserving the rock hewn churches. The impact of these threats is most serious on the western façade where almost all the architectural features are extremely eroded. The impact of climate is less on the other facades of the church. Water that collects on the roof has a great impact on the integrity of rock wall.
Most of the windows have lost their most aesthetic features as a result of the effects of water.
There is also a fracturing of wall beam and buttresses at different parts of the rock hewn church.
The problem is increasing from time to time and the profound impact of high rainfall is recently evidenced. The north western face of rock fence of the courtyard is partly destroyed during a heavy rainy season of summer of 2013. Internally, there is also a sign of cracking and water seeping through the cracks in the roof and the wall. Anthropogenic Factors: Uninformed reconstructions are also a major contributor to problems that are faced by the church of Nazugn. The lack of collaboration between the local communities and professionals in the process of intervention has resulted in new materials being used. Basalt instead of sandstone has been used in repair work and this has been mortared with cement. This has not only caused further structural problems but has also changed the aesthetics of the church. Most of the reconstructions are knee-jerk reactions to an immediate problem caused by the rain. These repairs have not been effective as the roof still leaks. Figure 9. Nazugn Maryam, a bad intervention along the southern facade(Source:-Author) The repairing work has negatively affected architectural values of the monument. The lack of support from government in providing conservation professionals as well conservation guidelines has led to haphazard methods being tried causing the structural problems as well as changing the aesthetic values of the church. Some of the most important architectural features of the church have been covered by repair work. For example, one of the false windows on the southern facade is now obscured. Secondly, the reconstructions have also impacted the historical value of the church. The church's uniqueness is that it is rock-hewn, and the reconstructions have changed this, as stone and mortar have been added to facades.

Conclusion and Recommendation
The monolithic rock hewn church of Nazugn Maryam is one of the rock hewn and cave churches believed to have been carved by Abunä Musé. It is actually one of the missed ancient monolithic antiquities of Ethiopia to the west of Lalibela. It can probably be a representative example of rock hewn churches carved before Lalibela churches. It embodies significant architectural and historical values. In a general observation, it has architectural elements that apposite with the rock hewn churches of Lalibela. Despite of its architectural and historical values, the church is left for continuous architectural deterioration and historical demolition. The natural factors such as high rainfall and sunlight have profound impacts during summer and winter times, respectively.
Unprofessional conservation activity has also imposed its own impact upon the monument. The hypogeum, therefore, is one of the endangered rock-cut churches of Mäqét.
This study tried to provide significant issues particularly on the rock hewn church of Nazugn Maryam. However, this is not an end work and further works are expected to be done by different stakeholders at regional or national levels. Studying architectural elements of the church through comparison is significant. Its history is also still depended on the local sources. Future archaeological studies are expected to reveal more the architectural and historical values of the church. A linguistic study on the Gädlä Abunä Musé will have a great significance to know well its history. An urgent professional conservation is needed. It is because that the hypogeum is an endangered heritage. It is necessary to reassess the deterioration, discuss and report their impacts. This needs a collaboration of researchers, heritage managers, and other concerned stakeholders. Promotion of such remote antiquities at a national level is significant. Moreover, a comprehensive inventory work is needed to reveal other unknown antiquities of the district.