Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV): The tenth King of the 18th Dynasty
Pharaoh Akhenaten
Akhenaten - meaning "living spirit of Aten" - known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV (sometimes given its Greek form, Amenophis IV, and meaning Amun is Satisfied), was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, which is sometimes described as monotheistic or henotheistic. An early inscription likens him to the sun as compared to stars, and later official language avoids calling the Aten a god, giving the solar deity a status above mere gods.
Early reign as Amenhotep IV
He was born to Amenhotep III and his Chief Queen Tiyee and was their younger son. Akhenaten was not originally designated as the successor to the throne until the untimely death of his older brother, Thutmose. Amenhotep IV succeeded his father after Amenhotep III's death at the end of his 38-year reign, possibly after a short coregency lasting between either 1 to 2 years.
There is much controversy around whether Amenhotep IV succeeded to the throne on the death of his father Amenhotep III or whether there was a coregency (lasting as long as 12 years according to some Egyptologists). Current literature by Eric Cline, Nicholas Reeves, Peter Dorman and other scholars comes out strongly against the establishment of a long coregency between the two rulers and in favour of either no coregency or a brief one lasting one to two years at the most. Other literature by Donald Redford, William Murnane, Alan Gardiner and more recently by Lawrence Berman in 1998 contests the view of any coregency whatsoever between Akhenaten and his father.
In February 2014, the Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities announced what it called conclusive evidence that Akhenaten shared power with his father for at least 8 years. The evidence came from the inscriptions found in the Luxor tomb of Vizier Amenhotep-Huy. A team of Spanish archeologists have been working at this tomb.
Amenhotep IV was crowned in Thebes and there he started a building program. He decorated the southern entrance to the precincts of the temple of Amun-Re with scenes of his worshiping Re-Harakhti. He soon decreed the construction of a temple dedicated to the Aten in Eastern Karnak. This Temple of Amenhotep IV was called the Gempaaten ("The Aten is found in the estate of the Aten"). The Gempaaten consisted of a series of buildings, including a palace and a structure called the Hwt Benben (named after the Benben stone) which was dedicated to Queen Nefertiti. Other Aten temples constructed at Karnak during this time include the Rud-menu and the Teni-menu which may have been constructed near the Ninth Pylon. During this time he did not repress the worship of Amun, and the High Priest of Amun was still active in the fourth year of his reign. The king appears as Amenhotep IV in the tombs of some of the nobles in Thebes: Kheruef (TT192), Ramose (TT55) and the tomb of Parennefer (TT188).
In the tomb of Ramose, Amenhotep IV appears on the west wall in the traditional style, seated on a throne with Ramose appearing before the king. On the other side of the doorway, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti are shown in the window of appearance with the Aten depicted as the sun disc. In the Theban tomb of Parennefer, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti are seated on a throne with the sun disk depicted over the king and queen.
Among the latter-known documents referring to Amenhotep IV are two copies of a letter from the Steward Of Memphis Apy (or Ipy) to the pharaoh. The documents were found in Gurob and are dated to regnal year 5, third month of the Growing Season, day 19
Relief representing Amenhotep IV before he changed his name to Akhenaten, Neues Museum, Berlin
On day 13, Month 8, in the fifth year of his reign, the king arrived at the site of the new city Akhetaten (now known as Amarna). A month before that Amenhotep IV had officially changed his name to Akhenaten. Amenhotep IV changed most of his 5 fold titulary in year 5 of his reign. The only name he kept was his prenomen or throne name of Neferkheperure.
Family and relations
Akhenaten and his family lived in the great religious center of Thebes, city of the God Amun. There were thousands of priests who served the Gods. Religion was the business of the time, many earning their living connected to the worship of the gods.
All indications are that as a child Akhenaten was a family outcast. Scientists are studying the fact that Akhenaten suffered from a disease called Marfan Syndrome, a genetic defect that damages the body's connective tissue. Symptoms include, short torso, long head, neck, arms, hand and feet, pronounced collarbones, pot belly, heavy thighs, and poor muscle tone. Those who inherit it are often unusually tall and are likely to have weakened aortas that can rupture. They can die at an early age. If Akhnaton had the disease each of his daughters had a 50-50 change of inheriting it. That is why his daughters are shown with similar symptoms.
Akhenaten was the son of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiyee, a descendent of a Hebrew tribe. The largest statue in the Cairo Museum shows Amenhotep III and his family. He and Queen Tiye (pronounced 'Tee') had four daughters and two sons. Akhenaten's brother, Tutmoses was later named high priest of Memphis. The other son, Amenhotep IV (Later to take the name Akhenaten) seemed to be ignored by the rest of the family. He never appeared in any portraits and was never taken to public events. He received no honors. It was as if the God Amun had excluded him. He was rejected by the world for some unknown reason. He was never shown with his family nor mentioned on monuments. Yet his mother favored him.
In 1352 BC. Akhenaten ascended the throne, succeeding his father Amenhotep III who had died. Akhenaten was just a teenager at the time, but it was the desire of Queen Tiye that he rule. In some version of the story, it is written that father and son shared the throne briefly.
Akhenaten's reign lasted 16 years. This was a difficult time in Egyptian history. Many scholars maintain that Akhenaten was responsible for this decline, but evidence suggests that it had already started.
Akhenaten is principally famous for his religious reforms, where the polytheism of Egypt was to be supplanted by monotheism centered around Aten, the god of the solar disc. This was possibly a move to lessen the political power of the Priests. Now the Pharaoh, not the priesthood, was the sole link between the people and Aten which effectively ended the power of the various temples.
Akhenaten built a temple to his god Aten immediately outside the east gate of the temple of Amun at Karnak, but clearly the coexistence of the two cults could not last. He therefore proscribed the cult of Amun, closed the god's temples, took over the revenues. He then sent his officials around to destroy Amun's statues and to desecrate the worship sites. These actions were so contrary to the traditional that opposition arose against him. The estates of the great temples of Thebes, Memphis and Heliopolis reverted to the throne. Corruption grew out of the mismanagement of such large levies.
Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti
Akhenaten's chief wife was Nefertiti, made world-famous by the discovery of her exquisitely moulded and painted bust, now displayed in the Altes Museum of Berlin, and among the most recognized works of art surviving from the ancient world.
Queen Nefertiti is often referred to in history as "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World." The Berlin bust, seen from two different angles, is indeed, the most famous depiction of Queen Nefertiti. Found in the workshop of the famed sculptor Thutmose, the bust is believed to be a sculptor's model. The technique which begins with a carved piece of limestone, requires the stone core to be first plastered and then richly painted. Flesh tones on the face give the bust life.4
Her full lips are enhanced by a bold red. Although the crystal inlay is missing from her left eye, both eyelids and brows are outlined in black. Her graceful elongated neck balances the tall, flat-top crown which adorns her sleek head. The vibrant colors of the her necklace and crown contrast the yellow-brown of her smooth skin. While everything is sculpted to perfection, the one flaw of the piece is a broken left ear. Because this remarkable sculpture is still in existence, it is no wonder why Nefertiti remains "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World."
Nefertiti's origins are confusing. It has been suggested to me that Tiye was also her mother. Another suggestion is that Nefertiti was Akhenaten's cousin. Her wet nurse was the wife of the vizier Ay, who could have been Tiye's brother. Ay sometimes called himself "the God's father," suggesting that he might have been Akhenaten's father-in-law. However Ay never specifically refers to himself as the father of Nefertiti, although there are references that Nefertiti's sister, Mutnojme, is featured prominently in the decorations of the tomb of Ay. We will never know the truth of this bloodline. Perhaps they didn't know either.
Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their children
As Amenhotep IV, Akhenaten was married to Nefertiti at the very beginning of his reign, and six daughters were identified from inscriptions. Recent DNA analysis has revealed that with one of his biological sisters, the "Younger Lady" mummy, Akhenaten fathered Tutankhaten (later Tutankhamen). The parentage of Smenkhkare, his successor, is unknown, and Akhenaten and an unknown wife have been proposed to be his parents.
A secondary wife of Akhenaten named Kiya is known from inscriptions. Some have theorized that she gained her importance as the mother of Tutankhamen, Smenkhkare, or both.
This is a list of Akhenaten's children (known and theoretical) with suggested years of birth:
Smenkhkare — year 35 or 36 of Amenhotep III's reign
Meritaten — year 1.
Meketaten — year 3, possibly earlier.
Ankhesenpaaten, later Queen of Tutankhamun — year 4.
Neferneferuaten Tasherit — year 8.
Neferneferure — year 9.
Setepenre — year 9.
Tutankhaten — year 8 or 9 — renamed Tutankhamun later.
His known consorts were:
Nefertiti, his Great Royal Wife.
Kiya, a lesser Royal Wife.
A daughter of Šatiya, ruler of Enišasi
A daughter of Burna-Buriash, king of Babylon
It has been proposed that Akhenaten may have taken some of his daughters as sexual consorts, to attempt to father a male heir by them, but this is very debatable. It does seem certain that like his father, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten named at least one daughter as Great Royal Wife, but this does not exclusively indicate she was his sexual consort as the position was also an important ceremonial
position.
Meritaten is recorded as Great Royal Wife to Smenkhkare in the tomb of Meryre II in Akhet-Aten. She is also listed alongside King Akhenaten and King Neferneferuaten as Great Royal Wife on a box from the tomb of Tutankhamen. Letters written to Akhenaten from foreign rulers make reference to Meritaten as 'mistress of the house'.
Meketaten, Akhenaten's second daughter. Meketaten's death in childbirth is recorded in the royal tombs of Amarna about the year 13 or 14. Because no husband is known for her, the assumption has been that Akhenaten was the father. The inscription giving the filiation of the child is damaged, thereby preventing resolution of the issue.
Various monuments, originally for Kiya, were reinscribed for Akhenaten's daughters Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten; the revised inscriptions list a Meritaten-tasherit ("junior") and an Ankhesenpaaten-tasherit. Some view this to indicate that Akhenaten fathered his own grandchildren. Others hold that, since these grandchildren are not attested to elsewhere, they are fictions invented to fill the space originally filled by Kiya's child.
Two other lovers have been suggested, but are not widely accepted:
Smenkhkare, Akhenaten's successor and/or co-ruler for the last years of his reign. Rather than a lover, however, Smenkhkare is likely to have been a half-brother or a son to Akhenaten. Some have even suggested that Smenkhkare was actually an alias of Nefertiti or Kiya, and therefore one of Akhenaten's wives (see below).
Tiye, his mother. Twelve years after the death of Amenhotep III, she is still mentioned in inscriptions as queen and beloved of the king, but kings' mothers often were. The few supporters of this theory (notably Immanuel Velikovsky) consider Akhenaten to be the historical model of legendary King Oedipus of Thebes, Greece and Tiye the model for his mother/wife Jocasta.
Akhenaten has been described as a visionary who cut through the formality of Egyptian religion to establish a connection with one God, the Aten. To some, Akhenaten was the first Monotheist who may have been inspired by Joseph or Moses. However, it is by no means as simple as that. Although Akhenaten's religion did center on one god, it was not strictly monotheistic and was by no means identical to the Israelites. It seems that the Apis cult was maintained and other gods are still mentioned in inscriptions (although they are usually solar gods or personifications of abstract ideas). In fact, the names of the Aten (which were written in a cartouche) describe the god in terms of the other gods.
Furthermore, it seems that the personal relationship with the Aten did not extend to the common people, just the Royal Family. Akhenaten and his family are frequently shown worshipping the Aten or simply enjoying everyday activities beneath the protective rays of the Aten disk, reinforcing the link between the king and his god. Ordinary people could not worship the Aten directly, they worshipped the King and the royal family. This gave the king absolute power over secular and religious life in Egypt. For this reason, some have suggested that Akhenaten's reasons were cynically political. They argue that the king was worried about the growing power of the priests of Amun, as his father Amenhotep III had been. By establishing a new order which rejected Amun in favour of the Aten (who was accessible primarily to the king) he took religion back from the priests.
As well as Nefertiti, Akhenaten surrounded himself with a number of powerful women whom he clearly adored and respected. Each of the royal women had her own sunshade temple where she could worship the Aten. They were generally located within beautiful gardens complete with ritual pools where the wonders of nature could be enjoyed. The Armarna women, in particular Nefertiti, seem to have represented the feminine aspect of the Aten as creator.
According to Ancient Alien Theory ... Nefertiti and Akhenaten were not of this world
Pharaoh Akhenaten sings the song of life in his Hymn to the sun
From Pharaoh Akhenaten's 'Hymn to the Aten'
Cattle browse peacefully, trees and plants are verdant, birds fly from their nests, lift up their wings in praise of Aten. Cattle browse peacefully, trees and plants are verdant, birds fly from their nests, lift up their wings in praise of Aten.
Animals frisk upon their feet, winged things fly and alight once more, coming to life with the rising of Aten.
Boats sail upstream and boats sail downstream, when Aten rises every highway is opened.
Before Aten's face the fish leap up from the river, Aten's rays reach the green ocean.
Aten, it is who places the male seed in woman, who creates the semen in man; Aten quickens the Son in his mother's belly, soothing him so that he shall not cry.
Akhenaten's Vision
It was said that one day Akhenaten had a vision wherein he saw a sun disc between two mountains. He felt that God was guiding him to make change. He was shown the God, Aten, as the Sun Disk - the Light. He felt guided by Aten to build a city between the two mountains.
In the sixth year of his reign Akhenaten rejected the Gods of Thebes. They were never part of his childhood anyway since he had been shunned as a child. Akhenaten had declared for the first time in recorded history that there was only one God - the concept of monotheism. Overnight he turned 2,000 years of Egyptian religious upside down...
Art or illness?
Akhenaten was often depicted with an elongated jaw line, wide hips and a round belly. This development was a complete break from all of the conventions of ancient Egyptian art, and has led to some fairly wide speculation. Was the pharaoh developing a new art form, or suffering from a physical affliction?
A colossal statue of Akhenaten from his Aten Temple at Karnak. Egyptian Museum of Cairo.
The Wilbour Plaque, ca. 1352-1336 B.C.E, Brooklyn Museum This relief depicts Akhenaten and Nefertiti late in their reign.
Both Smith and Aldred attributed the "deformity" to an endocrine disorder called Froehlich's Syndrome. In males, this disorder is typified by an elongated face and an androgynous figure. However, it also hinders sexual development and causes severe learning difficulties, obesity and impotency. Pharaoh Akhenaten had many children, and while his sculptures may give him an androgynous appearance, he is not obese.
There is no evidence that he suffered from a severe learning disability, and it would certainly have been difficult for him to have succeeded with such a bold challenge to tradition without being fairly astute. Furthermore, he apparently wrote a number of poems or hymns including the famous Hymn to the Aten. Thus it seems unlikely he was suffering from Froehlich's Syndrome.
Other theorists (such as Bob Brier) have suggested that the king actually suffered from Marfan's syndrome. Many sufferers have a long face, slender tapered fingers, long arms and legs, and a curvature of the spine. However, the disease does not affect intelligence or fertility. Marfan's syndrome is hereditary, and could help explain the high mortality rate within the family. Three of his daughters, and his co-regent Smenkhkare all died young. However, Tutankhamen, does not appear to have suffered from the condition. This could be explained if Tutankhamun was not his son, but then, who was his father? Proponents of the view that Akhenaten was physically disabled note that he was barely mentioned during his father's reign and suggest that he was hidden away because of his deformity. However, it was fairly common for the male offspring of the king to remain in the shadows until they held a position of specific importance, such as heir or co-regent, and Thuthmosis (Akhenaten's elder brother) was the first choice as heir. Akhenaten only rose to importance when his brother died.
With only pictorial evidence of a physical abnormality it is dangerous to jump to conclusions. Egyptian art often employs symbolism to create layers of meaning for a scene. As the god Aten was hailed as "The mother and father of all people", and Akhenaten was the representative of the god on earth, he may have chosen the androgynous image to show that he was more than just a man; he was the embodiment of the Aten. No mummy has yet been identified as being that of Akhenaten, and so the controversy continues.
Amarna is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site that represents the remains of the capital city newly established and built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1353 BC), and abandoned shortly afterwards. The name for the city employed by the ancient Egyptians is written as Akhetaten (or Akhetaton - transliterations vary) in English transliteration. Akhetaten means "Horizon of the Aten."
The area is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya, some 58 km (36 mi) south of the city of al-Minya, 312 km (194 mi) south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km (250 mi) north of Luxor. The site of Amarna includes several modern villages, chief of which are el-Till in the north and el-Hagg Qandil in the south.The area was also occupied during later Roman and early Christian times, excavations to the south of the city have found several structures from this period.
Amarna was never a lost city. It lay as a visible ruin close to the Nile and close to inhabited villages. It was recognized as an ancient city by the French military expedition sent to Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. They made a rapid sketch plan before passing on.
During the 19th century more detailed and more accurate plans were made by European scholars. Their maps of the central parts of the city are surprisingly detailed in view of the fact that, as yet, no archaeological excavation had taken place. The explanation is likely to be that many walls had been recently exposed by people from the villages digging into the ancient remains to look for treasure and also to remove bricks for re-use. evertheless, the outline of the city and the limits of the cultivated land have not changed greatly in the century and a half that has since passed.
In 1824 and 1826 the English Egyptologist Sir John Gardner Wilkinson visited Amarna and made this sketch plan in pencil of the central area. The many numbers written on the plan are the numbers of his paces, which he used as a means of measuring distances. The result is remarkably accurate. The original map is now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The most thorough of the pre-modern plans of Amarna was made by the Prussian expedition of K.R. Lepsius who visited Amarna in the 1840s. The main improvement over the map of Wilkinson is the inclusion of most of the residential part of the city to the south of the Central City, an area which Wilkinson only roughly indicated.
Between 1979 and 1988 the city was remapped by Barry Kemp and Salvatore Garfi. The series of eight map sheets and accompanying volume of text are published as B.J. Kemp and S. Garfi, A survey of the ancient city of El-Amarna (London, Egypt Exploration Society 1993)
Wanting to make a complete break, Akhenaten and Nefertiti left Thebes behind, and following the guidance of his God Aten, he moved his family 180 miles north, to a site known as El-Amarna. There, in the dessert he established his new religion by building an entire city dedicated to Aten complete with a necropolis and royal tomb.
In 1346 BC work began on this new city built in middle Egypt, on a site thought to have been chosen as it was not tainted by the worship of the other gods. In 1344 BC the central section of Akhetaten was completed. Nefertiti's prominent role in Egyptian royal rule and religious worship reflects her influence in the public sphere. During the early years of her royal reign, Nefertiti as part of her religious conversion changed her name. Nefertiti which means "The-beautiful-one -is come" became Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti or "The-Aten-is -radiant-of-radiance because the-beautiful-one-is come".
A different interpretation of the name change, translated Neferneferuaten to mean--"Perfect One of the Aten's Perfection".
Ancient Egyptian Woman with 70 Hair Extensions Discovered Live Science - September 17, 2014
More than 3,300 years ago, in a newly built city in Egypt, a woman with an incredibly elaborate hairstyle of lengthy hair extensions was laid to rest. She was not mummified, her body simply being wrapped in a mat. When archaeologists uncovered her remains they found she wore "a very complex coiffure with approximately 70 extensions fastened in different layers and heights on the head. Researchers don't know her name, age or occupation, but she is one of hundreds of people, including many others whose hairstyles are still intact, who were buried in a cemetery near an ancient city now called Amarna.
The City
In its finished state Armana offered a theatrical setting for celebrating Akhenaten's kingship. The city sprawled for miles over the plain. There were elegant palaces, statues of the Pharaoh, good housing throughout the city, a royal road that ran through the center of town, probably the widest street in the ancient world. It was designed for chariot processions, with Akhenaten leading the way. Spanning the road, a bridge connected the palace with the temple area. Akhnaton and Nefertiti appeared before the people on the balcony known as the "window of appearances", tossing down gold ornaments and other gifts.
The People
At its height the city grew to more than 10,000 people - bureaucrats, artisans, boatmen, priests, traders and their families. Though most were happy, many were not, especially those who did not like to stand in the open sun. Akhenaten worshipers spent lots of time in the sun.
Akhenaten wanted everyone to be happy. He created a beautiful, idealistic religion and Utopia for his people but many just didn't understand it. Akhenaten was not living in the reality of his worshippers. Though he had found himself and his God but the people were used to Gods they could see, carved in stone with beautiful bodies, many with heads of animals. Akhenaten's God was too much of an abstraction. Aten was the basic principle of the universe, Light! They also wondered why the sun God only shed its rays on the royal family and not everyone.
According to present evidence, however, it appears that it was only the upper echelons of society which embraced the new religion with any fervor. Excavations at Amarna have indicated that even here the old way of religion continued among the ordinary people. On a wider scale, throughout Egypt, the new cult does not seem to have had much effect at a common level except, of course, in dismantling the priesthood and closing the temples; but then the ordinary populace had had little to do with the religious establishment anyway, except on the high days and holidays when the god's statue would be carried in procession from the sanctuary outside the great temple walls.
Akhenaten's Politics
The Amarna Tablets - Letters
A priceless cache of diplomatic letters written on clay tablets was discovered in the city of Akhetaten. The "Amarna Letters" were written in cuniform, the lingua-franca of the ancient world, and arrived from imperial outposts and foreign allies. The letters suggest that he had withdrawn from the world and that Egypt was no longer taking her part in world events. There are a number of letters from governors and kings of subject nations begging for help, usually money. The authors seem to feel abandoned by their powerful friend and left to the wolves. Other evidence suggests that Akhenaten quarreled with the king of Mitanni, former allies of Egypt, and concluded an alliance with the Hittites! This warlike nation then attacked Mitanni and stole their land. Many other small nation states (who were also allied to Egypt) rebelled against the Hittites and wrote begging Akhenaten for help, but it seems that he did not respond and the Hittites captured or killed their leaders and seized a significant amount of land.
It is suggested that Akhenaten increasingly left government and diplomats to their own devices. This made the vizier, Ay (father of Nefertiti), and the general Horemheb (who was married to Ay's other daughter Mutnodjme) very powerful, and both men went on to become pharaoh.
Elongated Skull
This female head has an elongated skull, and is probably a child of Amenhotep IV-Akhenaten (1351-1334 BCE).
Akhenaten the Heretic Pharaoh
Akhenaten was known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV. He was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and was the father of Tutankhamun. He is especially noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten
The Aten, the sun-disk, is first referred to as a deity in The Story of Sinuhe from the 12th dynasty, in which the deceased king is described as rising as a god to the heavens and uniting with the sun-disk, the divine body merging with its maker. By analogy, the term “silver Aten” was sometimes used to refer to the moon. The solar Aten was extensively worshiped as a god in the reign of Amenhotep III when it was depicted as a falcon-headed man much like Ra. Akhenaten claimed, “There is only one god, my father. I can approach him by day, by night.” This was a very, very strange statement for the time. Akhenaten could have been the first monotheist in all of history, a precursor to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Muhammad as prophets who worshiped one god.
In the reign of Amenhotep III’s successor, Amenhotep IV or Akhenaten, the Aten became the central god of Egyptian state religion, Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten to reflect his close link with the new supreme deity.
According to Ancient Alien Theory ... Nefertiti and Akhenaten were not of this world ... coming here to help humans understand that there is only one god ... light and consciousness ... and the worship of stone idols is false. Was that really the sun they were praying to or something else?
Three thousand years ago, the rebel Pharaoh Akhenaten preached monotheism and enraged the Nile Valley. Less than 100 years after Akhenaten's death, Moses would be preaching monotheism on the bank of the Nile River, to the Israelis. The idea of a single God, once the radical belief of an isolated heretic, is now embraced by Moslems, Christians, and Jews throughout the world. The vision of Akhenaten lives on!
Pharaoh Akhenaten: A Different View of the Heretic King Ancient Origins - January 28, 2016
We have to go back four generations to find the beginnings of the religious upheaval that was to culminate in the so-called heresy of Akhenaten. Amenhotep II built a temple to the Sphinx at Giza and was named ruler of Heliopolis, rather than Thebes. His son, Tuthmose IV, owed his throne to the Sphinx, as the combination deity Ra-Horakhti, and by association to the Heliopolitan priesthood. His marriage to the daughter of the king of Mitanni added a foreign element to the court, which appears to have promoted a degree of free thinking.
Akhenaten's Politics
A priceless cache of diplomatic letters written on clay tablets was discovered in the city of Akhetaten. The "Amarna Letters" were written in cuniform, the lingua-franca of the ancient world, and arrived from imperial outposts and foreign allies. The letters suggest that he had withdrawn from the world and that Egypt was no longer taking her part in world events. There are a number of letters from governors and kings of subject nations begging for help, usually money. The authors seem to feel abandoned by their powerful friend and left to the wolves. Other evidence suggests that Akhenaten quarreled with the king of Mitanni, former allies of Egypt, and concluded an alliance with the Hittites! This warlike nation then attacked Mitanni and stole their land. Many other small nation states (who were also allied to Egypt) rebelled against the Hittites and wrote begging Akhenaten for help, but it seems that he did not respond and the Hittites captured or killed their leaders and seized a significant amount of land.
It is suggested that Akhenaten increasingly left government and diplomats to their own devices. This made the vizier, Ay (father of Nefertiti), and the general Horemheb (who was married to Ay's other daughter Mutnodjme) very powerful, and both men went on to become pharaoh.
Plague and Exodus
During the Amarna period there seems to have been widespread famine and disease. It is thought that the plague, or the first recorded epidemic of influenza spread through Egypt and the Middle East, killing thousands. It seems that the Hittite King, Suppiluliumas, died in the epidemic and it is also possible that it claimed the lives of a number of his children. Of course, many commentators have suggested that this was the biblical plague which accompanied the exodus, but there is no evidence in support of this view. It has also been suggested that Amenhotep III had tried to placate the (solar) goddess Sekhmet, "the lady of pestilence" to avert the plague, and when this failed his son Akhenaten went one step further and appealed directly to the sun god for deliverance. In any case, later Egyptians may well have viewed the plague as retribution for the neglect of the traditional gods of ancient Egypt.
End Times
Akhenaten lived in his dream in Amarna for ten years as conditions grew worse in Egypt. He remained isolated from the true problems of the people. Akhenaten apparently neglected foreign policy, allowing Egypt's captured territories to be taken back, though it seems likely that this image can be partially explained by the iconography of the time, which downplayed his role as warrior.
Nefertiti is depicted in her advanced years. She wears a long, white linen dress that allows the contours of her body to be seen. It has been speculated that this small statuette was the model for a life size representation that was never executed. Arnold points out that, although she is past her prime, she is not old. While this may be true, the sagging features of the statuette do indicate that she is no longer the vivacious Queen.
In 1335 BC Nefertiti, Akhenaten's wife and companion, is said to have disappeared and most likely died. His mother Tiye had also died as did his minor wife, Kia. That combined with the loss of his daughter made Akhenaten feel alone and depressed.
Nefertiti's disappearance coincided with the sudden appearance of a young man named Smenkhkare. Smenkhkare, who was given the same title (Neferneferuaten) as the now vanished Nefertiti, was crowned co-regent to Akhenaten when he (Smenkhkare) was about sixteen. He was married to Akhenaten's eldest daughter, Merytaten.
There is uncertainty about the relationship between Akhenaten and his successors, Smenkhkare and Tutankhamun. The biggest mystery associated with Smenkhkare was where he came from. It is possible that both he and Tutankhamun were Akhenaten's sons by another wife, possibly Kiya who was 'much loved' of the Pharaoh. As there was inbreeding to keep the line pure we may never know the relationships within their family.
It is also a matter of great controversy as to whether or not Smenkhkare continued to reign after Akhenaten died. According to Dr. Donald Redford, a professor of Egyptology and the director of the Akhenaten Temple Project, Smenkhkare may have succeeded Akhenaten by a short while, during which he made half-hearted attempts at going back to the old religion (something which probably wouldn't have happened while Akhenaten was alive). Another thing that suggests that he outlived Akhenaten are references to him made in certain tombs. He was also buried in the old capital.
But here one has to consider the way Akhenaten behaved concerning those people who were known to be his children. Every one of his six daughters, whenever referred to in writings from the period, was repeatedly called 'the king's daughter, of his loins, (daughter's name)'.
In Egypt, as with any other kingdom of the ancient or not so ancient world, male heirs were much desired. If Akhenaten had a son, he almost certainly would have repeatedly said so.
Cyril Aldred, a prominent Egyptologist who has written several books about Akhenaten, uses the argument that Smenkhkare must have been born three years before Akhenaten's reign began, thereby reducing the likelihood of his being Akhenaten's child.
Yet another possibility is that one of Akhenaten's many sisters was the mother of Smenkhkare. Because Smenkhkare appeared at the same time that Nefertiti seemingly vanished from view, and because he shared the title "Beloved of Akhenaten" with Nefertiti, some scholars believe that Nefertiti and Smenkhkare were one and the same. Nefertiti did have more power than many of the other queens in Egypt, and is often depicted wearing certain crowns that were normally reserved for kings. Thus, it is perhaps not too out of line to think that she might have disguised herself as a man and shared kingship with Akhenaten. However, Redford notes that, for one thing, it would be odd even for the Amarna family to have Nefertiti posing as a man and marrying her own daughter. Not only that, but to deny the existence of Smenkhkare, one would have to ignore one major finding: the body in Tomb 55.
Tutankhaten came to the throne when he was about eight years old and became known as "The boy king" by modern people. He became quite famous when his tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in the 1920s. Tutankhaten succeeded Akhenaten and Smenkhkare and was married to Akhenaten's daughter Ankhesenpaaten. Th couple soon changed their names to Tutankhamen and Ankhesenamun, moved away from Akhetaten, and reestablished the old religion. Tutankhaten reigned until he was about eighteen when he died.
Tutankhaten's origins are just as hazy as Smenkhkare's. Some would claim that he was Kiya's son by Akhenaten. However, if Tutankhaten and Smenkhkare were really brothers, as the bodies of the two suggest, then this would again bring up the question of the likelihood of Smenkhkare being Akhenaten's son.
One theory is that Tutankhaten was Akhenaten's brother. That would lead to the conclusion that both Smenkhkare and Tutankhaten were sons of queen Tiyee.They both bear a strong resemblance to certain portraits of Tiyee, but Tiyee may have been too old to have children by the time Tutankhaten was born. Another problem is that Amenhotep III was, in all probability, well dead by this time, although there is much speculation about a co-regency between Akhenaten and his father.
One intriguing discovery is an inscription which calls Tutankhaten "The king's son, of his loins". This could be interpreted in a number of ways. One is that Tutankhaten really was Akhenaten's child. However, this possibility has already been mostly ruled out. Another possibility is that Amenhotep III remained virile and active even in his last years and was able to father Tutankhaten just before he died (assuming that there was a co-regency).
Yet a third possibility is that Tutankhaten was Smenkhkare's son. If Smenkhkare fathered Tutankhaten the same year that he married Merytaten, and then went on to outlive Akhenaten by about three years, then that would make Tutankhaten just barely seven when he came to the throne of Egypt (Tutankhaten was thought to have come to the throne when he was eight or nine).
In 1332 BC Akhenaten died, the circumstances never explained. His memory and all that he had created soon to erased from history not to be found for centuries later.
The last dated appearance of Akhenaten and the Amarna family is in the tomb of Meryra II, and dates from second month, year 12 of his reign. After this the historical record is unclear, and only with the succession of Tutankhamun is somewhat clarified.
Akhenaten planned to relocate Egyptian burials on the East side of the Nile (sunrise) rather than on the West side (sunset), in the Royal Wadi in Akhetaten His body was removed after the court returned to Thebes, and recent genetic tests have confirmed that the body found buried in tomb KV55 was the father of Tutankhamun, and is therefore "most probably" Akhenaten, although this is disputed. The tomb contained numerous Amarna era objects including a royal funerary mask which had been deliberately destroyed. His sarcophagus was destroyed but has since been reconstructed and now sits outside in the Cairo Museum.
Although it is accepted that Akhenaten himself died in Year 17 of his reign, the question of whether Smenkhkare became co-regent perhaps two or three years earlier or enjoyed a brief independent reign is unclear. If Smenkhkare outlived Akhenaten, and became sole Pharaoh, he likely ruled Egypt for less than a year.
Akhenaten's Royal Tomb in Amarna
Royal Tomb at Amarna- Akhenaten and Nefertiti grieve over daughter
Drawing of Relief (N. Davies, The Rock Tombs of el-Amrna, 1903-08)
Profile view of the skull of Akhenaten recovered from KV55
The skull of a pharaoh discovered in January 1907, by Edward Ayrton & Theodore Davis KV 55 (tomb55), now located in Cairo Museum, CG61075.
Akhenaten's sarcophagus reconstituted from pieces discovered in his original tomb in Amarna, now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
The desecrated royal coffin of Akhenaten found in Tomb KV55
In 1344 BC the building of the Royal Tomb at Akhetaten began - completed while Akhenaten was pharaoh. It was very similar to a 'standard' tomb found in the Valley of the Kings - a straight forward design of corridors and rooms along a single axis, but this tomb was to change with the addition of two more separate suites of rooms. Research at the Royal Tomb has given evidence that Akhenaten was allegedly buried in a pink granite sarcophagus - although both this and the remains of another sarcophagus found at the tomb, were smashed to pieces and then scattered over some distance. However enough of Akhenaten's sarcophagus has been recovered to reconstruct it, the corners had figures of Queen Nefertiti extending protective arms like the guardian of the four quarters.
Tomb 55 in the Valley of the Kings
Of all the royal mummies ever discovered none has ever caused more controversy then the one found in tomb 55 of the Valley of the Kings.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, Theodore Davis, a wealthy American excavating in Egypt, discovered a tomb in which a burial from the Armana period had been reinterred. This tomb was clearly unfinished, and the burial a hasty one. Gilded wooden inlay panels on the floor and against the wall. They bore the damaged image of Akhenaten worshiping the sun disc and the name of Queen Tiye.
In a niche were four beautiful alabaster jars that held the internal organs of the mummies. Lying on the floor was a badly damaged but beautiful coffin made with thousands of paste in-lays and semi-precious stones in the shape of protective wings. The cartouches containing the occupants name had been hacked out.
When they opened the coffin they found a mummy wrapped in gold-leaf. But as they touched the mummy it crumbled to dust leaving the excavators with a pile of disarticulated bones at the bottom of the coffin. But beneath the skeleton, the last sheet of gold, seemed to have the damaged named of Akhenaten written on it. The pelvis was wide like a female's. The head was elongated.
What really became of Akhenaten's mummy still remains a mystery. Fragments of sculpture and carving from the royal tomb at Akhetaten shows that his body was originally put there, but no sign of the mummy remains. It is possible that followers of the Aten feared for it's destruction, which would deny him eternal life, and moved the body to a place of safety.
Akhenaten is perhaps unfairly not credited with being a particularly successful Pharaoh. Records seem to indicate that he allowed Egyptian influence wane but this may not be true. These ideas are based on the famous Amarna Tablets found in Akhetaten in many of which Egyptian vassal cities plead for assistance, but no replies are preserved. As there is no surviving record of Egyptian territory being lost at this time it is possible that Akhenaten was merely skillfully playing one city against the other to achieve through diplomacy what would otherwise require military force.
Reference: Wikipedia & Various documents on Egypt.
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