[231] Basing his arguments on his belief that the Exodus story was historical, Freud argued that Moses had been an Atenist priest who was forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten's death. Enter your email address and we'll send you a link to reset your password. The views of Egyptologists differ whether Atenism should be considered as absolute monotheism, or whether it was monolatry, syncretism, or henotheism. For Schoch, this was an exciting find, but for mainstream science, it was met with derision and denial. Asteroid That Killed Dinosaurs; Would You Exist If It Hit Anywhere Else? User Reviews. [151][152], With Akhenaten's death, the Aten cult he had founded fell out of favor: at first gradually, and then with decisive finality. Slowly, however, Egypt's power started to wane. [212], Styles of art that flourished during the reigns of Akhenaten and his immediate successors, known as Amarna art, are markedly different from the traditional art of ancient Egypt. When Did the Americas Actually Become Inhabited? When her first son, Thutmose, met an untimely death, the shunned Amenhotep IV emerged from the background to enjoy a co-regency with his frail father before seizing absolute power over the kingdom. Archaeologists speculate that it was for this reason that Amenhotep II’s 38-year rule saw a peaceful, prosperous empire, with order among his many dutiful citizens and diplomacy with the empire’s bordering regions. [262] Additionally, Akhenaten appears as the enemy in the Assassin's Creed Origins The Curse of the Pharaohs downloadable content (2017), and must be defeated to remove his curse on Thebes. And, indeed, Amenhotep III’s citizens kept their end of the bargain in their display of piety and reverence for the gods that lent their graces to each aspect of daily life. The tomb of Ramose at Thebes (TT55) provides the best example of the sudden shift in artistic styles among the populace in response to the ruler’s religious revolution. Some Egyptologists, such as Donald B. Redford, compared this speech to a proclamation or manifesto, which foreshadowed and explained the pharaoh's later religious reforms centered around the Aten. 22–23: "...a significant part of the rest Of Psalm 104 (esp. Akhenaten (pronounced /ˌækəˈnɑːtən/),[8] also spelled Echnaton,[9] Akhenaton,[3] Ikhnaton,[2] and Khuenaten[10][11] (Ancient Egyptian: ꜣḫ-n-jtn, meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning c. 1353–1336[3] or 1351–1334 BC,[4] the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Akhenaton, Composer: Taxi. Is Ezekiel's Vision of the Wheel Evidence of UFOs in the Bible? Amenhotep III aimed to maintain the balance of power through marriages – such as his marriage to Tadukhipa, daughter of the Mitanni king Tushratta – and vassal states. [262] His afterlife takes the form of 'Aten', a location that draws heavily on the architecture of the city of Amarna.[263]. Behold, I, the king, am speaking so that I might inform you concerning the appearances of the gods. Genetic testing has determined that the man buried in KV55 was Tutankhamun's father,[19] but its identification as Akhenaten has since been questioned.[6][7][20][21][22]. The text refers to a building project in Amarna and establishes that Akhenaten and Nefertiti were still a royal couple just a year before Akhenaten's death. A group of Egypt's allies who attempted to rebel against the Hittites were captured, and wrote letters begging Akhenaten for troops, but he did not respond to most of their pleas. He then commissioned them to erect a new temple dedicated to the sun disc Aten. In this spot, he directed his crew to begin work, and his new capital soon rose from the dust. For example, he is the major antagonist in limited comic book series Marvel: The End (2003). 2 (feat. Portraits of the family depict the pharaoh and chief queen with only five children — disregarding Amenhotep IV completely. [107] The Amarna letters also show that vassal states were told repeatedly to expect the arrival of the Egyptian military on their lands, and provide evidence that these troops were dispatched and arrived at their destination. These so-called elongated skulls have been excavated not just from Ancient Egypt, but also from sites the world over, including the British Isles, Peru, Bolivia, and Germany. Traditionally, the portrayal of pharaohs—and the Egyptian ruling class—was idealized, and they were shown in "stereotypically 'beautiful' fashion" as youthful and athletic. Egyptologists in the early 20th century also believed that Akhenaten could have fathered a child with his second oldest daughter Meketaten. Examples of the latter include Akhnaton King of Egypt (1924) by Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Joseph and His Brothers (1933–1943) by Thomas Mann, Akhnaton (1973) by Agatha Christie, and Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth (1985) by Naguib Mahfouz. In this series, Akhenaten is abducted by an alien order in the 14th century BC and reappears on modern Earth seeking to restore his kingdom. Limestone, New Kingdom, Amarna Period, Dynasty XVIII, Reign of Akhenaten, ca. [95][96][97][98], Early in his reign, Akhenaten was evidently concerned about the expanding power of the Hittite Empire under Suppiluliuma I. [238], There are strong similarities between Akhenaten's Great Hymn to the Aten and the Biblical Psalm 104; however, there has been some debate as to whether the similarities reflect direct or indirect borrowing. Cyril Aldred, based on Amarna letters describing Egyptian troop movements, proposed that Akhenaten launched an unsuccessful war around the city of Gezer, while Marc Gabolde argued for an unsuccessful campaign around Kadesh. The earliest stage was associated with a growing number of depictions of the sun disc, though the disc is still seen resting on the head of the falcon-headed sun god Ra-Horakhty, as the god was traditionally represented. Dynasty XVIII 1370 B.C. , instead of purely divine beings, with Akhenaten and Nefertiti engaged in daily life. And perhaps it was because he had been so neglected in his youth and kept away from festivals celebrating the traditional deities that he developed less of an attachment to the idols that were held so dearly in the hearts of the populace. About a month later, day thirteen of the growing season's fourth month, one of the boundary stela at Akhetaten already had the name Akhenaten carved on it, implying that the pharaoh changed his name between the two inscriptions. Most recently, Egyptologist Zahi Hawass led a team of researchers to examine the mummy using medical and DNA analysis, with the results published in 2010. "[57], There is much controversy around whether Amenhotep IV acceded to Egypt's throne on the death of his father Amenhotep III or whether there was a coregency, lasting perhaps as long as 12 years. During a 1907 dig in Akhetaten, archaeologists discovered a coffin containing a badly damaged mummy, but upon an attempt at closer examination, its bones crumbled to dust — perhaps a final punishment of the Gods upon this heretic king. [57][72][73], Among the last documents that refer to Akhenaten as Amenhotep IV are two copies of a letter to the pharaoh from Ipy, the high steward of Memphis. Posing as a sentinel on the Giza plateau is the weathered and colossal figure that stands 66 feet above the desert sand, the Great Sphinx, a limestone sculpture with the head of a lion and the body of a human. Portraits of the family depict the pharaoh and chief queen with only five children — disregarding Amenhotep IV completely. Mainstream archaeologists determined the Sphinx to have been built between 2558 and 2532 BCE. "[172] During the Eighteenth Dynasty, a religious hymn to the sun also appeared and became popular among Egyptians. A successful Hittite attack on Mitanni and its ruler Tushratta would have disrupted the entire international balance of power in the Ancient Middle East at a time when Egypt had made peace with Mitanni; this would cause some of Egypt's vassals to switch their allegiances to the Hittites, as time would prove. Is The London Hammer An Ancient, Out of Place Artifact? But it is also argued by myriad scholars that his skull’s proportions were, in fact, realistic. The mummy has repeatedly been examined since its discovery in 1907. Nefertiti might not have assumed the role of coregent until after year sixteen, when a stela still mentions her as Akhenaten's Great Royal Wife. 1353-1335 BCE. The exact timing of their marriage is unknown, but inscriptions from the pharaoh's building projects suggest that they married either shortly before or after Akhenaten took the throne. [253], By the early 21st century, most Egyptologists argued that Akhenaten's portrayals are not the results of a genetic or medical condition, but rather should be interpreted through the lens of Atenism. This dramatic change could be observed in statues of the royal family, as well as in illustrations. Some historians see it as evidence for Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV's coregency, and believed that Amenhotep IV's Sed festival coincided with one of his father's celebrations. [56] It is known that Amenhotep's brother, crown prince Thutmose, served in this role before he died. [245], Cyril Aldred,[246] following up earlier arguments of Grafton Elliot Smith[247] and James Strachey,[248] suggested that Akhenaten may have suffered from Frölich's syndrome on the basis of his long jaw and his feminine appearance. [173] However, Egyptologists question whether there is a causal relationship between the cult of the sun disc before Akhenaten and Akhenaten's religious policies. Egyptian Pharaoh King Akhenaten Offering to Aten Sun God Relief - Reproduction after Museum Original from the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. 2010, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Akhenaten&oldid=1016790115, Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Articles containing Ancient Egyptian-language text, Articles with Spanish-language sources (es), Pages using Sister project links with wikidata namespace mismatch, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with default search, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with multiple identifiers, Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Najovits, Simson. Tutankamen, though he died a mere ten years into his reign, Tut did what he could to restore Egypt to its old ways, reviving the temples and the might of the Gods they honored. The order to construct the tomb and to bury the pharaoh there was commemorated on one of the boundary stela delineating the capital's borders: "Let a tomb be made for me in the eastern mountain [of Akhetaten]. In his second or twelfth year,[109] Akhenaten ordered his Viceroy of Kush Tuthmose to lead a military expedition to quell a rebellion and raids on settlements on the Nile by Nubian nomadic tribes. [129][130], Akhenaten could have ruled together with Smenkhkare and Nefertiti for several years before his death. [4] It is unknown how old Amenhotep IV was when he did this; estimates range from 10 to 23. "[201], Some debate has focused on the extent to which Akhenaten forced his religious reforms on his people. "[104] Others noted that the Amarna letters counter the conventional view that Akhenaten neglected Egypt's foreign territories in favour of his internal reforms. After the Amarna period, during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties—c. 03:51. [18] Furthermore, in 1907, a mummy that could be Akhenaten's was unearthed from the tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings by Edward R. Ayrton. [128] Regardless of its origin, the epidemic might account for several deaths in the royal family that occurred in the last five years of Akhenaten's reign, including those of his daughters Meketaten, Neferneferure, and Setepenre. His children are repeatedly portrayed through years of archaeological and iconographic evidence. Additionally, letters written to Akhenaten from foreign rulers make reference to Meritaten as "mistress of the house." Unpopularly, Amenhotep had chosen a god of his own to worship, the Aten, and declared that it was the only god. Shurik'n) Shurik'n. Perhaps most notable of Akhenaton’s artistic accomplishments was the swift transition of the formerly blocky Egyptian style to, . Upon careful inspection, Schoch realized the Sphinx survived intensely wet weather conditions that stand in stark contrast to the now hyper-arid conditions of the Sahara Desert. AKHENATON. For instance, Norman de Garis Davies praised Akhenaten's emphasis on diplomacy over war, while James Baikie said that the fact "that there is no evidence of revolt within the borders of Egypt itself during the whole reign is surely ample proof that there was no such abandonment of his royal duties on the part of Akhenaten as has been assumed. [258] The two most notable portrayals are Akenaten (1975), an unfilmed screenplay by Derek Jarman, and Akhnaten (1984), an opera by Philip Glass. "[83], Historians do not know for certain why Akhenaten established a new capital and left Thebes, the old capital. In releasing their test results, Hawass' team identified the mummy as the father of Tutankhamun and thus "most probably" Akhenaten. [255] A dividing line also exists between depictions of Akhenaten from before the 1920s and since, when more and more archeological discoveries started to provide artists with material evidence about his life and times. [190][191] Representations of the Aten were always accompanied with a sort of hieroglyphic footnote, stating that the representation of the sun as all-encompassing creator was to be taken as just that: a representation of something that, by its very nature as something transcending creation, cannot be fully or adequately represented by any one part of that creation. During the reign of Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the first pharaoh after Akhenaten who was not related to Akhenaten's family, Egyptians started to destroy temples to the Aten and reuse the building blocks in new construction projects, including in temples for the newly restored god Amun. The Theban Aten temples that had begun were abandoned, and a village of those working on Valley of the Kings tombs was relocated to the workers' village at Akhetaten.