The Amarna Period

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The Amarna Period

• 1352-1295 BC

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• 18th Dynasty 1550-1295 BC
• Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten 1352-1336 BC
• Neferneferuaten 1338-1336 BC
• Tutankhamun 1336-1327 BC
• Ay 1327-1323 BC
• Horemheb 1323-1295 BC

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• Amenhotep IIIs son, Amenhotep IV, succeeded
  his father in the throne around 1350 BC. In his
  3rd regnal year he stunned the Egyptians by
  building a new temple right in the jurisdiction
  of the Temple of Amun at Karnak. The new temple
  was dedicated to Re-Harakhti but not in the usual
  form of the (human-headed) falcon but in the form
  of a solar disk or solar orb, Aten. In many
  images life-giving rays emanate from the solar
  disk and they end in a hand in the ankh sign.

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• The new gods name was no longer Re-Horus of
  the Akhet but it was enclosed in two royal
  cartouches as follows

The living one, Re-Harakhti, who becomes active
in the Akhet, in his identity as the light that
is in the sundisk.
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• Completely ignoring the invisible Amun, this
  new theology placed emphasis on the life-creating
  visible power of the light. The new deity also
  emphasized that the sun-disk is only important as
  the source of the light that emanates from it. In
  his 5th regnal year he renamed himself as
  Akhenaten He who is effective in the sundisk.

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• But this heretic pharaoh went much further.
  He began a massive building project to found a
  new city Akhetaten the place where the sundisk
  becomes effective half-way between Memphis and
  Thebes. This is the site of the present day
  el-Amarna (the name of a Bedouin tribe) and this
  era of Egyptian history is consequently called
  the Amarna Period. For an initial few years Amun
  was still allowed to be worshipped.

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• In his 9th11th regnal year Akhenaten made a
  radical new policy. The double cartouches were
  changed to

The living one, the Sun, ruler of the Akhet, who
becomes active in the Akhet, in his identity as
the light that comes in the sun disk.
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• The changes are threefold. First, the
  reference to Re-Harakhti is omitted, second the
  name of the god Shu is substituted by the
  non-deity light third, deemphasized the role of
  the sundisk (only a vehicle not the origin of
  light). Later Akhenaten launched a wave of
  persecution for Amuns followers which is
  exemplified by chiseling out Amun and Mut from
  monuments.

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• His is attested by changing the plural gods
  into singular god by chiseling out the plural
  even in his fathers name Amenhotep III Amun is
  content the first word Amun was erased. He
  closed the temples of all major deities,
  including those of Amun.
• Some of the damages done by the iconoclasts
  have been restored mostly during the later part
  of the 18th Dynasty and the Ramesside Period. The
  most famous is the Karnak obelisk of Queen
  Hatshepsut.

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• Akhenatens Chief Wife Nefretiti (or
  Nefertiti) The Beautiful One Has Come was
  famous of her beauty. He gave unusual prominence
  to her as attested in reliefs showing her
  presenting Maat and smiting the enemy.

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• Yuya Tuya -gtTiya(daughter), Ay(son)
  -gtNefertiti(daughter)
  
  
  Mutnedjmet(daughter)
• Amenhotep III Tiya -gt Amenhotep IV
• Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten
• Nefretiti (Chief Wife, disappeared in regnal
  year 13/14, died?) -gt Meket-aten(oldest
  daughter), Ankhes-en-pa-aten and four other
  daughters
  
• Kiya (minor wife) -gtSmenkh-ka-are(son),Tut-a
  nkh-aten(son),
• 
  Meret-aten (oldest daughter)
• Meret-aten(replacing Nefertiti as Chief
  Wife)
• Ankh-es-en-pa-aten (10 years old, replaces
  Meret-aten) -gt
• 
  Ankh-es-en-pa-aten, the younger
• Smenkh-ka-re(co-regent) Not clear whether this
  king is Nefretiti/Neferneferuaten herself.
• Meret-aten (Chief Wife donated by Akhenaten)
  
• Tut-ankh-aten/Tut-ankh-amun Ankh-es-en-pa-aten/A
  nkh-es-en-amun
• Ay Ankh-es-en-amun(granddaughter of Ay)
• Horemheb (co-regent Tut-ankh-amuns general)
  Mut-nedjmet

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• In Akhenatens 14th regnal year plague swept
  through Egypt (Hittite texts) resulting the
  possible deaths of Meket-aten, Nefretiti, Kiya,
  Tiya and Akhenatens three daughters.
• Ay was Master of the Horse under Akhenaten, and
  vizier and regent under Tut-ankh-amun.

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• During the Amarna Period (Akhenaten and his
  successors) Egypt considerably weakened. The
  gradual decline was contemporaneous with the
  emergence of the Hittite Empire.
• Immediately after Akhenatens death (17th regnal
  year), Smenkh-ka-re and all the kings following
  began to peacefully reinstate Amun as the chief
  god to the Egyptian pantheon.

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• The main reason of failure of the Akhenatens
  religion was that
• He discontinued the religious traditions based on
  worship of Amun
• He was the sole intermediary between the new god
  Aten and his people and so the god was
  impersonal and difficult to relate to by the
  ordinary Egyptians.

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Art/Arhitecture during the Amarna Period

• New style of sculpture showing intimacy,
  affection, movement and speed. In architecture
  the use of talalat. No rigid grid in Amarna,
  clusters of small villages. Temples are open
  (Amarna lintels).

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Religion

• No judgement before Osiris, death and darkness
  is considered asleep. Making to the afterlife
  depended on following Akhenatens teachings.
  Amarna replaces Karnak as a religious center. The
  deceased are not shown in mummy forms, they are
  dressed and wear wigs.

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Tutankhamon

• Tutankhamon came to the throne as a child. (10
  regnal years).
• At the very beginning of his reign he abandoned
  Amarna, and moved the government back to Memphis.
• He changed his name from Tutankhaten to
  Tutankamon.
• The role of a regent is played by a senoior
  military official, with no royal blood-link,
  Horemheb.
• Major religious restoration by the assistance of
  Maya, the treasurer. The role of Ay.

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Restoration Stela

• Then his majesty made plans for this land and
  the daily needs. Then his majesty thought in his
  heart and searched for something magnificent
  useful for his father Amun. He created his holy
  statue from genuine electrum. He gave him more
  than had been done since the beginning.
• His majesty made monuments for the gods by
  making their holy statues of genuine electrum of
  the best of the foreign lands. He recreated their
  sanctuaries as monuments until the limits of
  eternity, exquisitely equipped with offerings for
  all eternity, by endowing them with divine
  offerings as regular daily sacrifices and
  endowing them with provisions on earth.

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Ay

• Unexpected death of Tutankhamon.
• Major confrontation with the Hittites end with
  Egyptian defeat.
• Ay, a senior curt adviser and trusted official of
  Akhenathen, ascends to the throne as an interim
  king for the widow Ankhesenamun.
• Tried to make a peace accord with the Hittites.

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Ankhesenamun

• When Tut-ankh-amun died and she made an
  unsuccessful attempt to secure a husband from the
  Hittites. This may have been instigated by Ay.
  She sent a letter to Suppilulimas, the Hittite
  king, to furnish a husband for her among the
  Hittite princes. The prince, Suppilulimas son,
  was murdered en route to Egypt, possibly by
  Horemheb. Ay, in his brief reign tried to prevent
  Horemheb to become king.

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Horemheb

• Last pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. Managed to pull
  Egypt together again.
• Coronation Text. Skirmishes and Egyptian defeat
  by the Hittites who conquered the kingdom of
  Mitanni.
• Demolition of Amarna. Building of the Great
  Hypostyle Hall in Karnak begins. When Horemheb
  died in his 25th regnal year, the power shifted
  to his military commander and vizier, Paramessu,
  the future Rameses I. This is the beginning of
  the Ramessid Period and the 19th Dynasty although
  some consider Horemheb as the founder of this
  dynasty.