Amarna Period

The Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian historyduring the latter half of the Eighteenth Dynasty whenthe royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen wasshifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the Aten') in what isnow Amarna. It was marked by the reign of AmenhotepIV, who changed his name to Akhenaten (1353–1336BC) in order to reflect the dramatic change of Egypt’spolytheistic religion into one where the sun disc Atenwas worshipped over all other gods. Aten was not solelyworshipped (the religion was not monotheistic), but theother gods were worshipped to a significantly lesser de-gree. The Egyptian pantheon of the equality of all godsand goddesses was restored under Akhenaten’s successor.

1 Religious developments

Akhenaten instigated the earliest verified expression ofmonotheism, (although the origins of a pure monothe-ism are the subject of continuing debate within the aca-demic community and some state that Akhenaten re-stored monotheism while others point out that he merelysuppressed a dominant solar cult by the assertion of an-other, while he never completely abandoned several othertraditional deities). Scholars believe that Akhenaten’s de-votion to his deity, Aten, offended many in power be-low him, which contributed to the end of this dynasty; helater suffered damnatio memoriae. Although modern stu-dents of Egyptology consider the monotheism of Akhen-aten the most important event of this period, the laterEgyptians considered the so-called Amarna period an un-fortunate aberration. Religion prompted many innova-tions in the name and service of religion. They viewedreligion and science as one in the same. Previously, thepresence of many gods explained the natural phenom-ena, but during the Amarna period there was a rise inmonotheism. With people beginning to think of the ori-gins of the universe, Amun-Re was seen as the sole cre-ator and Sun-god. The view of this god is seen through thepoem entitled “Hymn to the Aten"; “When your move-ments disappear and you go to rest in the Akhet, the landis in darkness, in the manner of death... darkness a blan-ket, the land in stillness, with the one who makes them atrest in his Akhet. The land grows bright once you have ap-peared in the Akhet, shining in the sun disk by day. Whenyou dispel darkness and give your rays, the Two Lands arein a festival of light.” From the poem, one can see that thenature of the god’s daily activity revolves around recreat-ing the earth on a daily basis. It also focuses on the presentlife rather than on eternity. After the Amarna reign, these

religious beliefs fell out of favor. This was partly becauseaccess to Amun-Re was limited only to the king and hisfamily. Only they were allowed to worship, and the restwere left to worship the king and his family.[1]

2 Royal women

The royal women of Amarna have more surviving textabout them than any other women from ancient Egypt.It is clear that they played a large role in royal and reli-gious functions. These women were frequently portrayedas being very powerful. Many of the king’s daughters(Amenhotep) had influences as great if not greater thanhis wives’. Tiye and Nefertiti were the most influentialof his wives, and Nefertiti was said to be the force be-hind the new monotheist religion. Nefertiti, whose namemeans “the beautiful one is here”, bore six of Amen-hotep’s daughters. There is a debate whether the rela-tionship between Amenhotep and his daughters was sex-ual. Although there is much controversy over this topic,there is no evidence that any of them bore his children.Amenhotep gave many of his daughters titles of queen.Tiye, the king’s chief wife, came to be known as the“commoner queen” for the lack of “royal blood”. Tiyecame from a military family, and had influence even af-ter Amenhotep’s death.[2]

3 Art

Main article: Amarna artDuring Akhenaten’s reign, royal portraiture underwentdramatic change. Sculptures of Akhenaten deviate fromconventional portrayal of royalty. Akhenaten is depictedin an androgynous and highly stylized manner, with largethighs, a slim torso, drooping belly, full lips, and a longneck and nose.[3] Some believe that the break with con-vention was due to “the presence at Amarna of new peo-ple or groups of artists whose background and trainingwere different from those of the Karnak sculptors.”[4]

The events following Akhenaten’s death are unclear andthe identity and policies of his co-regent and immediatesuccessor are the matter of ongoing scholarly debate.

1

2 5 FOREIGN RELATIONS

A relief of a royal couple in the Amarna-period style; figuresmay be Akhenaten and Nefertiti, Smenkhkare and Meritaten, orTutankhamen and Ankhesenamun; Egyptian Museum of Berlin.

4 Tutankhamun and the AmarnaSuccession

Main article: Amarna succession

Tutankhamun died before he was twenty years old, andthe dynasty’s final years clearly were shaky. The royal lineof the dynasty died out with Tutankhamun. Two fetusesfound buried in his tomb may have been his twin daugh-ters who would have continued the royal lineage, ac-cording to a 2008 investigation.[5] An unidentified Egyp-tian queen Dakhamunzu, widow of “King Nibhururiya”is known from Hittite annals. She is often identified asAnkhesenamun, royal wife of Tutankhamun, althoughNefertiti andMeritaten have also been suggested as possi-ble candidates. This queen wrote to Suppiluliuma I, kingof the Hittites, asking him to send one of his sons to be-come her husband and king of Egypt. In her letters sheexpressed fear and a reluctance to take as husband oneof her servants. Suppiluliumas sent an ambassador to in-vestigate, and after further negotiations agreed to sendone of his sons to Egypt. This prince, named Zannanzawas however murdered, probably en route to Egypt. Sup-piluliumas reacted with rage at the news of his son’s deathand accused the Egyptians. Then, he retaliated by goingto war against Egypt’s vassal states in Syria and NorthernCanaan and captured the city of Amki. Unfortunately,Egyptian prisoners of war from Amki carried a plaguewhich eventually would ravage the Hittite Empire and killboth Suppiluliumas I and his direct successor.

The last two members of the eighteenth dynasty - Ay andHoremheb - became rulers from the ranks of officials inthe royal court, although Ay may have married the widowof Tutankhamun in order to obtain power and she did notlive long afterward. Ay’s reign was short. His successorwas Horemheb, a general in the egyptian army, who hadbeen a diplomat in the administration of Tutankhamunand may have been intended as his successor by the child-less Tutankhamun. Horemheb may have taken the throneaway from Ay in a coup. He also died childless and ap-pointed his successor, Paramessu, who under the nameRamesses I ascended the throne in 1292 BC and was thefirst pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty.

5 Foreign relations

Map of the ancient Near East during the Amarna period, showingthe great powers of the period: Egypt (green), Hatti (yellow), theKassite kingdom of Babylon (purple), Assyria (grey), andMittani(red). Lighter areas show direct control, darker areas representspheres of influence. The extent of the Achaean/Mycenaean civ-ilization is shown in orange.

The Great Powers’ Club is a recent reference to thecorrespondence between the Great Kings as found in theAmarna Letters.These powers are Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni and Hatti,viz. the major powers in Mesopotamia, the Levant andAnatolia during the Late Bronze Age.

5.1 The Great Powers

5.1.1 Babylon EA 1-11

The Babylonians were conquered by an outside group ofpeople and were referred to in the letters as Karaduniyas[6] Babylon was ruled by the Kassite dynasty which wouldlater on assimilate to the Babylonian culture. The let-ters of correspondence between the two deal with varioustrivial things but it also contained one of the few mes-sages from Egypt to another power. It was the pharaoh

5.2 Amarna Letters 3

NippurIsin

Ur

ZubeidiMari

KishBabylon

Assur

Susa

100mileskilometers

Sippar

Uruk

Girsu

Imlihiye

Dur-Kurigalzu

at the time of theBabylonia

Kassites13th century BC

The extent of the Babylonian Empire during the Kassite dynasty

responding to the demands of the King Kasashman-Enlilwho initially inquired about the whereabouts of his sis-ter, that was sent as a diplomatic marriage. The king,Kasashman-Enlil who is hesitant to send out his daughterto another diplomatic marriage until he knows the statusof his sister. The pharaoh responds by politely telling theking to send someone who would recognize his sister.[7]Then later correspondence dealt with the importance ofexchanging of gifts namely the gold which is used in theconstruction of a temple in Babylonia. There was also acorrespondence where the Babylonian king was offendedby not having a proper escort for a princess. He was dis-traught by how few the chariots there was to transport herand would be ashamed by the responses by the great kingsof the region.[8]

5.1.2 Assyria EA 15-16

An independent power by the time of the Amarna letters,who were originally a vassal but regained independence.The two letters came from the king Assur-uballit dealtwith him introducing himself and sending a messenger toinvestigate Egypt “He should see what you are like andwhat your country is like, and then leave for here.” (EA15) The second letter dealt with him inquiring why Egyptwas not sending enough gold to him and arguing aboutprofit for the king. “then let him (a messenger) stay outand let him die right there in the sun, but for (but) for theking himself there must be a profit.” [9]

5.1.3 Mittani EA 17–30

Once enemies,The Mittannis were an old ally of Egyptby the time of the Amarna letters.[10] The topics as hit bythe King Tuiseratta dealt with various topics as preserv-ing and renewing marriage alliances or sending in variousgifts. For example, EA 22 and EA 25 in the Amarna let-ters is just an inventory of the gifts from the Mittani king

Tusratta to the pharaoh. The other correspondence ofnote dealt with a gold status that was addressed in EA 26and EA 27. Akhenaten married a princess of the Mittanination in order to create ties between the nations throughthe bond or marriage.

5.1.4 Hatti EA 41-44

Kingdom from Eastern Anatolia that would later on makethe Mitanni a vassal of them. The correspondence fromthem come from the king called Suppiluliumas. The let-ters varied from discussing about past alliances, to giftgiving and dealing with honor. In EA 42, the tablet statedhow the Hittite king was offended by the name of thepharaoh written over his name. Although, the ending ofthe text became too fragmented it mentioned that he willblot out the name of the pharaoh.[11]

5.2 Amarna Letters

Main article: Amarna letters

These letters took their name from the region they werefound called el-Amarna, 190 miles south of Cairo.[12]They are dated from the late Bronze Age during the 18thDynasty of Egypt from the reign of Amenhotep III toAkhenaten and a possible third king.[13] They are claytablets written in Akkadian cuneiform, the Lingua francaof the time. The dates of these correspondence are fromthe New Kingdom. Within these tablets, there exists dia-logue between what ancient historians began to term theGreat Powers’ Club which included Babylonia, Assyria,Mittani, and Hatti.[14] The letters range from inquiriesabout diplomatic marriages to requesting gifts. These let-ters themselves were not the earliest moments of interna-tional relations but greatly intrigued people who desiredto study the beginnings of international relations as theysaw and hoped to tie in the Amarna Letters to the hap-penings of the Cold War. These letters demonstrated aglimpse in how the ancient Near East Great Powers in-teracted with each other.[15] The success of this systemlasted for two hundred years and there was no significantfighting amongst these great powers.[16]

These clay tablets were found in the city of el-Amarnawhich was founded by the “heretic” pharaoh Akhenaten.The locations of these tablets today are found in vari-ous museums such as the Vorderasiatisches Museum inBerlin, the British Museum, the Cairo Museum and theOriental Institute.[17] There are over 300 tablets that rangefrom foreign correspondence to inventories. The moderndivision of these letters were due to the Norwegian As-syriologist J. A. Knudtzon who publishedDie El-Amarna-Tafeln.[18] There are over three hundred of these mes-sages but some are in such a bad condition that they couldnot be fully recovered.

4 6 GALLERY OF IMAGES

5.2.1 The opening statement

William Moran discussed how the first line in these doc-uments followed a certain pattern of “Say to PN. ThusPN.” There are variations of this but was found commonamong all the tablets. The other is a salutation whichis one a report of the monarch’s well being and thenthe second which is a series of good wishes toward themonarch.[19] Indeed, this seems to be part of the style ofAkkadian style of writing which helped facilitate foreigncorrespondence for the long term. As scholars argued,this aided in filtering out the chauvinistic domestic ideol-ogy at home to the other monarch. This allowed diplo-macy to flourish which aided to the relative peace of thetime.[20]

5.2.2 Brothership

Despite the fact that there are great distances between therulers. The concept of a global village reigned.The importance of this in EA 7 is that it demonstrates themindset of the rulers in the Near East world at the time.The “enlarged village” which scholars like to term perme-ated their thoughts where they took the idea of brother-hood. They were related through the political marriagesbut is an idea of a village of clans which gives reason tothe good wishes and update on the health of the monar-chs themselves. The monarchs seem to have very littleconcept of the time of travel between each other and atmost likely saw that the village worldview they lived inwas applicable for the long distant correspondence of theAmarna letters.[21] Indeed, there is a constant demonstra-tion of love as seen in these letters. Scholars pointed outthat to demonstrate good friendship it had to be on thepractical level of constant stream of gift giving. This re-quest for gifts is constant with the various correspondencewith the Great Kings.[22]

6 Gallery of images

• Queen Tiye, matriarch of the Amarna Dynasty.She was the mother of Akhenaten and wife ofAmenhotep III. She mainly ran Egypt’s affairs ofstate for her son.

• Akhenaten, born Amenhotep IV, began a religiousrevolution in which he declared Aten was a supremegod and turned his back on the old traditions. Hemoved the capital to Akhetaten.

• Queen Nefertiti, the daughter of Ay, marriedAkhenaten. Her role in daily life at the court soonextended from Great Royal Wife to that of a co-regent. It is also possible that she may have ruledEgypt in her own right as pharaoh, Neferneferuaten.

• Smenkhkare, was a co-regent of Akhenaten whoruled after his death. It was believed thatSmenkhkare was a male guise of Nefertiti. How-ever, it is accepted that Smenkhkare was a male.He tookMeritaten, Queen Nefertiti’s daughter as hiswife.

• QueenMeritaten, was the oldest daughter of Akhen-aten and Nefertiti. She was the wife of Smenkhkare.She also may have ruled Egypt in her own right aspharaoh and is one the possible candidates of beingthe pharaoh, Neferneferuaten.

• Neferneferure and Neferneferuaten Tasherit.Shown here as children, they were two of sixdaughters born to Akhenaten and Nefertiti. It ispossible that Neferneferuaten Tasherit was the onewho may have been her father’s co-regent and mayhave ruled as the female pharaoh, Neferneferuaten.

• Kiya. She was one of Akhenaten’s secondary wives.It was once believed that she was the mother of Tu-tankhamun, but that was proven not the case whenDNA revealed it not so.

• The Younger Lady mummy of KV35 was byDNA matching Tutankhamun’s mother. Origi-nally thought to be Nefertiti, DNA showed that shewas the sister of Akhenaten. Princess Nebetah orBeketaten are considered candidates.

• Maia was the wet nurse of the Crown Prince, Tu-tankhamun. Having lost his mother at a young age,she helped rear the young prince. Maia was laterallowed to have a grand tomb at Saqarra. Here theyoung prince holds her hand.

• Tutankhamun, formerly Tutankhaten, was Akhen-aten’s son through an incestuous relationship withhis sister. As pharaoh, he instigated policies to re-store Egypt to its old religion and moved the capitalback to Memphis.

• Ankhesenamun, born Ankhesenpaaten, was thewife of Tutankhamun, and daughter of Akhenaten.After her husband’s death, she was married to hermaternal grandfather Ay.

• Ay served as vizier to Akhenaten, and Tu-tankhamun. He was the father of Nefertiti. Afterthe death of Tutankhamun, Ay lay a claim to thethrone by burying him and by marrying his grand-daughter Ankhesenamun.

• After the death of Ay, Horemheb assumed thethrone. A commoner, he had served as vizier toboth Tutankhamun and Ay. Horemheb instigated apolicy of damnatio memoriae, against everyone as-sociated with the Amarna period. He was marriedto Nefertiti’s sister, Mutnodjmet, who died in childbirth. With no heir, he appointed his own vizier,Paramessu as his successor.

5

• The ruins of Akhetaten. Now commonly calledAmarna, Akhenaten’s capital city was abandoned byTutankhamun. It survived several years before be-ing torn apart by Horemheb’s orders.

7 See also• Foreign relations of Egypt during theAmarna period

• Amarna letters

8 References[1] Arnold, Dorothea, James P. Allen, and L. Green. The

Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from An-cient Egypt. New York: The Metropolitan Museum ofArt, 1996. Print.

[2] Arnold, Dorothea, James P. Allen, and L. Green. TheRoyal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from An-cient Egypt. New York: The Metropolitan Museum ofArt, 1996. Print.

[3] Cothren, Michael and Stokstad, Marilyn: Art History.Prentice Hall, 2011.

[4] Arnold, Dorothea, James P. Allen, and L. Green. TheRoyal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from An-cient Egypt. New York: The Metropolitan Museum ofArt, 1996. Print.

[5] Khanna, Aditi (2008-09-01). “Bodies found in the tombof 'boy king' Tutankhamun’s tomb are twin daughters”.Times Online (London). Retrieved 2008-09-01.

[6] Ibid., 7

[7] Moran. Amarna Letters. 1-3

[8] Moran. Amarna Diplomacy. 21

[9] Moran. Amarna Letters. 41-42.

[10] Cohan and Westbrook. Amarna Diplomacy. 6.

[11] Moran. Amarna Diplomacy. 116

[12] Moran, William L. (1992). The Amarna Letters. Balti-more: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. p.xii. ISBN0-8018-4251-4.

[13] Cohen, Raymond and Westbrook, Raymond. (2000).Amarna Diplomacy: the Beginnings of International Re-lations. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp.6 ISBN 0-8018-6199-3

[14] Ibid., 6-7

[15] Ibid., 3-4

[16] Ibid., 234

[17] Moran. Amarna Letters. xiii - xv

[18] Ibid., xiv

[19] Moran. Amarna Letters. XXII - XXIII.

[20] Cohan and Westbrook. Amarna Diplomacy. 235-236

[21] Liverani, Mario, “The Great Powers’ Club,” in AmarnaDiplomacy, edited by Raymond Cohen and RaymondWestbrook, 18-19

[22] Zaccagnini, Carlos, “The Interdependence of the GreatPowers,” in Amarna Diplomacy, edited by Raymond Co-hen and Raymond Westbrook, 145.

6 9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1 Text• Amarna Period Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarna_Period?oldid=666808318 Contributors: Charles Matthews, Robbot, Dis-cospinster, Mandarax, Rjwilmsi, Markh, McGeddon, Chris the speller, NickPenguin, A. Parrot, Iuio, Doug Weller, JustAGal, Nick Num-ber, Magioladitis, JaGa, VolkovBot, TXiKiBoT, PericlesofAthens, Fadesga, EoGuy, Burner0718, Addbot, West.andrew.g, AnomieBOT,Xqbot, Nicolas Perrault III, LucienBOT, PigFlu Oink, MKFI, RjwilmsiBot, Ineverheardofhim, Beyond My Ken, ClueBot NG, Ecozart2,ChrisGualtieri, Cml5911pl, Iry-Hor, Everymorning, , Luna92, Bella Gambit and Anonymous: 26

9.2 Images• File:Akhenaten,_Nefertiti_and_their_children.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Akhenaten%2C_Nefertiti_and_their_children.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:Amarnamap.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Amarnamap.png License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Con-tributors: ? Original artist: ?

• File:Ambox_important.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg License: Public do-main Contributors: Own work, based off of Image:Ambox scales.svg Original artist: Dsmurat (talk · contribs)

• File:Kassite_Babylonia_EN.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Kassite_Babylonia_EN.svg License:GFDL Contributors: Own work Original artist: MapMaster

• File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0Contributors:Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:Tkgd2007

• File:Spaziergang_im_Garten_Amarna_Berlin.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Spaziergang_im_Garten_Amarna_Berlin.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work (own photograph) Original artist: Photo: Andreas Praefcke

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