Amarna Period

The Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian history

during the latter half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when
the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was
shifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the Aten') in what is
now Amarna. It was marked by the reign of Amenhotep
IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten (13531336
BC) in order to reect the dramatic change of Egypts
polytheistic religion into one where the sun disc Aten
was worshipped over all other gods. Aten was not solely
worshipped (the religion was not monotheistic), but the
other gods were worshipped to a signicantly lesser degree. The Egyptian pantheon of the equality of all gods
and goddesses was restored under Akhenatens successor.

religious beliefs fell out of favor. This was partly because

access to Amun-Re was limited only to the king and his
family. Only they were allowed to worship, and the rest
were left to worship the king and his family.[1]

2 Royal women
The royal women of Amarna have more surviving text
about them than any other women from ancient Egypt.
It is clear that they played a large role in royal and religious functions. These women were frequently portrayed
as being very powerful. Many of the kings daughters
(Amenhotep) had inuences as great if not greater than
his wives. Tiye and Nefertiti were the most inuential
of his wives, and Nefertiti was said to be the force behind the new monotheist religion. Nefertiti, whose name
means the beautiful one is here, bore six of Amenhoteps daughters. There is a debate whether the relationship between Amenhotep and his daughters was sexual. 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 kings chief wife, came to be known as the
commoner queen for the lack of royal blood. Tiye
came from a military family, and had inuence even after Amenhoteps death.[2]

Religious developments

Akhenaten instigated the earliest veried expression of

monotheism, (although the origins of a pure monotheism are the subject of continuing debate within the academic community and some state that Akhenaten restored monotheism while others point out that he merely
suppressed a dominant solar cult by the assertion of another, while he never completely abandoned several other
traditional deities). Scholars believe that Akhenatens devotion to his deity, Aten, oended many in power below him, which contributed to the end of this dynasty; he
later suered damnatio memoriae. Although modern students of Egyptology consider the monotheism of Akhenaten the most important event of this period, the later
Egyptians considered the so-called Amarna period an unfortunate aberration. Religion prompted many innovations in the name and service of religion. They viewed
religion and science as one in the same. Previously, the
presence of many gods explained the natural phenomena, but during the Amarna period there was a rise in
monotheism. With people beginning to think of the origins of the universe, Amun-Re was seen as the sole creator and Sun-god. The view of this god is seen through the
poem entitled Hymn to the Aten"; When your movements disappear and you go to rest in the Akhet, the land
is in darkness, in the manner of death... darkness a blanket, the land in stillness, with the one who makes them at
rest in his Akhet. The land grows bright once you have appeared in the Akhet, shining in the sun disk by day. When
you dispel darkness and give your rays, the Two Lands are
in a festival of light. From the poem, one can see that the
nature of the gods daily activity revolves around recreating the earth on a daily basis. It also focuses on the present
life rather than on eternity. After the Amarna reign, these

3 Art
Main article: Amarna art
During Akhenatens reign, royal portraiture underwent
dramatic change. Sculptures of Akhenaten deviate from
conventional portrayal of royalty. Akhenaten is depicted
in an androgynous and highly stylized manner, with large
thighs, a slim torso, drooping belly, full lips, and a long
neck and nose.[3] Some believe that the break with convention was due to the presence at Amarna of new people or groups of artists whose background and training
were dierent from those of the Karnak sculptors.[4]
The events following Akhenatens death are unclear and
the identity and policies of his co-regent and immediate
successor are the matter of ongoing scholarly debate.
1

FOREIGN RELATIONS

The last two members of the eighteenth dynasty - Ay and

Horemheb - became rulers from the ranks of ocials in
the royal court, although Ay may have married the widow
of Tutankhamun in order to obtain power and she did not
live long afterward. Ays reign was short. His successor
was Horemheb, a general in the egyptian army, who had
been a diplomat in the administration of Tutankhamun
and may have been intended as his successor by the childless Tutankhamun. Horemheb may have taken the throne
away from Ay in a coup. He also died childless and appointed his successor, Paramessu, who under the name
Ramesses I ascended the throne in 1292 BC and was the
rst pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty.

5 Foreign relations

A relief of a royal couple in the Amarna-period style; gures

may be Akhenaten and Nefertiti, Smenkhkare and Meritaten, or
Tutankhamen and Ankhesenamun; Egyptian Museum of Berlin.

Tutankhamun and the Amarna

Succession

Main article: Amarna succession

Tutankhamun died before he was twenty years old, and
the dynastys nal years clearly were shaky. The royal line
of the dynasty died out with Tutankhamun. Two fetuses
found buried in his tomb may have been his twin daughters who would have continued the royal lineage, according to a 2008 investigation.[5] An unidentied Egyptian queen Dakhamunzu, widow of King Nibhururiya
is known from Hittite annals. She is often identied as
Ankhesenamun, royal wife of Tutankhamun, although
Nefertiti and Meritaten have also been suggested as possible candidates. This queen wrote to Suppiluliuma I, king
of the Hittites, asking him to send one of his sons to become her husband and king of Egypt. In her letters she
expressed fear and a reluctance to take as husband one
of her servants. Suppiluliumas sent an ambassador to investigate, and after further negotiations agreed to send
one of his sons to Egypt. This prince, named Zannanza
was however murdered, probably en route to Egypt. Suppiluliumas reacted with rage at the news of his sons death
and accused the Egyptians. Then, he retaliated by going
to war against Egypts vassal states in Syria and Northern
Canaan and captured the city of Amki. Unfortunately,
Egyptian prisoners of war from Amki carried a plague
which eventually would ravage the Hittite Empire and kill
both Suppiluliumas I and his direct successor.

Map of the ancient Near East during the Amarna period, showing
the great powers of the period: Egypt (green), Hatti (yellow), the
Kassite kingdom of Babylon (purple), Assyria (grey), and Mittani
(red). Lighter areas show direct control, darker areas represent
spheres of inuence. The extent of the Achaean/Mycenaean civilization is shown in orange.

The Great Powers Club is a recent reference to the

correspondence between the Great Kings as found in the
Amarna Letters.
These powers are Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni and Hatti,
viz. the major powers in Mesopotamia, the Levant and
Anatolia 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 of
people and were referred to in the letters as Karaduniyas
[6]
Babylon was ruled by the Kassite dynasty which would
later on assimilate to the Babylonian culture. The letters of correspondence between the two deal with various
trivial things but it also contained one of the few messages from Egypt to another power. It was the pharaoh

5.2

Amarna Letters

3
Tusratta to the pharaoh. The other correspondence of
note dealt with a gold status that was addressed in EA 26
and EA 27. Akhenaten married a princess of the Mittani
nation in order to create ties between the nations through
the bond or marriage.

Assur

Zubeidi

Mari

Imlihiye
Dur-Kurigalzu

kilometers
miles

100

Sippar

5.1.4 Hatti EA 41-44

Kish

Susa

Babylon

Nippur
Isin

Babylonia

at the time of the

Kassites

13th century BC

Girsu
Uruk

Ur

The extent of the Babylonian Empire during the Kassite dynasty

responding to the demands of the King Kasashman-Enlil

who initially inquired about the whereabouts of his sister, that was sent as a diplomatic marriage. The king,
Kasashman-Enlil who is hesitant to send out his daughter
to another diplomatic marriage until he knows the status
of his sister. The pharaoh responds by politely telling the
king to send someone who would recognize his sister.[7]
Then later correspondence dealt with the importance of
exchanging of gifts namely the gold which is used in the
construction of a temple in Babylonia. There was also a
correspondence where the Babylonian king was oended
by not having a proper escort for a princess. He was distraught by how few the chariots there was to transport her
and would be ashamed by the responses by the great kings
of the region.[8]
5.1.2

Assyria EA 15-16

Kingdom from Eastern Anatolia that would later on make

the Mitanni a vassal of them. The correspondence from
them come from the king called Suppiluliumas. The letters varied from discussing about past alliances, to gift
giving and dealing with honor. In EA 42, the tablet stated
how the Hittite king was oended by the name of the
pharaoh written over his name. Although, the ending of
the text became too fragmented it mentioned that he will
blot out the name of the pharaoh.[11]

5.2 Amarna Letters

Main article: Amarna letters
These letters took their name from the region they were
found called el-Amarna, 190 miles south of Cairo.[12]
They are dated from the late Bronze Age during the 18th
Dynasty of Egypt from the reign of Amenhotep III to
Akhenaten and a possible third king.[13] They are clay
tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform, the Lingua franca
of the time. The dates of these correspondence are from
the New Kingdom. Within these tablets, there exists dialogue between what ancient historians began to term the
Great Powers Club which included Babylonia, Assyria,
Mittani, and Hatti.[14] The letters range from inquiries
about diplomatic marriages to requesting gifts. These letters themselves were not the earliest moments of international relations but greatly intrigued people who desired
to study the beginnings of international relations as they
saw and hoped to tie in the Amarna Letters to the happenings of the Cold War. These letters demonstrated a
glimpse in how the ancient Near East Great Powers interacted with each other.[15] The success of this system
lasted for two hundred years and there was no signicant
ghting amongst these great powers.[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 dealt
with him introducing himself and sending a messenger to
investigate Egypt He should see what you are like and
what your country is like, and then leave for here. (EA
15) The second letter dealt with him inquiring why Egypt
was not sending enough gold to him and arguing about
prot for the king. then let him (a messenger) stay out
and let him die right there in the sun, but for (but) for the These clay tablets were found in the city of el-Amarna
which was founded by the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten.
king himself there must be a prot. [9]
The locations of these tablets today are found in various museums such as the Vorderasiatisches Museum in
5.1.3 Mittani EA 1730
Berlin, the British Museum, the Cairo Museum and the
Oriental Institute.[17] There are over 300 tablets that range
Once enemies,The Mittannis were an old ally of Egypt from foreign correspondence to inventories. The modern
by the time of the Amarna letters.[10] The topics as hit by division of these letters were due to the Norwegian Asthe King Tuiseratta dealt with various topics as preserv- syriologist J. A. Knudtzon who published Die El-Amarnaing and renewing marriage alliances or sending in various Tafeln.[18] There are over three hundred of these mesgifts. For example, EA 22 and EA 25 in the Amarna let- sages but some are in such a bad condition that they could
ters is just an inventory of the gifts from the Mittani king not be fully recovered.

5.2.1

The opening statement

William Moran discussed how the rst line in these documents followed a certain pattern of Say to PN. Thus
PN. There are variations of this but was found common
among all the tablets. The other is a salutation which
is one a report of the monarchs well being and then
the second which is a series of good wishes toward the
monarch.[19] Indeed, this seems to be part of the style of
Akkadian style of writing which helped facilitate foreign
correspondence for the long term. As scholars argued,
this aided in ltering out the chauvinistic domestic ideology at home to the other monarch. This allowed diplomacy to ourish which aided to the relative peace of the
time.[20]

5.2.2

Brothership

Despite the fact that there are great distances between the
rulers. The concept of a global village reigned.
The importance of this in EA 7 is that it demonstrates the
mindset of the rulers in the Near East world at the time.
The enlarged village which scholars like to term permeated their thoughts where they took the idea of brotherhood. They were related through the political marriages
but is an idea of a village of clans which gives reason to
the good wishes and update on the health of the monarchs themselves. The monarchs seem to have very little
concept of the time of travel between each other and at
most likely saw that the village worldview they lived in
was applicable for the long distant correspondence of the
Amarna letters.[21] Indeed, there is a constant demonstration of love as seen in these letters. Scholars pointed out
that to demonstrate good friendship it had to be on the
practical level of constant stream of gift giving. This request for gifts is constant with the various correspondence
with the Great Kings.[22]

Gallery of images
Queen Tiye, matriarch of the Amarna Dynasty.
She was the mother of Akhenaten and wife of
Amenhotep III. She mainly ran Egypts aairs of
state for her son.
Akhenaten, born Amenhotep IV, began a religious
revolution in which he declared Aten was a supreme
god and turned his back on the old traditions. He
moved the capital to Akhetaten.
Queen Nefertiti, the daughter of Ay, married
Akhenaten. Her role in daily life at the court soon
extended from Great Royal Wife to that of a coregent. It is also possible that she may have ruled
Egypt in her own right as pharaoh, Neferneferuaten.

GALLERY OF IMAGES

Smenkhkare, was a co-regent of Akhenaten who

ruled after his death.
It was believed that
Smenkhkare was a male guise of Nefertiti. However, it is accepted that Smenkhkare was a male.
He took Meritaten, Queen Nefertitis daughter as his
wife.
Queen Meritaten, was the oldest daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. She was the wife of Smenkhkare.
She also may have ruled Egypt in her own right as
pharaoh and is one the possible candidates of being
the pharaoh, Neferneferuaten.
Neferneferure and Neferneferuaten Tasherit.
Shown here as children, they were two of six
daughters born to Akhenaten and Nefertiti. It is
possible that Neferneferuaten Tasherit was the one
who may have been her fathers co-regent and may
have ruled as the female pharaoh, Neferneferuaten.
Kiya. She was one of Akhenatens secondary wives.
It was once believed that she was the mother of Tutankhamun, but that was proven not the case when
DNA revealed it not so.
The Younger Lady mummy of KV35 was by
DNA matching Tutankhamuns mother. Originally thought to be Nefertiti, DNA showed that she
was the sister of Akhenaten. Princess Nebetah or
Beketaten are considered candidates.
Maia was the wet nurse of the Crown Prince, Tutankhamun. Having lost his mother at a young age,
she helped rear the young prince. Maia was later
allowed to have a grand tomb at Saqarra. Here the
young prince holds her hand.
Tutankhamun, formerly Tutankhaten, was Akhenatens son through an incestuous relationship with
his sister. As pharaoh, he instigated policies to restore Egypt to its old religion and moved the capital
back to Memphis.
Ankhesenamun, born Ankhesenpaaten, was the
wife of Tutankhamun, and daughter of Akhenaten.
After her husbands death, she was married to her
maternal grandfather Ay.
Ay served as vizier to Akhenaten, and Tutankhamun. He was the father of Nefertiti. After
the death of Tutankhamun, Ay lay a claim to the
throne by burying him and by marrying his granddaughter Ankhesenamun.
After the death of Ay, Horemheb assumed the
throne. A commoner, he had served as vizier to
both Tutankhamun and Ay. Horemheb instigated a
policy of damnatio memoriae, against everyone associated with the Amarna period. He was married
to Nefertitis sister, Mutnodjmet, who died in child
birth. With no heir, he appointed his own vizier,
Paramessu as his successor.

5
The ruins of Akhetaten. Now commonly called
Amarna, Akhenatens capital city was abandoned by
Tutankhamun. It survived several years before being torn apart by Horemhebs orders.

See also
Foreign relations of Egypt during the Amarna period
Amarna letters

References

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

Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, 1996. Print.
[2] Arnold, Dorothea, James P. Allen, and L. Green. The
Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, 1996. Print.
[3] Cothren, Michael and Stokstad, Marilyn: Art History.
Prentice Hall, 2011.
[4] Arnold, Dorothea, James P. Allen, and L. Green. The
Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, 1996. Print.
[5] Khanna, Aditi (2008-09-01). Bodies found in the tomb
of 'boy king' Tutankhamuns 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. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. p.xii. ISBN
0-8018-4251-4.
[13] Cohen, Raymond and Westbrook, Raymond. (2000).
Amarna Diplomacy: the Beginnings of International Relations. 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 Amarna
Diplomacy, edited by Raymond Cohen and Raymond
Westbrook, 18-19
[22] Zaccagnini, Carlos, The Interdependence of the Great
Powers, in Amarna Diplomacy, edited by Raymond Cohen and Raymond Westbrook, 145.

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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, Discospinster, Mandarax, Rjwilmsi, Markh, McGeddon, Chris the speller, NickPenguin, A. Parrot, Iuio, Doug Weller, JustAGal, Nick Number, 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 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Ambox_important.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work, based o 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-3.0
Contributors:
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

9.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0