Anth.310 Ppt. lecture-16: Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), part-2: his reign, new royal capital...

ANTH 310:

Imperial & Post-Imperial Egypt: 1550 – 332 BCE

(Amarna period: Akhenaten)

Lecture 16: A.IV / Akhenaten& his new City of the Horizon of the Aten (Akhetaten).

© Gregory Mumford 2021

CONTENTS: Amenhotep III / Akhenaten.

(1). Planning the new royal city of Akhetaten (“Horizon of the Aten”) 5

(2.a). Quarrying talatat blocks for the new Aten temples 11

(2.b.). “Custom post” or related facility guarding access to N. plain … 14

(3). The North Riverside Palace 17

(4). The North Palace 24

(5). The North Suburb 33

(6). The City “Centre”: Palaces, temples, administration 38

(7). The Main City: Immediately south of the city “centre” 89

(8). The South Suburb 102

(9). The Meru Aten: “Pleasure Garden” … 120

See next lecture for continuing coverage of Tell el-Amarna, etc.

(10). Selected SOURCES on the city: 128

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Tell el-Amarna: Akhetaten.

Amenhotep IV

(renamed: Akhenaten)

Ca. 1352 – 1336 BC

(1). Planning the

new royal city

of Akhetaten

(“Horizon of the Aten”)

Akhenaten:

City planning:

- Solar symbolism and symmetry

underlying main elements of city:

a. Royal tomb at apex & point of

rebirth (dawn) where sun rises.

b. Small Aten temple midway between

Stelae X and M bounding plain.

c. Other major structures along N-S

Great Royal road.

d. Temples open to sky

(like Heliopolitan sun-temples).

e. Some similarities to Thebes:

1. Opet festival route & procession of

Amun, Mut, and Khonsu

2. Royal road and procession of

Aten, Akhenaten, and Nefertiti

Akhenaten: City of Akhetaten

City planning:








Great Royal road.




1. Opet festival route & procession of

Amun, Mut, and Khonsu


Aten, Akhenaten, and Nefertitihttps://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/preservation/small_aten.shtml

https://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/preservation/small_aten.shtml

Sacred city

Secular city

King’s axis

Aten’s axis

Akhenaten:

City planning:








Great Royal road.




1. Opet festival route & procession

of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu


Aten, Akhenaten, and NefertitiRoyal family procession replaces the Theban

Opet procession & other cult processions

Dyn. 5: Sun Temple at Abu Ghurab

Traditional

festival

processions

of cult images

in public

= now gone!

The Aten is

visible to all

during the day

i.e., don’t need

a public procession

BUT

the Amarna royal

procession essentially

now takes this role

Amenhotep IV


Ca. 1352 – 1336 BC

(2.a). Quarrying

talatat blocks

for the new Aten temples

Quarrying talatat blocks:

- Sandstone

- Smaller blocks

- Easy to cut and handle by

1 person.

- Allowed rapid construction

of new temples.

- Plastered and incised

decoration.

- Another idea: The blocks

replicate Djoser’s Dyn.3

Step Pyramid stones

(i.e., with solar affiliations)

Building entirely new city & other temples in 5 years:

using $$$, 1000s of workers, and “talatat” blocks

Quarry-2 called “Queen Tiye”

Rapid construction using talatat blocks

Amenhotep IV


Ca. 1352 – 1336 BC

(2.b). Northern

“custom post” or related

facility guarding access to

northern plain of Amarna

Tell el-Amarna: The “North City,” includes a complex of mudbrick structures

at the entry to the Amarna plain, which probably reflects a ‘guard post’ (“N.A.B”)

N.A.B. = Northern Administrative Building

“North City”

N.A.B.

See Whittemore, T., 1926. “The excavations at El-‘Amarnah, season 1924–5.”

Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 12, 3–12.

“Checkpoint” / N. Admin. Building:“At the far northern end the character of the

site changes. A single major building ran

down the slope on a series of terraces,

effectively blocking land access from the

north. At its centre was a large courtyard cut

back into the rocky slope, leaving a projecting

platform of rock. The plan of the whole

buildings suggests that storage and admin-

istration were its main functions, but in what

ways it fitted into the organization of the city

is not known. For convenience it is known

as the North Administrative Building. It was

excavated by T. Whittemore in 1924–5.”See:https://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/amarna

_the_place/north_city/index.shtml

Stevens (2020: 76, fig. 51 detail)

https://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/amarna_the_place/map.shtml

https://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/amarna_the_

place/north_city/index.shtml

https://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/amarna_the_place/north_city/index.shtml


https://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/amarna_the_place/map.shtml



Amenhotep IV


Ca. 1352 – 1336 BC

(3). The North

Riverside Palace

at Tell el-Amarna

NORTHRiverside

Palace

Tell el-Amarna: North Riverside Palace, villas opposite palace.

- Well-fortified, isolated main residence for the royal family: see great gateway.

- Heavily fortified & guarded; beginning of royal processional route to town.

Great Gateway

North

Gate

N. Riverside Palace

Great Gate

N. Riverside Palace North Gate reconstruction from dec. frags.

North

Riverside

Palace:

The king

commuted

3 km by

chariot to

the Great

Palace.

Amarna tomb of Mahu: Akhenaten driving a chariot: e.g., to the city

Tell el-Amarna: Villas opposite the North Riverside Palace …

Amenhotep IV


Ca. 1352 – 1336 BC

(4). The North Palace

of Nefertiti → Meritaten

at Tell el-Amarna

NORTH

PALACE

Limestone slab: sculptor’s model of princess nibbling a duck

North Palace:

North Palace:- A door jamb naming last

occupant: Prs. Meritaten

- Inscribed over an earlier

name possibly Nefertiti?

North Palace:

- Palace residence intended

for Princess Meritaten

(= eldest; palace for senior

princess/queen).

- Theorized as her place of

“refuge” following notion

she had fallen from favour.

- Many jar sealings bearing

her name.

Wall-paintings with many

scenes of marsh life.

- Possibly zoological garden

North Palace: NE Garden Court with adjacent rooms, including ‘Green Room’

‘Green Room’ wall painting:

- Water, loti, vegetation, birds

North Palace:

- 14 limestone animal

mangers set in brick

troughs around room,

depicting domesticated

& wild animals: e.g.,ox

- Tethering stones with

Akhenaten’s cartouche

Reconstruction of the North Palace of Meritaten:

See B. J. Kemp (2012), The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and its People

Amenhotep IV


Ca. 1352 – 1336 BC

(5). The North Suburb

at Tell el-Amarna

NORTH

SUBURB

Reconstruction of various homes along East-West wadi in the North Suburb

Affiliated small

houses & workshops:

Faience jewelry

production

Amenhotep IV


Ca. 1352 – 1336 BC

(6). The City Centre

(palaces; temples; admin.)

at Tell el-Amarna

CITY

CENTRE

City centre at Akhet-Aten:

“Horizon of the Aten”

Great Royal

Palace

Tell el-Amarna: Central city –the Great Palace

- State audiences, receptions, matters of state, some administrative offices, etc.

- Also harem quarters for various lower to medium ranked concubines/queens.

River Nile

(somewhere close-by to the West: i.e., depictions of palace show quays)

Tell el-Amarna: Central City, Great Palace complex along the river front

All external

arrivals by river

Tell el-Amarna: Central City, Great Palace.

Amarna Tomb of Meryre: Akhenaten & Nefertiti inspect …

ships and reward ‘Admiral’ Meryra (“chief of the Menesh-boat”).

Riverine harbour at Akhetaten (Amarna)

Arrival by river

Major reception area

dominating palace

Great Palace: North Harem quarters & Garden Court

• Reconstruction of the harem quarters in the

Great Palace, with a central courtyard garden into

which 30 single rooms look: retainer quarters?/other?

• 10 larger suites lie to north+south: higher status?

Private tomb depictions of harem quarters:

• Note corridor, outer main pillared chamber, and

two smaller inner chamber depicted & on plan.

• Illustrations reveal the outer chamber = used

for entertainment: seating, music, dining, etc.

• Back rooms: tables, storage chests, supports

for wine jars, musical instruments, beds(?), etc.

Syrian

women

Another private tomb illustration of the harem quarters in the Great Palace:

Note: the illustrations are more schematic providing only a sense of the layout.

Guards at entry:

- Sweeper, etc.

Reception room:

- Cushions, tables

- Various foods

- Harps, lyres. etc.

- Females eating,

relaxing, playing,

grooming, etc.

Inner rooms:

- Chests, tables, …

- Mus-instruments

- Wine jars, jugs,

cosmetic jars, …

• 3, 4, & 6 persons shown in outer roomsSyrian

women

Painted flooring in Great Palace

• Decorative motifs of bound

POWs on walkways; marshes

and vegetation on side areas.

Great Palace in city centre at Tell el-Amarna (Akhetaten)

Painted flooring in Rm-F: i.e., replicating nature throughout palace

Separate residence for King

when he needs to stay in city

Tell el-Amarna:

Central City:

- Bridge crossing main

N-S road between the

king’s house and the

Great Palace.

- Ensuring privacy/safety

- Providing major public

window of appearances

- Public rewards

Bridge spanning the King’s road

might look similar to this.

Window of appearances

Tell el-Amarna: Central City, The King’s House and the Great Palace.

Tell el-Amarna:

Central City: King’s House

• King’s small residence in the

city centre (opposite the main

Great Palace).

• Wall painting showing family

A reminder of his family life painted in the King’s House within the city:

A semi-private setting showing human persona in the person of the king & family

AKHETATEN: The King’s House beside the Great Palace in the central city:

The Window of Appearances

Akhenaten:

Controlling the elite:

- Akhenaten = sole mediator

between populace and the

Aten.

- No other gods available to

elite & populace (in theory)

*-Actually common folk retain deities

Another window of appearances

may lie nearer ground level in

the king’s small town residence:

- Rewarding officials → buying

their continued loyalty publicly

- Illustrating publicly the

benefits of loyal service.

- SEE later coverage on mortuary

cult changes.

Private tombs illustrate high officials receiving

lavish rewards from the king & queen in public

Amarna tomb of Ay: Ay departs reward ceremony; he shows rewards to friends & lackeys

Official Buildings in

the Central City …

• Records office …

• “House of Life”

• “Office of the Royal

Scribe …”

• “Office of the Town

of the Aten”

“Office of the

correspondence

of the Pharaoh”

Central city: “Office of the correspondence of the pharaoh”

Mud brick stamped with:

“House of the

correspondence of

the Pharaoh” Petrie’s plan of the find spot of some Amarna tablets

The Amarna Letters: - International correspondence

- vassal correspondence

Spans last years of Amenhotep III (co-regency?)

to advent of Tutankhamun

Small sanctuary of the Aten

beside the King’s House

= aligned with

the royal tomb

Small Aten temple“Mortuary Temple”→ tomb

Small Cult-statue shrine of the king

Structure R43.2 in/near central city

• To the SE of the “King’s House”

and the “Small Aten Temple”

Amarna Great Palace and a recently found adjacent “House of Rejoicing”

• 1934 excavation of 2 stone structures

• 1996 re-examination of this area:

- Traces of mud brick and stone in dump

- Southern courtyard discovered

- Additional mud brick walls

- Block citing “House of Rejoicing”

The Great Temple

to the Aten:

300 x 800 metres

outer enclosure.

Tell el-Amarna: Central City, Gem-Aten in the Great Temple and quay.

The Great Temple

Reconstructing the Great Temple to the Aten …

Stevens (2020: 126, figs. 97-98)

Stevens (2020: 94, fig. 68)

Tell el-Amarna: Central City, Gem-Aten in the Great Temple.- Open to sun (Aten solar cult)

Tell el-Amarna: Central City, Gem-Aten in the Great Temple.

Note: numerous offering tables under the sun = new feature!

Offering tables

Amarna period: cut entryway to enable

free passage of sun through temple

Great Temple of the Aten:

Block showing altars filled with offerings

Gem-Aten & adjacent altars at the West end of the Great Temple of the Aten

The Sanctuary

for the Aten in

the Great Temple

Tell el-Amarna: Central City, Sanctuary in the Great Temple.

Butchery yardBenben altar + stela

(sacred solar symbol)

Sanctuary

Tell el-Amarna: Central City, Sanctuary in the Great Temple.

Great Temple

Amarna Tomb of Meryre I: illustrating butchery yard, stela, & Aten Sanctuary

Osiride-style

statues of king

Stela

Amarna Tomb of Mahu: Akhenaten & royal family offering before the Aten

Tell el-Amarna: Central City, House of the Chief Servitor of the Aten.

Tell el-Amarna: Central City, Storehouse of the “Ka (‘spirit’) of Re” Lives.

TEMPLE BAKERIES

Bakeries found outside the southern enclosure walls of

the two Aten temples

Tell el-Amarna:

• Feeding the

city centre:

State offices,

temples, etc.

& private homes

• Grinding grain,

making bread,

beer, etc.

Police Headquarters

(with stables)

Tell el-Amarna: Central City: Police Barracks.

Amenhotep IV


Ca. 1352 – 1336 BC

(6). The Main City

at Tell el-Amarna

MAIN

CITY

Brick Making

Industrial production area lies immediately to south:

Faience & glass production:

• The main city has yielded many

workshops, including furnaces for

producing glass & faience items.

House P.47 and associated workshop of the sculptor Thutmose

A favoured sculptor of the royal family and nobility.

Thutmose’s studio:

sculptures still in-situ

House P.47. of sculptor Thutmose

Nefertiti’s head = removed ‘secretly’

from Egypt in 1921

Clay plaster cast of Akhenaten(?) & Unfinished sculpture of Nefertiti

Unfinished composite sculptures of Nefertiti

from the studio/workshop of the sculptor Thutmose

Workshop of the sculptor Thutmose

unfinished statue of Akhenaten,

in the process of being sculpted

using black-painted guide-lines.

Unfinished sculpture of a princess: classic Amarna “egg-head” skull shape)

From the studio/workshop of the sculptor Thutmose

(beside his house at Akhetaten = Area P.47)

Realism?

i.e., Marfens synd.

Emulation?

i.e., of Akhenaten

Exaggeration?

i.e., Amarna art style

Clay casts (with some sculpting/shaping) from real facesFrom the studio/workshop of the sculptor Thutmose (beside his house)

Youthful woman? → royal family? Older woman

Amarna tomb of Huya: illustrating the workshop of another sculptor, Iuty.

Production of similar works to those found in Thutmose’s workshop.

Iuty adding

finishing touches

to princess statuette

Iuty’s apprentices at work

on various wooden sculptures

Amenhotep IV


Ca. 1352 – 1336 BC

(7). The South Suburb

at Tell el-Amarna

SOUTH

SUBURB

Tell el-Amarna: Central City,

The South Suburb viewed from

the Central City.

Tell el-Amarna: housing sizes

Serration of House sizes:

10 x 10 m+ 100-149 m. = 60.1%12 x 12 m+ 150-199 m. = 11.7%14 x 14 m+ 200-249 m. = 9.2%16 x 16 m+ 250-299 m. = 8.4%17 x 17 m+ 300-349 m. = 3.8%19 x 19 m+ 350-399 m. = 2.7%20 x 20 m+ 400+ m. = 4.1%

(4 x as large)

Tell el-Amarna: Elite house.

Note:

These expansive homes & gardens are more typical of rural villas than traces

suggest for a ‘normal’ Ancient Egyptian city, which appear to be more congested.

However, like the king, the upper nobility might often have multiple homes &

estates, including a dwelling near the place of business and a more expansive

residence further away from the city where one might relax during weekends, etc.

Granaries (silos) in

elite houses:

-Brick-paved interiors

-Paired with one

stairway

Tell el-Amarna:

Garden scene

Garden plot from an elite dwelling / larger home at Tell el-Amarna:


Excavated well & adjacent grainaries from one of the private villas from Amarna:


Private (elite) garden shrines: Akhenaten = mediator to the Aten

Private household cults of the royal family and the Aten:

Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten:

Royal cult in private homes:

• An unfinished slab stela came

from House O.49.12.

• This is quite unusual unless the

house represented a craftsman’s

home, or a craftsman’s work in

progress that had either been

sent to the patron, or simply was

discarded otherwise in this area.

• It appears to show a queen(?) in

the Blue Crown serving a seated

king wearing the bag-crown:

poss. Nefertiti & Akhenaten?

Elite Amarna villa with typical architectural components inside

Reconstructed view of interior living room

in the house (K.50.1) of the Vizier Nakht

Tell el-Amarna (Akhetaten):

- Other examples of floor plans of villas

- House T.36.11.a & house of Vizier Nakht

Interior views of typical NK elite house

Reconstructed, isometric drawing of an elite home at Amarna:


Bedroom niche, stone footings, and abandoned bed in dwellings from Amarna:


Bedroom niche & proposed ventilation system (i.e., models; images) from Amarna:


Bathroom with toilet and bathing basin in larger dwelling in main city at Amarna:


Amenhotep IV


Ca. 1352 – 1336 BC

(7). The Meru-Aten

(“Pleasure garden”)

at Tell el-Amarna

MERU

ATEN

Maru-Atenlater belongedto Meritaten(eldest daughter)

• Pleasuregarden

• Shrines

• T-shapedofferingbasins andinstallations.

• Storerooms:100s of winejars + docketsnoting eachlocal supplier.

• Small officialbuilding withreceptionarea (throne).

Adjacent kennel:

Dozens of bodies

of “greyhounds”

occur in a building

beside these two

complexes.

The Meru-Aten:Cow burialsdog burials

The Meru Aten:

Model in B. J. Kemp, 2012. The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti:

Amarna and its people. London: Thames & Hudson

Meru-Aten: T-shaped basins & dec. paving

Pa-Maru-en-Pa-Aten: “The-Viewing-Place-of-the-Aten”:Complex focusing on veneration of Aten; texts call it sun-shade of Princess Meritaten

Cross-section through (reconstructed) shrine & island installation

KOM EL-NANA

See next lecture

Kom el-Nana

(8). Selected

SOURCES ON

THE CITY OF

AKHETATEN

(Tell el-Amarna)

Important studies on the city of Akhetaten (Amarna) & related matters

1980 (L. Borchardt & H. Ricke)1894 (reprinted 2013)


20121993 –in Sterne Library


2021 1954 –In Sterne


2007 2020


1999 2012 (Friederike Seyfried ed.)


19951989


2010


2006 1997


2000


Reprinted (in Sterne Library)


1989 (in Gorgas Library, UA –Tuscaloosa) 1989

Anth.310 Ppt. lecture-16: Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), part-2: his reign, new royal capital...

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