Akhenaten (He who is of service to the Aten or Effective Spirit of Aten) is one of the most famous pharaohs of ancient Egypt, despite the attempts of later rulers to omit him from the lists of kings. He began his reign under the name Amenhotep IV (Amun is satisfied). As the son of Amenhotep III, he inherited a prosperous and peaceful nation. He was crowned pharaoh with all of the usual flair and began an apparently normal reign. It is thought that his father reigned as co-regent during the first few years, but this is disputed by some scholars. The co-regency is supported by similarities in the artistic style during the later years of Amenhotep III and that of his son, but the style may well have developed before Akhenaten (then Amenhotep IV) became king. However, it became clear early in his reign that the young king was prepared to go against convention. In his first year, he built a Temple dedicated to the Aten at the perimeter of the Temple of Amun at Karnak. He took the unconventional step of celebrating a Sed-festival in his third year (this festival was usually conducted in the thirtieth year of a Pharaohs reign) but still presented the Aten as a variant of Amun-Ra. The Eighteenth Dynasty was characterised by powerful women, but Akhenaten seems to have granted his chief wife, Nefertiti, with power surpassed only by the Pharaoh himself. Some scholars even suggest that she ruled as co-regent for part of his reign. Akhenaten built several structures at Karnak during the early part of his reign , while he was still using the name Amenhotep (IV). He built the temple Rud-menu(Enduring in monuments of Aten for eternity) and a palace complex called Gempaaten (the Aten is found in the mansion of the Aten) where the royal family lived during the winter months. In the fifth or sixth year of his reign, he changed his name to Akhenaten, and constructed a new capital city, Akhetaten (Horizon of Aten) at modern Armarna, in an area not associated with any other god. He vowed never again to leave the boundaries of the city. Then, in the ninth year of his reign, he declared that Aten was the only god, and that he was the only intermediary between the Aten and the people. He ordered Amuns name to be cut from his temples throughout Egypt and even defaced the name of his father because it contained the name of Amun. In a number of instances inscriptions containing the plural gods were also removed. Pharaoh Akhenaten died in his seventeenth year on the throne and his reforms did not survive for much longer. His co-regent and successor Smenkhare, died after a short reign and power passed to the boy king, Tutankhamun (originally Tutankhaten). During his reign the city of Akhetaten was abandoned and Amun and the other gods were reinstated. Once the Atenist heresy had been discredited, Akhenatens image and names were chiseled from his monuments and his sun temples were dismantled. His glorious city crumbled back into the desert and his name (and that of his two immediate successors) was left out of the Kings lists produced shortly after. Recent genetic testing has confirmed that the male mummy buried in KV 55 died in his fifties, rulinh out the earlier proposition that the body was that of Smenkhare. It is now generally thought that the mummy is in fact that of Akhenaten. Interestingly, it appears that this mummy was intentionally defiled by those with a religious or policital motivation. His face mask was torn and his name obliterated, but precious objects were left in place, confirming that the damage was not the work of tomb robbers but persons with a religious or political motivation.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 14:01:21 +0000
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