Chapter VIII: The Fall of the Religion of Akhnaton

“Thus disappeared the most remarkable figure in early Oriental
history.... There died with him such a spirit as the world had
never seen before.”--BREASTED: ‘History of Egypt.’

1. THE BURIAL OF AKHNATON.

The body of Akhnaton was embalmed in the city which he had founded; and while these mortal parts of the great idealist were undergoing the lengthy process of mummification, the new Pharaoh Smenkhkara made a feeble attempt to retain the spirit of his predecessor in the new _régime_. Practically nothing is known of his brief reign, but it is apparent from subsequent events that he entirely failed to carry on the work of Akhnaton, and the period of his sovereignty is marked by a general tendency to abandon the religion of the Aton. Smenkhkara had dated the first year of his reign from the day of his accession as co-ruler with Akhnaton, and thus it is that there are no inscriptions found which record his first year, although there are many references to his second year. The main event must have occurred some three months after the commencement of his sole reign, when the body of Akhnaton was carried in solemn state through the streets of the city and across the desert to the tomb which had been made for him in the distant cliffs.

The mummy had been wrapped, as was usual, in endless strips of linen; and amongst these there was placed upon the royal breast a necklace of gold, and over the face an ornament cut in flat gold foil representing a vulture with wings outstretched--a Pharaonic symbol of divine protection. In many burials of this dynasty a vulture such as this was placed upon the mummy; and representations of an exactly similar ornament are shown in the tombs of Sennefer and others at Thebes. It is somewhat surprising that the body of Akhnaton, who was so averse to all old customs, should thus have this royal talisman upon it; and it would seem that some of the strict rules of the Aton worshipper had already been relaxed by his successor. Akhnaton had retained but three of the ancient divine symbols, so far as one can tell from the reliefs and paintings--namely, the uræus or cobra, the sphinx, and the hawk, which were often used as ornaments. But one may ask whether the vulture had really been dispensed with by him. It is true that he banned the vulture-hieroglyph in the inscriptions, as we have already seen on the outer coffin of Queen Tiy;[80] but his reason for so doing was that by such a hieroglyph the name of the goddess Mut was called to mind, and that goddess, being the consort of Amon, was not to be tolerated. The vulture which was laid upon the mummy, however, had nothing to do with Mut, nor had it any likeness to the hieroglyph. It was originally a representation of the presiding genius of Upper Egypt, and corresponded to the uræus, which primarily represented the power of Lower Egypt. It is true, again, that it was the custom for the Pharaohs to be shown in the sculptures and paintings with this vulture hovering in protection over their heads, and that Akhnaton seems to have dispensed with such a symbol. But this was perhaps due to the fact that the disk and rays, symbolic of Aton, had taken its place above the royal figure. There is no reason, after all, to suppose that this form of vulture was absolutely banned, since the uræus and the hawk were retained;[81] and though, as will presently be seen, it will be natural to think that it was placed on Akhnaton’s mummy at his successor’s suggestion, there is nothing to show that Akhnaton himself did not desire it to be laid there.

Over the linen bandages on the body there were placed ribbons of gold foil encircling the mummy--probably around the shoulders, the middle, and the knees,--joined to other ribbons running the length of the body at the back and front. These ribbons were inscribed with Akhnaton’s name and titles, and thus recorded for all time the identity of the mummy to which they adhered. Money being somehow found, the body was wrapped in sheets of pure gold, sufficiently thin to be flexible, and was placed in a splendid coffin, designed in the usual form of a recumbent figure, and inlaid in a dazzling manner with rare stones and coloured glass. Down the front of this coffin ran a simple inscription, the hieroglyphs of which were also inlaid. It read: “The beautiful prince, The Chosen One of Ra, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, living in Truth, Lord of the Two Lands, Akhnaton, the beautiful child of the living Aton, whose name shall live for ever and ever.”[82] There is one curious feature about this inscription. When Akhnaton made the outer coffin for his mother, in or about the twelfth year of his reign, he was particularly careful not to use the hieroglyph representing the goddess Maat when writing the word _maat_, “truth.” But this sign is employed now upon his own coffin; and one can only presume, therefore, that the coffin was made after Akhnaton’s death, and that the new Pharaoh Smenkhkara had not the same objection to the representation of the goddess as had his predecessor. We may now better understand the presence of the vulture symbol also; for it is obvious that before Akhnaton’s funeral had taken place his strict _régime_ had been relaxed.

The royal mummy was now carried to its tomb and there deposited, together with such funeral furniture and offerings as were considered necessary. The four alabaster canopic jars, always conspicuous in an Egyptian burial, were here not wanting. The stopper of each jar was exquisitely carved to represent the head of Akhnaton, wearing the usual male wig of the period, and having the royal cobra upon the forehead. From these heads one sees that the art of Akhnaton was modified immediately after his death, and its more pronounced characteristics were already being toned down. This slackening in the rules which Akhnaton had made shows us how entirely dependent the movement had been upon its leader; and we realise the more clearly how strong a character was his. Ere even the king’s burial had taken place the death of his religion was assured.

2. THE COURT RETURNS TO THEBES.

Smenkhkara died, or was deposed, about a year after Akhnaton’s death. He was succeeded by another noble, Tutankhaton,[83] who, in order to legitimise his accession, obtained in marriage Akhnaton’s second daughter Ankhsenpaaton, a girl barely twelve years old. Thus Smenkhkara’s wife, Merytaton, became a dowager-queen at the age of thirteen or so, and her little sister took her place upon the throne.

By this time the priests of Amon had begun to hold up their heads once more, and to scheme for the downfall of Aton with renewed energy. Pressure was soon brought to bear on Tutankhaton, and he had not been upon the throne more than a year or so when he was persuaded to consider the abandonment of the City of the Horizon and his return to Thebes. He did not yet turn entirely from the religion of the Aton, but attempted to take a middle course between the two factions, giving full licence both to the worshippers of the Aton and to those of Amon. Horemheb, the commander-in-chief of the idle army, seems to have been one of the leaders of the reactionary movement. He did not concern himself so much with the religious aspect of the question: there was as much to be said on the one side as on the other. But it was he who knocked at the doors of the heart of Egypt and urged the nation to awake to the danger in Asia. For him there were no scruples as to warfare, and the doctrine of the sword found favour in his sight. An expedition was fitted out, and the reigning Pharaoh was persuaded to lead it. Thus we read that Horemheb was “the companion of his Lord upon the battlefield on that day of the slaying of the Asiatics.”[84] Akhnaton had dreamed of the universal peace which still is a far-off wraith to mankind; but Horemheb was a practical man in whom that dream would have been but weakness which was such mighty strength in the dead king.

The new Pharaoh now changed his name from Tutankhaton to Tutankhamon, and, to the sound of martial music, returned to Thebes. The City of the Horizon was left to its fate, and it was not long before the palaces and the villas became the home of the jackals and the owls, while the temples were partly pulled down to provide stone for other works. However much the reigning Pharaoh differed in views from Akhnaton, it would not have been possible to leave the royal body lying in sight of this wreck of all the hopes that had been his. Akhnaton, moreover, was Tutankhamon’s father-in-law, and it was only through the rights of Akhnaton’s daughter that the Pharaoh held the throne. His memory was still regarded with reverence by many of his late followers, and there could be no question of leaving his body in the deserted city. It was therefore carried to Thebes in its coffin, together with the four canopic jars, and was placed, for want of a proper sepulchre, in the tomb of Queen Tiy, which had been reopened for the purpose.

Tutankhamon showed the trend of his policy by both restoring the temple of the Aton at Karnak and at the same time repairing the damage done by Akhnaton to the works of Amon. The style of art which he favoured was a modified form of Akhnaton’s method, and the influence of his movement is still apparent in the new king’s work. He did not reign long enough, however, to display much originality, and after a few years he disappears, almost unnoticed, from the stage. On his death the question of inviting Horemheb to fill the vacant throne must have been seriously considered, but there was another candidate in the field. This was Akhnaton’s father-in-law, Ay, who had been one of the most important nobles in the group of courtiers at the City of the Horizon. It was he who had sheltered Queen Nefertiti before she had passed into Akhnaton’s palace, and it was in his tomb that the great hymn to the Aton was inscribed. He had been loudest in the praises of the preacher king and of his doctrines, and he still retained the title “Father-in-law” as his most cherished designation.

Religious feeling at this time was running high, for the partisans of Amon and those of Aton seem still to have been struggling for the supremacy, and Ay appeared to have been regarded as the most likely man to bridge the gulf between the two factions. A favourite of Akhnaton, and still tolerant of all that was connected with the late movement, he was not averse to the cult of Amon, and by conciliating both parties he managed to obtain the throne for himself. His power, however, did not last for long, and as the priests of Amon regained the confidence of the nation at the expense of the worshippers of the Aton, so the prestige of Ay declined. His past relationship to Akhnaton, which even as king be carefully recorded within his cartouche, now told against him rather than for him, and about eight years after the death of Akhnaton he disappeared like his predecessors.

3. THE REIGN OF HOREMHEB.

There was now no question who should succeed. All eyes were turned to Horemheb, who had already almost as much power as the Pharaoh. The commander-in-chief at once ascended the throne, and was received by the populace with the utmost rejoicings. At this time there was living at Thebes the Princess Nezemmut, the sister of Akhnaton’s Queen Nefertiti, and hence the daughter of Dushratta, King of Mitanni. Owing to previous inter-marriages between the royal house of Egypt and that of Mitanni, both Nefertiti and Nezemmut were descendants of Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Nezemmut had come to Egypt early in the reign of Akhnaton, and later had perhaps married some Egyptian nobleman; but she was now a widow, and had recently been appointed to the post of “Divine Consort,”--that is to say, High Priestess--of Amon. As she was probably the younger sister of Nefertiti, she may have been about six years of age when Nefertiti was married to Akhnaton at the age of eight. Hence she would have been about twenty-three at his death, and would now be just over thirty.

To this princess, as representing both the rights of the old line of Pharaohs and those of the god Amon, without the now condemning close relationship to Akhnaton which characterised the other existing royal princesses, Horemheb was at once married. The religion of the Aton was now fast disappearing. In a tomb dating from the third year of Horemheb’s reign, the words “Ra whose body is Aton” occur; but this is the last mention of the Aton, and henceforth Amon-Ra is unquestionably supreme. A certain Pa-atonemheb, who had been one of Akhnaton’s favourites, was at about this time appointed High Priest of Ra-Horakhti at Heliopolis, and thus the last traces of the religion of the Aton were merged into the Heliopolitan theology, from which that religion at the beginning had emanated.

The neglected shrines of the old gods once more echoed with the chants of the priests throughout the whole land of Egypt. Inscriptions tell us that Horemheb “restored the temples from the pools of the Delta marshes to Nubia. He fashioned a hundred images ... with all splendid and costly stones. He established for them daily offerings every day. All the vessels of their temples were wrought of silver and gold. He equipped them with priests and with ritual priests, and with the choicest of the army. He transferred to them lands and cattle, supplied with all necessary equipment.” By these gifts to the neglected gods Horemheb was striving to bring Egypt back to its natural condition; and with a strong hand he was guiding the country from chaos to order, from fantastic Utopia to the solid old Egypt of the past. He was, in fact, the preacher of sanity, the very apostle of the Normal.

He led his armies into the Sudan, and returned with a procession of captive chieftains roped before him. He had none of Akhnaton’s qualms regarding human suffering, and these unfortunate prisoners are seen to have their arms bound in the most cruel manner. Finding the country to be lawless he drafted a number of stern laws, and with sound justice administered his kingdom. Knowing that Syria could not long remain quiet, he organised the Egyptian troops, and so prepared them that, but a few years after his death, the soldiers of the reigning Pharaoh were swarming once more over the lands which Akhnaton had lost.

4. THE PERSECUTION OF AKHNATON’S MEMORY.

The priests of Amon-Ra had now begun openly to denounce Akhnaton as a villain and a heretic, and as they restored the name of their god where it had been erased, so they hammered out the name and figure of Akhnaton wherever they saw it. Presently they pulled down the Aton temple at Karnak, and used the blocks of stone in the building of a pylon for Amon-Ra. Soon it was felt that Akhnaton’s body could no longer lie in state, together with that of Queen Tiy, in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. The sepulchre was therefore opened once more and the name “Akhnaton” was everywhere erased from the inscriptions, as was his figure from the scenes upon the shrine of Queen Tiy. The mummy was lifted from its coffin and the royal name was cut out of the gold ribbons which passed round it, both at the back and the front. It was then replaced in the coffin, and from this the name was also erased.

The question may be asked why it was that the body was not torn to pieces and scattered to the four winds, since the king was now so fiercely hated. The Egyptians, however, entertained a peculiar reverence for the bodies of their dead, and it would have been a sacrilege to destroy the mummy even of this heretic. No thought could be entertained of breaking up the body upon which the divine touch of kingship had fallen: that would have been against all the sentiments which we know the Egyptians to have held. The cutting out of the name of the mummy was sufficient punishment: for thereby the soul of the king was debarred from all the benefits of the earthly prayers of his descendants, and became a nameless outcast, wandering unrecognised and unpitied through the vast underworld. It was the name “Akhnaton” which was hated so fiercely; and one may perhaps suppose that the priests would have been willing to substitute the king’s earlier name, Amonhotep, upon the mummy had they been pressed to do so. His name and figure as Amonhotep IV. is not damaged upon the monuments; but only the representations of him after the adoption of the name Akhnaton have been attacked.

The tomb, polluted by the presence of the heretic, was no longer fit for Tiy to rest in; and the body of the queen was therefore carried elsewhere, perhaps to the sepulchre of her husband Amonhotep III. The shrine, or outer coffin, in which her mummy had lain was pulled to pieces, and an attempt was made to carry it out of the tomb to its owner’s new resting-place, but this arduous task was presently abandoned, and one portion of the shrine was left in the passage, while the rest remained in sections in the burial-chamber. Some of the queen’s toilet utensils which had been buried with her were also left, probably by mistake. The body of Akhnaton, his name taken from him, was now the sole occupant of the tomb. The coffin in which it lay rested upon a four-legged bier some two feet or so from the ground, and in a niche in the wall above it stood the four canopic jars. And thus, with a curse, the priests left their great enemy. The entrance of the tomb was blocked with stones, and sealed with the seal of the necropolis; and all traces of its mouth were hidden by rocks and _débris_.

The priests would not now permit the name of Akhnaton to pass a man’s lips, and by the end of the reign of Horemheb, the unfortunate boy was spoken of in official documents as “that criminal.” Not forty years had passed since Akhnaton’s death, yet the priesthood of Amon was as powerful as it had ever been at any period of its existence. There were still living men who had been old enough at the time of the Aton power to grasp its doctrines; and those same eyes which had looked upon the fair City of the Horizon might now disturb the creatures of the desert in the ruined courts where the grave boy-Pharaoh had presided so lately. These men joined their voices to that crowd of priests who, not daring to allow the word Akhnaton to form itself upon their lips, poured curses upon the excommunicated and nameless “criminal.” Through starry space their execrations passed, searching out the wretched ghost of the boy, and banning him, as they supposed, even in the dim uncertainties of the Lands of Death. Over the hills of the west, up the stairs of the moon, and down into the caverns under the world, the poor twittering shadow was hunted and chased by the relentless magic of the men whom he had tried to reform. There was no place for his memory upon earth, and in the under-world the priests denied him a stone upon which to lay his head. It is not easy now to realise the full meaning to the Egyptians of the excommunication of a soul: cut off from the comforts of human prayers; hungry, forlorn, and wholly desolate; forced at last to whine upon the outskirts of villages, to snivel upon the dung-heaps, to rake with shadowy fingers amidst the refuse of mean streets for fragments of decayed food with which to allay the pangs of hunger caused by the absence of funeral-offerings. To such a pitiful fate the priests of Amon consigned “the first individual in history”; and as an outcast amongst outcasts, a whimpering shadow in a place of shadows, the men of Thebes bade us leave the great idealist, doomed to the horrors of a life which will not end, to the misery of a death that brings no oblivion.

5. THE FINDING OF THE BODY OF AKHNATON.

Thus, sheathed in gold, the nameless body lay, while the fortunes of Egypt rose and fell and the centuries slid by. A greater teacher than Akhnaton arose and preached that peace which the Pharaoh had foreshadowed, and soon all Egypt rang with the new gospel. Then came the religion of Muhammed, and the days of the sword returned. So the years passed, and many a wise man lived his life and disappeared; but the first of the wise men of history lay undiscovered in the heart of the Theban hills.

Now it happened that there was a fissure in the rocks in which the sepulchre was cut, and during the rains of each season a certain amount of moisture managed to penetrate into the chamber. This gradually rotted the legs of the bier upon which Akhnaton’s body lay, and at last there came a time when the two legs at the head of the coffin gave way and precipitated the royal body on to the ground. The bandages around the mummy had already fallen almost to powder, and this jerk sent the golden vulture which was resting upon the king’s face on to his forehead, where it lay with the tail and claws resting over the left eye-socket of the skull. Presently the two remaining legs of the bier collapsed, and the whole coffin fell to the ground, the lid being partly jerked off, thus revealing the king’s head at one end and his feet at the other, from all of which the flesh had rotted away.

In January 1907 the excavations in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings which were being conducted by Mr Theodore Davis, of Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A., on behalf of the Egyptian Government, brought to light the doorway of the tomb, and it was not long before an entrance was effected. A rough stairway led down into the hillside, bringing the excavators[85] to the mouth of the passage, which was entirely blocked by the wall which the priests had built after they had entered the tomb to erase Akhnaton’s name. Beyond this wall the passage was found to be nearly choked with the _débris_ of the three earlier walls, the first of which had been built after Queen Tiy had been buried here, the second after Akhnaton’s agents had entered the tomb to erase the name of Amon, and the third after Akhnaton’s body had been laid beside that of his mother. On top of this heap of stones lay the side of the funeral shrine of the queen which the priests had abandoned after attempting to carry it out with her mummy. In the burial-chamber beyond, the remaining portions of this shrine were found. Upon these one saw the figures of Akhnaton and his mother worshipping beneath the rays of the Aton. The inscriptions showed the erasure of the name of Amonhotep III., and the substitution in red ink of that king’s second name, Nebmaara; and one observed that at a later date the name and figures of Akhnaton had been hammered out.

At one side lay the coffin of Akhnaton, as it had fallen from the bier. The name of Akhnaton upon the coffin had been erased, but was still readable; and the gold ribbons from which his name had been cut out still encircled the body, back and front. The golden vulture lay as has been described above, and the necklace still rested on the breast, while the whole decaying body was found to be wrapped in sheets of gold. In a recess above this coffin stood the canopic jars, and in another part of the tomb Queen Tiy’s toilet utensils were found, from one of which the name of Amonhotep III. had been erased.

The bones, when examined by Dr Elliot Smith, F.R.S., were found to be those of a young man of not more than about twenty-eight years of age,--that is to say, the age at which Akhnaton has been shown in the above pages to have died. The skull was pronounced to be that of a man who suffered from epileptic fits, and who was probably subject to hallucinations. Curiously enough, the idiosyncrasies of this misshapen skull are precisely those which Lombroso has stated to be so usual in a religious reformer. The face had crumbled away, but the lower jaw was intact; and when this was placed in position one could see at once the great resemblance to the well-known portraits of Akhnaton which had survived the wreck of his city.

There could thus be no doubt that the mummy of this wonderful Pharaoh had at last been found; but since Akhnaton had always been thought, though without particular reason, to have been a much older man, the identity was questioned. It was suggested that the body was perhaps that of Smenkhkara, the successor of Akhnaton, which by some error had managed to be placed in Akhnaton’s coffin. But how, then, did the gold ribbons inscribed with Akhnaton’s name manage to be placed around the body? And apart from the extreme improbability that the mummy which was thus labelled with Akhnaton’s name, and which lay in his coffin, should be that of any other king but Akhnaton, one may ask in this case how it is that the body has the well-known physical characteristics of the great heretic if it be that of Smenkhkara, who was not related to the king?

It has been stated that the presence of the vulture upon the body is against the identification with Akhnaton. This has already been shown to be capable of explanation; but it may here be noted that if Smenkhkara would not have placed the vulture upon Akhnaton’s body, then by the same token the mummy is not likely to be that of Smenkhkara, and there is certainly no other prince of this period with whom to identify the body. In conclusion, it may be added that of all the royal mummies now known there is not one which can be so clearly shown to belong to the Pharaoh with whom it has been identified as this mummy can be shown to belong to Akhnaton. The body was lying in a coffin inscribed with Akhnaton’s name; it was bound round with ribbons inscribed with his name; it had the physical characteristics of the portraits of Akhnaton; it had the idiosyncrasies of a religious reformer such as he was; it was that of a man of Akhnaton’s age as deduced from the monuments; it lay in the tomb of Akhnaton’s mother; those who had erased the names must have thought it to be Akhnaton’s body, unless one supposes an utter chaos of cross-purposes in their actions; and finally, there is nobody else who, with any degree of probability, it could be.

Thus one may say that, without the vaguest shadow of a doubt, the body of this the most remarkable figure of early Oriental history has been brought to light; and with this assurance we may close this sketch of his life, which has been written partly for the purpose of thus explaining the significance of Mr Davis’s great discovery, and partly to introduce the general reader to one of the most interesting characters ever known. In this brief outline it has only been possible to touch upon the main characteristics which the few remaining inscriptions and monuments seem to reveal; but to the most casual reader it will be apparent that there stands before him a personality of surprising vigour and amazing originality, and one deserving of careful study. In an age of superstition, and in a land where the grossest polytheism reigned absolutely supreme, Akhnaton evolved a monotheistic religion second only to Christianity itself in purity of tone. He was the first human being to understand rightly the meaning of divinity. When the world reverberated with the noise of war, he preached the first known doctrine of peace; when the glory of martial pomp swelled the hearts of his subjects, he deliberately turned his back upon heroics. He was the first man to preach simplicity, honesty, frankness, and sincerity; and he preached it from a throne. He was the first Pharaoh to be a humanitarian; the first man in whose heart there was no trace of barbarism. He has given us an example three thousand years ago which might be followed at the present day: an example of what a husband and a father should be, of what an honest man should do, of what a poet should feel, of what a preacher should teach, of what an artist should strive for, of what a scientist should believe, of what a philosopher should think. Like other great teachers he sacrificed all to his principles, and thus his life plainly shows--alas!--the impracticability of his doctrines; yet there can be no question that his ideals will hold good “till the swan turns black and the crow turns white, till the hills rise up to travel, and the deeps rush into the rivers.”

SURVEY DEP. CAIRO 1909 (151) _FROM THE CAIRO SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL._

NOTE: Of the Boundary Stelae only those lettered A, B, F, J, K, M, N, P, Q, R, S, U, V and X, still remain. The position of these is shown upon the Map.]

INDEX.

Aahmes I., 7

Abdkhiba, governor of Jerusalem, appeal of, to Akhnaton for help,
236

Adonis, connection of, with Aton, 15, 37, 49, 136 _et seq._

Akhnaton, personality of, 2
--ancestors of, 7 _et seq._
--birth of, 42 _et seq._
--change of name from Amonhotep to, 45 note, 91 _et seq._
--marriage of, 53
--accession of, 58 _et seq._
--first years of the reign of, 62 _et seq._
--new city founded by, 88 _et seq._
--site of the city selected by, 92 _et seq._
--foundation ceremonies performed by, 94 _et seq._
--departure of, from Thebes, 105 _et seq._
--age of, 110 _et seq._
--religion of Aton formulated by, 115 _et seq._
--tenth to twelfth years of the reign of, 149 _et seq._
--similarity of the hymn of, to Psalm civ., 155 _et seq._
--representations of, in his palace, 167 _et seq._
--historical events of tenth to twelfth years of the reign of,
169 _et seq._
--thirteenth to fifteenth years of the reign of, 189 _et seq._
--name of Amon obliterated by, 193 _et seq._
--affection of, for his family, 208 _et seq._
--friends of, 213 _et seq._
--troubles of, 217 _et seq._
--last two years of the reign of, 223 _et seq._
--conscientious objections of, to warfare, 226 _et seq._
--health of, gives way, 246 _et seq._
--last days and death of, 252
--fall of the religion of, 258 _et seq._
--burial of, 258
--body of, brought to Thebes, 266
--persecution of the memory of, 272 _et seq._
--finding of the body of, 276 _et seq._
--ideals of, 283

Amon or Amon-Ra, worship of, 12
--priesthood of, 20, 45 _et seq._, 77
--break with the priesthood of, 88 _et seq._
--Akhnaton obliterates the name of, 193 _et seq._
--restoration of the worship of, 272 _et seq._

Amonhotep I., 7

Amonhotep II., 10

Amonhotep III., “the Magnificent,” 11, 13, 28, 33 _et seq._, 49, 54
--death of, 57, 111
--second name of, 186, 187, 195

Amonhotep IV.: see Akhnaton

Amonhotep-son-of-Hapu, the “wise man,” 33

Animal worship, 18 _et seq._

Ankhsenpaaton, third daughter of Akhnaton, birth of, 109
--marriage of, 112, 264

Apis, the sacred bull, worship of, 16, 87

Apiy, letter to Akhnaton from, 85

Art, the new style of, 68 _et seq._, 101

Aswan, commemoration tablet at, 107
--statue of Amonhotep III. at, _ib._

Aton, the name, 37, 92 and note
--rise of, 45 _et seq._
--development of the religion of, 76 _et seq._
--nature of the religion of, 84 _et seq._
--founding of new city for the worship of, 88 _et seq._
--religion of, formulated, 115 _et seq._
--connections of the worship of, with older religions,
135 _et seq._
--hymns of the worshippers of, 149 _et seq._
--Meryra made high priest of, 158 _et seq._
--development of the religion of, 189 _et seq._
--great temple of, 198 _et seq._
--City of the Horizon of, 202 _et seq._
--downfall of the religion of, 264 _et seq._

Auta, Queen Tiy’s chief sculptor, 75, 207

Ay, foster-parent of Queen Nefertiti, 57, 109
--palace of, 204
--accession of, to the throne, 268
--death of, _ib._

Aziru, the Amorite prince, unscrupulous dealings of, 226,
230 _et seq._

Baketaton, sister of Akhnaton, 178, 212

Bek, art taught to, by Akhnaton, 76
--sculptures of, at Aswan, 107, 196

Canopic jars, the, in Akhnaton’s tomb, 263, 279

Child-marriages, frequency of, in Egypt, 112

Christianity, comparison of Akhnaton’s faith with, 143 _et seq._

“City of the Brightness of Aton,” new name of, given to Thebes, 65

City of the Horizon of Aton, founding of, 90 _et seq._
--Akhnaton’s residence at, 107
--gardens of, 127
--inscriptions on the sepulchres at, 149 _et seq._
--Queen Tiy’s visit to, 176 _et seq._
--Queen Tiy’s residence and death at, 184 _et seq._
--shrines and temples in, 196 _et seq._
--beauty of, 202 _et seq._
--Akhnaton’s tomb near, 207 _et seq._
--abandonment of, by the court, 264
--removal of Akhnaton’s body from, 266
--desolate condition of, 275

Delta, “House” of Aton in the, 191

Demigods and Spirits, worship of, 18 _et seq._

Domestic life of Akhnaton, reliefs and paintings on tombs showing
the, 167 _et seq._

Dushratta, King of Mitanni, marriage of Nefertiti, daughter of, to
Prince Amonhotep (Akhnaton), 56
--marriage of Nezemmut, daughter of, to Horemheb, 269

“Effulgence which comes from Aton,” name of Aton changed to, 192

Fayum, “House” of Aton in the, 191

Gebel Silsileh, tablets at the quarries of, 63
--the name Amonhotep erased at, 195

Gods of Egypt, the, 11 _et seq._
--Akhnaton orders the erasure of the names of, in inscriptions, 249

Goodness of Aton, the, 127 _et seq._

Hathor, worship of, 16

Hatshepsut, Queen, 8

Heliopolis, temple of Aton at, 191

Hermonthis, temple of Aton at, 191

Hermopolis, temple of Aton at, 191

Hittite invasion of Syria, the, 223 _et seq._

Horakhti Aton, erection of temple at Karnak to, 63, 68, 89
--restoration of the temple to, 267
--destruction of the temple to, 272

Horemheb, tomb of, 67 and note, 84, 86, 265 note
--presence of, with the troops in Asia, 265
--accession of, to the throne, 268
--marriage of, 269
--reign of, 270 _et seq._

Horus, the hawk god, worship of, 15, 16

Huya, scenes sculptured on the tomb of, 170 _et seq._, 177, 207

Isis, worship of, 15

Karnak, temple to Horakhti Aton at, 63 _et seq._, 68, 89
--temples and shrines at, 63, 84
--restoration of the Aton temple at, 267
--destruction of the Aton temple at, 272

Khnum, the ram-headed deity, worship of, 16

Khonsu, the god of the moon, worship of, 13

Kirgipa or Gilukhipa, wife of Amonhotep III., 39, 51, 55

“Lord of the Breath of Sweetness,” Akhnaton’s name of, 61

Mahu, scenes on the tomb of, 215 _et seq._

Meketaton, second daughter of Akhnaton, birth of, 101
--death of, 219

Memphis, temple of Aton at, 191

Meryra, appointment of, as high priest of Aton, 158 _et seq._
--scenes sculptured on the tomb of, 159 _et seq._, 203

Merytaton, first daughter of Akhnaton, birth of, 83
--marriage of, 112, 211, 254

Min or Min-Ra, worship of, 12, 27

Mnevis, the sacred bull, worship of, 135

Mut, the consort of Amon, worship of, 13, 187, 260

Mutemua, wife of Thothmes IV., 23 _et seq._, 28

Nebmaara, second name of Amonhotep III., 186, 187, 195, 279

Nefernefernaton fourth daughter of Akhnaton, birth of, 112, 169
--marriage of, 112, 211

Neferneferura, fifth daughter of Akhnaton, birth of, 208

Nefertiti (Tadukhipa), marriage of Prince Amonhotep (Akhnaton) to,
55, 210
--birth of the first daughter of, 83
--second daughter of, 101, 106
--third daughter of, 109
--fourth daughter of, 112, 169
--fifth daughter of, 208
--sixth and seventh daughters of, 209

Nezemmut, sister of Queen Nefertiti, 109, 212
--marriage of, to Horemheb, King of Egypt, 269

Nubia, imperial regard of Akhnaton for, 189 _et seq._
--temple of Aton in, 191

Osiris, god of the dead, worship of, 20

Palace of Akhnaton, description of the, 205 _et seq._

Psalm civ., similarity of Akhnaton’s hymn to, 155 _et seq._

Ptah, the Vulcan of Egypt, worship of, 16, 21, 85

Ra or Ra-Horakhti, the sun-god, worship of, 12, 14, 21, 45 _et seq._,
51, 58, 59, 64, 70, 86, 92

Rames, Vizir of Upper Egypt, tomb of, 66, 68, 81, 84, 148

Ribaddi, King of Byblos, appeals of, to Akhnaton for help, 235, 239,
242
--death of, 247

Set, the worship of, 16

Setepenra, sixth daughter of Akhnaton, birth of, 209

“Shade of the Sun,” the, Queen Tiy’s private temple called,
182 _et seq._
--statues in, 182, 196

Smenkhkara, Akhnaton’s successor to the throne, 211, 253
--marriage of, 254
--association of, with Akhnaton, as co-ruler, _ib._
--accession of, as sole ruler, 258
--death of, 264

“Son of God,” Akhnaton the, by traditional right, 130 _et seq._

“Son of the Sun,” the title of, held by the Pharaohs, 14, 71, 74,
131, 197

Soul, spiritual needs of the, after death, 138 _et seq._
--material needs of the, 143 _et seq._
--the excommunication of a, 276

Sunrise and sunset, worship of Aton at, 124 _et seq._

Syria, imperial regard of Akhnaton for, 189 _et seq._
--temple of Aton in, 191
--Hittite invasion of, 223 _et seq._
--Akhnaton’s policy in, 226 _et seq._
--the fighting in, becomes general, 235 _et seq._

Tadukhipa: see Nefertiti

Temple of Aton, description of the great, 198 _et seq._

Tender Father of all Creation, Aton as the, 118 _et seq._

Thebes, discoveries in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings near, 4,
278 _et seq._
--booty brought by Thothmes III. to, 8
--the deities of, 12 _et seq._
--the court at, 35
--the royal palace at, 36, 43 _et seq._
--new name of “City of the Brightness of Aton” given to, 65
--departure of the court from, 105 _et seq._
--Queen Tiy’s continued residence at, 176
--Queen Tiy’s tomb at, 185
--return of the court to, 264 _et seq._
--body of Akhnaton brought to, 266
--finding of Akhnaton’s body at, 277 _et seq._

Thothmes I., 8

Thothmes II., 8

Thothmes III., 8 _et seq._

Thothmes IV., 10 _et seq._, 13, 21 _et seq._, 110

Tiy, Queen, birth and childhood of, 26
--marriage of, 29 _et seq._, 112
--children of, 39, 43, 54
--death of the parents of, 40
--birth of Amonhotep or Akhnaton, son of, 43 _et seq._
--the power of, 49 _et seq._
--death of the consort of, 57
--visit of, to the City of the Horizon, 176 _et seq._
--visit of, to her temple, 182 _et seq._
--death of, 184
--tomb of, 185 _et seq._
--Akhnaton’s body placed in the tomb of, 266, 282
--body of, removed, 274

Tribal gods, names of, 12 _et seq._

True God, Aton as the, 115 _et seq._

Tuau, wife of Yuaa, Priest of the god Min, 26 _et seq._, 30, 32
--death and burial of, 40

Tunip, letter to Akhnaton from the governor of, 232

Tutankhaton, the throne usurped by, 211, 252, 264
--marriage of, 264
--name of, changed to Tutankhamon, 266
--return of, to Thebes, _ib._
--death of, 267

Ty, foster-parent of Queen Nefertiti, 57, 109

Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, the, discoveries in, 4,
278 _et seq._
--burial of Yuaa and Tuau in, 40

Vulture, representation of a, used in burials, 187, 259 _et seq._,
279, 281

Wady Hammamât, inscriptions near the quarries of, 76, 113

Warfare, Akhnaton’s conscientious scruples to, 226 _et seq._

Worship of Aton at sunrise and sunset, 124 _et seq._

Yuaa, Priest of the god Min, birth of, 25
--marriage of Tiy, the daughter of, to Amonhotep III., 29
--personality of, 32
--death and burial of, 40

THE END.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Breasted: A History of Egypt.

[2] N. de G. Davies: The Rock Tombs of El Amarna. 5 vols.

[3] Now out of print.

[4] Published by the Chicago University, 1906.

[5] As will be recorded at the end of this volume, the body of Akhnaton was discovered by Mr Theodore M. Davis at Thebes early in 1907; but at the time of writing (1908) the results have not been published in book form, though various articles have appeared.

[6] The writer has to thank the editors of ‘The Quarterly Review,’ ‘Blackwood’s Magazine,’ and ‘The Century Magazine,’ for permitting him to embody in this volume certain portions of articles contributed by him to the pages of those journals.

[7] Page 110.

[8] Page 100.

[9] The sphinx tablet.

[10] Of Thothmes III. at Karnak, of Aahmes I. at Abydos, and of Senusert III. at Amada.

[11] These ages are discussed on pages 111 and 178 (note).

[12] Petrie, History, ii. p. 183. The portrait upon which he bases this statement, however, may be that of Akhnaton (fig. 115, p. 182). The mouth and chin are extremely like those of Yuaa, as seen in his mummy; but again they both have a close resemblance to the head of Amonhotep III. (_idem_, fig. 120, p. 188). Of course, such evidence is extremely frail, and must not be too much relied upon.

[13] Breasted, Records, ii. 865, note h.

[14] He took the name Akhnaton in about the sixth year of his reign.

[15] His statue is at Turin. See also Erman, ‘Life in Ancient Egypt,’ p. 297.

[16] Page 39.

[17] Recently discovered by the present writer whilst repairing this tomb.

[18] His mummy is that of a man of not more than fifty.

[19] The wise man Amonhotep-son-of-Hapu was steward of Princess Setamon’s estate, but this may have been previous to her mention in her grandparents’ tomb.

[20] Page 111.

[21] Page 56.

[22] It is usual for Egyptian girls to become mothers at about the age of thirteen, though sometimes earlier. They often continue to bear children at intervals of about two years, over a period of thirty years or so. Fifteen children is thus the usual number of a family, but half these generally die in babyhood.

[23] Maspero.

[24] Scarabs of the early period are sometimes inscribed _Neb-nef-nezem_, which has this meaning.

[25] The date of this work is not exactly known, but as it was certainly finished before the king founded his new city, it must have been commenced immediately upon his accession.

[26] The word _benben_, “shrine,” has the hieroglyph of an obelisk at the end of it, which has led to some mistranslations. Perhaps the temple was built somewhat on the plan of that at Abusêr, where an obelisk stood in an open court.

[27] It is possible that “found” is a mistranslation.

[28] Thus corresponding to the Silsileh quarry tablet, where Amon is worshipped.

[29] This tomb of Horemheb seems to have been begun and finished in the early years of Akhnaton’s reign, to have been left alone during the remainder of the reign, and to have received the addition of doorposts (see note on p. 265) after the death of Akhnaton. Fragments of the tomb are now divided between Leiden, Bologna, Vienna, Alexandria, and Cairo; and it would seem that all except those in the Cairo museum (the doorposts) are from the earlier period. The titles on the Cairo fragments are far more elaborate than those on the others. See Breasted, Records, iii. 1 ff.

[30] We know from the “Palermo stone” that the kingdom of Lower Egypt was much more ancient than that of Upper Egypt.

[31] In later times the name of Tiy and the Pharaoh’s second name were erased, but the name Amonhotep was not damaged. The facsimile copy here given was made on the spot by the present writer in correction of a previous copy made by Golénischeff. It is published in his ‘Travels in the Upper Egyptian Deserts’ (Blackwood).

[32] Meaning the god.

[33] Griffith: Kahun Papyri. Text, p. 91.

[34] Is there a distant connection between Mnevis and the Minoan bull of Crete? See p. 183.

[35] The god is sometimes called “Aton” simply, and sometimes _Pa Aton_, “the Aton”; just as we speak of “Christ” or “the Christ,” and of “Lord” or “the Lord,” this latter being the actual meaning of “Aton.”

[36] The translation here given is based upon that published by Davies in Amarna V.; but the year cannot be the fourth, as there stated as probable, since in the above-mentioned letter dated in year 5 the king is still called Amonhotep, whereas in this inscription he is called Akhnaton.

[37] The day is not certain; perhaps it is day 4.

[38] For the sake of brevity it is often called “the City of the Horizon,” simply, in this volume.

[39] Mediterranean people.

[40] This has reference to the rays which come from the Aton.

[41] This seems to have been a temple.

[42] The second name of Amonhotep III., Akhnaton’s father.

[43] The second name of Thothmes IV., Akhnaton’s grandfather.

[44] The _ater_ corresponds to the Greek _schoinos_, and the _khe_ is the _schoenium_ of 100 cubits, 40 _khe_ making one _ater_.

[45] See note on p. 178.

[46] Davies, Amarna, I. 45.

[47] The idea is that the Aton does not die as dies the sunlight.

[48] Probably by royal descent is meant.

[49] In Egyptian this title reads _Pa shera nefer en pa Aton_. In the tomb of a certain Amonhotep, at El Assasîf, temp. Amonhotep III., the deceased Amonhotep I. is called _Pa shera nefer en Amon_.

[50] So Prof. Breasted translates the Egyptian _sehetep_, though it would be possible to give it other interpretations.

[51] Cf. such expressions as “When thou settest they die,” and others used in Akhnaton’s hymns.

[52] Professor Breasted’s translation.

[53] In the tomb of Huya the scene is dated in the twelfth year, as here recorded, and there are four daughters shown, which is the number one is led by other evidence to suppose were then alive. The scene in the tomb of Meryra II. has precisely the same date, but six daughters are shown, and there is evidence to show that that number is not to be looked for previous to the fifteenth year of the reign, the first daughter being born in about the fifth year, the second in the seventh, the third in the ninth, the fourth in the eleventh, the fifth in the thirteenth, and the sixth in the fifteenth year, in all probability. Thus the scene in Meryra II. may perhaps represent no particular reception of the tribute of any one year, but the artist may have had in mind the great tribute of the twelfth year while representing the occurrence in the fifteenth or sixteenth year, at which date his work was taking place. Or again the date in this latter tomb may be a misreading or miswriting. The scene described above is that represented in the tomb of Meryra, as it is more elaborate than the other; but the inscription is that found in the tomb of Huya.

[54] Her first child, it will be remembered, was born when she was about thirteen.

[55] It is probable, as has been stated on p. 111, that she was married to Amonhotep III. in about her tenth year, and was thus about forty-six when he died. She could not have been much more, for her daughter Baketaton must have been born but a year or so before Amonhotep’s death, and it is improbable that she would bear children after forty-five, if as late as that.

[56] It is to be noticed that there are pomegranates amongst the fruit, which indicates that the visit was made during the summer, as do the light costumes also.

[57] Davies: Amarna, iii. 8, note 1.

[58] This is to be observed also in some other inscriptions of the period.

[59] Breasted: History of Egypt, p. 364.

[60] Page 177.

[61] It is usual to date the tombs roughly by the number of daughters shown, presuming that the artist represented all the children living at the time. But though this gives us the lowest possible year, it does not always give us the highest, for daughters are obviously sometimes omitted when the available space was cramped.

[62] Page 63.

[63] Page 107.

[64] Davies: El Amarna, iii., Pl. xviii.

[65] Page 182.

[66] Davies: El Amarna.

[67] Wilkinson: Modern Egypt, ii. 69.

[68] Davies: El Amarna.

[69] It is probable that there was some likeness between Akhnaton’s temples and those dedicated to the sun in early days, as, for example that at Abusêr.

[70] Perhaps this is a part of the royal palace.

[71] Petrie: El Amarna.

[72] Petrie: History of Egypt, ii. 219.

[73] Page 75.

[74] Page 192.

[75] She probably married some Egyptian noble, and her future career is recorded on p. 269.

[76] The plaster has now fallen off, and little of the original decoration remains. The tomb is seldom visited by tourists, being seven miles back from the river; but it is in charge of the Government custodian.

[77] The reception of the tribute recorded in the tomb of Meryra II. (see page 170), although dated in the twelfth year of the reign, may represent a later event, since six daughters are shown in the scene; and it is not likely that the sixth daughter was born before the fifteenth year. Perhaps the date is a misreading or miswriting, influenced by that given in the tomb of Huya.

[78] Breasted: History, p. 388.

[79] It is doubtful whether the second sign is _menkh_ or _ȧa͑_, they being somewhat alike.

[80] Page 187.

[81] The scarab, another symbol from older times, seems to have been retained, for a gold heart-scarab is said to have been found in Akhnaton’s tomb.--Petrie: History of Egypt, ii. 220.

[82] In Egyptian: Ḥeq nefer, Ra͑ setept, Seten bati, A͑nkh em Mȧa͑t, Neb taui, Akhnaton, Pa sherȧ nefer en Pa Aton a͑nkh, enti ȧuf a͑nkhu ren ḥeḥ zet. This was all that was written upon the coffin.

[83] Probably he is to be identified with Tutu, a well-known noble of this period--the words _ankhaton_, “Living in Aton,” being added to make the name more majestic.

[84] See note on page 67. This inscription is found on the doorposts of the tomb of Horemheb, which, by the greatly increased titles, were set up some time after the rest of the tomb was finished, and thus probably in the reign of Tutankhaton. A fragment of gold-leaf has recently been found showing this king in his chariot charging Asiatic enemies. The present writer recently found part of a shrine of his in the desert on the road to the gold mines. See ‘Travels in the Upper Egyptian Deserts’ (Blackwood).

[85] The present writer assisted at the opening of this tomb. A full account of the find will be published by Mr Davis, and therefore only a brief description, already published with Mr Davis’s permission in article form, must be given here.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained: for example,
burial-chamber, burial chamber; underworld, under-world; intrust;
unbiassed; engrained.

Pg xi: ‘ART OF AKHNATION’ replaced by ‘ART OF AKHNATON’.
Pg xii: ‘MAP OF AKHHETATON’ replaced by ‘MAP OF AKHETATON’.
Pg 158: ‘who seens to have’ replaced by ‘who seems to have’.
Pg 178: ‘elaborate footsools’ replaced by ‘elaborate footstools’.
Pg 205: ‘the light rooves’ replaced by ‘the light roofs’.
Pg 236: ‘the Egptian yoke’ replaced by ‘the Egyptian yoke’.
Pg 262 Footnote [82]: ‘In Egytian’ replaced by ‘In Egyptian’.

Index.
Dushratta: ‘marriage of Nesemmut’ replaced by ‘marriage of Nezemmut’.