fig 28

So here we are when, in about 1358 BCE a great calamity strikes the two lands of Egypt: the pharaoh Amenhotep the third has died.

After the 70 days of ritual, he is interred with great pomp in his hypogeum in the valley of the kings and his son ascends to the throne (fig.28). His legitimacy is incontestable and uncontested. This ascension to the throne may have been preceded by a period of co-regency with his father which may have lasted as much as ten years but this is much discussed [appendix 4]. It is an ever passionate debate which gave rise to the excellent thesis by Leslie Bailey who concluded that... we can conclude nothing!

 

1) The new sovereign.

 

He must have been about 25 years old and is called Amenophis, like his father, a name that comes from a Greek deformation of the Egyptian name Imn htp, "Amun is satisfied", a denomination which makes a direct reference to Amun. (note: according to Jan Qaguebeur, Amenophis would be a mistake since it derives from Imn-m-Ipt and not from Imn-htp).

 

2) The infancy of the king.

 

We know virtually nothing about the youth of he who has become the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV.

 

Of one thing we can be sure, that this took place at a period of real crisis of polytheism, as if the Egyptians suddenly didn't know how to manage their immense divine world and had felt the necessity to insist on the unity of the divine more than on the diversity of the gods, notably in allowing the choice for worship of the very old solar cults.

 

Certain minor literates went very far in rejecting as superstitions the complex mysteries of the religion, to the benefit of a rationalist spiritual interpretation, which granted only visible reality.

 

All this profoundly affected the young prince, as also did, probably, the influence of his mother, the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III, Queen Tiy whose powerful personality certainly played a role (fig 30).

 

The young Amenhotep has already married she who is –- perhaps — his cousin, the beautiful Nefertiti (whose name means "The beautiful one has come") (fig 4) who thus becomes the Great Royal Wife and who is required to give birth to the male successor to the throne.

 

During the first two years of his reign, nothing seems to change. The king is crowned at Thebes, the city of Amun, like his forefathers before him. He adopts a very traditional titulary, which makes clear reference to Amun, and keeps his birth name Imen htp.

 

3) The first years as king.

 

During the first two years of the reign, nothing seems to change.

 

The king crowned himself in Thebes, the city of Amon, as his predecessors before him. He adopted a very traditional titulature, which clearly makes reference to Amon, and kept his birth name of Imen-htp. His very rare representations, those which have not been destroyed, adopt the traditional cannon. This is how on the lintel of entry of the tomb of Kheruef TT192, which exercised his functions during the reigns of Amenhotep III and IV, one sees the king (whose cartouches are hammered) making a classic offering to Amon (view 81).

 

However since this time (therefore between 11 and 12 years) he introduces a new solar divine entity based on Horus of the horizon (Horakhty) which he/it names "Ra-Horakhty in his nature of solar light which emanates from the Aten disk", thus making of Ra a "sovereign of the horizon", thus establishing his proximity to the terrestrial royalty.

 

During year 2, things start to move.

 

The king orders the construction, in the middle of the domain of Amun at Karnak, of several edifices dedicated to the god Aten. From this moment on, we note innovations which profoundly shake and shock the mentalities of this so traditionalist and conservative society. First of all, in order to go faster, construction is no longer done with big blocks but with the help of sandstone bricks, the talatats, which could be carried by one man (fig.38).The construction is considerably accelerated but so is the dismantling which follows the Amarna period, of course.

 

Osiriac colossus of the king

Above all, the figurative representations undergo important changes. Certainly, the basic canons, notably the reclining perspective are respected and we have no hesitation in recognising the works as Egyptian but the characters become very strange even to us as "modern people". So imagine the effect on the Egyptians of the time!

 

This innovation in the decoration clearly appears as a deliberate royal wish. Certain sculptors, like Bak (fig 2) expressly say too that they received their teaching from the king himself.

 

It is this which is striking, before the official rupture with Amun, which will come later: this sort of naturalist, realist style, sometimes pushed to caricature and which characterises the Amarna period.

 

The king (and, indeed, other individuals of the royal family) is shown with a stretched-out skull, a long thin neck, a thrown-back head, and big lips (fig 14 , fig 15 ). He is almost always wearing the "blue crown (khepresh) or the nemes, and the latter adopts a rounded form which reminds us of the solar disc.

 

Wide, feminine hips (fig 27) sometimes give him an androgynous appearance, which has caused much ink to flow, since certain persons have concluded that he was a degenerate suffering from an endocrine illness (Fröhlich's syndrome). This is wrong!

 

We can be certain today that Akhenaten was not suffering from any form of eunuchism and the 8 daughters, at least, that he engendered are the clear proof. On the other hand, it is possible that he suffered from Marfan's syndrome and the ocular problems which resulted from it could explain part of his theology (see this subject HERE and for a deeper discussion HERE).

 

In Amarna art, all that was static, fixed for eternity, is now in motion. Vertical axes now become diagonals, resulting in the stretched heads and crowns. This idea of movement recurs, as we shall see, in the relationship of the king with his god and, notably, in the high presentation of offerings (fig 27).We also see it in scenes of the royal family's private life and, for example, in the ribbons fluttering in the wind to represent the divine breath.

 

fig 27

It is probable that the king gave orders to hide nothing of the characteristics of the royal family (and the skulls of the family which have been discovered are indeed stretched) (fig 40), and even to accentuate them, both to care for the naturalism which will characterise the new religion and to create a spiritual shock in regard to the tradition. Amarna art thus appears as a mannerist distortion of reality, expressionism in breach of the classic canons.

 

Remember that, in Ancient Egypt, representations are never neutral. On the contrary, they are the very essence of royal ideology.

 

In having himself shown in an ambiguous form, both masculine and feminine, or even an asexual form, the king has at least two aims.

 

Firstly, he shows himself as the fusion of the father and mother of the country, like the primordial human being, the asexual emanation of the god Aten, for whom he is the sole representative on earth.

 

On the other hand, in harmonising his iconography with that of the queen Nefertiti, he erases more and more the differences that could exist between them. And this is a necessity, a sort of dance: because he, the king, will go up a step in assimilating himself with the Aten and it is necessary that the empty place which he will leave be occupied: occupied by the queen Nefertiti.

 

Nefertiti will now play a major role in Amarna religion. Previously, in earlier periods, the Great Royal Wife took a greater and greater place in the theology and the organisation of the cult but now she holds a place almost as important as that of the king. Thus, on the stelae and statues, each time where the physical space exists to allow it, it is the royal couple who are represented and not just the king.

 

We shall also see the queen appropriate the symbols of power that were formerly strictly reserved for the king alone. For example, she is shown (fictively) massacring the enemies of Egypt or accomplishing specifically royal rites of the divine cult, which would have been unthinkable before this period.

 

Remains of "Osirian" colossi, which alternated with pillars of the façade of the temple court, show this extraordinary aspect adopted by the king (fig 32 and fig 39). We also find traces of representations of a Sed festival (fig 46). Since the king had, of course, by far not attained the usual given time for this kind of jubilee festival, we must find another significance, which, though plausible, is hypothetical: the wish to mark the beginning of a new era.