Page 58 - All About History - Issue 180-19

case of Akhenaten the facts do not bear the
construction often put on them.”
So many theories abound about this king due to
the lack of tangible archaeological evidence about
his reign and we can thank the ancient Egyptians
themselves for this fragmentary survival rate.
Following his reign, Akhenaten’s contemporaries
tried to erase his very existence from history. His
name was erased from the monuments and his
temples, his city was razed to the ground and the
stones reused as building material.
So who was Akhenaten? Peaceful, religious
activist or a heretic?
Akhenaten was the second son of Amenhotep
III and queen Tiye. He was born with the name
Amenhotep, which he changed during the early
years of his reign to Akhenaten, in honour of his
newly revered god, the Aten.
As a second son, young Amenhotep was never
expected to be king, but between year 16 and 27 of
his father’s reign, his older brother Thutmosis died
leaving him as sole heir to the throne.
Just before Amenhotep IV, as he was crowned,
came to the throne he married an unknown
woman named Nefertiti. Her parentage is one of
© Alamy
Nefertiti is depicted here
leading a ceremony, likely
to honour the Aten
58
“The Tell el Amarna period has had more nonsense written
about it than any other period in Egyptian history”
the many things about the Amarna period
that is hotly debated. One prominent theory
is that she was a cousin of Amenhotep IV.
Her father is thought to be Ay, the brother
of queen Tiye and the king who followed
Tutankhamun onto the throne.
Together they had six children, all girls:
Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenepaten (the
future wife of Tutankhamun), Neferneferuaten,
Neferneferure and Setepenre.
Nefertiti however was not the only wife of
Akhenaten, and written evidence shows he had
at least four wives: Nefertiti, Kiya (the mother of
Tutankhamun), Tadukhipa, a Babylonian princess,
and his own daughter Ankhesenepaaten, who later
married Smenkhkare and Tutankhamun.
Akhenaten and Ankhesenepaaten also possibly
had a child together called Ankhesenepaaten
Tasherit (The Younger).
The Aten
There was nothing remarkable about Amenhotep
before he became king – nothing to suggest
he would utterly reject traditional religion and
culture. He grew up at Memphis and was raised
within the traditional religious culture that
comprised a rich pantheon of gods. However,
once he became king, Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)
abandoned all of these deities, replacing them
with the Aten – the solar disc.
The Aten, however, was not a new god. Aten
was already part of the traditional Egyptian
pantheon and was recorded as early as the twelfth
dynasty (1991 – 1782 BCE) in the Coffin Texts.
Aten was traditionally depicted as a man with
the head of a falcon surmounted by a sun disc,
very similar to images of Re-Horakhty. Akhenaten
abandoned this imagery and depicted the god as
© Getty Images
It’s believed that Nefertiti may
have ruled briefly as pharaoh
after Akhenaten’s death