Page 63 - All About History - Issue 180-19

The Heretic Pharaoh

Akhenaten to record this on the stelae for eternity, and the poor condition of the tomb had
and surround himself with the military in his new damaged the burial even further.
city with the carefully chosen inhabitants. Many of the funerary goods in KV55
originally had belonged to a woman but
rebellion had altered by the addition of a uraeus

to the canopics and coffins, making
So did the Egyptian population change its them suitable for a king. These were later
religious fidelities on the behest of the king? removed when the tomb was ransacked
The short answer is ‘no’. and the names on the equipment were
People, certainly paid lip service to the new also hacked out and the gold removed
religion, probably out of self-preservation but from the coffin.
in their own homes they maintained their Akhenaten, the peaceful, monotheist had
traditional religious practices. clearly made enemies throughout his short
Evidence from all over Egypt, and even at reign who believed his crimes were enough
Tell el Amarna, shows that the general population to justify the destruction of his funerary
were still worshipping household gods such as assemblage that would eliminate any
Bes, the dwarf god, Taweret, the pregnant hippo, chance of him having an afterlife.
and state goddess Hathor. These deities were
worshipped quite openly, and in some of the
houses at Tell el Amarna, images of the god Bes “such public
were painted onto the walls.
Further signs that Akhenaten’s religion was
losing traction, even at his religious city can be lip service to
seen in the naming of his two youngest daughters.
Despite these girls being born when the Aten the religion of
was the primary deity, and their father was equal
status to the god they had names dedicated to Akhenaten,
Ra/Re and not the Aten.
Such public lip service to the religion
of Akhenaten, made it all the easier for made it all
Tutankhamun to revert back to the traditional
pantheon once he became king following the the easier for
death of Akhenaten and Smenkhare.
Tutankhamun was born as Tutankhaten, so the
first thing he did when he came to throne at aged Tutankhamun to
eight or nine was to change his name to honour
Amun. He then moved the capital city back to revert back to
Thebes, and re-established the cult of Amun.
As one would expect, once the king, royal the traditional
court and power moved away from Tell el
Amarna, everyone else also drifted away and
moved back to their home villages and towns. pantheon”
Life then pretty much carried on as normal for
the people of Egypt.
Akhenaten died in 1334 BCE and evidence
suggests he was buried in the royal tomb in Tell
el Amarna. However it seems unlikely that this
was his final resting place, and Petrie discovered
broken fragments of his sarcophagus, canopic jars
and shabti figures around the city. He was clearly
considered a public enemy after death and his
burial was in danger of reprisal.
It is thought that Tutankhamun may have
brought his father’s body to the Valley of the
Kings in Thebes in order to prevent the body
being defiled by his enemies. For many years the
body in KV55 was thought to be the body of the
re-interred Akhenaten, and this was proven to
be the case through DNA testing. Tutankhamun
appears to have placed his father into the Akhenaten was virtually
unfinished tomb of KV55. Since this reburial, KV55 lost to history until his city
had been attacked numerous times over the years, of Armana was rediscovered © Getty Images

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