Amarna

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amarna

The site of Amarna (commonly known as el-Amarna or incorrectly as Tel el-Amarna; see below) (Arabic: العمارنة al-‘amārnä) is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of al-Minya, some 58 km (38 miles) south of the city of al-Minya, 312 km (194 miles) south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km (250 miles) north of Luxor. The site of Amarna includes several modern villages, chief of which are el-Till in the north and el-Hagg Qandil in the south.

The area contains an extensive Egyptian archaeology|archaeological site that represents the remains of the capital city newly–established and built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1353 BC). The name for the city employed by the ancient Egyptians is written as Akhetaten (or Akhetaton – transliterations vary) in English transliteration. It translates literally as "the Horizon of the Aten".

The area was also occupied during later Roman and early Christian times, excavations to the south of the city have found several structures from this period. <ref name="roman">[1] Late Roman remains</ref>

1 Naming issues
2 The city of Akhenaten
3 Amarna art-style
4 Rediscovery and excavation
- 4.1 Chronology of investigation
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Naming issues

The frequent designation "Tel el-Amarna" for the city is inaccurate: nowhere do the ancient remains constitute a mound of eroded architecture that would warrant the description of a "Tel" (Arabic: "city mound"), so common elsewhere in the region. Cyril Aldred notes that the name "Tel el-Amarna" is a misunderstanding of the name for one of the modern villages near the ruins, Et Til el Amarna. The name "Amarna" itself comes from the name of a tribe of nomads, the Beni Amran, who left the Eastern Desert in the 18th century to settle on the banks of the Nile along this stretch.

[edit] The city of Akhenaten

The area of the city was effectively a virgin–site, and it was here that the Akhenaten described as the Aten's "..the seat of the First Occasion, which he had made for himself that he might rest in it." It may be that the Royal Wadi's resemblance to the hieroglyph for horizon showed that this was the place to found the city.

The city was built as the new capital of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, dedicated to his new religion of worship to the Aten. Construction started in year 4 of his reign (1364 BC or 1346 BC) and was probably completed by year 9 (1359 BC or 1341 BC), although it became the capital city two years earlier.

It is the only ancient Egyptian city for which we have great details of its internal plan, in large part because the city was abandoned after the death of Akhenaten. The city seems to have remained active for a decade or so after his death, and a shrine to Horemheb indicates that it was at least partially occupied at the beginning of his reign<ref name="kemp">[2] Excavating Amarna</ref>, if only as a source for building material elsewhere. Once it was abandoned it remained uninhabited until Roman settlement<ref name="roman" /> began along the edge of the Nile. However, due to the unique circumstances of its creation and abandonment, it is questionable how representative of ancient Egyptian cities it actually is.

The city as a whole is divided into a number of wide-flung components, which include:

Famous landmarks within the city itself include:

[edit] Amarna art-style

Main article: Amarna art

The Amarna art-style is unique among the Egyptian world for its more realistic depiction of its subjects, instead of the strict idealistic formalism universal in Egyptian art up until that point, as well as for depicting many informal scenes such as the royal family playing with their children. Although the worship of Aten (often referred to as the Amarna heresy) was completely suppressed, the artistic legacy had a more lasting impact.

[edit] Rediscovery and excavation

Image:Amarna Akkadian letter.png In 1887 a local woman digging for sebakh uncovered a cache of over 300 cuneiform tablets (now commonly known as the Amarna Letters). These tablets recorded select diplomatic correspondence of the Pharaoh and were predominantly written in Akkadian, the lingua franca commonly used during the Late Bronze Age of the Ancient Near East for such communication.

Archaeological excavation has been conducted at Amarna by a series of British and German excavation teams since 1891. These efforts were preceded in the mid-19th century by the survey work of Karl Richard Lepsius and his team of epigraphers, who copied wall illustrations, transcribed inscriptions and took paper squeezes of reliefs. The 19th century records made by these teams are of immense importance since many of these remains were later vandalized by the locals in anger against the Egyptian Antiquities Service.

The current investigations have been in annual operation since the late 1970s, directed by Dr Barry Kemp (Reader in Egyptology, University of Cambridge, England) under the auspices of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES).

[edit] Chronology of investigation

1714 – Claude Sicard, a French Jesuit priest travelling through the Nile Valley, describes the first known boundary stela from Amarna.

1798–1799 – Napoleon's corps de savants prepare the first map of Amarna, subsequently published in Description de l'Égypte between 1821 and 1830.

1824 – Sir John Gardiner Wilkinson explores and maps the city remains.

1833 – The copyist Robert Hay and his surveyor G. Laver visit the locality and uncover several of the Southern Tombs from sand drifts, recording the reliefs. (The copies made by Hay and Laver languish largely unpublished in the British Library).

1843 and 1845 – The Prussian expedition led by Richard Lepsius records the visible monuments and topography of Amarna in two separate visits over a total of twelve days, employing drawings and paper squeezes. The results are ultimately published in Denkmäler aus Ægypten und Æthiopien between 1849 to 1913. Despite being somewhat limited in accuracy, the engraved Denkmäler plates nonetheless form the basis for scholastic knowledge and interpretation of many of the scenes and inscriptions in the private tombs and some of the Boundary Stelae for the remainder of the 19th century.

1887 – A cache of nearly 400 clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform are discovered by an Amarna woman, which are now known as the Amarna Letters.

1891–1892 – Sir Flinders Petrie works for one season at Amarna, working independently of the Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF). Excavating primarily in the Central City, Petrie investigates the Great Temple of the Aten, the Great Official Palace, the King's House, the Records Office (Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh) and several private houses. Although frequently amounting to little more than a sondage, Petrie's excavations reveal additional cuneiform tablets, the remains of glass factories, and a great quantity of discarded faience, glass and ceramic in sifting the palace rubbish heaps (including Mycenaean sherds). Publishing his results and reconstructions rapidly, Petrie is able to stimulate great interest in the site's potential.

1903–1908 – Norman de Garis Davies publishes drawn and photographic descriptions of private tombs and boundary stelae from Amarna.

1907–1914 – Led by Ludwig Borchardt, the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft excavates the North and South suburbs of the city. The famous bust of Nefertiti – now in Berlin's Ägyptisches Museum – is discovered amongst other sculptural arteftacts in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose. The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 terminates the German excavations.

1921–1936 – The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) returns to excavation at Amarna under the direction of T.E. Peet, Sir Leonard Woolley, Henri Frankfort and John Pendlebury. The renewed investigations focus on religious and royal structures.

1960s – The Egyptian Antiquities Organization (now the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities) undertakes a number of excavations at Amarna.

1977 – present – The EES returns once more to excavation at Amarna, now under the direction of Barry Kemp<ref name="kemp" />.

1980 – A second, shorter expedition led by Geoffrey Martin describes and copies the reliefs from the Royal Tomb, later publishing its findings together with objects thought to have come from the tomb.