Erasing a God.
Sometime in his reign, Akhenaten initiated a project that has made him infamous. The King’s agents, sculptors and masons travelled throughout the country, visiting major temples and shrines. Their job? Erase the name and figure of Amun, the King of the Gods, wherever they found it. This project is the most controversial of Akhenaten’s reign. In this episode, we dig into what happened, and why the King did it…
Chapter 2 begins at 24:00
Episode date: c.1347 BCE
Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com
Music by Ancient Lyric bettinajoydeguzman.com
Priests
Linda
Ellen
Terri
TJ
Neil
Kevin
Hereditary Nobles
Chrissi
Simon
Sandi & Stuart
Eric
Shannon
Rich
Skip
Elna
Sarah
RA EGYPTIAN
Eline
Martin
Christopher
Simone
Conner
Meicost
Pernille
Logan
Katherine
Julia
Kate
Jan
Bibliography
- Aldred, Cyril. ‘Two Theban Notables during the Later Reign of Amenophis III’. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 18, no. 2 (1959): 113–20.
- Aldred, Cyril. Akhenaten: King of Egypt. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1988.
- Allen, James P. ‘The Religion of Amarna’. In The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt, edited by Dorothea Arnold, 3–6. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996.
- Assmann, Jan. Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism. London: Taylor & Francis Group, 1995.
- Bell, Lanny. ‘Luxor Temple and the Cult of the Royal Ka’. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 44, no. 4 (1985): 251–94.
- Bennett, John. ‘The Restoration Inscription of Tut’ankhamūn’. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 25, no. 1 (1939): 8–15.
- Blyth, Elizabeth. Karnak: Evolution of a Temple. New York: Routledge, 2006.
- Brand, Peter. ‘Secondary Restorations in the Post-Amarna Period’. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 36 (1999): 113–34.
- Bryan, Betsy M. ‘Hatshepsut and Cultic Revelries in the New Kingdom’. In Creativity and Innovation in the Reign of Hatshepsut, edited by José M. Galán, Betsy M. Bryan, and Peter F. Dorman, 93–124. Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2014.
- Bull, Ludlow. ‘Two Egyptian Stelae of the XVIII Dynasty’. Metropolitan Museum Studies 2, no. 1 (1929): 76–84.
- Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunrise: Egypt From Golden Age to Age of Heresy. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2014.
- Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation. 2nd Edition. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2017.
- Fischer, Henry G. ‘An Early Example of Atenist Iconoclasm’. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 13 (1976): 131–32.
- Galán, José M. ‘EA 164 and the God Amun’. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 51, no. 4 (1992): 287–91.
- Galán, José M. ‘Hymns to Amun-Ra and Amun in the Tomb Chapel of Djehuty (TT11)’. In Joyful in Thebes: Egyptological Studies in Honor of Betsy M. Bryan, edited by Richard Jasnow and Kathlyn M. Cooney, 183–96. Atlanta: Lockwood Press, 2015.
- Gulyás, András. ‘The Unique Amun-Re at Luxor Temple’. In Current Research in Egyptology 2005, edited by Rachel Mairs and Alice Stevenson, 6:22–37. Oxbow Books, 2007.
- Johnson, W. Raymond. ‘Amenhotep III and Amarna: Some New Considerations’. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 82 (1996): 65–82.
- Krauss, Rolf. ‘Akhenaten: Monotheist? Polytheist?’ Bulleting of the Australian Centre of Egyptology, no. 11 (2000): 93–101.
- Manuelian, Peter der. ‘Semi-Literacy in Ancient Egypt: Some Erasures from the Amarna Period’. In Gold of Praise: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente, edited by Emily Teeter and John Larson, 285–98. Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1999.
- McClymont, Alice. ‘Action, Reaction & Interaction’. In Tradition and Transformation in Ancient Egypt, edited by Andrea Kahlbacher and Elisa Priglinger, 105–22. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2018.
- Murnane, William J. ‘The Bark of Amun on the Third Pylon at Karnak’. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 16 (1979): 11–27.
- Murnane, William J. Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.
- Nims, Charles F. ‘Places about Thebes’. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 14, no. 2 (1955): 110–23.
- Redford, Donald B. Akhenaten: The Heretic King. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
- Redford, Donald. ‘Akhenaten: New Theories and Old Facts’. Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research 369 (2013): 9.
- Sullivan, Elaine. ‘Karnak: Development of the Temple of Amun-Ra’. In UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, edited by Willeke Wendrich. Los Angeles, 2010.
- Williamson, Jacquelyn. ‘Amarna Period’. In UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, edited by Willeke Wendrich. Los Angeles, 2015.
Very thought provoking series on Akhenaten’s reign. Particularly concerning the reasons for all of his changes. I’ve never studied Egypt so my thoughts are all based on previous episodes and of course ignorance. All of the changes, co-regents, particularly his wife, establishing a new capital in the middle of nowhere, repudiation of other gods and their temples seem designed to take power back from the elites. The political and economic power of the elites are greatly diminished by reduced access to Akhenaten and impoverishment of the other god’s temples, the elite economic base. Restoration of an all powerful ruler, Akhenaten, mirrored by a newly all powerful god.
Great podcast both entertaining and enjoyable.
Hi Scott, thanks for listening! The hypothesis you propose is definitely possible, and recent scholarship has touched on this idea in some interesting ways. I’ll be covering the idea in episode 135, when we consider Akhenaten’s “legacy” and he was maybe trying to achieve 🙂
Dominic