Akhenaten's Religious Revolution
Akhenaten abolished the gods of Egypt, moved the capital to an empty desert plain, and had all of it undone within a decade of his death. He came to the throne around 1353 BC as Amenhotep IV, changed his name in his fifth year, and declared that there was one god, the Aten, the visible disc of the sun, accessible to the people only through the king. The temples of Amun at Karnak — the wealthiest institution in the country, with its own land, fleets and granaries — were closed, their revenues seized, and the name of Amun chiselled out of inscriptions across Egypt, including from his own father's name. He built a new capital at Akhetaten, on virgin ground at what is now Amarna, and swore never to leave it. The art of the period is unmistakable and unlike anything before or after it: elongated skulls, heavy hips, the royal family shown informally with their daughters on their laps, and the sun's rays ending in hands. The Amarna letters, a diplomatic archive found on the site, show vassals in Syria and Canaan writing repeatedly for troops that never came. Whether this was monotheism in a later sense is argued about. The Aten had no mythology, no images and no other gods beside it, and the worship required went through Akhenaten himself. He died around 1336. Tutankhamun reopened the temples, the court left Amarna, and later king lists omit him entirely as the enemy. The site's abandonment is why so much survives. Amarna was occupied for about fifteen years and then left, so the excavation reads a single generation cleanly, including the workers' village and the graves of people who built the city and died young of malnutrition and spinal injuries.
- Year: 1353 BCE
- Category: Religious
