270 years following Akhenaten's death—the relationship between the people, the pharaoh, and the gods did not simply revert to pre-Amarna practices and beliefs. Nefertiti and Akhenaten. The new Aten temples had no roof and the god was thus worshipped in the sunlight, under the open sky, rather than in dark temple enclosures as had been the previous custom. The views of Egyptologists differ whether Atenism should be considered as absolute monotheism, or whether it was monolatry, syncretism, or henotheism. After 80 years C. After 50 years D. After 30 years . Englund and Friedman concluded that the frequency with which Akhenaten used this term likely means that his own name meant "Effective for the Aten. Amun was restored as the supreme deity. 4. The letters are a cache of 382 diplomatic texts and literary and educational materials discovered between 1887 and 1979[90] and named after Amarna, the modern name for Akhenaten's capital Akhetaten. [49] Redford and James K. Hoffmeier stated, however, that Ra's cult was so widespread and established throughout Egypt that Akhenaten could have been influenced by solar worship even if he did not grow up around Heliopolis. Together they had at least six daughters. While Akhenaten's successors attempted to erase his religious, artistic, and even linguistic changes from history, the new linguistic elements remained a more common part of official texts following the Amarna years, starting with the Nineteenth Dynasty. After 17 years on the throne, Akhenaten died of causes now unknown. Some of these buildings, such as the Aten temples, were ordered to be built by Akhenaten on the boundary stela decreeing the city's founding. Tutankhaten and his wife Ankhesenpaaten dropped the Aten from their names and changed them to Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun, respectively. I indeed prostrate myself at the feet of the king, my lord, my god, my Sun, the Sun from the sky, 7 times and 7 times, on the stomach and on the back. It tells of the Aten as a sole god and the creator of all life, who recreates life every day at sunrise, and on whom everything on Earth depends, including the natural world, people's lives, and even trade and commerce. As the only one with access to the god, Akhenaten established himself as a god-king and became the first king to be called Pharoah. Sed festivals were ritual rejuvenations of an aging pharaoh. It seems that the Apis cult was maintained and other gods are still mentioned in inscriptions (although they are usually solar gods or personifications of abstract ideas). Akhenaten was an Egyptian Pharaoh who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. 22–23: "...a significant part of the rest Of Psalm 104 (esp. Over time, this representation was replaced by images of the royal family, which was always receiving sacred emanations from the solar disk. 2010, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Akhenaten&oldid=1014642623, Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Articles containing Ancient Egyptian-language text, Articles with Spanish-language sources (es), Pages using Sister project links with wikidata namespace mismatch, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with default search, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with multiple identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Najovits, Simson. Egyptian hieroglyphs have layers of meaning. The wadi where he is buried looks like the Valley of the Kings. [11] Egyptologist Dimitri Laboury suggested that the marriage took place in Akhenaten's fourth regnal year. The earliest monuments of Amenhotep IV depict the traditional worship of deities executed according to the artistic style of the preceding reign—with the exception of a prominent role accorded to the falcon-headed god Re-Harakhte, who is given an unusual epithet containing the phrase “who rejoices in his horizon, in his aspect of the light which is in the sun’s disk.”. If Amenhotep inherited his brother's roles in preparation for his accession to the throne, he might have become a high priest in Thutmose's stead. [131][132] Based on depictions and artifacts from the tombs of Meryre II and Tutankhamun, Smenkhkare could have been Akhenaten's coregent by regnal year thirteen or fourteen, but died a year or two later. And no one knows the mystery of how he performs his tasks. Indeed, most Egyptologists argue that this hymn inspired the psalm...", "...For some, the relationship to Hebraic monotheism seems extremely close, including the nearly verbatim passages in Psalm 104 and the “Hymn to Aten” found in one of the tombs at Akhetaten..."; Shaw 2004, p. 19: "An intriguing direct literary (and perhaps religious) link between Egypt and the Bible is Psalm 104, which has strong similarities with a hymn to the Aten", Akhenaten and monotheism in Abrahamic religions, Egypt's traditional polytheistic religion, Family tree of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, regular public holidays, festivals, and processions, House Altar with Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Three Daughters (Amarna Period), The Lost Pharaoh: The Search for Akhenaten, Blake et Mortimer: Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide vol. Akhenaten pointedly refused to save his vassal Rib-Hadda of Byblos—whose kingdom was being besieged by the expanding state of Amurru under Abdi-Ashirta and later Aziru, son of Abdi-Ashirta—despite Rib-Hadda's numerous pleas for help from the pharaoh. ... [I]f you plot evil, treacherous things, then you, together with your entire family, shall die by the axe of the king. The introduction of a new cult was accompanied by innovations in the portrayal of the human form in both relief and sculpture. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). A. Amenhotep III aimed to maintain the balance of power through marriages—such as his marriage to Tadukhipa, daughter of the Mitanni king Tushratta—and vassal states. The two of you take food and strong drink together." Akhenaten's rediscovery and Flinders Petrie's early excavations at Amarna sparked great public interest in the pharaoh and his queen Nefertiti. And if you did act loyally, still all the things you wrote were not true. Egyptologists, such as Aidan Dodson, consider this year twelve celebration to be the zenith of Akhenaten's reign. [197][198] The hymn celebrates the sun and daylight and recounts the dangers that abound when the sun sets. It can also be translated as “goodness” and “perfection”. Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun in Year 2 of his reign (c. 1332 BC) and abandoned the city of Akhetaten. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. [184] The Aten may also have been the subject of Akhenaten's royal Sed festival early in the pharaoh's reign. In music, Akhenaten is the subject of several compositions, including the jazz album Akhenaten Suite by Roy Campbell, Jr.,[260] the symphony Akhenaten (Eidetic Images) by Gene Gutchë, the progressive metal song Cursing Akhenaten by After the Burial, and the technical death metal song Cast Down the Heretic by Nile. There are many theories as to what killed King Tut. Akhenaten was certainly the most hated Pharaoh by the Priesthood of Amon. Let my burial be made in it, in the millions of jubilees which the Aten, my father, decreed for me. Like most royalty, Nefertiti held many titles during her time in power, including: … The victory was commemorated on two stelae, one discovered at Amada and another at Buhen. Eric Cline, Nicholas Reeves, Peter Dorman, and other scholars have argued strongly against the establishment of a long coregency between the two rulers and in favor of either no coregency or a brief one lasting at most two years. [187], By Year Nine of his reign, Akhenaten declared that Aten was not merely the supreme god, but the only worshipable god. Akhenaten married the noblewoman Nefertiti about the time he became pharaoh, in 1353 BCE. While Nefertiti's familial relationship with Akhenaten is known, whether Akhenaten and Smenkhkare were related by blood is unclear. 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