Akhenaten

Plate 2.2 Boundary stela A at luna el-Gebel, defining the north-western boundary of Akhet-aten. The text is the so-called 'later proclamation' dated to year 6 of Akhenaten's reign. Height c. 3-4 m, overall width of the emplacement c.

6.25 m. In situ.

In year 6 the king returned to Akhet-aten, which by year 8 had become the main royal residence. However, palaces elsewhere in Egypt were still maintained and inhabited, and the court was probably not sequestered at Akhct-atcn, as is often said. Also in year 6, the king had assumed the name by which he is most usually known, Akhenaten. This new name is replete with theological nuances: a rough translation is 'Bencficent-onc-of {or for)-the-Aten', but there is much more to it. Egyptian theology was fascinated by the intricate interplay between names, words and images. The whole name acknowledges the visible nature of the new god Atcn in the sky, contrasting with the invisible nature of the god Amun, which means 'He-who-is-hidden'. Apart from honouring the sun-disc, the aten

com­ponent contains a significant pun. At the time, aten was probably pronounced something like iati, which sounded like the Egyptian phrase for 'my father'. Akhenaten's theological texts often play with this assonancc, such as the later form of the name of the Aten (see Figure 2.1b). The word akh

('beneficent') also had a complex set of connotations, not only of religious duty in observing the anccstor- cult, but also of transfiguration, luminosity and a personal union with the sun-god that was re-enacted every dawn. The dead became ^-spirits after their bodies had been rendered perfect through mummification. They acted as intercessors between the living and the dead, and prayers were addressed to them in the form of statue busts kept in household shrines. Akhenaten's new name thus implies both his bodily integrity and his role as liminal intermediary between humanity and the gods.¹³ It was carefully devised to fit in theologically with the ritual performances of his own divinity Akhenaten went on to stage at the new city.

In about year 9, the formal names of the Atcn were revised again (see Figure 2.1b), altering the parts of the titulary mentioning the gods Re'-Harakhty and Shu. The names of the Aten are written inside the cartouchcs normally reserved for pharaohs and their consorts, illustrating how theological developments con­tinued to push kingship and divinity closer and closer together. To make the god's kingly status explicit, the Aten-disc was shown wearing the protective cobra (uraeus), the most prestigious item of royal and divine regalia. These changes seem to coincide with the time when words and images suggestive of Amun, local god of Thebes and up to now patron deity of the ruling family, were mutilated where they appeared in temples and tombs. Other religiously unacceptable words and phrases were also erased from monuments, though not exhaustively or consist­ently. These unacceptable words included the Amun element in the name of Akhenaten's father Amunhotep.

Meanwhile, at Akhet-aten an extensive city was under construction which seems to have been conceived as a sacred microcosm (see Figure 2.4). This in itself was nothing new. Amunhotep III had redesigned and integrated the monuments of cast and west Thebes as a ccrcmonial stage or cityscapc for religious pageantry. Akhenaten re-created his father's ceremonial stage in a unique way, the result being a 'symmetrically divided site, its primary orientation centred on a temple and a tomb'." The boundary stelae, temples and the royal tomb appar­ently form a series of rectangles which mirror the proportions of the principal

Figure 2.4 Map of ancient Akhet-aten and the area of modern Amarna

Aten temple in the centre of the city. The entire city was thus defined spatially as a temple to the Aten on a colossal scale. Akhet-aten was the site of the Aten's creation and his perpetual rebirth which maintains the cosmos, and all that the Aten created was contained within its boundaries.