Akhenaten

It was the cosier aspects of Wilkinson's Amarna, however, that were most widely picked up and disseminated in the Anglophone world, particularly in writings of the 1850s about Egypt and the Bible. Typical are the works of Wil­liam Osburn (1793—c. 1869), an amateur Egyptologist and zealous anti-Catholic (his other books included Hidden Works of Darkness: or, the Doings of the Jesuits). Between 1841 and 1854 he wrote several books on how Egyptian archaeology proved the Bible's historicity, using Wilkinson as one of his main sources of archaeological data, among them The Antiquities of Egypt. Ancient Egypt, her Testi­mony to the Truth of the Bible (1846); Israel in Egypt, or the Books of Genesis and Exodus illustrated by Existing Monuments

(1853) and The Monumental History of Egypt as recorded on the Ruins of her Temples, Palaces and Tombs (1854). Osburn writes of Amarna that 'the utter absence of the social affections, which so painfully charac­terizes the pictures of the life of man at all other epochs of the history of Ancient Egypt, is greatly mitigated in this single place'. His follows this with a description of a relief of the royal family, emphasising the harmonious union of Akhenaten and Nefertiti and their affectionate attitude towards their daughters. Given Osburn's broader agenda, the reason for this unusual representation 'of the social affections' at Amarna is not hard to predict: 'It is neither illogical nor improbable to refer this great moral improvement to the influence of the com­paratively purer and more truthful doctrine regarding the Divine existence, for which these sectarians contended.'"' Osburn's books were very well received: the London Literary Gazette said, 'among the most distinguished cultivators of ancient Egyptian research ... he has directed his inquiries to that particular field which is most interesting to the Christian'. In the 1870s and later they were sources for pious books of the type often given as Sunday School prizes, and magazines for young people such as The Quiver

or Sunday Readings for the Young. These were acceptable reading for Sabbatarian households who observed Sunday as a day of complete rest. Through these texts, the image of Akhenaten eventually became familiar, and Amarna acquired a special status for the English. It had reassuring associations with the progress towards monotheism and the elevation of family life in a pious domestic setting. The chance discovery of the so-called Amarna letters by a local woman in 1887 made it seem an even more intriguing place. This discovery enabled Amarna to be associated not only with the development of monotheism and the Bible as a historical source but also with some of the Bible's central characters (see Figure 3.3).

The Amarna letters are a cache of about 380 clay tablets, inscribed in cunei­form, probably forming part of an official diplomatic archive. It preserves cor­respondence sent from rulers or client-rulers in areas corresponding to modern Syria, Israel and Turkey, with (in some cases) copies of the Egyptians' replies. These letters, sent by rulers of places familiar from the pages of the Old Testa­ment, had quite an impact in the late nineteenth century, especially in England and Germany (160 of the tablets were bought by the Berlin Museum in 1888). The pioneering British archaeologist Flinders Petrie, who excavated at Amarna between November 1891 and March 1892, exploited interest in the letters to give

Figure 3.3

Young Moses reading to Pharaoh's daughter (and Akhenaten?) in an interior with themes taken from Amarna sculpture, from Sunday Readings for the Young, c. 1894. It was intended to be coloured in. The illustration is based on Arthur Reginald's 1894 painting Joseph Interpreting the Pharaoh's Dream.