2408–2425 AM · ≈ 1353 BCE — 1336 BCE · world history
Akhenaten and Amarna
A pharaoh closes the temples of the old gods, worships the solar disc Aten, and builds a new capital.
Amenhotep IV changes his name to Akhenaten, leaves Thebes, and on empty ground in the desert founds the city of Akhetaten. Worship is fixed on the solar disc; the name of Amun is erased from the monuments, and the priesthood loses its revenues. The art of these years changes sharply: elongated faces, family scenes, the king with his wife Nefertiti and their daughters. In the same city an archive of diplomatic correspondence in Akkadian was found—letters from the rulers of Canaan pleading for help. After Akhenaten's death the capital is abandoned and the old gods are brought back.
Sources
Documents of the period
- Egyptian royal inscriptions and king lists — the boundary stelae of Akhetaten and the Great Hymn to the Aten
Scholarship
- archaeology of the Nile valley — the excavations of Amarna and the archive of diplomatic correspondence in Akkadian
Basis: documents and evidence.