sickly king
Can the unusual depiction of Akhenaten tell us about his health?
The unusual way in which Akhenaten is represented in art has led to decades of discussion as to whether the style represents pathology, or whether it is purely artistic creation. Images of Akhenaten – and subsequently, his wife Nefertiti, his children and top courtiers – depict him with short spindly legs and arms, heavy thighs and stomach and elongated facial features. The princesses are also depicted with elongated, egg-shaped skulls which had led to suggestions of artificial head deformation although there is no conclusive evidence that this was practiced in ancient Egypt.
Due to this unusual artistic representation Akhenaten is thought to have suffered from a variety of conditions:
“it seemed there was some backlash – the likes of which no king had seen”
campaign against the cult of Amun. He began destroying temples and statues of Amun, including the name. Wherever the name of Amun appeared it was chiselled out, even from his own birth name Amenhotep and his father’s cartouches.
Tell el Amarna
The royal capital through Amenhotep III’S reign was at Memphis, in the north of Egypt, with the religious capital situated at Thebes. Memphis was associated with the creator god
Ptah and Thebes was the seat of the king-of-thegods Amun. Akhenaten would have been raised at one or both of these cities.
Akhenaten decided in the early years of his reign to build a new capital dedicated to his favoured deity on a site that was untouched by any previous religious practice. He chose the barren site of Tell el Amarna in middle Egypt due to a dip in the cliffs, between which the sun rose, which resembled the hieroglyphic sign for ‘Horizon’. He called the city, Akhetaten – the Horizon of the Aten. The modern name for the site is Tell el Amarna and gives its name to this whole period of history.
Work started in year four of his reign where the boundaries were marked out by a series of stelae carved from the cliff faces surrounding what was to be the outline of the city. By year six, there were 14 boundary stelae, all of which show Akhenaten, Nefertiti and two of their daughters (Meritaten, and Meketaten) worshipping the Aten. These inscriptions made it clear that Akhenaten did not intend for the city to expand and develop past these stelae.
In year nine the royal court moved to the new city. The whole city was designed as a cult centre devoted to serving the Aten, Akhenaten and his family. The only people who lived there served a function within Akhenaten’s wider plan.
Evidence shows that people were invited to live at Amarna, but only if they had a skill required for the administration of the cult of the Aten. There were numerous temple officials, artists, temple scribes and police officials, but only one vizier and no other civil administration.
Of the 50,000 to 100,000 people who lived at Tell el Amarna, ten per cent were the elite and the rest were middle classes. It seems unlikely there was a poor underclass. Officially the city was not fortified but it was well-protected by the cliffs and a strong military presence. The new city was planned around an official centre dominated by palaces, temples and military barracks. There is no archaeological evidence for shops, taverns or schools although they may have been temporary structures leaving little evidence. Tell el Amarna was a functional city, with no room for natural growth or expansion.
changing religion is not an easy task
One of the prevailing theories about Akhenaten was that he was a pacifist who was more interested in his religion than in war. This is often assumed due to the changing artistic style because he depicts himself worshipping the Aten rather than charging into battle as was traditional before and after his reign.
However, we need to think carefully about what Akhenaten achieved. He single handedly, altered the religion of the entire country replacing hundreds of gods who had been worshipped in the homes and temples for thousands of years with the Aten and himself. For perspective, imagine if a modern prime minister announced as of next month we are all to worship them and not to hold any religious beliefs other than the ones they permitted. There would be riots. The Egyptians were no different in this respect.
The only problem is we don’t have any evidence of protests but there is enough evidence to suggest the religious upheaval was not a peaceful one. Excavations at Tell el Amarna, have uncovered a large portion of the city was actually occupied by military barracks and police headquarters. There was clearly a large military presence here, and the royal family is often depicted with a guard. These were often of Asiatic or Nubian origin – as they would not have been affected by his religious changes.
This heavy military presence was clearly felt to be necessary. It has been suggested that the move from Thebes to Amarna was instigated by a rebellion against Akhenaten, and the guards were there to protect the heretic king from personal attack. Surrounding the city there was also an intricate network of roads, which was probably a military patrol route in place of an enclosure wall. These patrols picked up anyone outside the city who should not be there, as well as monitoring those