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(See page 236.)

[graphic]

Letter from Tushratta, king of Mitani, to Amen-hetep III, king of Egypt. [No. 8, Table-case F, Babylonian and Assyrian Room.]

was on the east bank of the Nile, near the modern villages of Haggi Kandil and Tell al-Amarna. There he built a temple to Aten, a palace for himself, and houses for his officials. As the new capital grew, so the enmity between the king and the priests of Amen increased. This can hardly be wondered at, for he caused the name and representations of the god to be obliterated from the monuments. Having moved to his new city, which he called Khut-Aten, he abandoned his name of Amen-hetep, because it contained the name of the god he despised, and adopted the new name of Khu-en-Aten, i.e., the "Spirit of Aten." In his new capital he established a new form of the ancient cult of Aten, as he understood it, in the temple Het-Benben; and the new worship was carried on with the forms and ceremonies which had been in use in Heliopolis for some two thousand years. Incense was burnt on the altars, offerings of all kinds were made, but no bloody sacrifices were offered up; on certain occasions the king himself officiated. The followers of Aten declared that their god was almighty, and that he was the sole creator of the universe; they ascribed to him a monotheistic character, or oneness, which denied the existence of any other god. Their god was "One Alone," and different in nature from any of the other gods of Egypt. It was the intolerance of the followers of the cult of Aten as formulated by Amenhetep IV which made them hated by the priests of AmenRã at Thebes.

The palace and houses of the new city were beautiful, and were richly decorated. Art developed in a new direction, and was characterized by a freedom and a naturalism which are never met with, before or after, in Egyptian history. It sanctioned the use of new colours and new designs. The reliefs and pictures of the king prove that his features were unusual in character. He had a high, narrow, receding forehead, a large aquiline nose, a thin mouth, projecting chin, a slender neck, rounded chest, and his figure in many respects resembled that of a woman (see Wall-case 105, Third Egyptian Room, Nos. 213 and 214). Whilst the king was playing the priest in his new city, and making arrangements for building shrines to Aten in the Sûdân, his Asiatic Empire was breaking up. The Tell al-Amarna letters show how rapidly the desert tribes began to harass the Egyptian garrisons in Syria and Palestine, and to hem them in. Amen-hetep IV made no attempt to maintain hist

authority in Asia, or to keep what his fathers had won in battle, and there is no record of any military expedition during his reign. Shortly after his death Egypt had lost her Asiatic Empire, his new city was destroyed, the cult of Aten died. out, and the shrine of Harmachis which he built at Thebes was pulled down, and the stones rebuilt into the temple of Amen. Ámen and his priests had prevailed.

Among the monuments of this reign may be mentioned: 1. Base of a statue of Amen-ḥetep IV, inscribed with the names and titles of Khu-en-Åten; his cartouche as Amenhetep IV has been mutilated (Bay 13, No. 435). 2. Base of a statue inscribed with the names of Khu-en-Åten and his wife Nefertith (Bay 13, No. 436). 3. Stele of Ptaḥ-mãi, inscribed with prayers to Aten and Rã (Bay 10, No. 438). The Tell al-Amarna letters to Amen-hetep IV will be found in Table-case F in the Babylonian Room; the scarabs, rings, etc., in Table-cases D and J; and a fine porcelain boomerang in Wall-case 150, in the Fourth Egyptian Room. (For a rough outline drawing of Queen Nefertith (?) see Table-case C in the Third Egyptian Room, No. 4.)

The last kings of this dynasty were Tut-ankh-Åmen, Ai, and Ḥeru-em-heb; the first two of these married members of the family of Amen-hetep IV. Heru-em-heb was a wise and just king, and his reign was long and prosperous. Of the monuments of these reigns may be mentioned: the red granite lion inscribed with the name of Tut-ankh-Amen (Bay 10, No. 431; see Plate XXXVI); the stele of Thuthu, a steward of Ai (Bay 12, No. 439); the granite statue of Heru-em-heb (Bay 13, No. 441), and the statues of Heru-emheb and the god Menu, or Amsu (Bay 12, No. 442); the stibium tube of Tut-ankh-Amen and his wife Queen Ankhsen-Amen (Wall-case 183, Fourth Egyptian Room, No. 23).

The statues, stelae, etc., of the XVIIIth dynasty are numerous, and many of them are of great interest as illustrating the perfection to which art attained under the patronage of wealthy kings and the priests of Amen. Among them may be noted the following: Figure and stele of Nekht-Menu or Nekht Amsu, holding a stele (Bay 2, No. 443); figures of Ari-neferu and his wife Apu (Bay 3, No. 444); stele of Amen-em-ḥāt, inscribed with adorations to Osiris (Bay 5, No. 447); granite figure of Kamesu, a scribe (Bay 7, No. 452); stele of Pashet, guardian of the northern lake and northern pillars of Amen

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