Aspects of the City of Amarna in Swansea

The blog post for this week is written by Yvonne Buskens-Frenken, from the Netherlands. She is a member of the Dutch Egyptology society Mehen and a former student of Egyptology at Manchester University (Certificate 2015 and Diploma 2017). While Yvonne has never been to the Egypt Centre before, she hopes to visit in the near future, perhaps with other Mehen members.

Love or hate?
Last week, a new online course was launched by the Egypt Centre called The Amarna Period, which is hosted by Dr Ken Griffin. The number of books and articles written about this period is extensive, but why are we drawn to this topic so much? Is it Nefertiti’s beautiful bust, Akhenaten and his appearance, or is it his religion? I cannot say that I explicitly love or hate the topic as Egyptology has many tastes, but I do have a preference for uncommon things and many aspects of the Amarna Period are definitely not common. This week’s topic of the course was the city of Amarna.

Fig. 1: Painted plaster from the North Riverside Palace

What, where, and why?
King Akhenaten moved away from Luxor because he had a plan. He wanted to create a new home for the Aten. In this new city, the Aten would be honoured in the way Akhenaten thought it should be: through extensive food offerings in open spaces (and not in the roofed temple complexes) on numerous offering tables. He managed to achieve this; in the so-called Long Temple and Small Temple of this new city, there were at least 940 offering tables! But the idea of building a new city for the Aten was actually not Akhenaten’s: it was the Aten itself who, according to Akhenaten, appeared before him and instructed the king to find a new place. Thus, Akhenaten did as he was instructed and established a new capital on virgin soil midway between Cairo and Luxor. He called it Akhetaten, “The Horizon of the Aten” (fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Plan of the city of Amarna

The building plan
Akhenaten’s intentions for the city, his “building plan” as it were, can be clearly seen on the so-called Boundary Stela (Stela U). The text of this stela, which is dated to year six, is carved into the cliffs surrounding the area of the city and is 8.37 metres in height (fig. 3). Statues of Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their daughters stand on either side. His plan reads as follows:
“At Akhetaten in this place shall I make the House of Aten for the Aten, my father. At Akhetaten in this place shall I make the Mansion of Aten for the Aten, my father. At Akhetaten in this place shall I make the sunshade of the [Great Royal] Consort [Neferneferuaten Nefertiti] for the Aten, my father. In the “Island of Aten, whose jubilees are distinguished” at Akhetaten in this place shall I make the “House of Rejoicing” for the Aten, my father. In the “Island of Aten, whose jubilees are distinguished” at Akhetaten in this place shall I make the “House of Rejoicing in Akhetaten” for the Aten, my father [. . .]. (And) at Akhetaten in this place shall I make for myself the residence of Pharaoh (and) I shall make the residence of the Great Royal Consort.” 

Fig. 3: Boundary Stela U

This brand-new city is divided in different zones, which have been assigned names by modern excavators and Egyptologists. This includes the urban zone with the North City, North Palace, North Suburb, The Central City (temple, palatial, and administrative district), Main City (urban housing), and the South Suburb. There was also a mountainous zone and a desert zone, the latter containing a “Stone Village”, a Workmen’s Village, and desert altars.

Amarna in the Egypt Centre

The Egypt Centre has some wonderful objects from this city. They provide us a glimpse of the colourful appearance the city once had. For instance, W798 is a piece of wall painting from the North Riverside Palace, which is believed by some to be the main royal residence of the city (fig. 1). The painted plaster with the floral motive still has its vivid colours. It was excavated by the Egypt Exploration Society during the 1930–31 season. W801 is another beautiful piece of wall painting, also originating from the North Riverside Palace. The plaster is from a monumental gateway, thought to be the main entrance of the palace. The piece of plaster shows a design of lily flowers and grapes (fig. 4). Another stunning piece (W802), again from the North Riverside Palace, depicts an elbow of a figure and part of an eloquently painted sash, first thought to be part of a large chariot scene but now believed to be part of an offering scene. For more on this, see a previous Egypt Centre blog post.

Fig. 4: Painted plaster from the North Riverside Palace

In the eastern section of the North Suburb of Akhetaten (part of the city of which was still occupied into the reign of Tutankhamun) was a huge estate now labelled T36.11 (fig. 5). Excavators said it was “by far the finest and most sumptuous house of the whole of this part of the suburb” (Frankfort & Pendlebury (1933, 24). The identity of its owner is unknown, but lots of rooms with painted plaster decoration, its exterior chapel, and granaries just outside the main house, are well preserved.

Fig. 5: Plan of house T36.11 (Frankfort & Pendlebury 1933, pl. 12

One of the heaviest objects within the Egypt Centre derives from house T36.11. W490 measures 1225mm long, 212mm in height, and 280 in its depth (fig. 6). In figure fig. 7 you can see the object in-situ; a block with three receptacles/stands for vessels. In front of the block, you see a headrest or stool (W344). The large block was found beside the bathroom and said to contain “traces of grease”. It is not clear what the object was for. A similar item was possibly found at Deir el-Medina and benches with circular receptacles were found in Chapel 528 of the Workmen’s Village. Those from the Workmen’s Village had receptacles too close together to have been used as pottery stands. The block is described by excavators Frankfort and Pendlebury (1933, 25) as follows: “The bath is standing behind a screen wall in what we have called the ‘anointing room’ because we found a long block of limestone there with three cups with traces of grease; whether ointment or oil was poured into the cups or whether the cups merely served to steady vessels which were put on the blocks we cannot decide. The grease in the cups was not very extensive or deeply sunk in, so the last assumption is the most probable. The block fits exactly on a ridge on seven bricks which are plastered to the floor...which is not quite in line with any wall.”

Fig. 6: W490

Fig. 7: Excavation photo of W344 & W490 in-situ

Now, in this context, should W344 be interpreted as a stool or a headrest? W343 (fig. 8) is also from Amarna and was excavated in a private house in the North Suburb (T36.66). It is suggested that it is a headrest (comparable one now in Manchester Museum). From object W345 (fig. 9) we can conclusively say that it is a stool. It was found in North Suburb as well (T36.61) and is made of pottery. You can clearly see the imitation of a wooden rush-topped stool. This object has traces of blue, red, and brown paint. The feet of the stool appear to be painted to resemble lily flowers.

Fig. 8: Limestone stool (W343)

Fig. 9: Pottery stool (W345)

Readers to this blog who are interested in the Amarna Period might also be interested in the 2021 Amarna Fundraiser and Study Day, which takes place on the 17th July. This is an opportunity to hear from the people involved in the excavation of the site, while also supporting a fantastic project at the same time. For full details, see the following link.

Bibliography

Bomann, A. H. (1991) The private chapel in ancient Egypt: a study of the chapels in the Workmen’s Village at El Amarna with special reference to Deir el Medina and other sites. Studies in Egyptology. London; New York: Kegan Paul International Ltd.

Frankfort, H. and J. D. S. Pendlebury (1933) The city of Akhenaten. Part II: The north suburb and the desert altars. The excavations at Tell el Amarna during the seasons 1926–1932. MEES 40. London: Egypt Exploration Society.

Kemp, B. J. (2013) The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People. London: Thames & Hudson.

Peet, T. Eric and C. Leonard Woolley 1923. The city of Akhenaten. Part I: Excavations of 1921 and 1922 at el-'Amarneh. Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Society 38. London: Egypt Exploration Society.

Pendlebury, J. D. S. (1951) The City of Akhenaten. Part III: The Central City and the Official Quarters. The Excavations at Tell el-Amarna during the Season 1926–1927 and 1931–1936. 2 vols. Excavation Memoirs 44. London: Egypt Exploration Society.