Nefertiti and the Aten in Colour! 16,000 Amarna Art Talatat blocks in Luxor with Original Pigment Preserved
Archaeologists are examining a cache of talatat blocks in Luxor that depict Amarna period art in their original colour.
“The amount of detail which is shown, where the colour had been preserved, it’s just amazing,” said Dr. Joceyln Gohary.
“Some of the most striking details are in the clothing – particularly of the queen, Nefertiti – details of the dress and jewellery that she’s wearing,” she said.
Dr. Gohary is leading an American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) project that is documenting, cleaning and conserving them.
Talatat blocks were used by the pharaoh Akhenaten nearly 3,400 years ago. They were constructed in a standardized size - 55 cm x 25 cm x 25 cm. This standardization probably would have made it easier for temples to be built.
The blocks are in a storage area in Luxor. Almost all of them are decorated. Back in antiquity each block would have been part of a larger scene.
Another key find is that the Aten, the sun disc which the pharaoh Akhenaten focussed Egyptian religion around, radiates light in two colours.
“We have red sun rays and yellow sun rays,” said Gohary. It’s a mystery why the Aten was depicted this way. One idea is that maybe the red sun rays are sunrise or sunset or something like that,” he added.
This find raises the question of whether the sun disc itself was depicted in different colours. “They all seem to be more or less the same shade of red.”
How did the blocks come to Luxor?
How the blocks came to be in a storage area in Luxor is a long story. It’s important to understand that when Akhenaten became pharaoh of Egypt, nearly 3,400 years ago, he brought dramatic changes to his kingdom.
Before he came to power Ancient Egypt was a polytheistic society, with numerous deities. Akhenaten changed this, focussing religion around the worship of one god – the Aten, represented in art by a sun disc with rays.
An inscription written about the Aten reads:
Beautiful you appear
In the horizon of the sky,
oh living sun,
You have appeared on the eastern horizon
and filled every land with your beauty
You are beautiful, great and shining
high over all the land....
-From Akhenaten and the Religion of Light by Professor Erik Hornung.
Akhenaten built temples all over Egypt (including Karnak) that were devoted to the Aten. He even built a new capital called Akhetaten (known to us as Amarna) out in the desert of Middle Egypt.
Egyptian art changed radically. Human figures, including the pharaoh and his family, were often shown in a grotesque fashion, with long spindly figures, distorted bodies and cone shaped heads. Akhenaten also unleashed an iconoclasm that saw the names of other gods hacked away.
Why art changed this way remains a mystery. One idea is that the pharaoh and his family suffered from a condition, such as Marfan’s syndrome, that affected their physical appearance. That idea was repudiated in a recent analysis of the remains of Akhenaten's family.
“It is important to note that ancient Egyptian kings typically had themselves and their families represented in an idealized fashion,” wrote Dr. Zahi Hawass and a team of scholars, in the study.
After Akhenaten died his religious system collapsed. The Aten temples were torn down and Egypt returned to being a polytheistic society. Egyptian art went back to normal and Amarna was abandoned.
“After his death the ancient Egyptians regarded him as a heretic – any temple that he had built around Egypt... were taken down by the Ancient Egyptians,” said Dr. Gohary.
After the temples were torn down, the talatat blocks were re-used in places where they could not be seen easily – such as building foundations and filling inside monumental gateway and pylons.
When archaeologists began work in Luxor and Karnak, back in the 19th century, they began to uncover these blocks.
By the 1960’s over 100,000 had come to light including more than 30,000 decorated ones.
Archaeologists kept the decorated examples, like the blocks Gohary’s team is studying, in roofed magazines, which give them some protection of the elements. Undecorated ones were often kept in open air storage areas.
Preserving the blocks
Of the nearly 16,000 blocks that Gohary’s team is studying, few of them have ever been published.
Repairs are being done to the storage area that they are in. When the team arrived they found holes in the roof.
“The roof is still mostly there, there were a few gaps in the roof sheeting, we were able to cover most of these as best we could,” said Dr. Gohary.
Foxes had used the roof holes to enter the storage area and burrow under the stacks of blocks - collapsing nearly 2,000 of them onto the floor. This meant that the team had to fill in the holes and get the talatat back in order. Dust and insects also caused problems since the storage area doesn’t have proper windows – only metal bars.
Still, despite the poor condition of the structure they are in, the talatat blocks are in excellent shape. “Among the 15,000 of them only about five to seven percent were in poor condition,” said Dr. Gohary. “Many of them are still very well decorated and the colours are still very brilliant.”
Nefertiti’s fashion
“We seem to have rather more representations of the Queen than the King,” said Dr. Gohary, indicating that some of these blocks came from a temple that had a section dedicated to Nefertiti.
Gohary gave a detailed description as to how these blocks portray the Queen.
In addition to her pleated dress, “she has a red sash which is tied underneath the breasts and then hangs down – the ends of the sash hang down to almost mid-calf length,” she said. “She wears different styles of wigs as well.”
“She wears one which is painted blue,” and “has two long pieces that hangs down – one either side of her face and a longer piece at the back.”
There appear to ringlets or some other accessory attached to it. “Sometimes extended from the end of the long blue wig – at the bottom there – is a cobra – which of course is a symbol of protection for royalty.”
She also occasionally wears what we call a Nubian wig, “(a) much shorter wig which is coloured black, again with ringlets,” said Gohary.
Also “frequently she wears a crown with two very tall feathers, it’s a gold crown with two feathers covered in gold,” said Gohary.
“On her forehead she has a double cobra – which is a type of headdress which is worn by her mother in law – Queen Tiye.”
Gohary pointed out that it’s unusual that there are two cobras on Nefertiti – examples from Amarna show her only wearing one. “This is something perhaps which people in the future will be able to study and find some significance to this.”
Armlets and Bracelets
“She wears armlets on her upper arms and bracelets on her wrist, which is usually decorated with the cartouches of the two names of the Aten, the sun disc,” said Dr. Gohary. “The bracelets (are) very brightly coloured, in blue, in green and red, obviously representing gold bracelets which are inlaid with turquoise and carnelian for example.”
Nefertiti’s daughters are depicted a bit differently.
“What is interesting about the princess, that accompanies the Queen, (is) she also wears bracelets but hers are not decorated with the names of the gods,” she said. “It’s only the King and Queen that have them decorated that way.”
Publication
The team is working on a database that contains all the images and documentation, as well as the archival material that is available. They hope to produce a book that will discuss and illustrate their discoveries. There are also tentative plans to create a website that scholars can use to analyze the findings.
“It hasn’t been decided in exactly what form this will eventually be available online,” said Dr. Gohary.
So now, nearly 3,400 years after they were used as fill by Akhenaten's successors, the pharaoh's artwork is set to be re-introduced to the world.
Read 34 comments, or leave your own
Latest
Get Real About Advertising Fakes ASA Tells Semmel Concerts King Tut Tour- Unique Iron Age Hoard goes on display at Ipswich Museum
- Missing the revolution but making the party!
- Royal Artefacts - Including King Tut's Golden Trumpet - Returned to Egyptian Museum Cairo
SCA releases full list of treasures missing from the Cairo Museum- Petrie Museum celebrates the extraordinary life of Amelia Edwards
- New Face for 5,300-year-old Otzi the Iceman
- New Clues to Welsh Origins of Stonehenge Bluestones
- Read latest articles, blogs & reviews
Most Popular
- New Pyramid Theory: Khufu's Great Pyramid, its Building Grid, the Number 7 and the 'Diamond Matrix'
- Top 10 Animal Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Egypt
- Treasures of King Tut - Tutankhamun's Jewellery and the Love of a Queen
- 19th Century Manuscript and Drawings by Egypt Explorer Frédéric Caillaud Discovered
History Library
HK Editor's Picks
latest hkvideos
videosLatest Comments
hello this is a real interesting article on forgeries
excellent article !
Museum looks really great.
ediscovery
There are really lots of secrets in Egypt. I'm sure this is going to cost millions in auction.
e-discovery tools to help your business grow efficiently.
That's one scary mummy. Thanks for letting us know this. I find it really informational.
e-discovery tools to help your business grow effiiently.
Focus on
King Tut –
Stonehenge
Terracotta Warriors
Pyramids –
Archaeology
Britain –
China –
Egypt
Greece –
Rome
Heritage Key Words
ancient london, british museum, roman, art, zahi hawass, london, ancient egypt, religion, burial, valley of the kings
Next major 'ancient' exhibition in London:
Journey Through the Afterlife: The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
at the British Museum
November 2010 - March 2011
(learn more)
Comments
Fantastic! It is wonderful to hear that the talatat have been properly re-housed and recorded. Once the information is entered in a searchable database, this will be an incredible resource for scholars. Thank you for reporting on this great project!
It would really help if you actually showed pictures of these so-called wall paintings of pharaohs depicted as non-human life forms. And, it would also be of some help if you showed the images of Nefertiti and her wigs, no?The article is interesting, although I cannot understand why someone publishes an article, proceeds to go on about what was found and seen, but then doesn't post pictures.
Excellent article Owen, thank you very much! Notice Nefertiti holds what appears to be an image of a female sphinx in her hand. I have seen Talat blacks with her prostrated in same position.... "kissing the ground".... I believe it is labeled. Also, one of her in a "Window of Appearance"...which is how the bible described "Jezebel" looking out at her subjects....Yep. Same lady. Just more O.T. twisting of real history.
Her husband, Ahkenaton? In Greek: Ech Naton..."Father Nathan." Ya dig? Nathan of the bible. She is biblical Naomi, the Beautiful/Pleasant one."
His mother, Quenn Tiye mentioned here? After her husband and Ahkenaton's father Amenhotep III died, King Tushratta of Mittani, in the Armana letters, wrote her to remind her son, whom Tushratta called "Nibkhururiya" (Ahkenaton, AmenhotepIV) to honor his father's wishes and memory.
What is important here? Well, his father, AmenhotepIII is actually the one that started this "Aten" religion. Funny how that is forgotten, but it has a reason: it leads one to understand why the bible says "god" was displeased with Solomon in his old age when he started worshiping "pagan" idols. Ya dig? Amenhotep III abandoned the Amen god religion, and tried to establish the "Aten" religion, with HIMSELF AS THE ATEN!!!!!
Ahkenaton was honoring his faher Amenhotep III as a god. That is a fact.
Amenhotep III had 300 wives, many foreign, had the most prosperous and peaceful reign of any Egyptian king (and they never called themselves pharaohs btw,) an actual, historical gold mine one can visit today and there is nothing "lost" about it, had his navy sail to "Punt" for Cedar and other goods, built temples all over his lands...he WAS "SOLOMON"....and Tushratta was reminding Akhenaton (Moses) to honor this new religion. Because, you see, as "Nibkhururiya", Ahkenaton was also "Nebuchadresser", the Babylonian king. And when he leveled Edom, he carried BACK to babylon the Sun Disk of Marduk. And historians say that was when "Marduk" the Sun God became the prominent god of Babylon.
People, this is the very same time period "Biblical" historians say Solomon reigned...yeah, sure. No remains AT ALL in israel or anywhere else in this perios of ANY kingdom there, none. In fact, no archeaological evidence EVER, ANYWHERE, of ANY David or Solomon.
Um, however, the father of Amenhotep, Thutmose II...was a WARRIOR KING. His heiroglyphic would be "TWT.
Tawat. You know how Russians say "W"? Like a V. TAVAT. David. His tomb symbols had a "Star of TWT" painted on it. Fact.
Interesting, no? Thanks again. You are looking at the queen of the king that tried to take away a Resurrection Trilogy religion, and impose a single god religion. And got jettisoned to Palestine for it. Historical facts. Moses.
In other words, an attempt to take away the Christian/Resurrection religion from the people, and impose a Ya religion on them. That is why he is called NibkhururiYA.
And the O.T. authors 1000 years later couldn't have the so-called "evil" Babylonian/Egyptian king that stated he would "wipe Jerusalem as a dish" and then did it, be a "Ya" god worshiper, now could they??? BTW, "Ya" kings abound in this region: In Assyria, in Babylon, in Egypt (who do you think pharaoh "Yacubya" was? Jacob the Ya king.)
So, to the liars and conmen that authored the O.T., he became an "Osiris, Assur, Esser" worshipping king instead: NebuchadrESSER. I hope the light bulbs go on.......if not, there is absolutely no hope for you to ever understand the past.
Too be quite honest, this comment has me completely baffled:
Ashley: "It would really help if you actually showed pictures of these so-called wall paintings of pharaohs depicted as non-human life forms."
Huh? "So-called wall paintings"????....what would you label them, Ashley?
And what in the world do you mean by "It....would really help if you actually showed pictures....of pharaohs depicted as non-human life forms." Huh? You want the author of this article to alter these photos? You mean like depicting "Jesus" as a Ra of light? (That is no misspelling, btw)
Or he didn't show some images you wanted to be shown? Go ahead and post the link yourself: I am curious as to your motivation and what point you are struggling to make.
Sorry" "talat blocks", not "blacks."
Ashley, did you try looking for the image that is captioned 'A close-up view of Nefertiti's crown and wig'?
Ashley: " And, it would also be of some help if you showed the images of Nefertiti and her wigs, no?"
Yes, it would. Comprehension not functioning today, Ashley? What do you label the second picture down with this caption:
"A close-up view of Nefertiti's crown and wig. Photo by Sara Lafleur-Vetter, cropped by Owen Jarus."??????
thank you, owen, for the very nice pictures and commentary. but dear me, farang, what a harangue! i must say, your geography is a tad weak. egypt is on one side of the red sea and, if you'll only check an atlas -- any atlas will do -- babylonia was on the other side, once upon a time (where iraq is now). so i'm afraid king akhenaten could not have been the same guy as king nebuchadresser. they couldn't go jet-setting from country to country back in those days, you see, what with that red sea being between them and having to go by chariot or boat and all that. it just took too long. so dreadfully inconvenient. and solomon was just a mite later than akhenaten, oh, say two or three or four hundred years or so -- depending on how one wants to date solomon. and i'm awfully sorry, but tut can't be david even if russians do pronounce w and v the same. the egyptians and the hebrews and the babylonians (and practically everybody in between) distinguished between T and D and often had one or two other types of T and D as well. one more lovely theory done in by a rude fact! how tragic.
my own pet theory on the red and yellow colors of the sunrays is that they are purely decorative. usually egyptians painted their sun red and they painted their men red too. they said the desert was red too. i'm not even sure they had a word for yellow. i'll go and look it up one of these days. in the meantime i'm sticking with my off-the-cuff, half-baked theory....
Clicking on this sentence in the article takes you to another article showing the images referred to:
Human figures, including the pharaoh and his family, were often shown in a grotesque fashion, with long spindly figures, distorted bodies and cone shaped heads.
I would love to have in a jeroglific way the story of nefertiti. I want to create a beautiful Mural about her. If you can help me by sending me pictures or how I can do this. It will be inmencely apreciated.
Yours Felipe Posada.
<p>What a wonderful find. I love the history behind nerertiti and it's awesome that archeologists are able to locate such historical peices such that you talked about in your post. Thank you Ann for the images and wonderful descriptions!</p>
<p>Great article. I can't wait for the book to be published. Hopefully those beautiful pieces of ancient history will find their way to a museum so that we can see them with our own eyes!</p>
After the temples were torn down, the talatat blocks were re-used in places where they could not be seen easily – such as building foundations and filling inside monumental gateway and pylons.
<a href="http://www.lovequotes7.com/">love quotes</a>
<p>Nefertiti holds what appears to be an image of a female sphinx in her hand. I have seen Talat blacks with her prostrated in same position....:)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">I would love to have in a jeroglific way the story of nefertiti. I want to create a beautiful Mural about her. If you can help me by sending me pictures or how I can do this. It will be inmencely apreciated.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Yours Felipe Posada.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nice Sharing Owen. Nefertiti's place as an <a title="Icon" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; " href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon">i</a>con in popular culture is secure as she has become somewhat of a celebrity. She is the second most famous "Queen" of Ancient Egypt after Cleopatra, and is often referred to as "the most beautiful woman in the world"</p>
<p><a href="http://www.autoimmunedisease101.com/lupus-symptoms-how-to-determine.html">lupus</a></p>
<p>wow this images they are very nice, great post and info. nice blog is very informative</p>
<p>It is a very informative and useful post thank it is good material to read this post increases my knowledge.</p>
<p>This is a very intriguing post, I was looking for this knowledge.<br />
</p>
<p>Interesting info. Thanks.</p>
This is very usefull for knowing that I know
<p>I like this, because of very educational reading material</p>
<p>Now i more know after reading this article</p>
<p>Yes, it is only a mather of time we can get many information from the past</p>
<p> Keep update your article Owen. Love this History post</p>
<p>good post very nice thanks a lot. </p>
<p>The roof is still mostly there, there were a few gaps in the roof sheeting, we were able to cover most of these as best we could,” said Dr. Gohary.</p>
<p>Keep update your article Owen. Love this History post</p>
<p>Keep update your article Owen. Love this History post.</p>
the talatat blocks were re-used in places where they could not be seen easily Excellent article Owen, thank you very much! Notice Nefertiti holds what appears to be an image of a female sphinx in her hand. I have seen Talat blacks with her prostrated in same position.... "kissing the ground". Android verizon
<p>I find myself many times on a paralel world, and think that we belong to different times. Many times happens to me, to relocate myself, on different places, and see things, that i have seen before.
I believe that our ancestors were more developt by us and also had good things that we could learn today.</p>
<p> This is very usefull for knowing that I know.great web thanks.</p>
<p>Hello! I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the great info you have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.</p>
This is one of the most informative information I've read. It really helps a lot. Thanks for sharing this and teaching soem of your Idea's.
mediahuset nova svindel
<p> Designing your new home is an exciting adventure but it is important that you have good support. </p>