The Fall of Amarna

An All-Star Cast

Deriving its name from the ancient city of Amarna – the fatefully short-lived capital of the 18th dynasty – the Amarna period was a star-studded phase in ancient Egyptian history, marked by the reigns of the powerful ‘Heretic Pharaoh’ Akhenaten, his wife of legendary beauty Nefertiti and the boy king Tutankhamun. It lasted for approximately a 30 year period from the succession of Akhenaten (first known as Amenhotep IV) around 1353 BC, to the relatively brief reign of Ay, from 1323 to 1319 BC or 1327 to 1323 BC.

Akhenaten inherited from his father Amenhotep III an Egypt at the very apex of its powers – steeped in riches beyond any previous Pharaoh’s wildest dreams; stable and secure at home and commanding of immense respect abroad. Yet, three decades on – after the death of Tutankhamen – the dynasty was in severe decline, wracked by internal strife, conflicts on its borders and a messy, murky succession quarrel. Succeeding dynasties would attempt to erase the Amarna period from history altogether. What caused this breakdown and its consequences?

A Nation Under One God

Critical to the fate of the Amarna era and the late 18th dynasty as a whole was Akhenaten’s bold and foolhardy effort to use the immense power and wealth at his disposal to break from a tradition two thousand years in the making and fundamentally alter the role of king.

Akhenaten was a religious reformer. In place of ages-old Egyptian practice of worshipping many gods, he sought to compel his people to worship one solitary deity – the sun god Aten, the universal creator of life – via heavy handed laws. Some academics site Akhenaten’s dictate as the first expression of monotheism in history, although this supposition is hotly disputed.

It is doubtful how successful Akhenaten was in changing the religious practices of his people at large. But what is certain is that his reforming zeal shook old certainties to their core, and raised fundamental questions about whether a pharaoh was more powerful than the existing domestic order of the Amun priests and their numerous temple estates. Not a man to do things by half, Akhenaten’s strongest symbolic gesture was to move the Egyptian capital away from Thebes – particularly that city’s powerful temple – and establish it instead at Amarna in 1343 BC, a virgin-state of perhaps more than 30,000 people dedicated to the sole worship of Aten.

Decline

Akhenaten’s reforms offended many, and traditional religious practice was gradually restored after his death (in 1336 or 1334 BC), first during the ephemeral and historically shadowy rule of Smenkhkare, then the reign of the boy king Tutankhamun. Tutankhamun’s given name was actually Tutankhaten, meaning “Living Image of Aten”, but he changed it to mean “Living Image of Amun” as a reflection of this reversal of the will of Akhenaten, who was probably his father. He came to power aged 9, rolled back some of Akhenaten’s reforms and returned the capital to Thebes. Tut was most likely acting under the guidance of Akhenaten’s vizier Ay (his eventual successor) and perhaps also Akhenaten’s widow Nefertiti.

Despite the boy kings efforts, the dynasty was already in decline by this stage (some blame Akhenaten for this process; others claim it had already begun before he came to power) possibly as a result of popular discontent. The dynasty died out altogether with the passing of Tutankhamun, aged 20, in 1324 BC (according to a 2008 investigation, two foetuses found buried in his tomb may have been his twin daughters, who would have continued the royal lineage). Matters weren’t helped by the fact that an outbreak of a pandemic – possibly the plague, or polio, or even world’s first recorded outbreak of influenza – was ravaging the populous. Or the fact that, during a messy succession dispute, war broke out with the Hittites, whose king Suppiluliuma I accused the Egyptians of murdering his son Zannanza while he was en route to Egypt to marry an unidentified Egyptian queen and thus revive the lineage.

What came next?

The 18th dynasty’s last two rulers came from the ranks of officials in the royal court. Ay was succeeded by Horemheb in 1319 BC, a former commander – of common (i.e. non-royal) stock – in the Egyptian army, who may have come to power by a coup. He began to institute official action against the preceding Amarnan rulers. His successor, Paramesse later became Ramesses I, the first king of the 19th dynasty. Egypt would soon return to the heights of imperial power under that dynasty’s rule.

The Amarna period was considered as an aberration by succeeding rulers, and in the backlash all of its kings were excised from the official lists of Pharaohs, which reports that Amenhotep III was immediately succeeded by Horemheb. Akhenaten suffered what in Latin is known as Damnatio memoriae – basically “damnation of memory”. Much of the distinctive artwork of the period was destroyed, and his temples ransacked; he became known quite literally as “the enemy”.

As for his great city? It fell swiftly from favour and was abandoned, its buildings dismantled and their bricks used to construct new temples. Today, Amarna represents a treasure trove of archaeological discoveries, as the largest and most readily accessible living site from ancient Egypt – a fascinating window into one the most controversial and mysterious periods in ancient Egyptian history.

Image of city ruins (top) by Chanel Wheeler. Image of temple ruins (bottom) by Joseph Hill. All rights reserved.

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About The Author

Malcolm Jack

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Malcolm Jack is a freelance arts and entertainment journalist based in Glasgow, Scotland. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2004 with an MA Honours Degree in History.