The life and times of Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt
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| Akhnaton |
"Life and Times of Akhnaton " were first published in 1910, and went through two or three editions, but at length, it passed out of print, and the few copies which remained in the market were sold at five and six times the book's original price.
This continued demand has led to the present re-issue, in which the material has been brought up-to-date and considerable additions have been made, though it has been thought best to leave the text on the whole in its original form.
Great excavations are now being conducted by the Egypt Exploration Society upon the site of Akhnaton's sacred city; and so important in this work, and so widely should its aims be known, that on this account also the re-publication of this volume may serve a useful purpose.
Those who chance to have their interest aroused by it should communicate with the Secretary of the Society, 13, Tavistock Square, London, W.C. 1, who will be glad to supply information as to these excavations. Funds are urgently needed for the extension of the work; and, as the reader will realise from the following pages, there is probably no period in ancient history that so merits elucidation, and no site which will so well repay excavation. \
When this book was first prepared for the press I was alone in my belief that Akhnaton was only thirty years of age at his death, and my contention that the then recently discovered mummy of a young man of that age was this Pharaoh himself was greatly ridiculed. Time, however, has shown the correctness of my assertion, and the identification, as well as the course and duration of the king's life as given in the present volume, are now generally admitted, except by the well-known German scholar, Professor Kurt Sethe of Gottingen, who, at the time of writing (1922) still finds himself in doubt.
Although the lay reader will not, perhaps, be interested, I think it will be as well to state here in brief outline my general argument for the identification of the mummy and the age of Akhnaton at his death; and I may be per- mitted to preface my statement by a few words in regard to the excavations which led, in 1907, to the discovery.
The Tomb of Queen Tiy, in which lay the mummy believed to be that of Akhnaton, was discovered in January 1907, during the excavations which were being conducted by Mr Theodore M. Davis in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes. Mr Davis was a very charming American gentleman, who, in his old age, used to spend his winters on a dahabiyeh at Luxor, and there became interested in Egyptology. In 1902 he gave a small sum of money to Mr Howard Carter, then Inspector- General of the Antiquities of Upper Egypt, in order to enable him to conduct some excavations in the royal necropolis, and in 1903 the Tomb of Thutmose IV was discovered during the work carried out with this money.
In the same year, the Tomb of Queen Hatshepsut was cleared out by Mr Carter, again at Mr Davis's expense; and thus the latter became established, so to speak, as the banker behind the Egyptian Government's excavations in the Famous Valley.
In 1904 Mr Quibell took Mr Carter's place at Luxor, and continued these excavations; and in 1905 I was appointed Inspector-General, Mr. Quibell and I jointly worked the famous Tomb of Yuaa and Tuau early in that year. At that time Mr Davis was paying for the actual excavations, but we, the Egyptian Government Department of Antiquities, bore all the other expenses, such as those of packing the antiquities, safeguarding the finds, and so forth. It is interesting to note that the total cost to Mr Davis of the season's work which thus produced one of the greatest finds ever made in Egypt was about 80.
Some contents:
PREFACE 13
L THE PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS OF
AKHNATON
AKHNATON
1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1
2. THE ANCESTORS OF AKHNATON .... 5
3. THE GODS OF EGYPT ..... 8
4. THE DEMIGODS AND SPIRITS THE PRIESTHOODS . . 15
5. THUTMOSIS IV. AND MUTEMUA . . . .17
6. YUAA AND TUAU ...... 20
7. AMENOPHIS III. AND HIS COURT .... 28
II. THE BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS OF AKHNATON
1. THE BIRTH OF AKHNATON .... 36
2. THE RISE OF ATON . . . 38
3. THE POWER OF QUEEN TIY .... 42
4. AKHNATON'S MARRIAGES ..... 45
5. THE ACCESSION OF AKHNATON .... 50
6. THE FIRST YEARS OF AKHNATON'S REIGN . . 53
7. THE NEW ART . ... . . .58
8. THE NEW RELIGION DEVELOPS .... 67
9. THE NATURE OF THE NEW RELIGION ... 73
III. AKHNATON FOUNDS A NEW CITY
1. THE BREAK WITH THE PRIESTHOOD OF AMON-RA . . 77
2. AKHNATON SELECTS THE SITE OF HIS CITY . . 80
3. THE FIRST FOUNDATION INSCRIPTION ... 82
4. THE SECOND FOUNDATION INSCRIPTION ... 87
5. THE DEPARTURE FROM THEBES .... 90
6. THE AGE OF AKHNATON ..... 94
- Author: Arthur Weigall
- Publication Date:1922
- company: London: T. Butterworth
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