Thanks to everyone who has watched my talk on ‘AMENHOTEP and AKHENATEN: EGYPT’S PHARAOHS OF THE SUN’. The talk was broadcast live via YouTube on 10 July 2024 and the recording has been freely available on the channel since, see here or below:

Akhenaten probably attracts more attention than any other pharaoh among Egyptophiles. His revolution was swift, wide-ranging and apparently sudden. But to what extent can the changes he introduced be traced to the reign of his father Amenhotep III? This talk looks at some of the key features of the Amarna period, and asks to what extent the changes were already underway when Akhenaten came to the throne, and whether his predecessor might even have continued to play a role after that point.

This talk is freely available to all but giving lectures like this is a part of how I earn a living so if you ‘d like to send a contribution to support my work please consider doing so via PayPal, the ‘Thanks’ button next to the recording on YouTube, or by joining the channel as a member. For more information about this please see here.

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First of all, my slides are here. All images in the presentation are my own unless otherwise stated.

Several books were very useful in the preparation for this talk including the following:

Dodson, Amarna Sunrise
Kozloff, Amenhotep III: Egypt’s Radiant Pharaoh
Reeves, Akhenaten: Egypt’s False Prophet

…as were two exhibition catalogues (from exhibitions I didn’t get to see but wish I had!)

Freed and Markowitz (eds.), Pharaohs of the Sun
Kozloff and Bryan (eds.), Egypt’s Dazzling Sun – unfortunately this one is very difficult to get hold of now so I am very grateful to two friends for tracking down a copy for me – you know who you are, thanks T and D!

I used several images, in particular of scenes from the heb-sed festival of Amenhotep III, from the tomb of Kheruef (TT 192). The drawings were taken from the University of Chicago’s publication of the tomb which is freely accessible online here (as are all volumes in the  University’s Oriental Institute Publications series – fantastic service to scholarship!).

Amenhotep III in jubilee (heb-sed) attire with Queen tiye. From TT 192

Lise Manniche’s excellent book on the colossal statues of Akhenaten from Karnak is this one.

I often use Jean-Claude Golvin’s brilliant reconstruction drawings, including in this case some from both Malqata and Amarna – the latter are here; in the case of Malqata the images I used seem not to be online anymore but can presumably be found in one of Golvin’s numerous print publications such as this one.

Jean-Claude Golvin’s bird’s eye view of Amarna during its eighteenth Dynasty peak.

Satellite image (Google Earth) with sites relating to Amenhotep III in the Luxor area marked with yellow pins.

In the section on Malqata the satellite images are from Google Earth. The maps overlaid onto them are taken from ‘Porter and Moss’ vol I.2: Royal Tombs & Smaller Cemeteries which is available for download from the Griffith Institute’s website, here. The section on Malqata begins on p. 778. The 3D reconstructions built by Franck Monnier are taken from his website, here. 

The website of the recent American expedition to the site – iMalqata – is an excellent source of information on the recent work but also all aspects of the site.

The translations of the text on the black granite stela now in Cairo (CG 34025), the boundary stelae from Amarna, the Hymn to the Aten and the dream stela of Thutmose IV fro Giza are all from Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume II: The New Kingdom.

The intriguing idea that some aspects of the art and iconography of the later years of Amenhotep III and during the reign of Akhenaten might be explained by Amenhotep having become the Aten, which was central to the last sections of my talk, comes from W Raymond Johnson’s article ‘Amenhotep III and Amarna: Some New Considerations’ which can be read online via JSTOR, here.

I think that ‘s everything but if you have any questions please let me know via the contact page. Thanks!

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