Akhenaten and Neferiti making offerings to Aten
This charming little pylon-shrine, carved in painted limestone, once stood not in a grand temple but within the private quarters of an Amarna household. Discovered amid the ruins of Akhetaten (the short-lived capital founded by Akhenaten, known today as Amarna) it belongs to a distinctive class of domestic altars that flourished during the city’s brief, radiant existence in the mid-14th century B.C.
A Temple Gate in Miniature
The shrine is fashioned as a tiny pylon, echoing the monumental gateways of formal temples. In Amarna, such objects allowed ordinary families to participate in the new, intensely personal form of worship promoted by Akhenaten. The king and his family were regarded as the sole intermediaries between humanity and the sun-god Aten; a role reflected in numerous stelae, reliefs, and household images scattered throughout private homes of the city.
On the symmetrical wing of the pylon, the king, his beloved Nefertiti, and their eldest daughter (often identified as Meritaten) appear in an intimate scene of piety. They stand under the rays of the radiant Aten, whose long rays terminate in hands, seem to carress them from the skies. Akhenaten pours a libation, fulfilling his sacred duty as chief celebrant of the Aten’s cult.
The figures are rendered in the recognisable early Amarna manner: elongated limbs, softly swelling bellies, and graceful, curving silhouettes. Akhenaten wears the Blue Crown (Khepresh) perched upon his famously exaggerated head, while Nefertiti dons a soaring blue crown of her own, paired with a delicate, transparent gown that clings lightly to her form.
Such shrines were set up in the reception rooms or private chapels of Amarna houses, where families offered incense, flowers, bread, and small libations to the Aten through the royal family. The king and queen were not distant, untouchable figures but ever-present, almost domestic conduits of divine favour. In a city built on sunlight and devotion, these modest household temples ensured that the Aten’s life-giving rays could reach into even the humblest rooms.
Summary:
New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, Amarna Period, reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1353-1336 BC.
Painted limestone. From Akhetaten (Tell el-Amarna). Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 65041
