Maru-Aten was not a palace in the traditional domestic sense, but more a ritual garden estate with strong royal and possibly sacred associations. While Princess Meritaten (daughter of Akhenaten & Nefertiti) may have resided there temporarily, but it wasn’t likely a full-time domestic residence like a proper palace, more so a retreat rather than a permeant household.
Reference to Mutbenret as “sister of the Great Royal Wife” comes from an inscription in the tomb of Meryre II at Tell el-Amarna; Tomb 7 in the southern group of Amarna’s private tombs. Meryre II was a Royal Scribe and Overseer of the House of the Great Royal Wife, serving Queen Nefertiti during the reign of Akhenaten.
Nefertiti, one of the most known figures of the ancient world. Her face is instantly recognisable, from Cairo to Berlin, alas, behind that famous visage lies a figure shrouded in mystery. Beyond the sculpted grace of surviving artworks, we know remarkably little. Her origins remain uncertain, her early life lost to time. We do not...
Thutmose’s workshop was discovered in early December 1912 by a German archaeological expedition led by Ludwig Borchardt. The workshop was located in what is now known as Amarna, previously called Akhetaten, the then new capital established by Akhenaten. The workshop was identified as belonging to Thutmose due to an ivory horse blinker found in a...
Akhenaten’s devotion to the Aten was not just religious; it was artistic and philosophical. In hymns likely written or commissioned by the king himself, such as the Great Hymn to the Aten, Akhenaten exalts the sun’s warmth as the giver of all life, with language that reads more like sacred poetry than royal decree. This...
King Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), often thought of as a dreamer-philosopher in a land of warrior-kings, cast aside the mighty pantheon of deities and raised his gaze to a single blazing sun: the Aten. With eyes wide to the heavens and feet planted in the desert dust, he declared a revolution not of armies, but of...
This blue glazed amuletic wand or throw stick, inscribed for king Akhenaten with the protective Wedjat-eye, showcases the evolving artistic and ritual sensibilities of the Amarna Period. Unlike earlier boomerang-shaped hunting sticks, its shallow curve and delicate form suggest a ceremonial or symbolic function, perhaps as a ritual baton or club. Each side is adorned...
This head of an Amarna Period female royal was found within the remnants of the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose. Sculpted from quartz with traces of pigment upon the lips and eyes, the face is that of a young female, possibly and likely a daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, but there is a possibility it...
Interestingly, the Harper’s Song accompanying this scene within the Chapel of Pa-Aten-Em-Heb, has a somewhat agnostic lyric, telling the listener through song, that lamenting and worrying about an Afterlife is seldom constructive, and one should enjoy life on Earth, rather than obsess and worry over death: “Make holiday, don’t weary of it/ Look, there is...
Ankhesenamun was born Ankhesenpaaten, and was the daughter of Nefertiti and Akhenaten. It is believed she was born around 1350 B.C., the third daughter of the royal couple, born in year 5 or 6 of Akhenaten’s reign. Ankhesenpaaten, which translates to, “She Lives Through the Aten” or “Living Through the Aten,” later went on to...
