Royal Tomb of Akhenaten
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The Royal Tomb of Akhenaten is a multichambered tomb where members of the royal family, and possibly Akhenaten, were originally buried in the eastern mountains at Amarna near the Royal Wadi.[1][2] Akhenaten was an Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh who reigned for seventeen years (1355-1338 BC) from his capital city of Akhetaten, known today as Amarna.[3] The Royal Tomb was rediscovered in the 1880s; however, the exact year and who discovered it is up for debate.[4] Excavations and research into the tomb began in 1891 and continue to this day.[5][6] The location of the Royal Tomb, the tomb itself, the artifacts contained within the tomb, and the destruction of parts of the Royal Tomb after Akhenaten's death provide researchers with valuable insights into Akhenaten's reign, including the political environment, and the Amarna Period.[7]
| Royal Tomb of Akhenaten (TA26) | |
|---|---|
| Burial site of Akhenaten and Meketaten | |
 Entrance of the Royal Tomb showing modern flood protection | |
  Royal Tomb of Akhenaten (TA26) | |
| Coordinates | 27.6262°N 30.9852°E |
| Location | Royal Wadi, Amarna |
| Discovered | 28 December 1891 (officially) |
| Excavated by | Alessandro Barsanti (1892–94) J.D.S. Pendlebury (1934) |
| Decoration | Royal family under Aten rays; mourning scenes |
| Layout | Straight axis |
Akhenaten ruled as pharaoh c. 1355-1338 BC during the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom.[8] He succeeded his father Amenhotep III as Amenhotep IV.[9] His Great Royal Wife was Nefertiti, with whom he had six known daughters: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Neferneferuaten Tasherit, Neferneferure, and Setepenre.[10] The solar god Aten, representing the sun's disc, which had gained prominence under Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III, was elevated to the main deity in Amenhotep IV's reign.[11] In the fifth year of his reign, he changed his name to Akhenaten (meaning "Beneficial for Aten"[12]) and founded a new capital city, Akhetaten (meaning "The Horizon of the Sun's Disc"), a site known today as Amarna.[9]
Akhenaten's chosen location for his tomb was a departure from other New Kingdom pharaohs who built their tombs in the Valley of the Kings.[13] The Royal Tomb was cut in the Royal Wadi, approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) from the valley's mouth, 4 km (2.5 mi) directly east of Amarna's central city.[1] The tomb's location was decided by Akhenaten himself and specified in the Boundary Stelae, proclamations issued in Years 5 and 6 of his reign delineating the boundaries of Akhetaten, and carved into the cliffs to the east and west of the city.[14] The text states:
Let a tomb be made for me in the eastern mountain of Akhetaten. Let my burial be made in it, in the millions of jubilees that my father, the Aten, has decreed for me. Let the burial of the Great King's Wife Nefertiti be made in it, in the millions of years that my father, the Aten, has decreed for her. Let the burial of the King's Daughter Meryetaten, be made in it, in these millions of years.[15]
Like WV22, the tomb of Amenhotep III, Akhenaten's tomb included additional rooms likely intended for the burial of his chief wife and eldest daughter.[16] However, there is no evidence that Neferiti or Meritaten were ever interred in the Royal Tomb.[17] The tomb was never finished, instead being adapted to receive the burials of several other members of the royal family.[18] Wall reliefs and recovered artefacts indicate Akhenaten shared the main burial chamber with his mother Tiye. Meketaten and possibly her two youngest siblings, Neferneferure and Setepenre, shared the small suite of three rooms known as alpha, beta and gamma.[19]
When the royal court abandoned Amarna in the reign of Tutankhamun, the burials from the Royal Tomb were transferred to the Valley of the Kings. The bodies of Tiye and an anonymous man (identified through DNA testing as Tutankhamun's father and thought to be Akhenaten[20]) were reburied in tomb KV55; Tiye was later moved to the mummy cache in KV35.[21]
Akhenaten is most remembered for his radical change of the traditional Egyptian polytheism religion to a monotheism religion worshipping only the god Aten.[22] This change angered many people, which led to the destruction of his legacy in many ways.[22] After his death, many of the monuments, temples, and inscriptions with Akhenaten's name on it were destroyed or the images were damaged.[23] Akhenaten, along with three of his successors, was omitted from the official kings list.[22] In addition to his name and image being erased, the Royal Tomb also suffered from vandalism after his death, especially in Pillared Hall E.[7] This included the destruction of many of the statues and artifacts contained within Pillared Hall E.[7] One of the most notable things that was destroyed was Akhenaten's sarcophagus, which did not contain his body.[24] The sarcophagus has since been re-constructed and is displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.[24]
There is a debate as to whether the Royal Tomb was first discovered in the 1880s by local villagers, or if Alessandro Barsanti discovered the tomb on his own in 1891.[4] Flinders Petrie believed in 1892 that the tomb had already been discovered "four or five years" before Barsanti's 1891 discovery by locals, who kept it a secret while removing any items they thought could be sold on, which would put the discovery by locals between 1886 and 1887.[25] However, jewelry reportedly from the Royal Tomb, was sold to the Royal Scottish Museum in 1883, which supports the idea that local villagers discovered the tomb in the early 1880s (possibly after 1881).[8] It is likely the locals kept the tomb's location a secret both to sell what they could onto the antiquities market and due to their mistrust of Egyptologists following the forced revealing of the location of the Royal Cache near Deir el-Bahari in 1881.[8]
Despite this, the official discovery is credited to Alessandro Barsanti on December 28, 1891, according to the Service des Antiquities.[8]
The first two expeditions were conducted by Alessandro Barsanti between 1891 and 1892.[26] Barsanti and his team inspected the chambers within the Royal Tomb, took measurements, made drawings, collected artifacts, and began the process of clearing some of the chambers of debris.[26] In 1893-1894, Urbain Bouriant conducted an epigraphic expedition with the intent of recording the "inscriptions and reliefs in the Royal Tomb."[27] J.D.S. Pendlebury began the task of re-examining and re-excavating the area outside of the tomb, the dumps, and the interior of the tomb, including the shaft.[28] In addition to the official expeditions, there may have been at least five unofficial expeditions prior to 1934.[29] The final expedition conducted by Pendlebury in 1934, was done in hopes of discovering a second tomb, copying all the reliefs and inscriptions, and a photographic record was also created.[28] Geoffrey T. Martin recorded the remaining inscriptions and reliefs of the Royal Tomb between 1980 and 1982 with the support of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization.[29] A survey of the tomb was conducted in 1980 by Mark Lehner.[13] In 1977, the Supreme Council of Antiquities began the Amarna Project, led by Barry Kemp. Work on this project continues to this day.[30]
The Royal Tomb of Akhenaten consists of several chambers (some finished and some unfinished), a Pillared Hall (where Akhenaten's body was most likely located),[7] several staircases, and corridors that are all plastered and decorated to varying degrees.[31] Unlike previous royal Theban tombs, the Royal Tomb has a straight axis. It is thought that this was intended to allow the sun's rays to shine all the way down into the burial chamber, something which does not work in practice. The layout of the main portion of the tomb is not substantially different to prior tombs. It was only cut as far as the first pillared hall which was adapted, through the removal of two pillars, into the burial chamber. The small, unfinished room in its north corner may be the start of the conventional bent axis.[32]
Entrance Staircase A and Corridor B: Contains 20 steps and a central slide leading to a corridor that extends to the "innermost parts of the tomb," and leads to several unfinished chambers.[33] The corridor is "21.80m long, 3.20m wide, and 3.47m" high.[33] Both show evidence of being plastered, but not decorated.[33]
Stairway C: This stairway is 1.25 m (4.1 ft) wide and consists of a central ramp with 18 steps on the left side and 16 on the right. As with the entrance and first corridor, it is plastered and undecorated. The doorway to Shaft Room D was once blocked and sealed but was smashed through by ancient robbers. A doorway at the top of the stairs opens to the right, and leads to Room alpha; a corresponding, unfinished doorway was cut on the left wall.[34]
Shaft Room D: The square shaft measures 3.12 m (10.2 ft) deep on the east side, and on the west side it is 3.05 m (10.0 ft) deep. In the north corner, blocking stones were recovered. The walls of the room were decorated. The doorway to Pillared Hall E is centred in the west wall instead of being offset to the left.[35]
Pillared Hall E: It is the largest room in the tomb, measuring 10.36 m × 10.40 m (34.0 ft × 34.1 ft).[7] Raised platforms can be found on the west and east sides of the hall.[7] There are two pillars on the left side of the room. The remains of Akhenaten's sarcophagus were found in this room, meaning this is most likely where he was originally buried, but his body was not found in the sarcophagus.[36] The tomb was initially plastered and decorated, but most of it was destroyed after Akhenaten's death due to political fallout.[7]
Room F: This is a small, unfinished room in the north corner on the right side of the Pillared Hall. The doorway is incompletely cut but is plastered. It may have been the start of a right-turning corridor, or intended as a storeroom for burial equipment.[37]
Room alpha: One of the unfinished chambers. One of the things that is noticeable about this room is that it contains four niches that are carved into the walls. The purpose of the niches was to "receive protective or ritualistic magical bricks and associated amulets."[37] Most of the plaster and decorations remain in various degrees of completion.[37] Based on the reliefs and inscriptions found within the chamber, Martin suggested that this room was meant for Akhenaten's minor wife Kiya.[38]
Room beta: This room is very roughly cut and entirely unfinished; the floors and ceilings are on two different levels, and the two doorways to Room alpha are two different sizes, with different threshold heights.[39]
Room gamma: One of the unfinished chambers with unfinished floors. The room was plastered and decorated.[40] Decorations indicate that this chamber was meant for Akhenaten's daughter Meketaten. One of the reliefs indicates that Meketaten died during childbirth.[41]
Rooms I-VI: This large suite of rooms are entered from Corridor B. All are unfinished and undecorated. The first two rooms are square and cut at a right angle to the axis of the royal tomb; the third room is corridor curved to the left. Room 4 is a steeply descending ramp leading to another square chamber. Room 6 is the largest but is incompletely cut and irregularly shaped. When projected onto a straight axis, these chambers have the same layout as the main royal tomb. The suite is thought to have been intended for Nefertiti.[42]
Many of the walls within the Royal Tomb show signs of being plastered and/or decorated.[43] The rock into which the tomb was cut is largely of poor quality. This necessitated that the decoration be carved into a layer of applied plaster, instead of directly into stone.[44] The reliefs were originally painted in bright colours on a yellow background.[45] One of the things that stands out is that none of the reliefs or inscriptions within the tomb mention the traditional Egyptian afterlife, which is inconsistent with tombs found in the Valley of the Kings during the New Kingdom.[46] Instead, the tomb is decorated with scenes of daily life.[46] Since Akhenaten's death, many of the walls have been damaged by environmental factors, like flooding, and vandalism.[43] Evidence of vandalism, during ancient times, can be seen in Pillared Hall E, where Akhenaten was likely originally laid to rest.[7] In 1934, a feud between guards led to the vandalism of rooms alpha and gamma.[47] Expeditions prior to 1934, however, were able to record and photograph some of these decorations prior to their destruction.[5] Despite the damage, many decorations have survived and can be seen and studied today.[43]
As was typical for the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty, only the walls of the well chamber and the burial chambers were decorated.[48] The long walls of the well chamber depict Akhenaten and Nefertiti worshiping the Aten, with their daughters depicted on the short walls flanking the doorways;[49] a large floral bouquet is carved on the short wall to the left of the entrance.[35]
In the burial chamber, the best preserved scene is the short wall to the left of the doorway, in which the royal couple are shown making offerings to the Aten.[50] Traces of decoration on the long left wall depicts the mourning of a royal woman, who wears the long queenly sash, and stands under a canopy; she is probably Queen Tiye, as Nefertiti stands in front of the kiosk and presents offerings with Akhenaten and their daughters.[51] The rear wall depicts the royal family under the rays of the Aten.[52] The disc is depicted five times, getting larger from left to right as it crosses the sky during the day.[53] A floral bouquet is depicted beside the doorway to the unfinished room; the rest of the right wall contained a mourning scene, of which very little remains. The royal family were depicted presenting offerings to the Aten on the short wall to the right of the entrance of the burial chamber.[54] The two pillars were also decorated. Only traces remain but they were likely carved with the figures of Akhenaten and Nefertiti making offerings under the rays of the Aten.[36]
Examples of the decorations can be found in the alpha and gamma rooms, which depict similar scenes.[55] In the alpha chamber, Akhenaten and Nefertiti bend over the inert body of a woman, weeping and gripping each other's arms for support.[55] Nearby, a nurse stands with a baby in her arms, accompanied by a fan-bearer, which indicates the baby's royal status.[55] The names in the scene have been hacked out.[55] In the gamma chamber, a very similar scene is shown; here the hieroglyphs identify the dead young woman as Meketaten.[56] In the same chamber, another scene shows Meketaten standing under a canopy, which is usually associated with childbirth, but can also be interpreted as representing the rebirth of the princess.[56] In front of her, amongst courtiers, stand Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their three remaining daughters, Meritaten, Ankhesenpaaten and Neferneferuaten Tasherit.[56] The presence of a royal baby has led many to believe that the young princess died in childbirth.[56]
Since excavations began in 1891, thousands of artifacts have been re-covered from Akhenaten's Royal Tomb.[5] Artifacts found within the tomb include fragments from the sarcophagus, canopic chests, ushabtis, jewelry, scarabs, statues, pottery, and human remains.[57] The artifacts were made out of many materials such as alabaster, faience, glass, limestone and other stones, metal, and wood.[57] Excavations have revealed that many of these artifacts were destroyed or damaged soon after Akhenaten's death.[58] Most of these artifacts have been distributed between several museums and private collections around the world.[59] Research into these artifacts continue to this day.[6]
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