133: The Heretic King

Erasing a God. Sometime in his reign, Akhenaten initiated a project that has made him infamous. The King’s agents, sculptors and masons travelled throughout the country, visiting major temples and shrines. Their job? Hack away the name and figure of Amun, King of the Gods, wherever they found it. This project is the most controversial of Akhenaten’s reign. Today, we dig into what happened, and why the King did it.. Date c.1347 BCE www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com Music by Ancient Lyric bettinajoydeguzman.com Select Bibliography: Aldred, Cyril. ‘Two Theban Notables during the Later Reign of Amenophis III’. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 18, no. 2 (1959): 113–20. Aldred, Cyril. Akhenaten: King of Egypt. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1988. Allen, James P. ‘The Religion of Amarna’. In The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt, edited by Dorothea Arnold, 3–6. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996. Assmann, Jan. Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism. London: Taylor & Francis Group, 1995. Bell, Lanny. ‘Luxor Temple and the Cult of the Royal Ka’. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 44, no. 4 (1985): 251–94. Bennett, John. ‘The Restoration Inscription of Tut’ankhamūn’. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 25, no. 1 (1939): 8–15. Blyth, Elizabeth. Karnak: Evolution of a Temple. New York: Routledge, 2006. Brand, Peter. ‘Secondary Restorations in the Post-Amarna Period’. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 36 (1999): 113–34. Bryan, Betsy M. ‘Hatshepsut and Cultic Revelries in the New Kingdom’. In Creativity and Innovation in the Reign of Hatshepsut, edited by José M. Galán, Betsy M. Bryan, and Peter F. Dorman, 93–124. Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2014. Bull, Ludlow. ‘Two Egyptian Stelae of the XVIII Dynasty’. Metropolitan Museum Studies 2, no. 1 (1929): 76–84. Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunrise: Egypt From Golden Age to Age of Heresy. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2014. Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation. 2nd Edition. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2017. Fischer, Henry G. ‘An Early Example of Atenist Iconoclasm’. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 13 (1976): 131–32. Galán, José M. ‘EA 164 and the God Amun’. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 51, no. 4 (1992): 287–91. Galán, José M. ‘Hymns to Amun-Ra and Amun in the Tomb Chapel of Djehuty (TT11)’. In Joyful in Thebes: Egyptological Studies in Honor of Betsy M. Bryan, edited by Richard Jasnow and Kathlyn M. Cooney, 183–96. Atlanta: Lockwood Press, 2015. Gulyás, András. ‘The Unique Amun-Re at Luxor Temple’. In Current Research in Egyptology 2005, edited by Rachel Mairs and Alice Stevenson, 6:22–37. Oxbow Books, 2007. Johnson, W. Raymond. ‘Amenhotep III and Amarna: Some New Considerations’. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 82 (1996): 65–82. Krauss, Rolf. ‘Akhenaten: Monotheist? Polytheist?’ Bulleting of the Australian Centre of Egyptology, no. 11 (2000): 93–101. Manuelian, Peter der. ‘Semi-Literacy in Ancient Egypt: Some Erasures from the Amarna Period’. In Gold of Praise: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente, edited by Emily Teeter and John Larson, 285–98. Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1999. McClymont, Alice. ‘Action, Reaction & Interaction’. In Tradition and Transformation in Ancient Egypt, edited by Andrea Kahlbacher and Elisa Priglinger, 105–22. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2018. Murnane, William J. ‘The Bark of Amun on the Third Pylon at Karnak’. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 16 (1979): 11–27. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices