THE THIRTEENTH TO THE FIFTEENTH YEARS OF THE REIGN OF AKHNATON.
1. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RELIGION OF ATON 189 2. AKHNATON OBLITERATES THE NAME OF AMON 193 3. THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ATON 198 4. THE BEAUTY OF THE CITY 202 5. AKHNATON’S AFFECTION FOR HIS FAMILY 208 6. AKHNATON’S FRIENDS 213 7. AKHNATON’S TROUBLES 217
THE LAST TWO YEARS OF THE REIGN OF AKHNATON.
1. THE HITTITE INVASION OF SYRIA 223 2. AKHNATON’S CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTIONS TO WARFARE 226 3. THE FAITHLESSNESS OF AZIRU 230 4. THE FIGHTING IN SYRIA BECOMES GENERAL 235 5. AZIRU AND RIBADDI FIGHT TO A FINISH 239 6. AKHNATON CONTINUES TO REFUSE TO SEND HELP 243 7. AKHNATON’S HEALTH GIVES WAY 246 8. AKHNATON’S LAST DAYS AND DEATH 252
1. THE BURIAL OF AKHNATON 258 2. THE COURT RETURNS TO THEBES 264 3. THE REIGN OF HOREMHEB 268 4. THE PERSECUTION OF AKHNATON’S MEMORY 272 5. THE FINDING OF THE BODY OF AKHNATON 276
PAVEMENT DECORATION FROM THE PALACE OF AMONHOTEP III. (_coloured_) _Frontispiece_
CEILING DECORATION FROM THE PALACE OF AMONHOTEP III. (_coloured_) 36
AMONHOTEP-SON-OF-HAPU, THE “WISE MAN” OF THE COURT OF AMONHOTEP III. 34
THE ART OF AKHNATON COMPARED WITH ARCHAIC ART 72
AKHNATON AND NEFERTITI WITH THEIR THREE DAUGHTERS 108
THE HEAD OF THE MUMMY OF THOTHMES IV., THE GRANDFATHER OF AKHNATON 110
AKHNATON DRIVING WITH HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTER 130
AN EXAMPLE OF THE FRIENDLY RELATIONS BETWEEN SYRIA AND EGYPT 190
CARVED WOODEN CHAIR, THE DESIGNS PARTLY COVERED WITH GOLD-LEAF 202
AKHNATON. (_From a Statuette in the Louvre_) 206
LETTER FROM RIBADDI TO THE KING OF EGYPT, REPORTING THE PROGRESS OF THE REBELLION UNDER AZIRU. (_British Museum, No. 29,801_) 234
MAP OF AKHETATON, THE CITY OF THE HORIZON OF ATON (TEL EL AMARNA) _At end._
“How much Akhnaton understood we cannot say, but he had certainly bounded forward in his views and symbolism to a position which we cannot logically improve upon at the present day.”--PETRIE: ‘History of Egypt.’
The reign of Akhnaton, for seventeen years Pharaoh of Egypt (from B.C. 1375 to 1358), stands out as the most interesting epoch in the long sequence of Egyptian history. We have watched the endless line of dim Pharaohs go by, each lit momentarily by the pale lamp of our present knowledge, and most of them have left little impression upon the mind. They are so misty and far off, they have been dead and gone for such thousands of years, that they have almost entirely lost their individuality. We call out some royal name, and in response a vague figure passes into view, stiffly moves its arms, and passes again into the darkness. With one there comes the muffled noise of battle; with another there is singing and the sound of music; with yet another the wailing of the oppressed drifts by. But at the name Akhnaton there emerges from the darkness a figure more clear than that of any other Pharaoh, and with it there comes the singing of birds, the laughter of children, and the scent of many flowers. For once we may look right into the mind of a king of Egypt and may see something of its workings; and all that is there observed is worthy of admiration. Akhnaton has been called “the first individual in human history”;[1] but if he is thus the first historical figure whose personality is known to us, he is also the first of all human founders of religious doctrines. Akhnaton may be ranked in degree of time, and perhaps also in degree of genius, as the world’s first idealist; and, since in all ancient Oriental research there never has been, and probably never will be, brought before us a subject of such intellectual interest as this Pharaoh’s religious revolution, which marks the first point in the study of advanced human thought, a careful consideration of this short reign deserves to be made.