Amarna (ancient Akhetaten) offers an unusually full view of
an ancient Egyptian city. Planned as the new capital by the pharaoh Akhenaten
(ruled c. 1353- 1337 BC), the city, rapidly built on previously undeveloped
land, was inhabited for a short time only. Not long after Akhenaten's death,
the city was abandoned in favor of Thebes and Memphis, the previously
established royal centers of New Kingdom Egypt. Two factors have helped
preserve this site. First, much of the city lies just inland from the flood
zone of the Nile, and thus was neither covered with silt nor destroyed by
farmers' ploughs. Second, the site was never rebuilt. For its short life and
good preservation, Amarna is unusual among ancient Egyptian cities. Air-dried
mud brick, with stone or wood for columns and certain details, was the standard
building material. Walls have melted or eroded away, with much cut building
stone carried off even in New Kingdom times, but nonetheless many ground plans
have been recovered. Excavations conducted from the late nineteenth century
until 1936, and again since 1977, have revealed much about this city,
especially about its overall layout, its city center with palaces and temples,
and its suburban houses. Additional evidence for the appearance of the city
comes from pictures that decorated tombs.
The city proper lay on the east bank of the Nile, its
various sectors linked by a north-south road (the Royal Road) c. 8km long. The
territory of the city was much larger, however (an area measuring 16 x 13km2,
marked by 14 inscribed boundary `stelai'), that extended across the river to
the western desert and included farmlands and small villages. The city was not
walled. Desert cliffs to the east were used for rock-cut tombs, including, in a
remote valley, that of Akhenaten himself. The population of Akhetaten has been
estimated at 20 000-50 000.
The architecture documents social distinctions. First, the
great social difference between ruler and ruled is clearly expressed in the
contrast between the grandiose royal palaces and the houses used by everyone
else. The king resided in a fortified palace in the extreme north end of the
city, but the city center contained two additional palaces. The first, the
Great Palace, is a huge complex used for receptions and ceremonies. Its plan
consists of flat-roofed buildings, courts - notably a large court lined with
colossal statues of Akhenaten - and gardens, and larger columned reception
halls. Decorations included wall paintings with images of the royal family. A
covered bridge across the Royal Road connected the Great Palace with the King's
House, a smaller palace in which the king met with officials and dealt with
day-to-day affairs. This building contained the Window of Appearances, from
which the king, accompanied by his family, could address the people.
Near the palace was the Great Temple, for worship of
Akhenaten's preferreddeity, the Aten (life force depicted as a sun disk). Much
of this large (730 x 229m2) compound was open to the sun - a contrast with the
usual temple residence of Egyptian gods, a small, dark room. The open area
contained several hundred offering tables. A butcher's yard and a large bakery
complex located nearby contributed to the supply of offerings.
The city center also contained, in fairly symmetrical
arrangement, storehouses, police barracks, and administrative buildings,
including the Records Office in which the important Amarna Letters were found,
clay tablets recording correspondence with foreign states in western Asia.
In outlying districts to the north and south of the city
center, excavations of private houses have given a good idea of the lives of
Amarnans of all social levels. Here overall planning was much looser than in
the city center; Kemp has compared these districts to collections of villages
or neighborhoods, with walled house compounds randomly arranged, interspersed
with streets and garbage dumps. Houses of both rich and poor resembled each
other in design, differing mainly in size. The typical house was built on a low
platform inside its walled compound. The focus of the ground plan was a main
hall with an adjacent twostory loggia, both with a higher roofline, held up by
columns, with windows. The main room might contain a low brick platform where the
owner and his wife would sit, a plastered stone washing place for water jars,
and a shrine. Off this main room lay smaller rooms, bedrooms, toilets and
bathrooms (from which liquid wastes drained into the ground outside), storage
rooms, and stairs up to the flat roof. Outside the house, the compound would
contain a garden, a well for water, servants' quarters, kitchens (with circular
clay ovens for baking bread, open fires for the rest), storage areas, a shelter
for animals, and a shrine to the Aten. These compounds served as economic
centers, collecting food products from lands leased or owned, either near (in
Amarna) or further away in the owner's home region, and for crafts or
manufacturing. An example of this last is the house of the sculptor Thutmose; in
his workshop was found the well-known painted bust of Queen Nefertiti.
Although Egyptian cities are otherwise poorly preserved,
because of the silt covering brought by the Nile flood or subsequent
rebuilding, our knowledge of the daily life of the ancient Egyptians is highly
detailed. This we owe to Egyptian burial practices - in which tomb decorations
and grave offerings reproduce the elements of the deceased person's material
world as faithfully as possible - and to the preserving qualities of the dry climate
(and burials were placed in the desert areas, beyond the fertile farm lands
nourished by the annual rising of the Nile). In addition, the long life of this
civilization ensured that these burial concepts continued to be practiced for
over 3000 years, leaving us a wealth of examples to study.
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