AMENHOTEP and AKHENATEN: EGYPT'S PHARAOHS OF THE SUN 

That makes me sad, to know that Professor Barry Kemp has died. Those were very kind words that you spoke about him and his extensive contribution to egyptology. Thank you, Dr. Chris.

Thank you very much indeed! Enjoyable listening, as usual. Now the colossal sculptures of Amenhotep the IV; Exaggerated and stylished as they seem, I think theres more to depictions of Akhenaten than catches the eye. Eventhough the very same depictions appear in two dimensional imagery as well. When you stand in the intense, luminous, sunlight of Egypt, and stand by the feet of the colossal statue in person, a magic trick appears: The statue becomes very vivid and life- like. I stood there with my best friend and stated they were hundreds of years ahead, predecessing greeks who invented- or just re- invented a trick: In order to depict a human in colossal format, ti be seen from belohnt, you have to exaggerate and lenghthen some, widen some, and you have a very living, quite normal looking image. There are style aspects to this, too. These scjlptures of Amenhotep IV/ Akhenaten are stylished in a way where sharp sunlight is necessary to lift the effect. Statues in British Museum stand in dull haze- there should be a sharp light following the original lightning- sun. The Sun and sunlight are crucial for these sculptures. I imagine as artist that was the case by then: light and shadow the sun casts makes these sculptures magnificent, awesome pieces of Art with architectural, geometric quality to shape of shadows and soft shining almost liquid opacity to light parts. Btw remembering the mummy of Akhenaten reveal no inbreed or anything obscure, quite normal bone structure.

Thank you very much for doing this!! I have been interested in Ancient Egypt ever since I was a young child. I have seen you in documentaries. It’s wonderful to be able to hear your lectures on RU-vid. I know that all of us Egypt enthusiasts are grateful to see you on here showing us all the research that you have done. RIP Barry Kemp. My condolences to you and those who worked with him and were close to him.

Thank you ,so much,Dr.Chris.Outstanding presentation!

I was at this talk when it was held online before. So glad it got uploaded here for everyone to enjoy.

Really enjoyed it. Complicated subject but even I got there in the end! Thanks again Chris.

It makes complete sense! I love how you articulate this! Thank you for breathing new life into this. This is the most engaging lecture on Amarna I have been given to hear!

Amazing talk. Thankyou

There are TWO quite large statues of Akhenaten at the Boston Museum of Fine Art in Boston, Massachusetts.

I love this theory that the Amarna-style statues are not depicting Akhenaten himself.

Thank you for another really interesting lecture. Thoroughly enjoy them.

Very interesting lecture ,thanks 👍👍

Thanks Chris, great lecture!

Hi Chris and other folks. Watching this made me think of some thoughts and research I did awhile back into the reign length of Horemheb. My theory may well already be in an academic study somewhere but I have not come across it as yet. The three reign lengths for Horemheb I have seen discussed and debated are 14 years, 27 years and 59 years. The current 0:12 consensus I think is 14 years, which makes sense to me, judging by those wine labels found in Horemheb’s tomb (KV57). Theoretically, could be 13 or 15-16, but 14 sounds reasonable to me. But the 27 and 59 years obviously came from somewhere. 27 years is recorded at Horemheb’s mortuary temple. For me, this seems to be a case of Tutankhamun and Ay having their years subsumed for Horemheb, as I think, from memory, it was their mortuary temple Horemheb took over. Tutankhamun and Ay had an approximate totalled reigns of about 14 years. So if the record of 27 years for Horemheb is associated with his year of death, then 27 - 13-14 yea4s (?) gives us 14 years of actual reign, and so 27 is a kind of legal fiction, so to speak, not just a scribal error. When it comes to the 59 years, I think a similar idea applies. And this definitely rides on a legal fiction IMO. The Year 59 comes from the tomb of Mes in Saqqara (Memphis). A text on his tomb wall details a court case regarding land he managed to win back from a land shark (lol). The court case was in Year 59 of Horemheb. From this, I can only think Mes is relying on accepted dating the court officials were using. So why? Because it had been decided to erase several reigns but give those pharaohs’ reign years to Horemheb. Year 59 may not be equal to his actual Year 14, but I’ll use that as a marker. So a little maths. Year 59 minus Year 14 gives us 45 years. So how do we account for the 45 lost years? Removing Akhenaten’s reign is a pretty obvious IMO. He is referred to in the same wall text as ‘the criminal of Akhetaten’ or similar, clearly identifying him. So 45 minus 17 (approx) gives us 28 years. Remove Tutankhamun and Ay = 14 years (approx). We then have 14 years. Then the mysterious Neferneferuaten, 3 or more years. [The Akhenaten/Neferneferuaten years are up in the air for me, but I’m only talking in approximates anyway). So we have 11 years (approx) Left outstanding. No matter how hard one may try, while not getting silly, those 11 years just can’t be added to the total number of years of the pharaohs from Akhenaten to Ay. So where must we look? Amenophis III has to be the only candidate to be brought in to account for the missing years! I have thought for quite awhile that if a number of years must be taken from Amenophis III then it might well be logical to bring in his penchant for The Aten as a defining factor. He becomes the Dazzling Aten. He has a palace and a town built at Malkata to celebrate the divine sun disc (orb for mine, but who am I anyway, lol?) Is this when folks of Horemheb’s time decided the ‘criminality’ had begun? Amenophis III was a revered King, but who wanted to remember the oddities of his later reign? How do you remove the bad taste? Wipe it away! As I’ve said, the estimated years involved can only be approximate. But if the 1st heb sed festival, or a few years before, was when later folk looked to the start of the Aten nonsense, then maybe an estimated (still approximate!) number of years might be subtracted from Amenophis III’s reign. 39 years minus 9 (to Year 30). 9 years? 11 years? 15 years? Who can say? But the Aten business in Amenophis III’s reign is surely behind those unaccounted for years beyond those already subtracted from Akhenaten to Ay. The thing is, Mes is using a legal fiction in his tomb, that is, that Year 59. Its illogical to think he just pulled that Year out of the air. He records a legal case for posterity. So I detect it was the time marker the court officials were using too. Yet why take years away from Amenophis III? For me, it’s that early Aten business. Afterall, as Chris shows us, Amenophis became the Aten, a divine figure while still alive. Was that the specific trigger point when folks got all retrospective and decided to erase certain unsavoury years? So should we see an erasure of all the years from Amenophis III’s year 30(ish?) until the death of Ay? Makes sense to me. Note: If Year 59 is not Horemheb’s actual Year 14, I would still think it late in the reign, unless we go back quite a bit deeper in Amenophis III’s reign for that ‘trigger’ point I conjectured about above that did not please folks of Horemheb’s time. If this is all old hat, please someone tell me. If not, you read it here first, lol. ✅

The part where Chris talks about Nebmaatre Amenophis becoming divine while still alive made me think of Horemheb and the text on the tomb of Mes at Saqqara that recorded for posterity a court case over land ownership Mes won which occurred in ‘Year 59’ of Horemheb. For me, it is clear the Memphis court officials involved were using some kind of date reckoning that gave Horemheb (at the time of the court hearing) a reign length (currently of) 59 years. It’s a legal fiction, for mine. With Horemheb’s actual reign very likely to be 14 years or close to that, we must account for that 45 years added. (Basing this on his Year 14, though it might have been in his Year 1, or 7, or 12, or whatever, but not past the 14 years). So if we need to find 45 years (at least!), where are they to be found? The ‘criminal of Akhetaten’ is also mentioned in the text, so I think it likely Akhenaten’s years have been given to Horemheb. But that’s not 45 years. So we might easily decide the figure must include all the years of pharaohs from Akhenaten until Horemheb. Those pharaohs that Horemheb and the Ramessieds tried to erase from history. Still, no matter how you count them up, the reigns of those pharaohs just won’t make up 45 years. I’m guessing around 10-15 years need accounting for. The only way I think that can be done is by taking up some of Nebmaatre Amenophis’s years of reign. Why? I have thought for a long time it must have to do with the rise of the Aten. Nebmaatre Amenophis built a new palace and town named for the Aten. He himself became the Dazzling Aten. So when the court officials in Memphis decided on that Year 59, surely there was a dating anchor point to set their reckoning. Was it the day in Nebmaatre Amenophis’s reign when he officially announced his rise to godhead while still alive? Say circa Year 30 or so? Works for me. If you’re checking the comments, Chris, I’d love to know what you think about this. (I also have some thoughts on the Year 27 mortuary temple dating too, lol).

Thank you for the fascinating video 🩷

Thanks!!

Enjoyed that so much! Great lecture

Thanks from Brazil

​​Interesting that the Aten relief predates his name change

Fascinating talk Chris,I was wondering if Akhenaten was worshipping his father in the Aten guise.Your theory makes perfect sense.Another reason for Amenhoteps deification might have been to Amenhotep,s health failing in his later years?

A wonderful explanation, which makes perfect sense to entail the legitimacy from father to offspring. I hope that you will put this in a future book. My visit to the site as a location of the rebirth of the succession within the context of the heliotrope ( new city, new life, birth of a God strengthening the rule of a son) cheers and many thanks.

Aussie replay crew 😊

Danke!

Hi Chris. Just joined as a subscriber and an alasbaster!! I have been thinking of some suggestions of further talk topics for you: First born who never made it to king.........akhenaten was second born I think. Ther must have been others. What was Ehypt like when the hyksos reined? What happened to the ehyptian royal family? Plants and gardens - there are some great examples of scenes of lush gardens in tombs I think - what was the relationship between these and the people/royalty This kecture was great and you have now got me thinking bery differently about 'those' statues.

Thanks

Great talk, Chris. Got to it at the first opportunity. Are you coming to Monash University to give another in Melbourne? If so, when?

Congratulations on England's win against Netherland.

Very interesting lecture, introducing some new ideas. Note: 1:04:33 Queen Mutemwiya is said to have been a minor wife of Thutmose IV. It has been suggested that she may have been the sister of Yuya, who was possibly the central figure in the genealogy of the late 18th Dynasty.

Chris, is there a way to send a donation to you on this RU-vid version of your talk?

Thank you for a fascinating talk. Your points about the statues representing Shu and the point about the Aten as being somehow linked to Amenhotep III are ideas I have not heard before and seem worthy of continued investigation. I have a question. I often hear the idea expounded that there was some form of epidemic during Akhenaten's reign and there appear to be various hypotheses regarding this. What are your thoughts, what evidence is there on this matter?

Continue: El Amarna depictions of Aten; the rays end in Ankh- Symbol, for me upside down. Open a picture of Akhenaten ( Osiris- aspect in particular)sculptures in your telephone, iPad or computer. Tilt the screen so you long along the screen. Can you see it? The exaggerated body forms an Ankh upside down, like the pharaoh were an ending of sunrays/ sun. Does it make sense? I think Amenhotep III and his son created a new somewhat megalomaniac divine ideology...

How do we know sure that it is the sun and not Niburu or another planet?

Please tell us your thoughts on the Orion Theory soon. I read much in the official and less in alternative, but sorry, it is bulletproof. Is it time to wake up to that fact?

Ah, did Barry Kemp die... so sorry. Such a great man.

Dr Ahmed Osman wrote in over 7 books who these pharaohs really were. From King david in the bible to moses and his son jesus,

😑

I just have to say.. that for acedemia to describe the statue of Akhenaten as being "grotesque you might say" is in fact saying a man with feminine features, or a condition that gave him such, is grotesque. It is actually directing people watching this to agree the same and has always bothered me as being bias to the preconcieved notion that men should look masculine. I dont agree with that. There is nothing wrong with how the artist portrayed him, in fact it has always been my favorite statue of great mystery and I find it incredibly beautiful. Elongated heads and everything. These were the features of that royal family including those obviously passed down to his son Tutankhamun. They were not like others. In fact these features are found in skulls in South America. His sculpture was intended to show him as he really was, and it might be the only portrayal of how people with elongated heads and different body porportions actually looked like. It was not a "different artistic style" based on inflated ego. Most statues and other depictions of ancient people probably didn't portray much of what was anatomically correct of them throughout the whole history of egyptian art. But here was Akhenaten saying he didnt want to be portrayed as anything "normal", "perfect" , or "godlike" but to show his natural features and his everyday life with his beautiful family. And if he did indeed have the condition like Marfan's, or other, then it is incredibly childish to say anyone's features that are not "normal" are grotesque. No-one but the ostenatious and immature would say that about someone living today.

...No surprise of their spirituality black people have always been spiritual.👃✌😎

As soon as he said the pyramids are tomb I am done...Academia is obsolete and tyranical..bye bye...

21:54 Decamps being the appropriate surname here. 22:54 Wonky draughtsmanship. Shu. Bewb. 24:24 UFO glyph with emerging Martian 26:19 Shu Sale: Everything Must Go 27:49 The WWF Belt and QR Codes are later additions 29:49 ⛔⛔🚫🚫👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻 32:34 For 'Tuna', see Tolkien 36:49 As with Ezbet-el, so with Akhetaten ('The Sun at the Horizon'): a pharaoh's name is given to a place-construct 41:34 Key phrase: 'Hypothetical alignments' 44:34 Malkata / Malqata never existed; the city layout corresponds to Petrie's layout at TANIS--the legitimate site. 46:04 Shown: TANIS layout, superimposed over a blank landscape. 53:10 First legit image: defacement--literally--and mutilation of two magnificent men (including the spurious bar code glyphs) 53:55 ⛔⛔🚫🚫👎🏻👎🏻 54:50 ⛔⛔🚫🚫👎🏻👎🏻 56:05 Aakheperre Setepenamen's voyages become 'deified': 'BOAT SHRINE' 🙄🙄 58:20 Both copies: note the awkward positioning of the arms, with their elevated elbows! 1:01:15 CASHETTE. 1:07:30 Dream on. 🙄🙄 1:09:45 Commemorative 'scarab' for a wet nurse infanticide. Shameful. 1:11:25 'Nebmaatra' tbc. This image is for Akhetaten, The Sun at the Horizon, the Master Mariner 1:12:50 Creating a lie to cover who/what the Duat/Amduat actually refers to (as above) 1:13:45 In Brooklyn, NYC: they used Tity the child-killer's face for this mock-up 1:15:10 Tefnut 1:15:50 Shu

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