AIII

Question 1

1. In what way did Amenhotep III commemorate important events during his reign?

Answer 1

1. Amenhotep ordered his first set of commemorative scarabs to be inscribed and circulated around the kingdom in celebration of both his coronation and marriage to Queen Tiye.
2. Throughout his reign this was partly how he publically honored his wife, Queen Tiye, himself and to commemorate important events.

Question 2

2. When did Amenhotep III marry Tiye?

Answer 2

Possibly soon after A’s accession to the throne or even as part of his coronation ceremonies, the young king was married to Tiye.

Question 3

3. What evidence do historians use to claim different theories regarding Tiye’s background?

Answer 3

1.Historians have pointed out that the so-called marriage scarab emphasized Tiye’s non-royal background by referring her parents simply as Yuya and Thuya with no titles.
2.Aldred questions this view and provides evidence for believing that her family was an important and influential one from the town of Ahkmin.
3.He goes even further and suggests that Tiye’s father Yuya may have been brother of Queen Mutumeywa.
Additionally because of the exotic representations of Tiye, historians have also suggested that roots extend to that of Nubia.

Question 4

5. Did Amenhotep’s affection for Tiye change after all of his diplomatic marriages?

Answer 4

1. In inscriptions and statuaries, Amenhotep was rarely depicted without Queen Tiye.
2. He, unlike for his diplomatic marriages, had commemorated by dedicating great monuments to indicate her stature and of his affections for her.
3. Throughout inscriptions he was rarely represented without her and in statuaries she was depicted equal sized to his height. In the tomb of one of his nobles she was depicted as a sphinx, an image normally reserved for kings only.
4. According to the final issue of his commemorative scarabs he informed the peoples of the construction of a pleasure lake for Queen Tiye in her city of Djaruka.

5.Clearly his efforts indicate that the influence Tiye had for both his affections and domestic & foreign policy were of greater extents than what his diplomatic marriages offered. 6.A’s love for Tiye did not change after all his diplomatic marriages.

Question 5

1. Why was the cult of Amun more important than all the other cults?

Answer 5

1. According to Redford Amun’s cult and his priesthood had become an association wherein political power seekers could fulfill themselves.
2. Kings had ascribed their success through the support of Amun and filled the gods treasuring with wealth and endowed the temples with vast tracts of lands and captives.
3. The amounted wealth and power overall may indicate why the Amun cult was seen to be dominant during the 18th dynasty amongst other cults.

Question 6

2. What role did the priests of Amun have regarding the kings of Egypt?

Answer 6

The priests of Amun had played a significant part in deciding who sat on the throne by giving or withdrawing the support of their god.

Question 7

3. How did Amenhotep react to the cult of Amun?

Answer 7

1. Amenhotep like his predecessors held devotion for Amun,
   2.however as Redford identified, there is evidence that he was concerned about the overpowering status of the kingship.
   3.
   It has been suggested that he may have believed that temples and estates of Amun ‘ had received enough of the riches of empire to pose a threat to the king in certain circumstances’.

Question 8

4. Why did Amenhotep III promote Aten and how did he link the God with royalty? 5

Answer 8

1. In response to the rising powers of the Amun Priesthood, Amenhotep began to promote the interests Aten, a form of the sun god.
2. By associating the Aten towards the cult of the king he slowly removed focus and power within the Amun priesthood.
3. Amenhotep justified this shift by slowly implanting the importance of the Aten as a symbol of divinity.
4. The sun god, Re had been the prominent deity in earlier days when the kings had exercised absolute power and Aten had been associated with royalty since the Middle Kingdom.
5. Under Amenhotep’s predecessors the Aten had graduated to a god wherein for the first time temples were built in its dedication within the precinct of Amun at Thebes and at Heliopolis.

Question 9

5. What is a Deity?

Answer 9

A Deity is a god/goddess with divine status.

Question 10

6. How was Amenhotep deified? 2

Answer 10

1. Amenhotep was deified during his lifetime through the worshipping of statues of him as god in temples.
2. A relief in a temple Soleb in Nubia depicted him worshipping and making offerings to an image of himself as a god.

Question 11

7. Amenhotep celebrated three Sed festivals. What evidence have historians collected to suggest that this was true? 4

Answer 11

1. Amenhotep celebrated three Sed festivals in the years 30, 34 and 37.
   2.The evidence for these festivals comes form a number of sources but it is difficult to put together a continuous account because the references to them are fragmented.
2. The Sed festivals are believed to be true for Amenhotep’s leading officials have recordings within their tombs that show how they had participated in the festival.
3. The most detailed account of the Sed rites of year 30 are found in the tomb reliefs of Kheruef, who was a palace controller during the celebrations.

Question 12

What did Amenhotep’s building program reveal about him, his foreign policy, his marriage and how he ruled the empire? 4

Answer 12

1. The thrive in economic wealth that poured into Egypt from the empire had enabled Amenhotep to inaugurate a massive building program which had earned his reputation in foreign policy, through his marriage and ruling of the empire.
2. The lavish features of his buildings, which indicate economic wealth, may indicate that his foreign policy was effective enough for input of trade to be thriving.
   3.The religious significance of all the buildings shows a great deal of how he ruled through the use of religious power.
3. The temple to Tiye, which depicts her as god, expresses the great deal of love he had for her within his marriage.

Question 13

• How did Amenhotep III govern his empire? 6

Answer 13

1. A governed his empire through foreign policy, communicating with brother kings and vastal princes through Armana letters and diplomatic marriages.
2. To maintain the stability Of the econmy and empire of Egypt, Amenhotep needed to bridge the borders of Egypt and negotiate alliance.
3. Diplomatic marriages was a way of obtaining living goods
4. Through regular exchange of gifts/goods/gold/marriage as communicated though Armana letters
5. Foreign policy of Amenhotep leads to the loss of Akhenaten’s reign. 5.Amenhotep failed to build a strong military state and was too focused on building infrastructures that concerned his religious policy. That was not enough to sustain his reign.
6. Amenhotep’s foreign Policy was inevitable to be a project of gradual failure that led to the loss and collapse of his empire.

Question 14

1. Outline Amenhotep’s changes to temple designs 4

Answer 14

1. Early New kingdom temples were out of bound for Egyptians and Amenhotep was the first to introduce uniform changes to all Nubian and Egyptian temples.
2. He did away with the earlier small, covered processional ways and courts, replacing them with wide-open sun courts and enlarging temples by adding extra rooms behind the gods boat shrines that normally marked the end of the temples.
3. His addition to the temple of Luxor is a good example of these changes.
4. The amount of detail of his architecture was unrivalled and unlike in detail of the works from his predecessors and successors.