Focus (KFD): Early Building Program

Question 1

Overview of Building Program

Answer 1

Amenhotep IV instated an ambitious building program early in his reign.

• Initially continued his father’s work on the Temple of Amun at Karnak
• Gave orders for the quarrying of stone for four new buildings dedicated to the Aten
• To be erected at East Karnak, outside the temenos wall of Karnak Temple

Question 2

Gem pa-aten

Buildings

Answer 2

Meaning “the Aten is found”, it is the largest and likely first erected temple in year 2.

Features

• Oriented to the east
• Roofed colonnade surrounded by a rectangular court (130x200m)
• Supported by square piers
• Fronted by colossal statues of Akhenaten holding the crook and flail (total of 25 statues of him and Nefertiti)
• Rear wall decorated with scenes of Akhenaten’s Sed festival
• Palace featured a ceremonial window of appearance
• Entire temple open to the sky. Beyond the colonnades was a long progression of courts filled with offering tables

EVIDENCE: South Colonnade depicting Akhenaten

• Distinctive, exaggerated Amarna style (wide hips, elongated face and skull)

EVIDENCE: Painted Limestone Colossi of Akhenaten

• Depicts Akhenaten with thin limbs, a swollen belly, wide hips, and an elongated face and skull. Very feminine in appearance.

Question 3

Rewed-menu

Buildings

Answer 3

Meaning “enduring in monuments”.
Built in year 3, but unknown function.

Features

• Decorated with the king making offerings in roofless kiosks
• Frequent depictions of armed troops and police running beside Akhenaten’s chariot or bowing low in his presence

Question 4

Teni-menu

Buildings

Answer 4

Meaning “exalted in monuments”.
Built in year 3, but unknown function.

Features

• Wall decoration shows the royal domestic apartments and activities that took place there (e.g. baking bread, storing wine)

Question 5

Hewet-benben

Buidings

Answer 5

Meaning “mansion of the benben stone”.

Features

• Possibly built with an obelisk or another depiction of the benben
• Focus on the sun cult at Heliopolis
• Roofless colonnade of square piers
• Decorated with scenes of Nefertiti attended by daughters, Meritaten and Meketaten, making offerings to the Aten (no Akhenaten indicating Nefertiti’s personal worship)

EVIDENCE: Nefertiti and Meritaten offering to the Aten

• The Aten is depicted as a disc radiating rays with hands

EVIDENCE: The Interior Gateway

• Depicts the Aten’s rays radiating down, with hands that hold the ankh at the faces of the royal family

Benben was the primeval mound, the first bit of earth to emerge from the waters of chaos. The temple was thought to house it.

Question 6

Tombs

Buildings

Answer 6

Tomb of Aye: Akhenaten and Nefertiti in the Window of Appearance

• Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their two daughters are receiving offerings/giving gifts to their subjects.
• The king and queen are depicted in Amarna style and are very large in contrast to their subjects.

Tomb of of Parennefer: Akhenaten at the Window of Appearance

• Akhenaten is rewarding an official
• Scenes of grandeur, many enslaved people, but also subjects bowing to Akhenaten

In both of these tombs, the sun-disc Aten has its hands reaching out to caress the royal family and holding ankhs at their faces.

Question 7

Nature of Architecture

Answer 7

The Aten Temples symbolised a departure from traditional architecture.

• Open Courts: The temples were open to the sky and sun, in contrast to the roofed, dark chambers of Amun sanctuaries.
• Talatat Blocks: Blocks of sandstone approximately 0.5m in length (small enough to be carried by one man) allowed for faster construction. They emulated the blocks used in the 3rd Dynasty by King Djoser in his pyramid complex.
• Sunk-Relief Decoration: Designs were incised deeply into the stone instead of raised like earlier pharaohs.

Question 8

Modern Reconstruction

Answer 8

Immediately following Akhenaten’s reign, his temples were dismantled to eradicate his rule.

Thousands of inscribed and decorated talatat have been found in the second, third, ninth and tenth pylons, in the foundations of the Hypostyle Hall and Luxor Temple, and only in the later part of the 19th century.

• Ray Winfield Smith: Undertook a study in 1965 that used revolutionary computer technology to photograph the scuptured sides of the blocks, digitally record them and categorise them, allowing the adjacent blocks to be matched.
• Donald Redford: Furthered Winfield-Smith’s work
• Akhenaten Temple Project: Has reconstructed 20% of the talatat, enabling the identification and interpretation of the four structures.