Ay

Kheperkheprure Ay (occasionally Aya or Aye) was the penultimate Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty. He held the throne of Egypt for a brief four-year period (probably 1325-1321 BC or 1327-1323 BC, depending which chronology is followed), although he was a close advisor to two (perhaps three) of the pharaohs who ruled before him and was the power behind the throne upon which his immediate predecessor sat.

Amarna Period

Born a commoner, Ay managed to rise through the hierarchy of Egyptian society under the "heretical" Pharaoh Akhenaten. One version of events maintains that he and his wife Tey were the parents of Akhenaten's chief wife, Nefertiti and that another of their daughters, Mutnedjmet, was the wife and queen of Horemheb, Ay's successor. Another version suggests that he was the son of Yuya and Tjuyu. Thus being a brother or half-brother of Tiy, brother-in-law of Amenhotep III and maternal uncle of Akhenaten. The two theories are not mutually exclusive, but either relationship would explain the exalted status to which Ay rose (see below), during Akhenaten's Amarna interlude, when the royal family turned their backs on Egypt's traditional gods and experimented, for a dozen years or so, with monotheism – an experiment that, whether out of conviction or convenience, Ay seems to have supported, at least for as long as it lasted.

Titles

In his Amarna tomb, Ay's titles are give as Companion, Head of the Companions of the King, Father of the Divinity, Bearer of the fan on the right hand side of the King, Acting Scribe of the King, beloved by him, and Overseer of all the horses of the King. Some of these titles are purely standardised noble ones, but the 'Bearer of the fan on the right hand side of the King' is a very important position, and is viewed as showing that the bearer had the 'ear' of the ruler.

Tutankhamun

Akhenaten's reign was followed by that of the boy-king Tutankhamun, who ascended to the throne at the age of nine or ten, at a time of great tension between the new monotheism and the old polytheism. He was assisted in his kingly duties by his predecessor's two closest advisors: Grand Vizier Ay and General of the Armies Horemheb. Tutankhamun's nine-year reign, largely under Ay's direction, saw the gradual return of the old gods – and, with that, the restoration of the power of the established priesthood, who were furious at having had their influence sidestepped under Akhenaten.

Rule as Pharaoh

Tutankhamun's untimely death at the age of 18, together with his failure to produce an heir, left a power vacuum that his Grand Vizier was quick to fill: Ay is depicted in the famous treasures of the boy king's tomb conducting the funerary rights for the deceased monarch and assuming the role of heir. The grounds on which Ay based his claim to the throne are not entirely clear. He was certainly a powerful figure under Tutankhamun, as he had been under Akhenaten: in some records he is referred to as "regent", and he had been close to the center of power for some 25 years. This was probably still not enough, however, to legitimise his claims to the throne in the highly hierarchical society of Ancient Egypt, particularly at a time of upheaval. To strengthen his rule, Ay appears to have married Tutankhamun's widow Ankhesenpaaten (by then known as Ankhesenamun). Since he was already advanced in age upon his accession, Ay ruled Egypt in his own right for only Four years. During this period, he consolidated the return to the old religius ways that he had initiated as Tutankhamun's senior advisor. He was succeeded, at the end of the dynasty, by Horemheb rather than his intended heir, Nakhtmin.

Tombs

Ay had tombs prepared for himself in both Amarna and Thebes. The former (known as Southern Tomb 25), still visible today, is well preserved and provides some excellent examples of the distinctive style of art that flourished during the Amarna period. It was never finished, however, or used for his burial. Ay was ultimately buried in his second tomb (designated WV23) in the western branch of the Valley of the Kings. One of Horemheb's undertakings as Pharaoh was to eliminate all references to the monotheistic experiment, a process that included expunging the name of his immediate predecessors – especially Ay – from the historical record. Horemheb desecrated Ay's burial and had most of Ay's royal cartouches in his WV23 Tomb Wall paintings erased while his sarcophagus was smashed into numerous pieces. However, the sarcophagus lid was discovered by Otto Schaden in 1972 and still preserved Horemheb's cartouche; it had been buried under debris in his tomb.

References

- Otto Schaden, Clearance of the Tomb of King Ay (WV 23), JARCE 21(1984) pp.39-64

External Links

- [http://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/pharaons/ay/e_ay.htm The Tomb of Ay] Category:1320s BC deaths Category:Pharaohs of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt

Amarna

http://faraon.sl.ogarnij.pl/en/Great+Hymn+to+the+Aten

Amarna (commonly known as el-Amarna) is the name given to an extensive archaeological site that represents the remains of the capital city built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1353 BC). The name for the city used by the ancient Egyptians was Akhetaten (or Akhetaton – transliterations vary), meaning "the Horizon of the Aten". The site was discovered in 1887 when a local woman digging for sebakh uncovered a cache of 300 tablets (now known as the Amarna letters). These tablets were diplomatic correspondence of the Pharaoh and were written in Akkadian, the language commonly used during the Late Bronze Age of the Ancient Near East for such communication. The frequent designation "Tell el-Amarna" for the city is inaccurate: nowhere do the ancient remains constitute a mound of eroded architecture that would warrant the description of a "tell" (Arabic: "city mound"), so common elsewhere in the region. Cyril Aldred notes that the name "Tell el-Amarna" is a misunderstanding of the name for one of the modern villages near the ruins, Et Til el Amarna. The name "Amarna" itself comes from the name of a tribe of nomads, the Beni Amran, who left the Eastern Desert in the 18th century to settle on the banks of the Nile along this stretch. Excavation at Amarna has been conducted by a number of British and German excavation teams. One of the best-known 19th century archeologists who worked in this area was Karl Richard Lepsius, who copied wall illustrations and inscriptions, and took paper squeezes of reliefs. The 19th century records made by these teams are of immense importance since many of these remains were later vandalized by the locals in anger against the Egyptian Antiquities Service. The current investigations have been in annual operation since the late 1970s, directed by Dr Barry Kemp (Reader in Egyptology, University of Cambridge, England) under the auspices of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES).

The city of Akhetaten

The city was built as the new capital of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, dedicated to his new religion of worship to the Aten. Construction started in year 4 of his reign (1364 BC or 1346 BC) and was probably completed by year 9 (1359 BC or 1341 BC), although it became the capital city two years earlier. It is the only ancient Egyptian city for which we have great details of its internal plan, in large part because the city was abandoned shortly after the death of Akhenaten, and remained uninhabited thereafter. However, due to the unique circumstances of its creation and abandonment, it is questionable how representative of ancient Egyptian cities it actually is. The city as a whole is divided into a number of wide-flung components, which include:
- Royal Wadi and Tombs
- Tombs of the Nobles
- Tomb of Akhenaten
- Workmen's villages
- Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten Amarna art is unique among the Egyptian world for its realistic depiction of its subjects, instead of the strict idealistic formalism universal in Egyptian art up until that point, as well as for depicting many informal scenes such as the royal family playing with their children. Although the worship of Aten (known as the Amarna heresy) was completely suppressed, the artistic legacy had a more lasting impact. Famous landmarks at the site include:
- North City
- Northern Palace
- Great Temple of the Aten
- Great Royal Palace
- Small Aten Temple
- Kom el-Nana
- Maru-Aten

Chronology of investigation

1714 – Claude Sicard, a French Jesuit priest travelling through the Nile Valley, describes the first known boundary stela from Amarna. 1798-1799 – Napoleon's corps de savants prepare the first map of Amarna, subsequently published in Description de l'Égypte between 1821 and 1830. 1824 – Sir John Gardiner Wilkinson explores and maps the city remains. 1833 – The copyist Robert Hay and his surveyor G. Laver visit the locality and uncover several of the Southern Tombs from sand drifts, recording the reliefs. (The copies made by Hay and Laver languish largely unpublished in the British Library). 1843 and 1845 – The Prussian expedition led by Richard Lepsius records the visible monuments and topography of Amarna in two separate visits over a total of twelve days, employing drawings and paper squeezes. The results are ultimately published in Denkmäler aus Ægypten und Æthiopien between 1849 to 1913. Despite being somewhat limited in accuracy, the engraved Denkmäler plates nonetheless form the basis for scholastic knowledge and interpretation of many of the scenes and inscriptions in the private tombs and some of the Boundary Stelae for the remainder of the 19th century. 1887 – A cache of nearly 400 clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform are discovered by an Amarna woman, which are now known as the Amarna letters. 1891–1892 – Sir Flinders Petrie works for one season at Amarna, working independently of the Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF). Excavating primarily in the Central City, Petrie investigates the Great Temple of the Aten, the Great Official Palace, the King's House, the Records Office and several private houses. Although frequently amounting to little more than a sondage, Petrie's excavations reveal additional cuneiform tablets, the remains of glass factories, and a great quantity of discarded faience, glass and ceramic in sifting the palace rubbish heaps (including Mycenaean sherds). Publishing his results and reconstructions rapidly, Petrie is able to stimulate great interest in the site's potential. 1903–1908 – Norman de Garis Davies publishes drawn and photographic descriptions of private tombs and boundary stelae from Amarna. 1907–1914 – Led by Ludwig Borchardt, the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft excavates the North and South suburbs of the city. The famous bust of Nefertiti – now in Berlin's Ägyptisches Museum – is discovered amongst other sculptural arteftacts in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose. The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 terminates the German excavations. 1921–1936 – The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) returns to excavation at Amarna under the direction of T.E. Peet, Sir Leonard Woolley, Henri Frankfort and John Pendlebury. The renewed investigations focus on religious and royal structures. 1960s - The Egyptian Antiquities Organization (now the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities) undertakes a number of excavations at Amarna. 1977 – present – The EES returns once more to excavation at Amarna, now under the direction of Barry Kemp. 1980 – A second, shorter expedition led by Geoffrey Martin describes and copies the reliefs from the Royal Tomb, later publishing its findings together with objects thought to have come from the tomb.

External links

- [http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/Projects/Amarna/home.htm Amarna, Capital of Ancient Egypt] Information page of the University of Cambridge excavations
- [http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/Projects/Amarna/Model2004.htm/modelindex.htm Model of the City] Interactive map of Amarna.
- [http://katherinestange.com/egypt/gallery.htm Amarna Art Gallery] Shows just a few, but stunning, examples of the art of the Amarna period.
- [http://members.tripod.com/~ib205/budge.html Wallis Budge describes the discovery of the Amarna tablets] Category:Ancient Egypt ja:アマルナ

. It is attributed to Pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) himself, and gives us a glimpse of the artistic outpouring of the Amarna period. The hymn suggests that Akhenaten considered Aten as the only god, and creator of the universe, particularly in the verses translated as: :How many are your deeds, :Though hidden from sight, :O Sole God beside whom there is none! :You made the earth as you wished, you alone, :All peoples, herds, and flocks; :All upon earth that walk on legs, :All on high that fly on wings, :The lands of Khor and Kush, :The land of Egypt. Akhenaten's religious reforms (later regarded heretical and reverted by his successor Tutankhamun) is the earliest known example of monotheistic thought. The Hymn has a remarkable similarity to Psalm 104, with which it is frequently compared. The "Hymn to the Aten" was set to music by Philip Glass in his opera Akhnaten.