"Amarna' at University Museum

Ancient evenings: Stepping back into
the lost Egyptian city of Amarna

ANNE R. FABBRI

Amarna, the ancient city in northern Egypt, suddenly became as clearly defined to me as Russia under Stalin, the reign of Louis the XIV in France or even Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and I wonder why I didn’t realize it sooner. Thanks to the Penn Museum— officially the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology— we can glimpse life 3,300 years ago in an Egyptian city whose primary goal was to glorify the ruler and solidify his absolute power. Akhenaten’s father and he were the first rulers to adopt monotheism, a modern approach I had always admired. Now I see their religious philosophy as a means of eliminating the competing power of the priests. I was in East Berlin and Russia when gigantic statues of Stalin were toppled. Stalin wanted nothing to compete with allegiance to the Communist state and to him. Why did I think the rulers of ancient Egypt were any different?

The new exhibition of more than 100 objects from the museum’s permanent collection shows you where it all began and how it continues. Human nature doesn’t change. The figures carved in stone might look different, but women wore make-up (perhaps more than we do) and loved gold jewelry, and men vied for political power.

This show will be an important corollary to the King Tut exhibition opening February 3 at the Franklin Institute. It’s the story of the rise and fall of a unique city, and I marvel that the archaeologists could document it, finding the artifacts centuries after the desert sands must have completely swallowed them.

A city that came and went

A few years after his succession to the throne, the young Pharaoh (King) Akhenaten left the city of Thebes (now Luxor) in Upper Egypt, in the south, and established a new city in the north on the eastern side of the Nile. It was called Akhetaten, now known as Amarna. His father had decreed that there was only one god, the disk of the sun called Aten, and that only the royal family had access to this god. All the other lesser gods were declared null and void. (Since we have a president who claims he talks with God, this theology shouldn’t seem too strange.) The priests lost their primacy and the king achieved absolute power.

The city was carefully planned with a large temple in the center, official buildings and the royal residence surrounding it and citizens’ housing on the periphery. The temples were left roofless so that the king’s prayers to Aten ascended to the sun without barriers. Representation in art became more naturalistic, a style that spread throughout the kingdom. The culture was changing; nothing was left to chance. Although Akhenaten ruled for 36 years, only the last 17 were in this new city.

King Tutankhamun, nine years old, assumed the throne a few years after Akhenaten’s death, and the priests obviously regained control, abandoning the idea of one god and returning to the old city of Thebes. King Tut died of unknown causes at 19, and Amarna gradually ceased to exist. Since the people had never completely abandoned their personal deities; now they could worship openly. Both Akhenaten and Tut were eliminated from the official lists of rulers and gradually forgotten (which reminds me of today’s young people in Russia who view Lenin’s corpse but have no idea of his identity). But some objects from Amarna survived and were found in the 1960s by archaeologists from Penn. Now we can become part of this discovery process.

Take courage and walk beneath the columns

Entering the galleries of Lower Egypt, on the ground floor, we are confronted by a huge sphinx, the third largest in the world. With the body of a lion and the head of a king, it looks down on us as if it is protecting what’s behind it: a huge colonnade of columns, as well as doorways and windows from the best-preserved royal palace ever excavated in Egypt. Some of the columns are carved in the lotus design, retaining portions of their original paint. Take courage and walk beneath the columns into the smaller galleries. Here you will see elegant statues of Tut and members of the royal family of Akhenaten, as well as a rare monumental relief depicting them worshipping Aten, the Sun god.

As I inspected the clay vessels for household usage, a comb and brush, small jar for makeup and amulets of the censored gods and goddesses that were used in the privacy of their homes, I felt as if it all happened yesterday. And I found myself craving the exquisite gold necklace (with a god figure for private worship) as a personal pendant. The profile relief of King Akhenaten seemed more vulnerable than regal, his features exaggerated in the style of its day.

A stylized kneeling sculpture of King Tut reminds us that he spent his infancy in this city. Now he is remembered more for his tomb, discovered by Howard Carter in 1922, than for any events in his short reign.

My only complaint

On view are the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt and a slide interpretation of the new city. Excavators in the 1920s found clues to the city, and today, thanks to the assiduous archaeological research by the scholars at Penn, they are able to reconstruct for us the appearance and ambiance of this royal court. The three curators of the Amarna exhibition—Jennifer R. Houser Wegner, David P. Silverman and Josef William Wegner— deserve congratulations on the presentation of this exciting exhibition.

My only caveat is the white lettering on the wall labels: It looks elegant but is difficult to read. However, the excellent illustrated catalogue by the three curators clarifies this period in Egyptian history.

Visit the museum on the three weekends beginning November 18 and you can become one of the lesser gods in The Trial of Akhenaten in collaboration with the Vagabond Acting Troupe. Actors in colorful costumes of the period conduct a trial in the Underworld at various times during the afternoons. It helps you to realize how much we share in common with people more than 3,000 years ago. Is penicillin the primary difference?



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