Light of Aten didn't shine equally for everyone

Skeletal remains recently found at Amarna paints a picture of extreme suffering for the people forced to build an inhabit the ancient city of Akhetaten (The Horizon of Aten), very different from the murals depicting the ruling class blessed by the beneficial light of the Aten.

The area, 200 miles north of Thebes (Waset) is an inhospitable desert plain beside the River Nile. Akhetaten has been measured at 6 by 3 miles, a huge size then, built in 15 years and housing up to 50,000 people.

For more than a century archaeologists looked in vain for any trace of the abandoned city’s dead. But recently, British archaeologists made a breakthrough when they found human bones in the desert, which had been washed out by floods. Originally thought to be of a later period, surrounding pottery confirmed that the remains were from people who worked and lived during the 18th Dynasty. They also reveal a grim picture of disease, injuries, poor nutrition and a short life span as a result of hard working and living conditions during the rule of pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7209472.stm

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Tags: akhenaten, Amarna, Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 10:12 am and is filed under Egyptology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.