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2016 June

Oops, sorry—I forgot Father's Day!

Jeff Burzacott June 20, 2016

Let’s meet ancient Egypt’s most radical family man—Akhenaten.

This is the man who, for the first time in Egyptian history,  threw his devotion behind a single god, the Aten, with the king now venerated as society’s sole link to the god.

At the same time, he drove an attack-campaign on the traditional state god, Amun, having his name chiselled from the walls of temples and tombs up and down Egypt.

Art suddenly became more angular, more exaggerated, androgynous. No one really knows why, although Akhenaten may have intended to portray himself and his wife Nefertiti as the first gods created by Aten at the beginning of time.

Yes, Akhenaten certainly was radicalised.

But whatever might else be said about Akhenaten, he wanted to be seen as a devoted father. 
Delightful, intimate portraits of the royal family provide an insight into palace life never before seen.

This stela, now in Berlin's Neues Museum, was probably set up in a shrine in a private house at Amarna.   Akhenaten, Nefertiti and three daughters are enjoying some quality family time under the life-giving rays of the Aten.  Akhenaten lifts his daughter Meritaten to give her a kiss, whilst her sister, Meketaten, sits on her mother’s knee and Ankhesenpaaten (the future wife of Tutankhamun) plays with a uraeus pendant on Nefertiti’s crown.

More than any other pharaoh, Akhenaten used his image to reflect his revolutionary religious dogma. The current issue of Nile Magazine looks at the power of the royal image to drive our modern-day opinion of the ancient Kings and Queens.
Pick up a copy in the U.K. from WHSmith, or subscribe via the link above and have Nile delivered to your door.

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 Satisfy your passion for ancient Egypt.  NILE Magazine  June-July 2017 is out now. Inside: - The Tomb-1000 years of robbery and reuse. - Egypt's first ever funerary garden discovered. - World Museum's new ancient Egypt gallery. - Art and Archaeology meet: the two worlds of Susan Osgood. - The Royal Tombs of Ancient Egypt. - Aswan's powerful governors. - On This Day in Egyptology history. - Plus much more.   Click on the cover to subscribe.

Satisfy your passion for ancient Egypt.
NILE Magazine June-July 2017 is out now. Inside:
- The Tomb-1000 years of robbery and reuse.
- Egypt's first ever funerary garden discovered.
- World Museum's new ancient Egypt gallery.
- Art and Archaeology meet: the two worlds of Susan Osgood.
- The Royal Tombs of Ancient Egypt.
- Aswan's powerful governors.
- On This Day in Egyptology history.
- Plus much more.

Click on the cover to subscribe.

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NILE Magazine

Discover Ancient Egypt Today