Why akhenaten is famous

The Aten was not new to the rule of Akhenaten and, prior to his conversion, was simply another cult among the many in ancient Egypt. It should be noted that 'cult' did not have the same meaning in this regard as it does in the present day.

The gods and practices of the various cults all represented the same end: eternal harmony and balance. Continue reading from World HIstory Encyclopedia. Research Center in Egypt. Kemp writes in his book that if it is true Akhenaten was not deformed then we have to look into the psyche of the man to find the answers to this mystery. He is one of a kind, on the edge. He wants you to feel uncomfortable and yet — as conveyed through the relaxed poses and overt affection for his family as found in some of the art to love him at the same time.

Regardless of whether or not Akhenaten wanted people to love him, recent research shows that the people who built his new city, out in the desert, paid a steep price. Recent research published in the journal Antiquity shows that the common people at Amarna suffered from nutritional deficiencies and a high juvenile mortality rate, even by the standards of the time.

The children had stunted growth, and many of the bones were porous due to nutritional deficiency, probably because the commoners lived on a diet of mostly bread and beer, archaeologist Anna Stevens told LiveScience in an interview at the time the research was published.

Researchers also found that more than three-quarters of the adults had degenerative joint disease, likely from hauling heavy loads, and about two-thirds of these adults had at least one broken bone as reported in the LiveScience story. It has been speculated that she may have fallen out of favor with Akhenaten, or that her name was changed so that she became a co-ruler of Egypt.

However, a recent discovery challenges all of this. At the time, the city was simply named Akhenaten; but nowadays, archaeologists call it Amarna.

He had a new royal palace built there, as well as the Great Temple of Aten. Following his death, it lost much of its significance; the capital city moved back to Thebes, and the royal palace and temple built there were abandoned entirely. The most striking changes are seen in the appearance of the royal family. Heads became larger than in the traditional style and were supported by elongated and slender necks.

The royal family took on a more androgynous appearance that sometimes even obscured the difference between Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti.

Their faces were characterized by large lips, long noses and squinting eyes, and their bodies displayed narrow shoulders and waists, small and somewhat concave torsos and large thighs, buttocks and bellies.

The king proclaimed that the Aten had manifested itself for the first time on the site and that the Aten had chosen this site for the king alone. Most of the township and administration buildings were completed roughly three years later. The king most likely died during his 17th regnal year, as this is the highest date attested for him.

But uncertainties surround his demise. The royal tomb intended for Akhenaten at Amarna did not contain a royal burial, which prompts the question of what happened to the body. Several scholars have suggested that a skeleton found in tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings could belong to Akhenaten, because the tomb contained numerous grave goods including the coffin in which the remains were found belonging to Akhenaten and other Amarna period figures.