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    Bring4th Bring4th Community Olio Lost city of Akhenaten discovered

    Thread: Lost city of Akhenaten discovered


    Raukura Waihaha (Offline)

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    #1
    04-09-2021, 01:41 AM
    'Lost golden city of Luxor' discovered by archaeologists in Egypt
    The 3,400-year-old royal city was built by Amenhotep III, abandoned by his heretic son, Akhenaten, and contains stunningly preserved remains.

    BYERIN BLAKEMORE
    PUBLISHED APRIL 9, 2021

    Three thousand four hundred years ago, a contentious ancient Egyptian king abandoned his name, his religion, and his capital in Thebes (modern Luxor). Archaeologists know what happened next: The pharaoh Akhenaten built the short-lived city of Akhetaten, where he ruled alongside his wife, Nefertiti and worshipped the sun. After his death, his young son Tutankhamun became ruler of Egypt—and turned his back on his father’s controversial legacy.

    But why did Akhenaten abandon Thebes, which had been the capital of ancient Egypt for more than 150 years? Answers may lie in the discovery of an industrial royal metropolis within Thebes that Akhenaten inherited from his father, Amenhotep III. The find, which has been dubbed the “lost golden city of Luxor" in an announcement released today, will generate as much enthusiasm, speculation, and controversy as the renegade pharaoh who left it.

    Because the city was initially discovered just in September of last year, archaeologists have only scratched the surface of the sprawling site, and understanding where this discovery ranks in Egyptological importance is hard to say at this time. The level of preservation found so far, however, has impressed researchers.

    “There’s no doubt about it; it really is a phenomenal find,” says Salima Ikram, an archaeologist who leads the American University in Cairo’s Egyptology unit. “It’s very much a snapshot in time—an Egyptian version of Pompeii.”

    The site dates from the era of 18th-dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III, who ruled between around 1386 and 1353 B.C. and presided over an era of extraordinary wealth, power and luxury. In Amenhotep III’s final years, he is thought to have briefly reigned alongside his son, Akhenaten.

    But a few years after his father’s death, Akhenaten, who ruled from around 1353–1336, broke with everything the late ruler stood for. During his 17-year reign, he upended Egyptian culture, abandoning all of the traditional Egyptian pantheon but one, the sun god Aten. He even changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, which means “devoted to Aten.”  

    The heretic pharaoh didn’t stop there. Akhenaten moved his royal seat from Thebes north to a completely new city he called Akhetaten (modern site name: Amarna) and oversaw an artistic revolution that briefly transformed Egyptian art from stiff and uniform to animated and detailed. But after his death, most traces of the ruler were obliterated. Starting with his son, the boy king Tutankhamun, Akhenaten's capital, his art, his religion, and even his name was dismissed and systematically wiped from history. Only the rediscovery of Amarna in the 18th century revived the legacy of the renegade leader, which has fueled archaeological speculation for hundreds of years.

    Why and how did the pharaoh’s controversial transformation take place, and what was everyday life like under the great Amenhotep III? The newly found city could provide clues. The excavation site straddles old and new in an area renowned for its archaeological riches. To the north is Amenhotep III’s 14th-century B.C. mortuary temple, and to the south is Medinet Habu, a mortuary temple built almost two centuries later for Ramses III.

    Archaeologists had hoped the space between might be the site of the mortuary structure where Tutankhamun’s subjects would have placed the food and funerary items they offered him when he died around 1325 B.C. Instead, they uncovered something very different: zigzagging mudbrick walls up to nine feet high and piles of ancient artifacts from the era of Amenhotep III.

    Structures are packed with everyday items, many of which relate to the artistic and industrial production that supported the pharaoh’s capital city. There are homes where workers might have lived, a bakery and kitchen, items related to metal and glass production, buildings that appear related to administration, and even a cemetery filled with rock-cut tombs.


    Though the size of the city has yet to be determined, its date is clear thanks to hieroglyphics on a variety of items. A vessel containing two gallons of boiled meat was inscribed with the year 37—the time of Amenhotep III and Akhenaten’s speculated father-son reign. Scarabs, bricks, vessels, and more bear Amenhotep III’s royal seal.

    The buildings also bear his soon-to-be heretic son’s name, says Betsy Bryan, a professor of Egyptian art and archaeology at Johns Hopkins University. Bryan, who was not involved in the dig, visited on a day when archaeologists found a small clay ceiling stamped with hieroglyphs that said ‘The aten is found living on truth.’ "That’s an epithet of Akhenaten,” Bryan notes. Despite references to the younger king, though, she says the city is part of his father’s palace complex to the north, which was named Nebmaatre or “the Dazzling Aten.”  

    Once Akhenaten came into power and changed course, he left his father’s city, and seemingly everything it contained, behind.

    That loss is modern archaeology’s gain. “It’s extraordinarily beautiful,” says Ikram. She recalls walking through the preserved streets, surrounded by tall walls where, she says, she expected an ancient Egyptian to come around the corner at any moment. “I don’t think you can oversell it,” she says. “It is mind-blowing.”

    Archaeologists have found an abundance of decorative and ritual items, including scarabs and amulets.

    The city appears to have been reused by Tutankhamun, who ditched Akhetaten during his reign but established a new capital at Memphis. Ay, who later inherited the throne when he married Tut’s widow, seems to have used it, too. Four distinct settlement layers at the site show eras of use all the way into the Coptic Byzantine era of the third through seventh centuries A.D.

    Then, it was left to the sands until its recent discovery.

    But why was it abandoned during the brief reign of Akhenaten? “I don’t know that we’ll get closer to answering that question through this particular city,” says Bryan. “What we will get is more and more information about Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, and their families. It’s early days, but I think we’ll see more and more connections.” Though the newly discovered city may not give up clues to the mystery of the rebel pharaoh, it will paint an even more vivid picture of the life he left behind.

    Source
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      • sunnysideup, Patrick, Spaced, Aion
    Patrick (Offline)

    YAY - Yet Another You
    Posts: 5,635
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    #2
    04-09-2021, 03:10 PM
    Another article on this.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56686448

      •
    Raukura Waihaha (Offline)

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    #3
    04-11-2021, 06:41 PM
    I found this write up on Zahi Hawass' FB page.
    Not a fan of him but it is what it is...

    Zahi Hawass Announces Discovery of 'Lost Golden City' in Luxor

    The Egyptian mission under Dr. Zahi Hawass found the city that was lost under the sands and called: The Rise of Aten. The city is 3000 years old, dates to the reign of Amenhotep III, and continued to be used by Tutankhamun and Ay.

    ‘Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it. We began our work searching for the mortuary temple of Tutankhamun because the temples of both Horemheb and Ay were found in this area’ Hawass said.

    The Egyptian expedition was surprised to discover the largest city ever found in Egypt. Founded by one of the greatest rulers of Egypt, king Amenhotep III, the ninth king of the 18th dynasty who ruled Egypt from 1391 till 1353 B.C, this city was active during the great king’s co-regency with his son, the famous Amenhotep IV/Akhenaton.

    It was the largest administrative and industrial settlement in the era of the Egyptian empire on the western bank of Luxor.

    ‘The city’s streets are flanked by houses, which some of their walls are up to3 meters high,' Hawass continued, ‘we can reveal that the city extends to the west, all the way to the famous Deir el-Medina.'

    Betsy Brian, Professor of Egyptology at John Hopkins University in Baltimore USA, said ‘The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun”.

    "The discovery of the Lost City, not only will give us a rare glimpse into the life of the Ancient Egyptians at the time where the Empire was at his wealthiest but will help us shed light on one of history's greatest mystery: why did Akhenaten & Nefertiti decide to move to Amarna," Brian added.

    The excavation area is sandwiched between Rameses III's temple at Medinet Habu and Amenhotep III's temple at Memnon. The Egyptian mission started working in this area in search of Tutankhamun's Mortuary Temple.

    Tutankhamun's successor, King Ay, built his temple on a site which was later adjoined on its southern side by Rameses III's temple at Medinet Habu.

    Egyptologists believe Ay's temple may formerly have belonged to Tutankhamun as two colossal statues of the young king were found there. The northern part of the temple is still under the sands.

    The excavation started in September 2020 and within weeks, to the team's great surprise, formations of mud bricks began to appear in all directions. What they unearthed was the site of a large city in a good condition of preservation, with almost complete walls, and with rooms filled with tools of daily life.

    The archaeological layers have laid untouched for thousands of years, left by the ancient residents as if it were yesterday.

    The first goal of the mission was to date this settlement. Hieroglyphic inscriptions found on clay caps of wine vessels. Historical references tell us the settlement consisted of three royal palaces of King Amenhotep III, as well as the Empire's administrative and industrial center.

    A large number of archaeological finds, such as rings, scarabs, colored pottery vessels, and mud bricks bearing seals of King Amenhotep III's cartouche, confirmed the dating of the city.

    After only seven months of excavation, several areas or neighborhoods have been uncovered.

    In the southern part, the mission found a bakery, a cooking and food preparation area, complete with ovens and storage pottery. From its size, we can state the kitchen was catering a very large number of workers and employees.

    The second area which is still partly uncovered, is the administrative and residential district, with larger and well-arranged units.

    This area is fenced in by a zigzag wall, with only one access point leading to internal corridors and residential areas. The single entrance makes us think it was some sort of security, with the ability to control entry and exit to enclosed areas.

    Zigzag walls are one of the rare architectural elements in ancient Egyptian architecture, mainly used towards the end of the 18th Dynasty. The third area is the workshop.

    On one side, the production area for the mud bricks used to build temples and annexes. The bricks have seals bearing the cartouche of King Amenhotep III (Neb Maat Ra).

    On the other, a large number of casting molds for the production of amulets and delicate decorative elements. This is further evidence of the extensive activity in the city to produce decorations for both temples and tombs.

    All over the excavated areas, the mission has found many tools used in some sort of industrial activity like spinning and weaving.

    Metal and glass-making slag has also been unearthed, but the main area of such activity has yet to be discovered.

    Two unusual burials of a cow or bull were found inside one of the rooms. Investigations are underway to determine the nature and purpose of this practice.

    And even more remarkable burial of a person found with arms outstretched to his side, and remains of a rope wrapped around his knees. The location and position of this skeleton are rather odd, and more investigations are in progress.

    One of the most recent finds of a vessel containing 2 gallons of dried or boiled meat (about 10 kg), has a valuable inscription: Year 37, dressed meat for the third Heb Sed festival from the slaughterhouse of the stockyard of Kha made by the butcher luwy.

    This valuable information, not only gives us the names of two people that lived and worked in the city but confirmed that the city was active and the time of King Amenhotep III's co-regency with his son Akhenaten.

    The excavation also reveals a mud seal with inscriptions that can be read: “gm pa Aton” that can be translated as “ the domain of the dazzling Aten”, this is the name of a temple built by King Akhenaten at Karnak.

    As history goes, one year after this pot was made, the city was abandoned and the capital relocated to Amarna. But was it? And why? And was the city repopulated again when Tutankhamun returned to Thebes?

    Only further excavations of the area will reveal what truly happened 3500 years ago.

    To the north of the settlement a large cemetery was uncovered, the extent of which has yet to be determined.

    So far, the mission has discovered a group of rock-cut tombs of different sizes that can be reached through stairs carved into the rock. A common feature of tomb construction in the Valley of the Kings and in the Valley of the Nobles.

    Work is underway and the mission expects to uncover untouched tombs filled with treasures.
    [+] The following 1 member thanked thanked Raukura Waihaha for this post:1 member thanked Raukura Waihaha for this post
      • flofrog
    Raukura Waihaha (Offline)

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    #4
    04-13-2021, 09:21 PM

    Robert Sepehr is an anthropologist who focuses alot on Atlantean migrations and bloodlines. He also branches out into UFOlogy and other interesting subjects.
    This video is about the city of Aten.
    [+] The following 3 members thanked thanked Raukura Waihaha for this post:3 members thanked Raukura Waihaha for this post
      • sunnysideup, Patrick, flofrog
    Aion (Offline)

    Sentinel of the LVX Decad
    Posts: 4,760
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    #5
    04-23-2021, 02:06 PM
    One day I'll get a chance to visit I hope, it will be an interesting walk of memory.

      •
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