Erasing a God.

Sometime in his reign, Akhenaten initiated a project that has made him infamous. The King’s agents, sculptors and masons travelled throughout the country, visiting major temples and shrines. Their job? Erase the name and figure of Amun, the King of the Gods, wherever they found it. This project is the most controversial of Akhenaten’s reign. In this episode, we dig into what happened, and why the King did it…

Chapter 2 begins at 24:00

Episode date: c.1347 BCE
Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com
Music by Ancient Lyric bettinajoydeguzman.com

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Bibliography

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Show 2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Scott Gilbert

    Very thought provoking series on Akhenaten’s reign. Particularly concerning the reasons for all of his changes. I’ve never studied Egypt so my thoughts are all based on previous episodes and of course ignorance. All of the changes, co-regents, particularly his wife, establishing a new capital in the middle of nowhere, repudiation of other gods and their temples seem designed to take power back from the elites. The political and economic power of the elites are greatly diminished by reduced access to Akhenaten and impoverishment of the other god’s temples, the elite economic base. Restoration of an all powerful ruler, Akhenaten, mirrored by a newly all powerful god.
    Great podcast both entertaining and enjoyable.

    • DominicPerry

      Hi Scott, thanks for listening! The hypothesis you propose is definitely possible, and recent scholarship has touched on this idea in some interesting ways. I’ll be covering the idea in episode 135, when we consider Akhenaten’s “legacy” and he was maybe trying to achieve 🙂
      Dominic

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