The 19th century was ending. The boom of Egyptian antiquities in the world was at its peak. Egyptian peasants and merchants, artisans and petty officials carried thousands of "artifacts" to dealers, who then tried to hand them over to interested foreigners.
In this sea, finds that were made by one inhabitant of the village of Tell el-Amarna could well be lost. Moreover, the woman turned out to be very enterprising. Having found several tablets with incomprehensible inscriptions, she considered that the more "antiquities" there were, the more she would be able to pay, and she simply split these tablets into several more pieces.
Only one of the second-hand dealers showed interest in an openly junk product (on the tablets were not Egyptian hieroglyphs, but cuneiform, as they later found out - Akkadian). However, at first he was disappointed - the jaded scientists of Europe, besides also irritated by the multitude of Egyptian fakes, did not want to deal with dubious shards. Only the staff of the Berlin Museum showed some curiosity.
And they did not regret it. Having figured it out, they realized that they had a real treasure in their hands - fragments of the correspondence between Pharaoh Akhenaten and his representatives in Canaan and Amurr. It became clear that the tablets contain an exact indication of the location of the mysterious Akhetaton - lost in the sands of the White City, erected by Pharaoh Akhenaten. The Berlin Museum opened a real hunt for fragments of tablets, by that time already dispersed throughout the world.
1891 - William Matthew Flinders Petrie himself arrived in Amarna - the famous British archaeologist who was the first to determine the age of the mysterious Stonehenge, who explored the pyramid of Cheops, who discovered the most ancient tombs of the pharaohs in Abydos. But his interest in Amarna turned out to be superficial, and soon he abandoned the excavation, and was carried away by new projects.
Only in 1907 did the German Oriental Society take Amarna seriously. The work was supervised by Ludwig Borchardt. By that time, his predecessors had already excavated the tomb of the pharaoh, the temple of Aten, the palace of the pharaoh, the post chambers (it was there that an unknown village woman found the tablets) and several other buildings. But the main discovery was made by Borchardt.
1912 - In the ruins of the studio of the sculptor Thutmose, Borchardt found a half-meter bust of a beautiful woman, crowned with a unique crown, along with half a dozen similar but unfinished sculptures. This bust has become one of the symbols of the beauty and sophistication of the ancient Egyptian civilization. A slender neck, chiseled facial features, almond-shaped eyes looking languidly even in stone, dreamily smiling lips - these features are recognized as ideally beautiful, in his archaeological diary Borchardt admired: “There is no point in describing, it must be seen” …
According to legends, Egypt has never before spawned such a beauty. She was called "Perfect"; her face adorned temples throughout the country. Her name was Nefertiti - "Beautiful has come." She was a beloved wife and faithful adviser to the most, perhaps, controversial ruler of Ancient Egypt, Amenhotep IV, better known as Pharaoh Akhenaten.
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He ascended the throne in 1368 BC. e. - and immediately found himself a stranger in a foreign country. The "illegal" son of Pharaoh from Queen Theia, who did not belong to the royal house, did not have the right to the throne - at least in the opinion of influential Theban priests. This caste of educated technocrats, in fact, ruled the country, was closely associated with the highest aristocracy of Egypt, and directly threatened the royal power. Amenhotep needed to act decisively.
He was able to find support where he probably did not expect. As an inheritance from his father, he inherited, in addition to the treasury that was filled due to victorious wars, the pharaoh's harem. One of the wives of this harem was Nefertiti. Like Amenhotep's mother, she did not belong to the royal house. Moreover, she had nothing to do with the Egyptian people.
She was from the Mesopotamian state of Mitanni, the land of the Aryan sun worshipers. We can say that she came to Egypt from the Sun itself. And with the appearance on the Egyptian land of the 15-year-old princess Taduchepa, who took the name Nefertiti, a new god came - Aton. The young pharaoh, amazed at her beauty, dismissed the huge fathers' harem and declared Nefertiti his co-ruler.
Inspired by her support, Amenhotep started the most ambitious reform in the entire ancient Egyptian history - Egyptologists argue about its true goals and its significance to this day. They agree on one thing - this incredible reform shook all the foundations of the traditional society of Ancient Egypt, civilization and culture.
The basis of beliefs in Ancient Egypt was polytheism - his patron god was worshiped in every home, in every city. Often these gods could be at enmity. Polytheism interfered with the country's unity. A feature of the Egyptian cult was its close connection with the deification of animals. Thus, the god of the dead Anubis was depicted as a man with a jackal's head, the god Thoth with the head of an ibis, the goddess Hathor with the head of a cow, etc. At the head of the pantheon was Amon-Ra, the supreme god of the Sun and light.
Amenhotep challenged the cult of Amon-Ra, replacing him with Aten, the god of the solar disk. The image of the "new" god (Aton existed in the pantheon before, but vegetated somewhere in the second and third roles) at first remained the same - a man with a falcon's head, crowned with a solar disk. This is how Horus was portrayed - one of the hypostases of Amun-Ra. Such a shift in emphasis, of course, caused a certain ferment among the priesthood, but it still did not even remotely resemble the shaped revolution that Amenhotep wrought in the fourth year of his reign.
At the beginning, Amenhotep proclaimed himself an absolute deity, an eternal being, saving and leading to eternal destruction. The solar disk, Aton, became a heavenly, natural “icon” of the king himself. The very image of Aton also changed, having lost its anthropomorphic features - God finally turned into an image. Now he appeared in the form of a solar circle with a royal snake (uraeus) in front and many rays directed downward with human hands at the ends.
Moreover, the pharaoh changed his name Amenhotep ("Amon is pleased") to Akhenaten ("Pleasing to Aton"). She changed her name, which emphasized her alienness, and Nefertiti. Now she was called "Nefer-Nefer-Aton" - "the beautiful beauty of Aton" or, in other words, "sun-faced".
In the sixth year of his reign, Akhenaten finally broke with the Theban priests: the pharaoh imposed a ban on worship in honor of Amun and all the former gods, the vast estates of the priests were confiscated, countless temples were closed throughout the country, the names of the gods were scraped off the walls of public buildings.
Together with his family, warriors, artisans, new priests, artists, sculptors and servants, Akhenaten left Thebes - the state capital and the center of the cult of the god Amun.
Rising up the Nile, Akhenaten came ashore in a wide picturesque valley surrounded by inaccessible rocks. On a sparkling gilded chariot, accompanied by his entourage, Akhenaten arrived at the place where it was planned to erect a temple to the god Aton. Here a sacrifice was made to his great father (Aton) with bread, wine, fattened bulls, hornless calves, birds, beer, fruits, incense, herbs of every kind on the day of the founding of Akhetaton - to the living Aton. Such an inscription was carved on one of the 14 border steles of the new capital, on the other stele the pharaoh's oath never to cross these boundaries was preserved.
There Akhenaten ordered to build a new capital - the white-stone Akhetaton ("Dawn of Aton"). The basis of the architectural composition was the temple of Aton and the palace of the pharaoh - a great achievement of Egyptian architects. Its area was more than 210,000 square meters. m, not counting adjacent private courtyards and the temple of the royal family. The richest decorations - gold, tiles, frescoes, carvings - formed a majestic picture.
The built city with temples, gardens, palaces, rich quarters of nobles, parks and ponds was declared "the land of the god Aton." In this city, even the type of ancient Egyptian temple has become completely different. All former temples led from the light into the darkness of the cult chapel, which was illuminated only by lamps at the altars. A gloomy state of mind was demanded by the very nature of the ancient gods, calculated for awesome veneration.
The cult of the god Aton was of a completely different nature. The main ritual ceremony was accompanied by sunrise, during which the banks of the Nile revived, blue and white lotuses blossomed, flocks of birds rose from the thickets of papyrus, announcing the awakening world with their cries. At this time, in the temple, which was a huge courtyard open to the sun, the inhabitants of Akhetaton brought their gifts to the sun: flowers, vegetables and fruits. While on the upper platform of the main altar, Akhenaten waved a censer with incense, and the musicians accompanying the harps and lutes, courtiers, priests and all worshipers chanted the words of a hymn dedicated to the supreme deity.
The reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten was in reality like a utopia. He did not wage wars - old enemies were defeated by his ancestors, and new ones have not yet appeared. There is not a single image of Akhenaten, plunging the enemy into dust, practically obligatory for all his predecessors. Reliefs, pictorial and sculptural portraits represent him as a person immersed in philosophical reflections, with a rich inner world: in the images of the pharaoh, contemplation is guessed, a heightened, almost sensual feeling of the fullness of being with all its joys and sorrows.
His main joy was the beautiful Nefertiti, his family. Akhenaten called his wife “the delight of his heart” and wished her to live forever. Receiving foreign ambassadors and concluding important agreements, he swore by the spirit of the sun god and love for his wife. The papyrus, which records the lesson about the family of the wise Pharaoh, tells about the ideal family happiness of the royal couple until their death.
The love of Akhenaten and Nefertiti became one of the main subjects for the artists of Akhetaton, the capital of the royal couple. The cordial relationship of the king and queen was captured in dozens and hundreds of drawings and bas-reliefs. Never before in Egyptian art have there been works that so vividly demonstrate the feelings of the royal spouses.
Unique images of royal lunches and dinners have survived to this day. Akhenaten and Nefertiti are sitting side by side. Near the feasting there are tables with dishes decorated with lotus flowers, vessels with wine. The feasting is entertained by a female choir and musicians, and servants scurry about. The three eldest daughters - Meritaton, Maketaton and Ankhesenaton - are present at the celebration.
Nefertiti, "a beautiful woman in a diadem with two feathers, a mistress of joy, full of praises … overflowing with beauty" with her husband are sitting with the children; the queen dangles her legs, sitting on her husband's lap and holding her little daughter with her hand. The statuette captured Akhenaten kissing his daughter.
One of the reliefs found in Akhetaton captures the culminating moment of this idyll - the kiss of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. This scene could even be called erotic. Perhaps this was the first depiction of family love in world history. On each stage, Aton is always present - a solar disk with numerous hands holding out symbols of eternal life to the royal couple.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti were portrayed as an inseparable couple. They were a symbol of mutual respect and public concern. The married couple met distinguished guests together, prayed together to the disk of the Sun, and together distributed gifts to their subjects.
The queen played an extremely important role in the religious life of Egypt during that period, accompanying her husband during sacrifices, rituals and religious festivals. She was the living embodiment of the life-giving power of the sun, giving life. Prayers were offered to her; none of the temple activities could take place without her, the guarantee of the fertility and prosperity of the whole country.
“She leads Aten to rest with a sweet voice and beautiful hands with sistras, - it is said about her in the inscriptions of the tombs of contemporary noblemen, - at the sound of her voice, they rejoice.” The divine hypostasis of Nefertiti - the Daughter of the Sun - was responsible for maintaining world harmony and fulfilling the divine law.
Nefertiti was more often depicted in her favorite headdress - a high blue wig, entwined with gold ribbons and ureus, which symbolically emphasized her connection with the formidable goddesses, daughters of the Sun. It was from this diadem that the archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt "recognized" Nefertiti in 1912 …
However, the utopia built by Akhenaten still cracked. Nefertiti bore her husband six daughters, but never gave him an heir. Perhaps, as a result, Akhenaten lost interest in her. Or maybe she just got old …
Modern studies of the bust discovered by Borchardt (Egypt is still demanding it back, Germany still refuses to return it) have shown that the sculptor depicted a network of wrinkles in the corners of Nefertiti's eyes - the beauty of the "sun" was not eternal.
Maybe it was also about politics. Towards the end of his reign, Akhenaten himself showed signs of weariness in confronting the Theban priests. An avid fan of the cult of Aton, Nefertiti demanded further strengthening of autocracy - Akhenaten was her only support. Without her Pharaoh, she was doomed.
Be that as it may, two years before the death of Akhenaten, Nefertiti disappears from the political arena of Egypt. One of the statues discovered in the studio of the sculptor Thutmose shows Nefertiti in her declining years. Before us is the same face, still beautiful, but time has already left its mark on it, leaving traces of weariness over the years, weariness, even brokenness. The walking queen is dressed in a fitted dress with sandals on her legs. The figure that has lost the freshness of youth belongs no longer to a dazzling beauty, but to the mother of six daughters, who has seen and experienced a lot in her life …
Some researchers argue that Nefertiti did not live up to the end of her husband's reign - to such an extent, the disfavor of the pharaoh, who left the "sun-faced" for their third daughter Ankhesenaton, was a strong blow to her. Others believe that, on the contrary, she outlived Akhenaten and even ascended the throne under the name of Pharaoh Smenkhkar.
Akhenaten himself survived the removal of his wife for no more than three years. With his death, the cult of Aten fell into decay, the name of the pharaoh was stripped from all the bas-reliefs, and his city was destroyed …
A. Soloviev
Recommended for viewing: Akhenaten and Nefertiti - The Royal Gods of Egypt
