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Amarna.
Amarna
Amarna (also known as el-Amarna or Tell el-Amarna) is an archeological site on the location of the capital city built by King Akhenaten in c. 1353 BC. The original name used by the ancient Egyptians was Akhetaten (or Akhetaton - transliterations vary), meaning "the Horizon of the Aten".
The site was discovered in 1887 when a local woman digging for sebbakh uncovered a cache of 300 tablets (now known as the Amarna tablets or Letters). These tablets were diplomatic correspondence of the Pharaoh and were written in Akkadian, the language commonly used in the Near East in the Late Bronze Age for such communication.
It is the only ancient Egyptian city for which we have great details of its internal plan, in large part because the city was abandoned after the death of Akhenaten, and remained uninhabited thereafter.
Amarnan art is unique among the Egytian world for its realistic depiction of its subjects, instead of the strict idealistic formalism universal in Egyptian art up until that point, as well as for depicting many informal scenes such as the royal family playing with their children. Although the Amarna heresy was completely suppressed, the artistic legacy had a more lasting impact.
Famous landmarks at the site include:
- Great Temple of the Aten
- Great Royal Palace
- Tomb of Akhenaten
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The Amarna Letters by William L. Moran
Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt by William J. Murnane
Akhenaten and Nefertiti; [Catalog of an exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences] by Cyril Aldred
Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations by Raymond Cohen
The Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten (Studies in Egyptology) by William J. Murnane
Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets: A Linguistic Analysis of the Mixed Dialect Used by Scribes from Canaan (Handbuch Der Orientalistik. Erste Abteilung, Nahe Und Der Mittlere Osten, bD 25) by Anson F. Rainey
Tell Amarna by O. Tunca
The Amarna Age: Egypt by Frederick J. Giles
Amarna Age: Western Asia (Australian Centre for Egyptology Studies, 5) by Frederick J. Giles
Akhenaton - El Faraon Hereje de Amarna by Manuel Hidalgo Huerta
The Private Chapel in Ancient Egypt: A Study of the Chapels in the Workmen's Village at El Amarna With Special Reference to Deir El Medina and Other by Ann H. Bomann
The Amarna Age by James Baikie
Tell Amarna (Syrie by O. Tunca
The Amarna Experiment : by James Thompson
Amarna: Ancient Egypt's Age of Revolution by Barbara Watterson
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