Although the Amarna episode lasted barely twenty years, its impact was enormous. It is perhaps the single most important event in Egypt’s religious and cultural history and it left deep scars on the collective consciousness of its inhabitants. Superficially, the country returned to the traditional religion of the time before Akhenaten, but in reality nothing would ever be the same again. Some of the changes can be detected in the burial arrangements of the elite, always a good barometer of shifting religious attitudes. Most conspicuous are the developments in tomb architecture. At Memphis in particular, freestanding tombs appear that in all essential aspects resemble temples. In Thebes rock tombs continue to be used, but their architecture and decoration are adapted to the same new concept, that of the tomb as the private mortuary temple for its owner, whose funerary cult is integrated with the cult of Osiris. This god, who had been banned by Akhenaten, was now universally seen as the nocturnal manifestation of Ra, and his role in funerary matters increased dramatically as
Plan of a group of tombs in the New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara, where many important officials of the late i8th and igth-aoth Dynasties were buried
Compared to the days before the Amartia Period. In these tombs, the solar symbol par excellence, the pyramid, previously a royal prerogative, sat on the roof of the central chapel, usually with a capstone (pyramid-ion) showing scenes of worship before Ra and Osiris. In the central chapel itself the main stele, the focal point of the crdt, often showed a symmetrically arranged double scene comprising both of these gods seated back to back. Statues that had previously been typically placed in temples began to appear in private tombs, including images of various deities and naophorous statues that show the deceased holding a shrine with an image of a god.
The reliefs and paintings on the walls of the tombs were no longer primarily concerned with scenes from the owner’s career and professional occupation, although such scenes do not disappear completely, but instead concentrate on showing him adoring Ra, Osiris, and a wide variety of other gods and goddesses, wearing a long pleated linen costume (often wrongly called the ‘dress of daily life’) and an elaborate wig. The same festive costume also appears on anthropoid sarcophagi and shabtis, which hitherto had shown the deceased exclusively as a mummy. Apart from one or two examples from very early in the reign of Tutankhamun, scenes in which the deceased is shown presenting offerings to the king disappear completely; his place is now occupied by Osiris enthroned. In general, religious scenes and texts, often taken from the Book of the Dead, dominated the post-Amarna tomb decoration. Illustrations and textual excerpts from various exclusively royal funerary compositions such as the Litany of Ra and the so-called Books of the Underworld began to appear on the walls of private tombs, first at Deir el-Medina, but soon elsewhere as well. All of these features may be explained as a reaction against Akhenaten’s total monopolization of the funerary cult of his subjects and the role that the Aten temples had played in Amarna religion as the new ‘hereafter’. The tomb-owners now had their own temples in which they themselves worshipped the gods, without the intervention of the king, whose role was thus minimalized.
The changes in funerary culture just outlined are symptomatic of the totally different relationship between the gods and their worshippers, and the role played by the king in this relationship. In another 200 years, the ultimate consequence of this new world-view would be shown by the realization of the so-called Theban theocracy, whereby Amun himself was thought to rule as king of Egypt, governing his subjects by means of direct intervention in the form of oracles. Before we can discuss this development, however, we must return to the political and dynastic history of Egypt following the end of the Amarna Period.
World History
