ANCIENT EGYPT: ca. 1341 – 1300 BC
1000 BC
1500 BC
2000 BC
2500 BC
THEME: The reign of Akhenaten
Even if there is a battle, a law, or a treaty, conflicts rarely come to a sudden end. Akhenaten’s conflict with the great temples was no exception. Some scholars see signs that late in his reign, the sculptures on his monuments were becoming less radical. Whether this is true or not, Akhenaten’s religious and artistic reforms were gradually undone by at least three following pharaohs over a period of at least 20 years. Akhenaten and his circle gradually lost power, until Rameses, a man who had not been close to any of Akhenaten’s family, became pharaoh.
Translatio imperii
It is difficult to trace the events after Akhenaten’s death because he and his circle were later erased from history. Researchers have organized the fragments of evidence into emotionally compelling stories which do not always hold up to questioning. Earlier researchers believed that he became distant from his wife Nefertiti, but new discoveries suggest that she was still prominent towards the end of his life. Other researchers pronounced that he was a pacifist who lost control of Syria, but his reliefs are full of soldiers and blue War Crowns, and the local rulers in the Amarna letters portrayed their situation as desperate so that the pharaoh would send troops. Most New Kingdom pharaohs sent troops
