Akhenaten: A Historian's View

by Ronald T. Ridley

A groundbreaking historiography of the reign of AkhenatenMore ink has probably been spilled on Akhenaten and his times (‘the Amarna Period’) than any other figure from ancient Egypt, with a vast range of interpretations and theories that can leave the uninitiated utterly bewildered. Against this background,  A Historian’s View examines what scholars have said over the years regarding key aspects of the period, to produce a ‘history of histories,’ exploring exactly how various chains of arguments were arrived at—and how houses of cards thus erected have subsequently come tumbling down. In particular, it teases out ideas based on solid documentation from those based on theory and fancy, and tracks ways in which new evidence became available, how it was interpreted, and how it fed—or didn't—into the big picture. This book thus fills a major gap in the literature of the Amarna Period and also contributes to the wider, and much neglected, field of the historiography of ancient Egypt.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Egypt

483 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2019

Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

For an Armana period enthusiast Akhenaten : A Historian’s view is a great resource reviewing and collating over two centuries of Armana research. The book considers the primary sources as well as the biographies by Redford, Aldred, Reeves, and Dodson. It provides extensive notes and a long comprehensive bibliography. He, with very few exceptions, does not introduce new ideas but rather critiques the existing speculation based on objective archaeological and textual evidence.

The book includes an introductory chapter and seven themed chapters covering: the pre-Amarna period, Akhetaten, the religion of Aten, the queens, international relations, the succession, and the royal tombs. Most chapters follow the debate on the selected topic in chronological order of publication in considerable detail. If someone is not familiar with the period it may be fairly tough going, but for the enthusiast, it will be a welcome summary of the arguments.

Chapter 6, the international relations chapter, does a very good job reviewing and categorizing the Amarna letters. Chapter 7 demonstrates how an enormous amount of speculation can arise from tiny scraps of physical evidence when the role and origins of Smenkhkare are explored.

It seems that the research for the book concluded well before publication in 2019 because of the omission of the recent publications by Barry Kemp, Anna Stevens and Gretchen Dabbs concerning the south tomb and north tomb cemeteries. These were published between 2011 and 2018. In particular, the findings from the north tomb cemetery casts a dark cloud over Akhenaten’s experiment in the desert.

But despite this minor point I highly recommend this excellent book.

[DAJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been looking through recent books on Akhenaten lately, and the more I see, the more I realize how badly this book was needed. Of the major recent general books on Akhenaten's reign, two (Akhenaten: The Heretic King by Donald B. Redford and Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet by Nicholas Reeves) ignore normal standards of proof in order to paint highly negative portraits of him, and while I haven't read Akhenaten: King of Egypt by Cyril Aldred, my impression is that it has some of the same problems. Ridley is only slightly exaggerating when he says of the scholarship on the Amarna Period, "No fantasy has been too extreme. Evidence has often been the last thing required."

Ridley announces at the beginning that he will largely ignore two subjects: the postulated coregency of Akhenaten with his father, which is falling out of favor for lack of evidence; and Amarna art, which he only discusses to point out that it's illogical to assume that a style that was applied to everybody somehow represented Akhenaten's real-life appearance. Every other major topic is covered: the evidence from the beginning of the reign at Thebes, the city of Amarna, the worship of the Aten and how it evolved in the course of the reign, Akhenaten's family, foreign affairs, the especially murky final years of Akhenaten's reign, and the tombs at Amarna and the Valley of the Kings where Akhenaten may have been buried. In each case Ridley examines what evidence we have, how Egyptologists have interpreted it, and which of those interpretations are well supported and which are not. On many subjects, his conclusion to the seventh chapter applies: "When we do not have evidence, we must admit it."

In other cases, we can draw conclusions, or at least say what possibilities are more probable. Ridley has thus sorted out what we do and do not know. Though it's too detailed for general readers, anyone studying the reign in depth, Egyptologists included, should use it as a starting point—and should keep in mind its advice about the proper use of evidence.

[Alex Bertoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terminei de ler esse calhamaço sobre Akhenaton, coisa fina. Eu gosto muito do período amarniano, mas é muito difícil não se deparar com fanfics já que a gente tem poucas evidências sobre quase tudo.

O autor faz uma pesquisa foda que não só desmistifica muita coisa, mas esclarece muitas dúvidas.

[GMR · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing's a little dry at times, but overall this was an interesting and informative read.