[4], The second main structure of the Great Temple was the Sanctuary at its east end, which may have been inspired by the Fifth Dynasty Sun Temples at Abu Ghuroub (c. 2400 BCE). Aerial photograph of the Sanctuary of the Small Aten Temple at the completion of the laying out of the Sanctuary outline in new limestone blocks. [1], The cult of the Aten was celebrated daily and was very simple. While this helped walls keep their form, it also acted to weaken the walls so particularly high constructions meant to hold a lot of weight had to be made differently. Robert Hari, New Kingdom Amarna Period (The Netherlands: Leiden E. J. Brill, 1985), 10. The avenue led up to a small mud-brick shrine which was later built into the main design scheme of the Temple. Side view of the Great Aten Temple. The string was first dipped in black paint and stretched tightly and was allowed to touch the ground, leaving a mark. The mud-brickwork of the temple has been treated in a similar fashion to that at the North Palace (and was begun earlier, in 1988). Also to be noted is their absence at Maru-Aten. [9] The inside of the Per-Hai had two rows of four columns on each side. [1] To consecrate offerings, a special baton called a ḫrp was used to touch the offerings, marking it as meant for the Aten. Nefertiti's parentage is not known with certainty, but one often cited theory is that she was the daughter of Ay, later to be pharaoh. A fragmentary statue of the pharaoh Akhenaten. Gateway in the third brick pylon which gives access to the court containing the Sanctuary. The ancient Egyptians apparently called it Hwt-Aten, or "The Castle of Aten". The city of Akhetaten was built rather hastily and was constructed mostly of mud-brick. [7] The offerings given here were dedicated to the Aten but were then used to feed the officiating priests, the temple staff, and even some of the local populace. In front of the Sanctuary Pendlebury found many large pieces from sandstone columns. Christine Hobson, Exploring the World of the Pharaohs (London: Thames and Hudson, 1987), 108-109. I … This included the erection of a replica column. The temple was dismantled, covered in new sand, and paved over, but ironically this has preserved the site better than it might normally have been for archaeologists today. From their designs and dimensions a replica column has been made and set up in order to bring a sense of the original height of the buildings. Pendlebury, Tell el-Amarna (London: Lovat Dickson & Thomson Ltd., 1935), 65-100. [8] Upon entering the enclosure wall, one faced the first of these structures, the Gem-Aten, which was a very long building preceded by a court called the Per-Hai (House of Rejoicing). There are brick pylons at the entrance, and others which subdivided the interior of this building. [7] This stela was carved with images of Akhenaten and Nefertiti and was a variation of a benben stone, a sacred solar symbol of Heliopolis. The Small Aten Temple, viewed from the south east corner (Chris Ward 2019). In the case of the first pylon, which formed the front entrance to the temple, the original gypsum layer was itself on two levels, implying that a raised portion had stood in the middle. They have been covered with sand to protect them, and a new single layer of limestone blocks has been laid over the top. [4], The actual construction of the temple was accomplished in a series of steps. File: The Small Aten Temple. Indeed the Sun, seen from the temple, rises in between the sides of the wadi two times a year around February 23 and October 24. Reconstruction of the Great Temple, front section 2 (Pendlebury 1951). This same material also forms the current ground inside the Sanctuary. [4] A second pylon led to a causeway that went through two large colonnades with colossal statues of Akhenaten on either side wearing the Red Crown and the White Crown. Gay Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 153. It is situated close to the King's House and the Royal Palace, in the central part of the city. [7] The fourth court was columned and had many furnished chambers where people could rest in the shade. [9] These chapels, originally built for Queen Kiya, were later taken over by the elder princesses. Each successive court had altars and magazines where offering supplies could be stored. [4] It is unknown exactly how the Temple walls were decorated because the entire area was destroyed later on, but fragments that have been found show that there were many statues of Akhenaten and his family placed all around the Temple. A quick look at the model colonial town of the Amarna Period at Sesebi in Nubia follows. by Paul Docherty | Nov 11, 2013. With this addition, the original ceremonial gate had to be taken down and a raised causeway was built over it. During the 18th dynasty reign of Akhenaten, the new city of Akhetaten was completely built up and the regular worship of the Aten was established. In the early seasons of the current work much effort was expended upon removing these dumps (sieving them for archaeological material at the same time). It was at one of the former, the House of Foreign Correspondence (its name known from stamped … There was no rain to deteriorate the bricks but they would wear down from wind-swept sand, so for protection … Some of these buildings, such as the Aten temples, were ordered to be built by Akhenaten on the boundary stela decreeing the city's founding. The modern cemetery encroachment from the north and the reconstructed temple wall showing the small limestone blocks and the backfill. [4] A ceremonial gateway with receptacles for liquid offerings stood at the beginning of a paved avenue. These musicians performed at intervals throughout the day and were never allowed beyond the outer court.[1]. The evidence for its existance was preserved in the underlying gypsum-concrete foundation layer, which was on two levels. Scattered around these were administrative, military, industrial, and food-production complexes. In the modern replacements only the edges of the wall have been recreated in stone. A fragmentary face, likely that of Akhenaten. The gateway in the first pylon after re-excavation in 1987. The second court, shorter than the others, contained a small house-like structure on the south side of the temple axis. From this he made a series of rigid moulds. The Small Aten Temple This view is roughly easterly in direction and shows the Small Aten Temple which was close to the Pharaoh's quarters on the left. It is considered a museum and an eternal keepsake of all the historical eras that passed through Egypt. 17. This way, people could worship the sun directly. ACHETATON. The princesses continued to rattle the sistra while four male chanters sang hymns to the Aten within the Gem-Aten court. Also to be noted is their absence at Maru-Aten. [8] Although there were other priests, Akhenaten acted as his own High Priest and special roles were given to the royal women. [1] This marked one of the holiest areas in the Temple and it was heaped in flowers and offerings. Pick up the Pharaoh piece from the column on the right side of the screen. [4] In 1890, Flinders Petrie, with permission from the Egyptian Antiquities Service, began excavating the area. Achetaton, House of Life [Amarna] Achetaon House o Life. Pendlebury had used the open spaces as suitable ground for heaping the spoil from the excavation. Smaller Aten Temple (V).jpg 3,296 × 2,472; 3.25 MB Retrieved from " https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Small_Temple_of_the_Aten&oldid=286161858 … The upper layer is probably the base of a low platform with its own ramps or stairways. [1], In the Great Temple there were two main structures, the Gem-Aten and the Sanctuary, which were separated by about 300m. A quick look at the model colonial town of the Amarna Period at Sesebi in Nubia follows. Laying the stone floor in the gateway of the first pylon. [4] During construction, bricks were laid down with a small amount of mortar between the rows and no mortar between adjacent bricks. Nefertiti's name, Egyptian Nfr.t-jy.tj, can be translated as "The Beautiful Woman has Come". The gateway was originally floored with limestone blocks laid on a bed of gypsum concrete. The replica column is made from a series of panels in glass-fibre reinforced concrete, cast from a clay mould of a segment of the column. [8] This Temple differed from temples of other gods because as one progressed through the courts, they became more open to the air and light, as opposed to temples like those of Amun-Ra where the halls would get darker and more shrouded in mystery. There was no rain to deteriorate the bricks but they would wear down from wind-swept sand, so for protection walls were plastered with a layer of mud that could be reapplied. The Royal or Small Aten Temple Located near the "King's House" in the Central City at Amarna and enclosed within a temenos wall measuring 100 by 200 meters is what some Egyptologists refer to as the Small Aten Temple and others call the Royal Temple. [4] Through the Per-Hai and the next great pylon was the Gem-Aten, the [Place of] He Who Found the Aten,[1] and this was a series of six courtyards separated by pylons, all leading to a main sanctuary and altar. [4] The causeway continued into a final court that had a high altar surrounded by offering tables. Media in category "Karnak temple of Aten" The following 29 files are in this category, out of 29 total. Arthur Weigall, The Life and Times of Akhnaton (New York: G.P. These were brought to Egypt and a series of casts made in glass-reinforced concrete at a factory in New Salhiya. Looking south over the Great Aten Temple In this view we can see the Great Aten Temple which stretches left to right to capture the sun as it rises in the east. [1] Since there was no cult statue, the traditional acts of raising and washing the god played no role in the Great Temple and worship rather consisted solely of singing hymns and giving offerings to the Aten. Cet article présente l’hypothèse selon laquelle il aurait existé devant le petit temple d’Aton, une cour arborée agrémentée d’un bassin en forme de T renversé, aménagement démantelé pour laisser place sous le règne d’Ânkhkhépérourê au supposé Coronation Hall dit de « Smenkhkarê ». Kathryn A. Bard, An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008), 221-225. Within the Great Aten Temple, the Long Temple and a field of offering-tables were at the western end while the Sanctuary was on the eastern side and centered on a longitudinal axis. A prominent brick enclosure wall also remains, which was once strengthened by towers on the outside. Many pieces of the original sandstone columns remain on the site. View along the axis of the temple, from the stone pavement in the first pylon. The new stone flooring of the gateways between the pylons had not been completed when the photograph was taken. The Small Aten Temple, viewed along the central axis, facing east (Chris Ward 2019). The large-scale provision of food at Amarna is visible in the kitchen blocks (one beside the Great Aten Temple, one beside the Small Aten Temple, and one within the Kom el-Nana enclosures). The Gem-Aten was originally constructed in stone, but it seems that as time went on Akhenaten ran low on materials and the latter part of the Gem-Aten was finished with mud-brick. [4], The Great Temple of the Aten lay to the north of the Central City part of Akhetaten and was separated from the Palace by many storehouses. They also advertise the fact that there were originally monumental stone doorways between the brick pylon towers. [1] The family then passed through the pylons of the Gem-Aten and mounted the steps of the High Altar where there were offerings of meat, poultry, vegetables, and flowers already laid out and surmounted by three pans of burning incense. [1] Outside the Gem-Aten were female musicians who performed along with the temple choir which was made up of blind singers and a blind harpist. In recent years, some consolidation and restoration has been carried out at the Small Aten Temple. La démonstration se fonde sur deux études comparées dont les résultats ont été confrontés : celle des scènes de remise de … [4], Between the Gem-Aten and the Sanctuary, the main building at the east end of the enclosure, was a smaller, more sacred pillared portico with statues of the pharaoh Akhenaten and his family standing in front of each column. However, shortly after the pharaoh's death, all fell apart as successive kings destroyed the Temple and the city in an effort to return to the traditional religion of Egypt. The city of Akhetaten was built rather hastily and was constructed mostly of mud-brick. Although Akhenaten had several temples dedicated to the Aten, the Great Temple of the Aten was the largest and most significant. Since the outline plan of the Sanctuary is recorded in the fragments of the gypsum foundation layer it is possible to mark out on the ground the lines of the original walls. Flinders Petrie was the first person to work in the temple, and his assistant, Howard Carter excavated in the sanctuary area. Luxor Museum Relief Talatat 02.jpg 5,033 × 2,453; 6.85 MB. During construction, bricks were laid down with a small amount of mortar between the rows and no mortar between adjacent bricks. This object was added by Elżbieta on 2015-11-14. However, it was John Pendlebury who actually fully mapped this area during his excavations in 1935. The enormous mass of the temple occupies the greater part (about 2/3) of the space. On the left is seen the Great Temple of Aten (Per-jtn-m-Akhet-jtn = The house of Aten in Akhetaten), which also extends on to the eastern section of the north wall. The stone pavements in the gateways of the second and third pylons (in the middle distance) emphasise the rising ground level from west to east. The Small Aten Temple was excavated and planned in 1931 by the EES expedition directed by John Pendlebury. [4] To lay out structural elements like offering tables and pits on a plaster floor, string was used. The intervening space has been filled with the pale chippings and dust from the original foundation platform. J.D.S. SMALL ATEN TEMPLE 1. Cyril Aldred, Akhenaten: King of Egypt (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1988), 25-26, 52, 67, 273-275. The shape of this central feature has been reproduced in a second layer of limestone blocks. Fragmentary hands offering Aten cartouches. In consequence, the Amarna Project is excavating and reconstructing the city's most important ceremonial building: The Great Aten Temple . Mud-bricks were made by drying in the sun and they measured 33–37 cm x 15–16 cm x 9–10 cm, although bricks for temple enclosure walls were slightly larger, at 38 cm x 16 cm x 16 cm. [5], Also between the Gem-Aten and the Sanctuary in the Great Temple was a large square building where meat offerings were slaughtered and prepared, but further excavation of the area is difficult because of the presence of the modern-day cemetery of Et-Till. The main walls of the Sanctuary were about two metres thick. The present stonework is a modern replacement of the original blocks which were removed at the end of the Amarna Period. Before the current work began in 1987, therefore, it was not possible to gain a clear picture of the layout of the temple, and its emphasis upon large open spaces. Pick up the small circular stone that is above the darkened doorway. It is this which provides the authority for restoring the pavement in new limestone blocks. Mud-bricks were made by drying in the sun and they measured 33–37 cm x 15–16 cm x 9–10 cm, although bricks for temple enclosure walls were slightly larger, at 38 cm x 16 cm x 16 cm. This main altar was probably intended just for the Royal Family, especially after the Gem-Aten was built and put into regular use. Plan temple d'Aton Karnak.jpg 345 × 403; 52 KB. Seven are known to be from various sections of the Great Temple, at least six from the Great Palace and five from the Maru-Aten, as well as two balustrades (U4, whereabouts now unknown) which are mentioned by John Pendlebury in his report on the excavation of the Small Aten Temple (see Appendix 2). [5] Traditionally, the benben stone was a representation of the island created by the sun-god Atum at the beginning of the world. ", This is part of a larger project aiming to map as much of ancient Egypt's archaeological sites, or "tells," as possible before they are destroyed or covered by modern development.[11]. Laying the stone floor in the gateway of the first pylon. It is now possible to view the temple as a coherent single building. Mould Making and Casting Services. The casts were erected by Simon Bradley around a central framework of welded ironwork in the 1994 season, using welding equipment and scaffolding loaned from Richard Keen of Keminco. Website first posted September 2000; last updated October 2017 | enquiries concerning website: email bjk2@cam.ac.uk. [4] On the outside of the Gem-Aten there was enough room to have a large ambulatory[9] and there were 40 rows of 20 offering tables set up on each side. [7], One of the most distinctive aspects of the Temple was that there was no cult image of the god. Sculpture and Sculptural Services. These have been set upright in the approximate positions of the original columns. Instead, the Temple was open-aired and had no roof, so that people worshipped the actual sun directly overhead as it traveled from east to west. The gypsum plaster foundations for these survive and have been planned in detail. [1] The Sanctuary started with a pylon that led into an open court, on the south side of which were three houses probably intended for the priests on duty. Plan temple d'Aton Karnak.svg 345 × 400; 37 KB. The hub of the city, now known as the Central City, contained its two largest temples (the Great Aten Temple and Small Aten Temple) and two royal residences (the Great Palace and the King’s House). The EES Amarna Survey project returned to re–dig the site and corrected some mistakes in the mapping. The mud bricks made in the early years of the current work represented experiments, and some of them now need to be replaced by more weather-resistant bricks made to the current formula. A similar technique was used to divide up wall surfaces before they were decorated with relief. The original gypsum-concrete layer has been exposed. The scheme of consolidation, capping and replacement of missing parts has been applied to the enclosure wall, the pylon towers and parts of the interior dividing walls, and to the so-called ‘priest’s house’ which stands in front of the southern tower of the third pylon. We interpret this as evidence that a platform or pedestal, perhaps reached by stairs, stood in the middle of the gateway. As the bricks dried, they often shrank leading to warping and structural problems, so a technique was developed of arranging the rows of bricks so that every other row was nearly hollow, allowing for air to circulate. Luxor Museum Relief Talatat 01.jpg 4,415 × 1,367; 3.73 MB. Graham Speake (Oxfordshire: Andromeda, 1980), 36. As for involvement in the official Aten religion and the temples, officials presumably commissioned some of the temple statuary of the royal family or small-scale temple equipment at workshops distributed throughout one whole zone of the city. Simon Bradley hwt aten Papyrus columns project at the archaeological site of The Small Aten Temple, Amarna. The temple consists of a large rectangular enclosure surrounded by a thick mud-brick wall strengthened with external buttresses. The Small Aten Temple, built during the reign of Akhenaten (1353-1336 BCE), is still visible today due to reconstruction efforts following the in situ ancient gypsum building plan. There was no rain to deteriorate the bricks but they would wear down from wind-swept sand, so for protection … May 25, 2014 - Here the Great Temple of the Aten (a reconstruction of which is shown here) and the Small Aten Temple, in Pharaoh Akhenaten's Central City of Akhetaten, were used for religious functions and between these the Great Royal Palace and Royal Residence were the ceremonial residence of the King and Royal Family, and were linked by a bridge or ramp. Amarna, Small Temple of Aten. One major problem of this theory is that neither Ay or his wife Tey are explicitly called the father and mother of Nefertiti in existing sources. [4] Behind the Sanctuary there were other rooms including a large room which housed the original shrine of the dedication ceremony, but these rooms were only accessible from outside the Sanctuary. Once I have completed all the structures within the Great Aten temenos; Long temple, Sanctuary, House of Foreign Tribute, etc. [7] Based on the remaining foundations he found[5] as well as on multiple scenes of the Great Temple found in private tomb decoration in Amarna, a comprehensive reconstruction of the temple has been possible. The Sun "framed by the sides of the wadi" creates an Akhet sign, which is visible still today. The Great Temple of the Aten (or the pr-Jtn, House of the Aten)[1] was a temple located in the city of el-Amarna (ancient Akhetaten), Egypt. The Great Temple of Aten was a structure in the center of the city, and the majority of its space was open to the sky. [5] In fact this was a common theme amongst all of the Aten temples; they were all arranged to direct worship towards the sky (such as in the Ḥwt Aten (Mansion of Aten), the smaller temple of Aten located 500m south of the Great Temple in Akhetaten). This was a large set-in altar and was most likely where offerings from foreign lands were made. Nearby. This also made it so there was no need for a cult image in the temple since the sun itself was directly overhead. Siegfried Morenz, Egyptian Religion (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1973), 51. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Temple_of_the_Aten&oldid=977798027, 14th-century BC religious buildings and structures, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 11 September 2020, at 01:46. [1], Each day, the royal family approached the temple on chariots after riding up and down the Royal Road,[4] and entered the temple precinct and presented offerings in front of the Gem-Aten. Indeed the axis of the small Aten temple points towards the Royal Wadi. The Small Aten Temple This view is roughly easterly in direction and shows the Small Aten Temple which was close to the Pharaoh's quarters on the left. Finish finding the hidden objects, as well as the coins. At the Small Aten Temple, the thresholds of the pylon entrances had been floored with limestone blocks laid over a thick layer of gypsum concrete. The king shut down traditional worship of other deities like Amun-Ra, and brought in a new era, though short-lived, of seeming monotheism where the Aten was worshipped as a sun god and Akhenaten and his wife, Nefertiti, represented the divinely royal couple that connected the people with the god. Stone columns conformed to the usual style found elsewhere in Egypt, representing either palm-frond or papyrus. Before anything was built, there was already some kind of dedication ceremony at the site. Use the mysterious stone to restore the man on the left. No need to register, buy now! Find the perfect aten temple stock photo. [5] As the wall was being completed, the stone Sanctuary at the east end of the enclosure was built. Great Aten Temple and the Small Aten Temple were along the Royal Road and within a short distance of the Nile River’s east bank. The Small Aten Temple viewed to the north-east. The outline of a large mud-brick altar or offering-platform in the outer court has been remade in new bricks, and a token number of small brick offering-tables have been rebuilt beside it. The broad doorways between the three brick pylons were originally floored with limestone blocks. The modern cemetery encroachment from the north and the reconstructed temple wall showing the small limestone blocks and the backfill. [1] The first court had a high altar with small chapels and chambers on either side. It is one of the 2 major temples in the city, the other being the Great Temple of the Aten. Although virtually no trace of the Aten temple at Karnak was left at its site when the temple was dismantled after Akhenaten’s death, in the fourteenth century B.C., large-scale reuse of the blocks in subsequent buildings has resulted in recapture of many thousands of them during numerous archaeological repair projects at Karnak over the last sixty years. Putnam’s Sons, 1923), 172-175. Aten also Aton, Atonu, Itn (Ancient Egyptian: jtn, reconstructed) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system established in ancient Egypt by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten.The Aten was the disc of the sun and originally an aspect of Ra, the sun god in traditional ancient Egyptian religion, but Akhenaten made it the sole focus of official worship during his reign.