Nefertiti
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti was an Egyptian queen and the Great Royal Wife of Akhenaten, an Egyptian Pharaoh. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they worshiped one god only, Aten, or the sun disc. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of Ancient Egyptian history; some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled as Neferneferuaten after her husband's death and before the accession of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate. If Nefertiti did rule as Pharaoh, her reign was marked by the fall of Amarna and relocation of the capital back to the traditional city of Thebes. Nefertiti had many titles including Hereditary Princess, she was made famous by her bust, now in Berlin's Neues Museum. The bust is one of the most copied works of ancient Egypt, it was attributed to the sculptor Thutmose, it was found in his workshop. Nefertiti, Egyptian Nfr.t-jy.tj, for "the beauty has come". Nefertiti's parentage is not known with certainty, but one cited theory is that she was the daughter of Ay to be pharaoh.
However, this hypothesis is wrong since Ay and his wife Tey are never called the father and mother of Nefertiti and Tey's only connection with her was that she was the "nurse of the great queen" Nefertiti. Nefertiti's Scenes in the tombs of the nobles in Amarna mention the queen's sister, named Mutbenret. Another theory that gained some support identified Nefertiti with the Mitanni princess Tadukhipa. However, Tadukhipa was married to Akhenaten's father and there is no evidence for any reason why this woman would need to alter her name in a proposed marriage to Akhenaten or any evidence of a foreign non-Egyptian background for Nefertiti; the exact dates when Nefertiti married Akhenaten and became the king's great royal wife of Egypt are uncertain. Their six known daughters were: Meritaten: No than year 1 later became Pharaoh Neferneferuaten. Meketaten: Year 4. Ankhesenpaaten known as Ankhesenamun queen of Tutankhamun Neferneferuaten Tasherit: Year 8 later became Pharaoh Neferneferuaten. Neferneferure: Year 9.
Setepenre: Year 11. Nefertiti first appears in scenes in Thebes. In the damaged tomb of the royal butler Parennefer, the new king Amenhotep IV is accompanied by a royal woman, this lady is thought to be an early depiction of Nefertiti; the king and queen are shown worshiping the Aten. In the tomb of the vizier Ramose, Nefertiti is shown standing behind Amenhotep IV in the Window of Appearance during the reward ceremony for the vizier. During the early years in Thebes, Akhenaten had several temples. One of the structures, the Mansion of the Benben, was dedicated to Nefertiti, she is depicted with her daughter Meritaten and in some scenes the princess Meketaten participates as well. In scenes found on the talatat, Nefertiti appears twice as as her husband, she is shown appearing behind her husband the Pharaoh in offering scenes in the role of the queen supporting her husband, but she is depicted in scenes that would have been the prerogative of the king. She is shown smiting the enemy, captive enemies decorate her throne.
In the fourth year of his reign, Amenhotep IV decided to move the capital to Akhetaten. In his fifth year, Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, Nefertiti was henceforth known as Neferneferuaten-Nefertiti; the name change was a sign of the ever-increasing importance of the cult of the Aten. It changed Egypt's religion from a polytheistic religion to a religion which may have been better described as a monolatry or henotheism; the boundary stelae of years 4 and 5 mark the boundaries of the new city and suggest that the move to the new city of Akhetaten occurred around that time. The new city contained several large open-air temples dedicated to the Aten. Nefertiti and her family would have resided in the Great Royal Palace in the centre of the city and at the Northern Palace as well. Nefertiti and the rest of the royal family feature prominently in the scenes at the palaces and in the tombs of the nobles. Nefertiti's steward during this time was an official named Meryre II, he would have been in charge of running her household.
Inscriptions in the tombs of Huya and Meryre II dated to Year 12, 2nd month of Peret, Day 8 show a large foreign tribute. The people of Kharu and Kush are shown bringing gifts of gold and precious items to Akhenaten and Nefertiti. In the tomb of Meryre II, Nefertiti's steward, the royal couple is shown seated in a kiosk with their six daughters in attendance; this is one of the last times princess. Two representations of Nefertiti that were excavated by Flinders Petrie appear to show Nefertiti in the middle to part of Akhenaten's reign'after the exaggerated style of the early years had relaxed somewhat'. One is a small piece on limestone and is a preliminary sketch of Nefertiti wearing her distinctive tall crown with carving began around the mouth, chin and tab of the crown. Another is a small inlay head modeled from reddish-brown quartzite, intended to fit into a larger composition. Meketaten may have died in year
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in the place, now the country Egypt. Ancient Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Menes; the history of ancient Egypt occurred as a series of stable kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age. Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power in the New Kingdom, ruling much of Nubia and a sizable portion of the Near East, after which it entered a period of slow decline. During the course of its history Egypt was invaded or conquered by a number of foreign powers, including the Hyksos, the Libyans, the Nubians, the Assyrians, the Achaemenid Persians, the Macedonians under the command of Alexander the Great; the Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom, formed in the aftermath of Alexander's death, ruled Egypt until 30 BC, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province.
The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture. The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, a military intended to assert Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, administrators under the control of a pharaoh, who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of religious beliefs; the many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying and construction techniques that supported the building of monumental pyramids and obelisks.
Ancient Egypt has left a lasting legacy. Its art and architecture were copied, its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world, its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of writers for centuries. A new-found respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period by Europeans and Egyptians led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy; the Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history. The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more sophisticated, centralized society that became a cornerstone in the history of human civilization. Nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the arid climate of Northern Africa became hot and dry, forcing the populations of the area to concentrate along the river region.
In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was much less arid. Large regions of Egypt were traversed by herds of grazing ungulates. Foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, this is the period when many animals were first domesticated. By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed into a series of cultures demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry, identifiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs and beads; the largest of these early cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which originated in the Western Desert. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements; as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East Canaan and the Byblos coast.
Over a period of about 1,000 years, the Naqada culture developed from a few small farming communities into a powerful civilization whose leaders were in complete control of the people and resources of the Nile valley. Establishing a power center at Nekhen, at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile, they traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the western desert to the west, the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East to the east, initiating a period of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations. The Naqada culture manufactured a diverse selection of material goods, reflective of the increasing power and wealth of the elite, as well as societal personal-use items, which included combs, small statuary, painted pottery, high quality decorative stone vases, cosmetic palettes, jewelry made of gold and ivory, they developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, used well into the Roman Per
Amelia Edwards
Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards known as Amelia B. Edwards, was an English novelist, journalist and Egyptologist, her most successful literary works included the ghost story "The Phantom Coach", the novels Barbara's History and Lord Brackenbury, the Egyptian travelogue A Thousand Miles up the Nile. In 1882, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund, she edited a poetry anthology published in 1878. Born in London to an Irish mother and a father, a British Army officer before becoming a banker, Edwards was educated at home by her mother and showed early promise as a writer, she published her first poem at the age of her first story at the age of twelve. Thereafter came a variety of poetry and articles in several periodicals, including Chambers's Journal, Household Words, All the Year Round, she wrote for the Saturday Review and the Morning Post. In addition, Edwards would illustrate some of her own writings, she would paint scenes from other books she had read. She was talented enough at the age of 12 to catch the eye of George Cruikshank, who went as far to offer to teach her, but this talent was not supported by Edwards's parents, who saw it as a lesser profession and the artist way of life as scandalous.
This negative decision haunted Edwards through her early life. She would wonder whether art would not have been her true calling. Thirdly, Edwards took up composing and performing music for some years, until she suffered a bout of Typhus in 1849, followed by a sore throat, which made it hard for her to sing, caused her to lose interest in music and regret the time she had spent on opera. Other interests she pursued included pistol shooting and mathematics. Early in the 1850s, Edwards began to focus more on being a writer, her first full-length novel was My Brother's Wife. Her early novels were well received, but it was Barbara's History, a novel involving bigamy, that established her reputation as a novelist, she spent much time and effort on the settings and backgrounds of her books, estimating that it took her about two years to complete the research and writing of each. This paid off when her last novel, Lord Brackenbury, became a runaway success that went to 15 editions. Edwards wrote several ghost stories, including the anthologised "The Phantom Coach".
The background and characters in many of Edwards's writings are influenced by her own experiences. For example, Barbara's History uses Suffolk as the background, which she had visited for a few enjoyable summer holidays as a child. Edwards first heard about the Dolomites in 1853, through sketches, brought back to England from Italy. On 27 June 1872, she embarked on a trip through the mountains with her friend Lucy Renshawe; that day they left Monte Generoso for Venice, one of the three known ways to enter the Dolomites, but not before they had parted from Renshawe's maid and courtier, who disapproved such a journey. Instead the two women hired mountain guides from the region. On 1 July 1872, after a three-day stay in Venice and Renshawe left for Longarone, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Pieve di Cadore, Auronzo di Cadore, Val Buona, Agordo, Predazzo, Fassa Valley, Passo Fedaia, Sasso Bianco, Forno di Zoldo, Zoppè di Cadore and Caprile, ended their journey in Bolzano. At the time of Edwards's visit, the Dolomites were described as being terra incognita, educated persons had never heard of them.
This journey was described in her book A Midsummer Ramble in the Dolomites renamed Untrodden Peaks and Infrequent Valleys. During the expedition, Edwards searched for the works of Titian, finding a Madonna and Child in Serravalle and two other paintings at a village church in Cadore. After her descent from the mountains, Edwards described civilized life as a "dead-level World of Commonplace". In the summer of 1873, dissatisfied by the end of their journey and Renshawe took to a walking tour of France. However, this was interrupted by torrential rains, a factor that influenced them in looking towards Egypt. Edwards, accompanied by several friends, toured Egypt in the winter of 1873–1874, discovering a fascination with the land and its cultures and modern. Journeying southwards from Cairo in a hired dahabiyeh, the party visited Philae and reached Abu Simbel, where they remained for six weeks. Renshawe remained among her travelling companions. Another party member was the English painter Andrew McCallum, who discovered an unknown sanctuary that came to bear his name for some time afterwards.
Their boat joined in a flotilla with another female English traveller, Marianne Brocklehurst travelling with a female companion. Brocklehurst and Edwards remained friends and Brocklehurst supported her Egypt Exploration fund. Edwards wrote a vivid description of her Nile voyage entitled A Thousand Miles up the Nile. Enhanced with her own illustrations, this travelogue was an immediate best-seller. Edwards' travels in Egypt made her aware of increasing threats to ancient monuments from tourism and modern development, she set out to hinder these through public awareness and scientific endeavour, becoming a tireless advocate for research and preservation of them. In 1882, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund with Reginald Stuart Poole, Curator of the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. Edwards became joint Honorary Secretary of the Fund until her death. To advance the Fund's work, Edwards abandoned other writing in favour of Egyptology, she contributed to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, to the American supplement of that
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, adopting its current name on 1 January 1788; the Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently, have only had common ownership since 1967. In 1959, the historian of journalism Allan Nevins analysed the importance of The Times in shaping the views of events of London's elite: For much more than a century The Times has been an integral and important part of the political structure of Great Britain, its news and its editorial comment have in general been coordinated, have at most times been handled with an earnest sense of responsibility. While the paper has admitted some trivia to its columns, its whole emphasis has been on important public affairs treated with an eye to the best interests of Britain.
To guide this treatment, the editors have for long periods been in close touch with 10 Downing Street. The Times is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, such as The Times of India and The New York Times. In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is referred to as The London Times or The Times of London, although the newspaper is of national scope and distribution; the Times is the originator of the used Times Roman typeface developed by Stanley Morison of The Times in collaboration with the Monotype Corporation for its legibility in low-tech printing. In November 2006 The Times began printing headlines in Times Modern; the Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, but switched to compact size in 2004 in an attempt to appeal more to younger readers and commuters using public transport. The Sunday Times remains a broadsheet; the Times had an average daily circulation of 417,298 in January 2019. An American edition of The Times has been published since 6 June 2006.
It has been used by scholars and researchers because of its widespread availability in libraries and its detailed index. A complete historical file of the digitised paper, up to 2010, is online from Gale Cengage Learning; the Times was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, with Walter in the role of editor. Walter had lost his job by the end of 1784 after the insurance company where he worked went bankrupt due to losses from a Jamaican hurricane. Unemployed, Walter began a new business venture. Henry Johnson had invented the logography, a new typography, reputedly faster and more precise. Walter bought the logography's patent and with it opened a printing house to produce a daily advertising sheet; the first publication of the newspaper The Daily Universal Register in Great Britain was 1 January 1785. Unhappy because the word Universal was omitted from the name, Walter changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to The Times. In 1803, Walter handed editorship to his son of the same name.
In spite of Walter Sr's sixteen-month stay in Newgate Prison for libel printed in The Times, his pioneering efforts to obtain Continental news from France, helped build the paper's reputation among policy makers and financiers. The Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its early life, the profits of The Times were large and the competition minimal, so it could pay far better than its rivals for information or writers. Beginning in 1814, the paper was printed on the new steam-driven cylinder press developed by Friedrich Koenig. In 1815, The Times had a circulation of 5,000. Thomas Barnes was appointed general editor in 1817. In the same year, the paper's printer James Lawson and passed the business onto his son John Joseph Lawson. Under the editorship of Barnes and his successor in 1841, John Thadeus Delane, the influence of The Times rose to great heights in politics and amongst the City of London.
Peter Fraser and Edward Sterling were two noted journalists, gained for The Times the pompous/satirical nickname'The Thunderer'. The increased circulation and influence of the paper was based in part to its early adoption of the steam-driven rotary printing press. Distribution via steam trains to growing concentrations of urban populations helped ensure the profitability of the paper and its growing influence; the Times was the first newspaper to send war correspondents to cover particular conflicts. W. H. Russell, the paper's correspondent with the army in the Crimean War, was immensely influential with his dispatches back to England. In other events of the nineteenth century, The Times opposed the repeal of the Corn Laws until the number of demonstrations convinced the editorial board otherwise, only reluctantly supported aid to victims of the Irish Potato Famine, it enthusiastically supported the Great Reform Bill of 1832, which reduced corruption and increased the electorate from 400,000 people to 800,000 people.
During the American Civil War, The Times represented the view of the wealthy classes, favouring the secessionists, but it was not a supporter of slavery. The third John Walter, the founder's grandson, succeeded his father in 1847; the paper continued as more or less independent, but from t
Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the first being Sobekneferu. Hatshepsut came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC, her rise to power was noteworthy as it required her to utilize her bloodline, an understanding of religion. Her bloodline was impeccable as she was the daughter and wife of a king, her understanding of religion allowed her to establish herself as the God’s Wife of Amen. She ruled jointly with Thutmose III, who had ascended to the throne the previous year as a child of about two years old. Hatshepsut was the chief wife of Thutmose III's father, she is regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful pharaohs, reigning longer than any other woman of an indigenous Egyptian dynasty. According to Egyptologist James Henry Breasted, she is known as "the first great woman in history of whom we are informed."Hatshepsut was the daughter and only child of Thutmose I and his primary wife, Ahmose. Her husband Thutmose II was the son of Thutmose I and a secondary wife named Mutnofret, who carried the title King's daughter and was a child of Ahmose I.
Hatshepsut and Thutmose II had a daughter named Neferure. After having their daughter, Hatshepsut could not bear any more children. Thutmose II with Iset, a secondary wife, would father Thutmose III, who would succeed Hatshepsut as pharaoh. Although contemporary records of her reign are documented in diverse ancient sources, Hatshepsut was thought by early modern scholars as only having served as a co-regent from about 1479 to 1458 BC, during years seven to twenty-one of the reign identified as that of Thutmose III. Today Egyptologists agree that Hatshepsut assumed the position of pharaoh. Hatshepsut was described as having a reign of about 21 years by ancient authors. Josephus and Julius Africanus both quote Manetho's king list, mentioning a woman called Amessis or Amensis, identified as Hatshepsut. In Josephus' work, her reign is described as lasting 21 years and nine months, while Africanus stated it was twenty-two years. At this point in the histories, records of the reign of Hatshepsut end, since the first major foreign campaign of Thutmose III was dated to his 22nd year, which would have been Hatshepsut's 22nd year as pharaoh.
Dating the beginning of her reign is more difficult, however. Her father's reign began in either 1526 or 1506 BC according to the high and low estimates of her reign, respectively; the length of the reigns of Thutmose I and Thutmose II, cannot be determined with absolute certainty. With short reigns, Hatshepsut would have ascended the throne 14 years after the coronation of Thutmose I, her father. Longer reigns would put her ascension 25 years after Thutmose I's coronation. Thus, Hatshepsut could have assumed power as early as 1512 BC, or, as late as 1479 BC; the earliest attestation of Hatshepsut as pharaoh occurs in the tomb of Ramose and Hatnofer, where a collection of grave goods contained a single pottery jar or amphora from the tomb's chamber—which was stamped with the date Year 7. Another jar from the same tomb—which was discovered in situ by a 1935–36 Metropolitan Museum of Art expedition on a hillside near Thebes—was stamped with the seal of the "God's Wife Hatshepsut" while two jars bore the seal of The Good Goddess Maatkare.
The dating of the amphorae, "sealed into the burial chamber by the debris from Senenmut's own tomb," is undisputed, which means that Hatshepsut was acknowledged as king, not queen, of Egypt by Year 7 of her reign. Hatshepsut re-established the trade networks, disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, thereby building the wealth of the Eighteenth Dynasty, she oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. This trading expedition to Punt was during the ninth year of Hatshepsut's reign, it set out in her name with five ships, each measuring 70 feet long, bearing several sails and accommodating 210 men that included sailors and 30 rowers. Many trade goods were bought in notably frankincense and myrrh. Hatshepsut's delegation returned from Punt bearing 31 live myrrh trees, the roots of which were kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage; this was the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees. It is reported. Egyptians returned with a number of other gifts from Punt, among, frankincense.
Hatshepsut would grind the charred frankincense into kohl eyeliner. This is the first recorded use of the resin. Hatshepsut had the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahari, famous for its realistic depiction of the Queen of the Land of Punt, Queen Ati; the Puntite Queen is portrayed as tall and her physique was generously proportioned, with large breasts and rolls of fat on her body. Due to the fat deposits on her buttocks, it has sometimes been argued that she may have had steatopygia. However, according to the pathologist Marc Armand Ruffer, the main characteristic of a steatopygous woman is a disproportion in size between the buttocks and thighs, not the case with Ati, she instead appears to have been obese, a condition, exaggerated by excessive lordosis or curvature of the lower spine. Hatshepsut sent raiding expeditions to Byblos and the Sinai Peninsula shortly after the Punt expedition. Little is known about these expeditions. Alth
Flinders Petrie
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, FRS, FBA known as Flinders Petrie, was an English Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egyptology in the United Kingdom, excavated many of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt in conjunction with his wife, Hilda Petrie; some consider his most famous discovery to be that of the Merneptah Stele, an opinion with which Petrie himself concurred. Petrie developed the system of dating layers based on pottery and ceramic findings. Petrie was born on 3 June 1853 in Maryon Road, Kent, the son of William Petrie and Anne. Anne was the daughter of Captain Matthew Flinders. William Petrie was an electrical engineer who developed carbon arc lighting and developed chemical processes for Johnson, Matthey & Co. Petrie was raised in a Christian household, was educated at home, he had no formal education. His father taught his son how to survey laying the foundation for his archaeological career.
At the age of eight, he was tutored in French and Greek, until he had a collapse and was taught at home. He ventured his first archaeological opinion aged eight, when friends visiting the Petrie family were describing the unearthing of the Brading Roman Villa in the Isle of Wight; the boy was horrified to hear the rough shovelling out of the contents, protested that the earth should be pared away, inch by inch, to see all, in it and how it lay. "All that I have done since," he wrote when he was in his late seventies, "was there to begin with, so true it is that we can only develop what is born in the mind. I was in archaeology by nature." The chair of Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College London was set up and funded in 1892 following a bequest from Amelia Edwards, who died in that year. Petrie's supporter since 1880, Edwards had instructed, he continued to excavate in Egypt after taking up the professorship, training many of the best archaeologists of the day.
In 1913 Petrie sold his large collection of Egyptian antiquities to University College, where it is now housed in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. One of his trainees, Howard Carter, went on to discover the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. In his teenage years, Petrie surveyed British prehistoric monuments in attempts to understand their geometry, his father had corresponded with Piazzi Smyth about his theories of the Great Pyramid and Petrie travelled to Egypt in early 1880 to make an accurate survey of Giza, making him the first to properly investigate how they were constructed. Petrie's published reports of this triangulation survey, his analysis of the architecture of Giza therein, was exemplary in its methodology and accuracy, disproved Smyth's theories and still provides much of the basic data regarding the pyramid plateau to this day. On that visit, he was appalled by the rate of destruction of mummies, he described Egypt as "a house on fire, so rapid was the destruction" and felt his duty to be that of a "salvage man, to get all I could, as as possible and when I was 60, I would sit and write it all."
Returning to England at the end of 1880, Petrie wrote a number of articles and met Amelia Edwards and patron of the Egypt Exploration Fund, who became his strong supporter and appointed him as Professor at her Egyptology chair at University College London. Impressed by his scientific approach, they offered. Petrie accepted the position and was given the sum of £250 per month to cover the excavation's expenses. In November 1884, Petrie arrived in Egypt to begin his excavations, he first went to a New Kingdom site with 170 workmen. He cut out the middle man role of foreman on this and all subsequent excavations, taking complete overall control himself and removing pressure on the workmen from the foreman to discover finds but sloppily. Though he was regarded as an amateur and dilettante by more established Egyptologists, this made him popular with his workers, who found several small but significant finds that would have been lost under the old system. In 1886, while working for the Egypt Exploration Fund, Petrie excavated at Tell Nebesheh in the Eastern Nile Delta.
This site is located 8 miles southeast of Tanis and, among the remains of an ancient temple there, Petrie found a royal sphinx, now located at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. By the end of the Tanis dig, he ran out of funding but, reluctant to leave the country in case it was renewed, he spent 1887 cruising the Nile taking photographs as a less subjective record than sketches. During this time, he climbed rope ladders at Sehel Island near Aswan to draw and photograph thousands of early Egyptian inscriptions on a cliff face, recording embassies to Nubia and wars. By the time he reached Aswan, a telegram had reached there to confirm the renewal of his funding, he went straight to the burial site at Fayum interested in post-30 BC burials, which had not been studied. He found intact tombs and 60 of the famous portraits, discovered from inscriptions on t
Amarna
Amarna is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site that represents the remains of the capital city newly established and built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten of the late Eighteenth Dynasty, abandoned shortly after his death. The name for the city employed by the ancient Egyptians is written as Akhetaten in English transliteration. Akhetaten means "Horizon of the Aten"; the area is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya, some 58 km south of the city of al-Minya, 312 km south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km north of Luxor. The city of Deir Mawas lies directly west across from the site of Amarna. Amarna, on the east side, includes several modern villages, chief of which are el-Till in the north and el-Hagg Qandil in the south; the area was occupied during Roman and early Christian times. The name Amarna comes from the Beni Amran tribe that lived in the region and founded a few settlements; the ancient Egyptian name was Akhetaten. English Egyptologist, Sir John Gardner Wilkinson visited Amarna twice in the 1820s and identified it as'Alabastron', following the sometimes contradictory descriptions of Roman-era authors Pliny and Ptolemy, although he was not sure about the identification and suggested Kom el-Ahmar as an alternative location.
The area of the city was a virgin site, it was in this city that the Akhetaten described as the Aten's "seat of the First Occasion, which he had made for himself that he might rest in it". It may be that the Royal Wadi's resemblance to the hieroglyph for horizon showed that this was the place to found the city; the city was built as the new capital of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, dedicated to his new religion of worship to the Aten. Construction started in or around Year 5 of his reign and was completed by Year 9, although it became the capital city two years earlier. To speed up construction of the city most of the buildings were constructed out of mud-brick, white washed; the most important buildings were faced with local stone. It is the only ancient Egyptian city which preserves great details of its internal plan, in large part because the city was abandoned after the death of Akhenaten, when Akhenaten's son, King Tutankhamun, decided to leave the city and return to his birthplace in Thebes; the city seems to have remained active for a decade or so after his death, a shrine to Horemheb indicates that it was at least occupied at the beginning of his reign, if only as a source for building material elsewhere.
Once it was abandoned it remained uninhabited until Roman settlement began along the edge of the Nile. However, due to the unique circumstances of its creation and abandonment, it is questionable how representative of ancient Egyptian cities it is. Amarna was hastily constructed and covered an area of 8 miles of territory on the east bank of the Nile River; the entire city was encircled with a total of 14 boundary stelae detailing Akhenaten's conditions for the establishment of this new capital city of Egypt. The earliest dated stele from Akhenaten's new city is known to be Boundary stele K, dated to Year 5, IV Peret, day 13 of Akhenaten's reign, it preserves an account of Akhenaten's foundation of this city. The document records the pharaoh's wish to have several temples of the Aten to be erected here, for several royal tombs to be created in the eastern hills of Amarna for himself, his chief wife Nefertiti and his eldest daughter Meritaten as well as his explicit command that when he was dead, he would be brought back to Amarna for burial.
Boundary stela K introduces a description of the events that were being celebrated at Amarna: His Majesty mounted a great chariot of electrum, like the Aten when He rises on the horizon and fills the land with His love, took a goodly road to Akhetaten, the place of origin, which had created for Himself that he might be happy therein. It was His son Wa'enrē who founded it for Him as His monument when His Father commanded him to make it. Heaven was joyful, the earth was glad every heart was filled with delight; this text goes on to state that Akhenaten made a great oblation to the god Aten "and this is the theme, illustrated in the lunettes of the stelae where he stands with his queen and eldest daughter before an altar heaped with offerings under the Aten, while it shines upon him rejuvenating his body with its rays." Located on the east bank of the Nile, the ruins of the city are laid out north to south along a "Royal Road", now referred to as "Sikhet es-Sultan". The Royal residences are to the north, in what is known as the North City, with a central administration and religious area and the south of the city is made up of residential suburbs.
If one approached the city of Amarna from the north by river the first buildings past the northern boundary stele would be the North Riverside Palace. This building ran all the way up to the waterfront and was the main residence of the Royal Family. Located within the North City area is the Northern Palace, the main residence of the Royal Family. Between this and the central city, the Northern Suburb was a prosperous area with large houses, but the house size decreased and became poorer the furth
