Life, death and beyond in Akhenaten's Egypt: excavating the South Tombs Cemetery at Amarna

Abstract

The authors report a summary of the results of six seasons of excavation at one of the cemeteries of Tell el-Amarna, the celebrated city of the ‘monotheistic’ revolutionary, Akhenaten. The osteology shows a workforce enduring stress and injuries to bone and muscle. The burial rites indicate low investment and personal interpretations as to spiritual meaning. In this exploration of a slice of a whole Egyptian urban society, the contrast between the working lives of the elite and its workforce becomes striking.

New Book Chronicle

“…Although only a few burials were excavated, the bones demonstrate the marks of strenuous physical labour and trauma (cf. Kemp et al 2013). The site was also littered with basalt waste flakes from hammerstone production, the latter for use in quarrying limestone, perhaps in association with the construction of tombs in the Royal Wadi.…”

MRI of Musculotendinous Injuries—Part I: “Non-strain” Injuries

“…Muscle injuries have been important to humans for time immemorial, afflicting laborers in ancient Egypt [1] and Olympic athletes in ancient Greece [2]. Today, the diagnosis of muscle injuries has never been more important to the lives of more patients-as well as to the financial livelihoods of athletes and the professional reputation of physicians [3].…”

Slot-type fractures of the scapula at New Kingdom Tell El-Amarna, Egypt

“…Geophysical survey of the desert surrounding the main city identified several previously unrecognized cemeteries in 2005 (Kemp, 2005). The first focus of the cemetery excavation project has been on the South Tombs Cemetery (STC), a large cemetery of 3000-4000 individuals so named due to its close proximity to the South Tombs, which were constructed for Amarna-period high officials (Ambridge and Shepperson, 2006;Dolling, 2007Dolling, , 2008Kemp, 2009Kemp, , 2010Kemp et al, 2013;Stevens, 2009Stevens, , 2012. The STC was extensively robbed in antiquity resulting in the loss of many of the cultural materials included in Amarna-period graves and the mortuary context provided by these elements (Kemp, 2005;Kemp et al, 2013).…”

“…The first focus of the cemetery excavation project has been on the South Tombs Cemetery (STC), a large cemetery of 3000-4000 individuals so named due to its close proximity to the South Tombs, which were constructed for Amarna-period high officials (Ambridge and Shepperson, 2006;Dolling, 2007Dolling, , 2008Kemp, 2009Kemp, , 2010Kemp et al, 2013;Stevens, 2009Stevens, , 2012. The STC was extensively robbed in antiquity resulting in the loss of many of the cultural materials included in Amarna-period graves and the mortuary context provided by these elements (Kemp, 2005;Kemp et al, 2013). However, the diverse mortuary treatments observed within the cemetery suggest the STC was the final resting place for members of all social strata save the highest, who were placed in the nearby rock-cut South Tombs and other elite tombs at Amarna (Kemp et al, 2013).…”

“…The STC was extensively robbed in antiquity resulting in the loss of many of the cultural materials included in Amarna-period graves and the mortuary context provided by these elements (Kemp, 2005;Kemp et al, 2013). However, the diverse mortuary treatments observed within the cemetery suggest the STC was the final resting place for members of all social strata save the highest, who were placed in the nearby rock-cut South Tombs and other elite tombs at Amarna (Kemp et al, 2013).…”