Please Note : The letters A, B, F, J, K, M, N, P, Q,
R, S, U, V and X Refers to the boundary stelae .
A. Their Distribution
If time can be spared for it a visit should be made to
the boundary stelae, by means of which, Akhenaten delimited the sacred domain
of his holy city . The Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten lie in the semi-circle of
hills which surround the plain of El Amarna on the east side of the river and
in the hills facing this on the west ( Plate 34 ) . Fourteen are now known ;
three ( A, B, F ) being on the west side and eleven on the east . The three
stelae on the western mountains seem to be the northernmost, midmost and
southernmost on this side, where the extent of cliff suitable for such
monuments is very limited . Probably no more were hewn there . Of those on the
east side we seem to possess the most northerly in X ; for it lies beyond the
plain at a point where two narrow tracks into the plain diverge, one keeping to
the river-bank, the other traversing the mountains . Its position on the spur
of the hills is accurately described in the phrase " the headland of the
Northern Stela " ( X, line 42 ) . A line joining A and X represents, then,
the north boundary of the district of Akhetaten ; it faces several degrees east
of magnetic north, perhaps the true north of that day . A parallel line,
however, drawn from F, southernmost on the west side, does not pass through J,
the southernmost on the east bank of the river, but almost exactly through P,
which lies further south in the desert road behind the mountains . A parallel
line through B passes through V, an obliterated stela near the mouth of the
narrow gorge passage through which the mountain-path from X enters the plain .
These stelae, then — A, B, F and X, V, J ( or P ) — seem to represent the six
landmarks ( northern, southern and middle, on both banks ) .
Three of the stelae on the east bank date from an
earlier year and contain a special text, viz., X ( the northernmost ), M ( at
the southern limit of the plain ), and K ( a few hundred yards south of M, on
the river road, where every vestige of cultivation now ends for many miles ) .
K ( first series ) and J ( second series ) seem to represent a wish to include
in the district of Akhetaten some length of the approach to Akhetaten by the
river bank, so balancing X exactly .
The rest of the known stelae are distributed unequally
and their sites are fixed with more or less obvious intentions . J, if not
already fixed on the river bank as the Southern Stela, was needed to make known
the later form of the proclamation to travellers entering Akhetaten by this
route : P, Q, R, S draw a chain of information across the wide valley in which
the mountain roads from the south run : N lies in the middle of the
mountain-wall south of the plain, U similarly on the east, near the entrance to
the ravine where the Royal tomb is hewn and which is also a back-way into
Akhetaten .
The eleven later stelae contain the same proclamation,
and as the copies differ only in spelling and in the addition or omission of
unimportant phrases, the text is now completely restored by collation ( Plates 27,
28 ) . The stelae A and B on the western bank make an addition at the end of
the usual text ( Plate 33 ) .
It is possible that a few more stelae have perished or
remain to be discovered ; but, as the limits seem now to have been found, only
a copy of the earlier and sadly-injured proclamation could add much to our
knowledge .
B. Their History and Contents
When Akhenaten ( or Amenhotep-neter-heqa-Uast, as the
orthodox knew him ) came to El Amarna ( probably in the second year of his
reign ), having decided to found a new capital here which should at least prove
a counterpoise to Thebes and form a soil where the worship of Aten could
flourish in purity, uncontaminated by older traditions and without being
overshadowed by a more imposing cult, he must have set about his project with
enormous energy and initiative . Apparently he did not wait for the completion
of his designs, but planned out a whole series of temples, palaces, and tombs
in advance, carrying out their most essential features to begin with . It may
be that even at the end of his reign the great temple lagged far behind the
pictures of it which the tombs display, and we have already seen the feverish
haste in which sepulchral halls were laid out and then abandoned because the
workmen were needed to push forward other schemes . The same procedure probably
governed the foundation of Akhetaten, for we find that at the end of the King's
fourth year he could describe Akhetaten as containing numerous temples,
palaces, and royal and private tombs .
On the 4th day of the 8th month
of the 4th year the King made a public appearance and held a great
ceremony of dedication, but neither the place of the ceremonial nor the exact
scope of it is now clear . If it was not the ceremony of dedicating Akhetaten
itself as well as of officially marking its boundaries, it probably took place
on the anniversary of that event . After a great sacrifice had been made ( in
the city ? ), the King proceeded to the site of one or all of the stelae .
There he assembled the dignitaries of the land and recounted to them how that
he had founded Akhetaten in this spot in obedience to a divine message which
had come to him personally . Aten had chosen this place for his worship without
a rival, and the Royal pair were to reign for him over the whole of Greater
Egypt ; for the Aten was god also of all the known lands . Then the King,
lifting his hand to heaven, made a solemn vow that he would not remove
Akhetaten from the exact bounds marked out by the stelae on the north and south
of the chosen district, and that the city would be confined to the east bank of
the river . By settling in this formal way the limits of the new enclave on
which the duty of supporting the worship of Aten in Akhetaten was to fall, the
legal burdens on the land were fixed and security given to tenure . The
proclamation informs us also what had been accomplished or undertaken by the
King . The list includes at least five temples built to Aten in the city of
Akhetaten or on its island, palaces for himself and his Queen, a Royal tomb
which he commands shall be the burial-place of himself, his wife, and his
daughter, wherever they may chance to die, and sepulchres for the Mnevis-bull (
the incarnation of Ra of Heliopolis ), for the high-priests of Aten and the
" Divine Fathers " of Aten, and for other officiants (?) . Then, in a
few words, we have what seems to be a brief relation of the evils which had led
to the religious reformation . So little is known of Akhenaten's activity in
Nubia beyond what the ruins of the temples of Sedeinga, Soleb, and Sesebe ( an
ancient towns in Nubia ) disclose, that we must regret the loss of the
connection in which the land of Kush is mentioned ( K, line 25 ) . The
proclamation closes with regulations for the festivals of the Aten and for the
upkeep of the temples by dues . This recital, comprising the royal oath and
decree, were engraved on the three boundary-tablets K, X and M ; but before the
task was quite completed ( probably well on in the 5th year )
Meketaten had been born to the King, and her figure was inserted on the
Southern Stela, K .
On or about the second anniversary of this
proclamation another oath was taken in public by the King . The limits of the
district of Akhetaten had now been marked out, not only on the river, but also
on the desert sides . Six ( additional ? ) stelae were to be engraved, giving
the side-boundaries of Akhetaten in new and more exact terms : one to north,
one to south, and one between these on the mountain ranges on both sides of the
river .
From the description given ( S, line 9 ) it would seem
that the King made his oath at the site of the Stela J . Afterwards he seems to
have visited the Northern and Middle Stelae on the east side ( S, lines 14, 16,
17 ) .
On the given date — 6th year, 8th
month, 13th day — the King, after a great sacrifice to Aten in the
city, as on the former occasion, drove southwards in his chariot, and " on
the southeast mountain of Akhetaten " made a proclamation defining the
boundaries of Akhetaten more precisely by means of the six stelae, and swore
that he would never overstep them or suffer them to fall into decay . The
district ( of which he gave the exact length ) he declared to belong to the
Aten, with all its inhabitants, animals and products, for ever and ever, from
the eastern hills to the western mountains .
Probably the work of engraving these landmarks had not
been begun at this time, and while it was in progress an increase in their
numbers was resolved on . In consequence the eleven or more stelae were not
ready till the beginning of the 8th year . By that time a new
asseveration of the oath had been arranged for, probably in connection with the
dedication of the additional stelae, for the ceremonial seems this time to have
taken place on the south-east boundary ( S, line 26 ), where three or four new
stelae had been set up ( P, Q, R, S ) . This was in the 8th year, 5th
month, 8th day, and the western stelae seem to have been visited a
few days earlier ( 4th month, last day ) . The proceedings perhaps
took place on some anniversary or festival, and were fixed long in advance, so
that the record of them could be added beforehand to the rest of the
inscription . On the eastern stelae ( and also on F ) it took a simple form :
" This oath was repeated in the year .... " . On A and B, however,
the brief summary in which the substance of the previous oath had been repeated
was appended to it .
Before this longer text could be engraved, Akhenaten's
third daughter had been born, and her name and figure were accordingly added at
the side of the " altars " of these two stelae .
Note : see all plates in the next part .
Part ( 28 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....
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