Timing Akhenaten 

Léo Dubal
VLA,  virtual laboratory for archaeometry
dubal  (at) archaeometry.org

Abstract:  

Evidences for exact dates of the reign of heretic Pharaoh AKHENATEN,
are presented,  based on a critical repertory of NM (New Moon,incl. Solar eclipses):
from his coronation on NM-day:  -1341.11.22 (Symbolically a "No Moon-day") 
to his death at the age of 27, during summer -1324. 

Introduction

To establish the Chronology of  Ancient Egypt, 
one of the first researchers having fully recognized 
the prime importance of the Sun in this civilisation, is late William McMurray
(see http://www.egiptomania.com/EEF/EEFLibrary5.html).
The days when only the sun was visible in the sky, the "No Moon  Days",
appeared to have been chosen for important events.
( New Moon occurrences are available on imcce site), 
 Solar eclipses were perceived as special "omen",
 good or bad, if partial or total.
Summer solstices, when the Sun shines at longest must have been 
considered worth of the greatest devotion, e.g. the erection of the Giza pyramids,
see  http://www.archaeometry.org/sphinxEN.htm

While we identified the role of the summer solstice zenith in Elephantine, 
 in connection with the "expected" start of the flooding of the Nile, 
in the launching of the Egyptian calendar, 
see http://www.bibalex.org/eclipse2006/CultureLectures.htm 
with the greatest satisfaction, we recently discovered  that
another physicist, reached, independently of us, just the same conclusion: 
see Juan Antonio BELMONTE AVILES " Some open questions on 
Egyptian calendar: an astronomer's view" TdE 2 ( 2003) pp. 23-25 , 


 Timing Solstices

In the Northern Hemisphere, the 5'200 year old
 Newgrange's 19 meter long passageway testifies that,
 the point of retrogression
of the Rising Solar Fire in its run southwards
has been celebrated  as the beginning of the (365 ¼ day long) year,
but, in absence of a writing code,
 this accurate solstitial mark did NOT give rise to any known calendar.

In Ancient Egypt ( in Syene, just at Tropic of Cancer), 
the story of Eratostene, seeing the bottom of his well illuminated
  on summer solstice day, tells us about an alternate paradigm: 
 shadowless summer solstice zenith is obviously the most salient feature.

As shown by the magnificent sunset picture taken by Juan Antonio BELMONTE,
on June 21st, 2006, the megalithic landscape built around the Sphinx of Gizeh,  
see http://www.archaeometry.org/sphinxEN.htm,
testifies for the celebration of summer solstice, too.



It depicts the hieroglyph akhet



which has been interpreted by CHAMPOLLION as "horizon",
and has been re-interpreted by the Egyptian astronomer, A. IBRAHEM as "eclipse".
 The context of the Amarna Heresy suggests an additional meaning: "Genesis of Time".

Let us notice that  the summer solstice, in the year of the Nicaea's Council, occurred
  on +325.06.22/05:36. or, at noon,  JD_ssNicaea = 1'839'937.
If one now calculates the date of the
( the conversion from a given Julian Day to a date of  the Ancient Egyptian Calendar 
is available on Holger ORTELIUS'  calendar calculator.)
 1^st Summer Solstice occurence at the new city of Akhetaten, 1661 years earlier  :
JD_ssAkhetaten =  JD_ssNicaea - 16.61 [cy] ^. λ^-1  = JD 1'233'269.5,
this corresponds to -1336.07.05  in the Julian Calendar, instead of 06.22.
One should therefore, add  to the date of the Julian Calendar:
12 days for RAMSES II's period, 
13 days  for  AKHENATEN's period,  
24 days for DJOSER's . 

DJOSER's name is usually associated with the first large pyramid
though this monument is the achievement of his Great Vizir IMHOTEP.
Joseph DAVIDOVITS even suggests that IMHOTEP
introduced geopolymers for manufacturing agglomerated limestone...
Most probably, IMHOTEP is the one to be thanked  for having launched
47 centuries ago, 
on summer solstice day, a 365 day long cyclic calendar.
  This day was called: 1^st day of Thot, 1^st month of the inundation season Akhet. 

 IMHOTEP' Calendar

Some might argue that the coincidence with IMHOTEP  is fortuitous...
 On the Famine Stele erected under the Ptolemaic era 
and located on Sehel Island in the Nile near Aswan, 
is reported the following founding myth (i.e. for the Egyptian calendar... & State) 
It speaks of a 7 year period of drought and famine during the reign of the 3rd dynasty pharaoh Djoser. 
The king had a dream. He sees the God Knum, who promises an end to the famine if the king grants 
his temple at Elephantine with all his wealth...
Good choice indeed: in the tropical Island of Elephantine, the summer solstice, a "no-shadow event",
 matches pretty well with the beginning of the Nile's inundation season. 
The Ancient Egyptian Calendar Year has 3 seasons of 120 days each + 5 additional days. 
Each seasons is made up of  4  months of 30 days each.
 there exists a ship's log written on a recycled papyrus,
 i.e. the back of  Hymns to AMUN (Papyrus Leiden I 350). 
It reports that

on 27 Peret II of the 52^nd regnal year, the "New Moon Festival" took place.
52^nd must refer to the long reign, from -1290.06.03 (27 Shemu III)  to -1223, of
RAMSES II, while, according to the IMCEE., & ORTELIUS Calendar Calculator
a New Moon occurred on -1238.12.22 ( JD 1 269 234), i.e. on 27 Peret II .
So Day "Thot1" must have been 176 days earlier on JD 1'269'058 (-1238.06.29).  
 The previous correspondence between Summer Solstice and Thot1
was on -1257.07.04 (and for the 3 years before) and then
1'508 years earlier, on -2765.07.16. 
Considering that Summer solstice AND New Moon occurred on -2762.07.16,
 another obvious possibility for Thot1 is: -2762.07.15.

Georges BONANI & al.  in "Radiocarbon Dates of Old and Middle
Kingdom Monuments in Egypt", Radiocarbon, 43, 2001, p.1313
 reported their Calibrated Dates from AMS measurements of straw and reed 
of adobe bricks from 3m above the 4th tier of the Saqqara Step Pyramid:
-2741 +/- 74    
with a confidence level of 80%,  in complete agreement with our findings.
That contrasts sharply with the so-called historical range around year -2650

Solar Pharaoh  vs. Solar Eclipses
 
  AMENHOTEP IV has been crowned, at the age of 10, on  1Peret I ,
 i.e. NM -1341.11.22. The scene is depicted in Kheruef's tomb: 
the young pharaoh being chaperoned by his mother Tiye.
At the end of reignal year III, probably on NM-day  -1338.11.18, he married Nefertiti.
 
During reignal year IV a solar eclipse occurred on NM -1337.05.14, see SAROS
   There exists one supposed  depiction of the event:
George S. JOHNSON photographed this unique colored representation of ATEN,
in the unfinished tomb of MERYRE I, who was called the "Great Seer of ATEN".



 Is it a memorial to the Amarnian Heresy founding event ?
Typical of the pre-HIPPARCHUS'  No Moon / eclipsed Sun confusion,
 crescents are spontaneously painted in cold colour,
 as first noticed by Brigitte QUILLARD.

The Pharaoh most probably saw this solar eclipse at Thebes (E32.6 / N25.7),
where the magnitude has been 0.94,
see http://www.archaeometry.org/saros.pdf
and interpreted it as a personal message from "his father ATEN".
(a total solar eclipse would probably have frighten him to death...)
Then he might have inquired all the way to Memphis,
(i.e; on the northern side of the 260 km wide totality zone ! )
"How is the situation..." while surveying the Nile's riverside.
The Pharaoh also decided then to change his name into AKHENATEN,
hiding, under the monotheistic cult of the faceless Solar Disk ATEN,
the cult of his own personality.

In fall -1337, MERITATEN, his first daughter, was born.
(The mother, NEFERTITI, was probably also only 12 year old,
the biological lowest limit for giving birth to an healthy child)

And after a gestation time of 10 New Moons, 
at the site @ E30.9046 /N27.6701, now called Tell El-Amarna,
(a place where the -1337.05.14 solar eclipse had been total for 4 minutes
http://xjubier.free.fr/site_pages/solar_eclipses/xSE_GoogleMapFull.php?Ecl=-13370514&Acc=2&Umb=1&Lmt=1&Mag=0&Lat=27.6701&Lng=30.63538&Zoom=7&DdT=1
250 km North of Thebes, 
about half way to the Northern end of his kingdom,
in the most occidental part of the Nile river,
AKHENATEN created a new capitol: AKHETATEN.
On  front walls, he let himself depicted as a
sphinx solving the riddle of ATEN
(the unique sign ATEN could have send to AKHENATEN,
i.e., to be interpretable as such,
is, to my understanding the -1337.05.14 solar eclipse).

   

AKHENATEN inaugurated in AKHET-ATEN (what will become, in ryVII, his new capitol).
the first temple dedicated to ATEN,  
According to Marc GABOLDE,
 in "Akhenaton, Du mystère à la lumière" (Découvertes Gallimard 2005),
 the boundary stele mentioned :
"at dawn of 13 Peret IV, regnal year V".
 Marc GABOLDE demonstrated his point with his breath-taking picture,

   

that very day, the rising sun, appears there....."akhet-like".

In our opinion, the boundary stele have been written  3 years later, in ryVIII,
for the celebration of Gempet, on New Moon day, i.e. 13 prt IV,
which brings the inauguration date on 
16 prt IV , ryV, i.e. NM -1336.03.05,
28 days before the spring equinox.
Let us note that  the alignment of monuments on the
rising sun 4 weeks before the spring equinox
is part of the  "Amarna Heritage", e.g. in Abu Simbel
(illumination of the shrine of the temple of Ramses II ).

 DNA analysis, have recently provided further new hints on the Amarna royal family:
AKHENATEN appears as the father of TUTANKH-ATEN,
whose mother might  have been NEFERTITI,
or TUT's 9 years old sister MERITATEN !
She might be the one carrying her baby ( later known as TUTANKH-AMON)
who is depicted in the tomb of MAKETATEN around year -1329

 
The fondling scene between AKHENATEN
and his oldest daughter MERITATEN
(in front of Nefertiti and his two younger daughters)
brings light onto the royal family life...

Short remark, à la JUNG, on the fascination of Sigmund FREUD for AKHENATON:
The triangle Sphinx-AKHENATEN & MERITATEN
sounds more like
the incestuous triangle Psychoanalysis-FREUD & ANNA
than the triangle Sphinx-JOCASTA & OEDIPUS !!! 

With a 9 year old mother, TUT had no chance to procreate viable children !
Indeed only mummies of two fetuses are attributed to be the fruits of the union of
TUTANKH-ATEN and his 5 years older sister ANKHESEPA-ATEN !

According to Marc GABOLDE, AKHENATEN died in the 17^th year of his reign,
shortly after the death of Queen NEFERTITI . 
 
This Chronology of the Amarna Period, is comforted by 
a letter from Hittite's King MURSILI II in his ryVII to General HOREMHEB,
 during, presumably, reignal year II of Pharaoh Aï.
In his ryX, MURSILI II mentioned a "bad omen", which
most probably refers to the solar eclipse over Hattusa, on -1311.06.24. 

Tentative Chronology of the Amarnian Heresy
Out of those data one might attempt to sketch an
  overview of this most peculiar period of Ancient Egypt 

-1341.11.22 NM	ry I	1PeretI	Crowning Amenhotep IV (10 years old,  depicted with his mother Tiyi in Kheruef's tomb)
-1338.11.18 NM	ryIII		Wedding AmenhotepIV - Nefertiti Sed Festival
-1337.05.14 NM	ryIV	25ShemuII	Total Solar Eclipse over Akhet-Aten
-1337.10			Birth Meritaten
-1336.03.05 NM	ry V	16PeretIV	Fondation Akhet-Aten
-1336.11			Birth Ankhesepaaten
-1330.12.26 FQ	ry XII	8PeretII	Reception (in presence of the Pharao's six daughters)
-1329	ry XIII		Birth of Tutankhaten / Death  Maketaten
-1324.01 -1324.07	ryXVII		Death Nefertiti ? Death Akhenaten (27y)
-1324.07 -1323.07	ry I ry II		Crowning Meritaten (13y) Wedding Meritaten - Zannanza/Smenkhkare    Retreat to Thebes & Memphis....                End of the Amarnian Heresy
-1322.09.27	ry III	10AkhetIII	Graffito in Tomb of Païre
-1322.11			Death Meritaten (15y)
-1322.11	ry I		Crowning Tutankha(t/m)on (7y) Wedding with sister Ankhesepaaten (13y)
-1314.12	ry IX		Death Tutankhamon (17y)
-1314.12	ry I		Crowning Aï Wedding with Ankhesepaaten (21y)
-1313	ryII		Letter Mursili II to Horemheb
-1311.06.24 NM	ryIII		Solar Eclipse over Hattusa (Mursili II ryX)
-1310.01	ryIV		Death Aï
-1310.01	ryI		Crowning Horemheb
-1295	ry XV		Death Horemheb...end of the XVIIIth Dynasty

Acknowledgment : The author would like to thank  Marc GABOLD
                    for stimulating comments.

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© Virtual Laboratory for Archaeometry /  latest revision:    2012.01.25