Akhenaten The Heretic Pharaoh | Part 2: Wrath Of The Aten

[00:00:00] What is new everyone?

[00:00:02] Welcome back to another episode of Anthology Of Heroes, the podcast sharing the true stories

[00:00:07] of figures who shaped our world.

[00:00:09] Have you ever wondered why we know so little about Tootin Carmen?

[00:00:14] I mean, think about it, the most famous pharaoh of all, the only fully intact tomb

[00:00:19] ever discovered, overflowing with the most spectacular treasure.

[00:00:23] But look up who his father is or even his mother and the family tree turns into a

[00:00:28] spreadsheet.

[00:00:29] And it only gets weirder from there.

[00:00:31] Turns out Tootin Carmen wasn't even his real name.

[00:00:35] In this episode, we're going to find out why.

[00:00:38] We're about to journey into one of the darkest, murkiest periods of Egyptian history,

[00:00:43] the downfall of Akhenaten, the heretic king.

[00:00:47] This is a proper ancient Egyptian mystery that at this very moment is still being

[00:00:52] deciphered. To this day, archaeologists are digging around in the ruins of

[00:00:56] Akhenaten, looking for that one little scrap of evidence that will finally,

[00:01:01] definitively solve the mystery of what happened to the heretic pharaoh and how

[00:01:05] Tootin Carmen ended up on his throne.

[00:01:08] In this episode, we're going to get into it.

[00:01:10] We're going to talk about Akhenaten's completion of his city, Akhenaten.

[00:01:14] We're going to talk about his growing paranoia and his dictatorial state he

[00:01:17] created, his persecution of the traditional gods and goddesses, his incestuous

[00:01:23] relationship with his daughters.

[00:01:25] We'll explore the public's attitude towards his new religion, the disgrace of

[00:01:29] his queen, Nefertiti and the advancement of his supposed male lover,

[00:01:33] his mysterious death and the rise of his unknown successor, Smenkakari.

[00:01:38] Finally, we'll see his memory raised and damned for all eternity.

[00:01:42] Tootin Carmen's restoration of the status quo and the unique legacy this

[00:01:47] pharaoh left behind.

[00:01:49] This is part two of our series.

[00:01:51] In part one, we did the rediscovery of Akhenaten, his early childhood and

[00:01:56] the first few years of his rule.

[00:01:58] That episode focused on his father, Amano Tep III, but his story ties

[00:02:02] directly into his son, so it's worth listening to that one first.

[00:02:06] As a warning, this episode discusses incest and the sexual exploitation

[00:02:10] of children.

[00:02:12] So grab your tools and let's get digging.

[00:02:14] Akhenaten, The Heretic Pharaoh, Part Two, Wrath of the Aten.

[00:02:25] I'm Ken Horbaugh, host of Warriors in Their Own Words, a podcast that

[00:02:29] presents the unvarnished, unsanitized truth of what we have asked of those

[00:02:33] who defend this nation.

[00:02:35] As a country, we need these stories more than ever.

[00:02:38] Stories from Americans who have borne the battle, including 30-year-old

[00:02:42] remastered interviews with veterans from World War I recounting their

[00:02:46] time in the trenches of Europe and with veterans from World War II,

[00:02:49] Korea, Vietnam, and from our most recent conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan,

[00:02:54] and other battlefields Americans may never have heard of.

[00:02:58] Hear their stories by listening to Warriors in Their Own Words,

[00:03:01] wherever you find podcasts.

[00:03:05] History is the greatest adventure story, but does it ever leave

[00:03:09] you wondering what the women were doing all that time?

[00:03:13] This is Laurie from the Her Half of History podcast, and the answer is

[00:03:17] that some women were seizing power or escaping slavery or spying for

[00:03:21] their country or creating artistic masterpieces, while countless others

[00:03:25] were doing the laundry, getting married and wondering why their

[00:03:28] clothes don't have more pockets.

[00:03:30] If you would like to hear the stories of women doing all of those things,

[00:03:34] check out Her Half of History at herhalfofhistory.com or wherever

[00:03:37] you get your podcasts.

[00:03:42] In his golden chariot, Pharaoh Akhenaten rode through the slumbering

[00:03:46] streets of Akhetaten, the new capital of his kingdom.

[00:03:50] The journey had become something of a ritual for the pharaoh.

[00:03:53] The recently paved Royal Road ran perpendicular to the Nile, and each

[00:03:58] morning the pharaoh would make this journey, mimicking the sun or

[00:04:02] the Aten's path across the horizon.

[00:04:05] The Aten was the favoured and only god of Pharaoh Akhenaten,

[00:04:10] and this city had been built entirely in its honour.

[00:04:13] The budding religion had a bureaucracy, a priesthood and a

[00:04:16] brand new set of hymns and prayers.

[00:04:19] But how many converts did it have?

[00:04:21] Wrenching the public away from their traditional gods had been

[00:04:24] harder than expected, and the powerful priesthood of Amun had been

[00:04:28] a thorn in the pharaoh's side ever since he took office.

[00:04:32] Akhenaten had uprooted a millennia of tradition and upset some

[00:04:35] very powerful people, so now swarms of bodyguards jogged

[00:04:40] alongside his chariot, keeping a lookout for anyone who may

[00:04:42] seek to harm their paymaster.

[00:04:45] His chariot passed the Great Aten Temple, where on the outer

[00:04:49] walls, high priests were chiselling his newly devised prayer

[00:04:53] to the Aten.

[00:04:55] Try and imagine this half-built city with its sweltering open

[00:04:58] air temples bustling with activity and the proud

[00:05:01] twenty-something pharaoh riding past as you listen to this

[00:05:05] three thousand three hundred year old prayer.

[00:05:08] I've swapped out a few birth names to king names so it's

[00:05:10] easy to understand, quoting the great hymn of Aten.

[00:05:14] Oh living Aten, the creator of life, when you rise on the

[00:05:18] eastern horizon you fill every land with your beauty.

[00:05:22] High over every land you're raising compasses of lands.

[00:05:25] How manifold are your deeds, though hidden from sight?

[00:05:29] Soul God, apart from whom there is no other, you created

[00:05:32] the earth according to your desire when you were alone.

[00:05:36] You are my desire and there is no other who knows you

[00:05:39] except for your son, Akhenaten, for you have

[00:05:43] apprised him of your designs and your power.

[00:05:46] When you rise, everything grows for the king and for

[00:05:50] everyone who hastens on foot, because you have

[00:05:52] founded the land and you have raised them for your

[00:05:54] son, who has come forth from your body, the

[00:05:57] king of upper and lower Egypt, master of regalia,

[00:06:01] Akhenaten, the long lived and the foremost

[00:06:05] wife of the king whom he loves, the mistress of

[00:06:08] two lands, Nefertiti, living young forever and ever.

[00:06:16] Inside his temples, mounds of fruit and meat sat

[00:06:19] spoiling in the sun, swarming with flies,

[00:06:22] offerings to nourish the hungry Aten on his

[00:06:25] daily journey across the horizon.

[00:06:27] The Aten had its fill, as did the scribes and

[00:06:30] priests and anyone else connected to the cult

[00:06:32] of Aten. But what of the common people?

[00:06:36] Far away from the royal road cramped into the

[00:06:38] corner of the valley was the city of Akhetaten.

[00:06:42] At around 200 square kilometres, 77 square miles,

[00:06:46] Akhenaten's new capital hummed with life.

[00:06:49] This squalid shanty town was home to somewhere

[00:06:52] between 20 and 50 thousand civilians, mostly

[00:06:56] labourers shipped in from all across Egypt to

[00:06:58] help construct the new city.

[00:07:01] The government buildings were laid out in a

[00:07:02] modern grid formation, but the workers' city

[00:07:05] was a hodgepodge mess.

[00:07:07] Swept to the side of the plateau like dirt,

[00:07:09] there were no piles of fruit, meat or even

[00:07:12] basic public services for these people.

[00:07:14] From their battered skeletons, we know that

[00:07:16] they lived short, tough lives.

[00:07:19] Were these people planning to live in the

[00:07:21] city once it had been built?

[00:07:22] Or did they have a family to return to?

[00:07:25] I suppose it didn't really matter.

[00:07:26] The backbreaking nature of their labour meant

[00:07:29] most would never leave.

[00:07:31] Mornings bent over steaming furnaces and

[00:07:33] afternoons hauling heavy stones.

[00:07:35] About half died in their teens and almost

[00:07:38] all were dead by 35.

[00:07:41] But at least in the service of the Aten, they

[00:07:43] had an afterlife to look forward to, right?

[00:07:47] We've got no record of how these labourers

[00:07:49] felt about the new religion.

[00:07:50] One crude bit of graffito found inside a

[00:07:53] commoner's house seems to indicate a man was

[00:07:56] trying to invoke the power of the Aten

[00:07:58] inside his house, proving that he either

[00:08:00] did not understand that only Akhenaten

[00:08:03] could worship the Aten or more likely he

[00:08:05] wanted to go directly to the god and skip

[00:08:08] the pharaoh.

[00:08:09] Both scenarios, we can imagine, would not

[00:08:11] have pleased Akhenaten.

[00:08:13] Had every citizen of Akhetaten tried

[00:08:15] something like this?

[00:08:17] Was the plethora of Akhenaten's propaganda

[00:08:20] that they themselves were writing slowly

[00:08:22] being observed by these workers?

[00:08:25] Small statues of both Akhenaten and

[00:08:27] Nefertiti have been recovered from the

[00:08:29] ruins and from the size and quality of

[00:08:31] them, we can guess that they were

[00:08:32] created for veneration in home shrines.

[00:08:35] Were these statues the pharaohs attempt

[00:08:37] to re-educate the commoners on how to

[00:08:40] correctly worship?

[00:08:41] Or far away from the great Aten temple

[00:08:44] masked by the din of the blacksmith

[00:08:46] hammer did the commas snigger at the

[00:08:48] stupidity of the pharaoh and his new

[00:08:50] religion.

[00:08:51] Maybe they were confused by it.

[00:08:53] Never before in their history had

[00:08:55] they been told to worship just one

[00:08:57] god.

[00:08:58] Whatever their reason, converts weren't

[00:09:01] forthcoming and the pharaoh was

[00:09:03] displeased.

[00:09:04] Akhenaten could play make believe in

[00:09:06] his perfect city, but in the old

[00:09:08] capitals in Memphis or Thebes, the

[00:09:10] old gods Amun, Hathor and Ra had been

[00:09:14] bloodied but not vanquished.

[00:09:17] Apart from the men he'd elevated to

[00:09:19] positions of power there were precious

[00:09:20] few people with flesh in the game in

[00:09:22] his new religion and by the tenth

[00:09:24] year of his reign Akhenaten seemed

[00:09:26] to realise he was fighting a losing

[00:09:28] battle.

[00:09:29] Changing the demographics of society at

[00:09:31] such a core level was near impossible

[00:09:34] in such a short amount of time.

[00:09:36] His father's religious reforms took

[00:09:38] place over 39 years and they were far

[00:09:41] milder than this.

[00:09:42] Akhenaten had tried to force the

[00:09:44] population of his entire empire to an

[00:09:46] accepted almost complete overhaul of

[00:09:49] their world in less than a decade.

[00:09:52] But he wasn't to be deterred.

[00:09:54] Isolated in his great royal palace

[00:09:56] where the floors were paved with

[00:09:58] images of his enemies, the heretic

[00:10:00] king schemed furiously.

[00:10:02] He was about to show every citizen,

[00:10:04] from slave to high priest, that there

[00:10:06] was no shadow their gods could hide in.

[00:10:09] He'd given them all the chance to

[00:10:11] bask in the glow of the Aten.

[00:10:12] They had refused and now they'd be

[00:10:15] scorched by it.

[00:10:17] From Memphis to Thebes and all down

[00:10:19] the twisting deltas of the Nile,

[00:10:21] Akhenaten's agents arrived in

[00:10:22] force.

[00:10:24] Craftsmen flanked by the pharaoh

[00:10:26] thugs stomped down into city

[00:10:27] squares and temples.

[00:10:29] Some carried hammers, others

[00:10:31] chisels, but all were there for the

[00:10:32] same reason.

[00:10:34] Citizens of the kingdom could only

[00:10:36] watch open mouthed as the pharaoh's

[00:10:38] men began destroying statues of

[00:10:40] their gods.

[00:10:41] Head in hands they watched the

[00:10:43] slender figure of Hathor, Tita

[00:10:45] and Smash as the thugs hammered her

[00:10:48] into dust.

[00:10:49] The proud handsome face of Osiris

[00:10:51] beaten and hacked away.

[00:10:53] Never before had Egypt experienced

[00:10:55] anything like this.

[00:10:57] No island was too remote, no shrine

[00:10:59] too distant and no tomb too sacred.

[00:11:01] Wherever they could be found the old

[00:11:03] gods were brutalized and destroyed

[00:11:05] under the direct orders of Akhenaten.

[00:11:08] The public outcry must have been

[00:11:10] ear splitting but the heretic pharaoh

[00:11:12] was not done yet.

[00:11:13] It was not enough to dispel the

[00:11:15] gods.

[00:11:16] Akhenaten wanted to rewrite history

[00:11:18] and pretend they never existed at

[00:11:20] all.

[00:11:21] Hieroglyphics that used the Egyptian

[00:11:23] word for God in plural form were

[00:11:26] re-chiseled into singular form.

[00:11:29] Akhenaten's hit squad were illiterate

[00:11:31] but it didn't matter.

[00:11:32] He'd drawn for them a list of

[00:11:33] hieroglyphics to look out for and

[00:11:35] what to recast in their place.

[00:11:37] Priests who dared to protest were

[00:11:39] beaten and those that hid statues

[00:11:41] faced execution.

[00:11:43] There was virtually nothing anyone

[00:11:45] could do.

[00:11:46] Power was held so tightly at the

[00:11:47] top that any rebellion would have

[00:11:49] been over before it began.

[00:11:51] The population could only watch in

[00:11:53] horror as men shimmied up obelisks

[00:11:55] and chiselled off references to

[00:11:56] their gods.

[00:11:58] It must have seemed like the ends

[00:11:59] of the world.

[00:12:01] No longer content with the Aten

[00:12:03] being the supreme god,

[00:12:05] Akhenaten was now insisting it was

[00:12:07] the only god.

[00:12:09] For the first time in Egypt and

[00:12:10] very likely the first time in the

[00:12:12] history of humanity,

[00:12:14] someone had decreed that only a

[00:12:16] single god existed.

[00:12:18] A claim that would, much later,

[00:12:20] become the dominating view of many

[00:12:22] world religions.

[00:12:23] But there was nothing prophetic

[00:12:24] about the pharaoh's claim.

[00:12:27] Perhaps he really did believe his

[00:12:28] own propaganda, but the fact remains

[00:12:31] it was a religion about him.

[00:12:33] Citizens only need to gaze up at

[00:12:35] the murals to understand the

[00:12:36] king's vision for them.

[00:12:38] The Aten, who, remember, had

[00:12:40] merged with Akhenaten's father,

[00:12:42] bathed light on the royal family

[00:12:44] and they, the public,

[00:12:45] worshipped the pharaoh.

[00:12:47] As his propaganda made it clear,

[00:12:49] the Aten's will could only be

[00:12:51] understood by him.

[00:12:53] Akhenaten had driven a wedge

[00:12:54] between people and the divine,

[00:12:56] a wedge that only he could fill.

[00:12:59] A cult of personality with

[00:13:00] a religious twist.

[00:13:02] To replace the images that his

[00:13:03] thugs had smashed,

[00:13:04] the pharaoh's craftsmen tooled

[00:13:06] away on new figures and statues.

[00:13:09] Most of these hated images are

[00:13:10] now lost to history,

[00:13:11] but a few survive.

[00:13:13] As in the case of Hitler

[00:13:14] showing himself with a puppy

[00:13:16] or Kim Jong-un running arm in

[00:13:17] arm with children,

[00:13:19] Akhenaten wanted to show off

[00:13:20] his softer side.

[00:13:22] In one statue, he sits on a

[00:13:23] chair with his first wife,

[00:13:25] Kia, sitting on his lap.

[00:13:27] Another shows the royal couple

[00:13:29] relaxing with their daughters.

[00:13:31] Akhenaten cuddles Meritaten.

[00:13:33] Meketaten bounces on Nefertiti's lap

[00:13:36] while Anka's son, Partan,

[00:13:37] grabs at her mother's earring.

[00:13:39] Nefertiti was almost as

[00:13:41] instrumental to the religion

[00:13:42] as Akhenaten himself.

[00:13:44] And making the situation even

[00:13:46] stranger is the fact that

[00:13:47] Nefertiti bore Akhenaten

[00:13:49] no sons.

[00:13:51] For most pharaohs,

[00:13:52] this would be a source of shame,

[00:13:53] but Akhenaten went to

[00:13:54] unprecedented heights

[00:13:56] acknowledging his daughters,

[00:13:57] each of them having their own

[00:13:58] little temple at Akhetaten.

[00:14:01] The pharaohs seemed to love

[00:14:02] his daughters more than most,

[00:14:04] though perhaps this love

[00:14:06] was not the paternal type.

[00:14:09] In Egyptian mythology,

[00:14:10] many gods and goddesses

[00:14:11] married their siblings.

[00:14:13] Pharaohs constantly tried

[00:14:14] to emulate the gods,

[00:14:15] so brother-sister marriages

[00:14:17] were fairly common

[00:14:18] and not really taboo.

[00:14:20] Father-daughter relationships,

[00:14:21] though, were virtually

[00:14:23] unprecedented.

[00:14:25] Egyptologist and archaeologist

[00:14:27] Nicholas Reeves

[00:14:28] concurs with many other

[00:14:30] historians who believe

[00:14:31] Akhenaten was having sex

[00:14:32] with at least two

[00:14:34] of his six daughters.

[00:14:35] One of these affairs

[00:14:36] seems to have resulted

[00:14:37] in a stillborn child,

[00:14:39] while another probably

[00:14:40] killed his daughter,

[00:14:41] Meketaten, during childbirth.

[00:14:44] If these relationships

[00:14:45] were publicised,

[00:14:46] the revulsion felt by

[00:14:48] the Egyptian population

[00:14:49] would have been similar

[00:14:50] to our own in the 21st century.

[00:14:52] This was not common.

[00:14:54] The only other recent example

[00:14:56] of father-daughter incest was,

[00:14:58] again, Akhenaten's father,

[00:15:00] Amanotep III.

[00:15:02] As for reasons why,

[00:15:04] the prevailing theory

[00:15:05] for these affairs is that

[00:15:07] by year 10 of his reign,

[00:15:09] Nefertiti was probably

[00:15:10] past child-rearing age.

[00:15:12] The couple had undoubtedly

[00:15:14] tried for a male heir,

[00:15:15] but six daughters later,

[00:15:16] their time had run out.

[00:15:18] Akhenaten did have a son,

[00:15:20] but it was through

[00:15:21] his first wife, Kia,

[00:15:22] a woman who had either died

[00:15:24] or been removed from court

[00:15:25] at this point.

[00:15:26] Does that mean that Nefertiti,

[00:15:29] a figure so often associated

[00:15:31] with femininity and beauty,

[00:15:32] proposition Akhenaten

[00:15:34] to have sex with their daughter

[00:15:35] to ensure her offspring

[00:15:37] would continue ruling?

[00:15:39] It's a dark

[00:15:40] and pretty sickening question

[00:15:42] and one we'll probably

[00:15:43] never have a clear answer to.

[00:15:45] Likewise, there's the question

[00:15:46] as to what these two young women

[00:15:47] were forced to go through,

[00:15:49] all at the sick desires

[00:15:50] of their father and possibly

[00:15:52] their mother too.

[00:15:54] I can't help but wonder

[00:15:55] how indoctrinated were they?

[00:15:57] Did they believe

[00:15:58] what they were doing was

[00:15:59] for the will of the Aten?

[00:16:02] By year 12 of his rule,

[00:16:04] Akhenaten and Akh-Taten

[00:16:06] were unravelling.

[00:16:08] Temples to the traditional gods

[00:16:10] were closed

[00:16:10] and falling into disrepair,

[00:16:12] leading to tens of thousands

[00:16:14] of priests and scribes

[00:16:16] out of work and destitute.

[00:16:18] Without these core institutions,

[00:16:20] the commonists suffered.

[00:16:22] Festivals and holidays

[00:16:23] vital to keep the masses happy

[00:16:24] had ceased,

[00:16:25] and in their place was a confusing,

[00:16:28] unrelatable religion

[00:16:29] that few people really

[00:16:30] felt attached to.

[00:16:32] The construction of Akh-Taten

[00:16:34] now had Egypt teetering

[00:16:35] on bankruptcy

[00:16:37] and foreign kings waited,

[00:16:38] licking their lips

[00:16:39] for the impending collapse

[00:16:40] of the all-powerful Egyptian state.

[00:16:43] In these troubled times,

[00:16:44] a forlorn priest of Amun named

[00:16:46] Pa-wa scribbled down a prayer

[00:16:48] on a scrap of parchment

[00:16:49] and tucked it away into a doorway,

[00:16:51] where it lay for 3,000 years

[00:16:53] before being rediscovered in 1893.

[00:16:57] Crying out to Amun,

[00:16:58] he wrote, quote,

[00:16:59] Come back to us,

[00:17:01] O Lord of continuity.

[00:17:03] You were here before anything

[00:17:04] had come into being,

[00:17:05] and you will be here

[00:17:06] when they are gone.

[00:17:08] As you have caused me

[00:17:09] to see the darkness

[00:17:10] that is yours to give,

[00:17:11] make light for me

[00:17:12] so that I may see you.

[00:17:14] As your car,

[00:17:15] meaning your essence,

[00:17:16] endures

[00:17:17] and your handsome beloved face endures,

[00:17:19] may you come from afar

[00:17:20] and allow this servant,

[00:17:22] the scribe Pa-wa, to see you.

[00:17:24] O Amun,

[00:17:25] O great Lord

[00:17:26] who can be found by seeking him,

[00:17:28] may you drive off fear,

[00:17:30] sit rejoicing in people's hearts.

[00:17:33] Joyful is the one who sees you,

[00:17:35] O Amun.

[00:17:37] Coming up on 5 Minute News,

[00:17:41] I'm Anthony Davis.

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[00:19:01] By the end of Arkinaten's 12th year of rule,

[00:19:04] something very strange happened.

[00:19:07] Nefertiti, the royal wife

[00:19:09] who had always been integral

[00:19:10] to the cult of Arten

[00:19:12] disappears from the record.

[00:19:14] Always pictured beside her husband

[00:19:16] in similar scale,

[00:19:17] it's hard to read into this

[00:19:18] as anything but scandalous.

[00:19:20] And her replacement confirms it.

[00:19:23] Where Nefertiti once stood,

[00:19:24] hand in hand with Arkinaten,

[00:19:26] someone else stood in her place.

[00:19:28] A man.

[00:19:30] A surviving stelae shows two kings

[00:19:32] of the same height sitting on thrones.

[00:19:35] The secondary king reclines back

[00:19:37] stroking the chin of Arkinaten

[00:19:38] and kissing him on the mouth.

[00:19:41] The evidence seemed to speak for itself.

[00:19:44] The title of great royal wife

[00:19:46] which had only ever been associated

[00:19:47] with Nefertiti now darkly passed

[00:19:50] to their daughter, Meretaten.

[00:19:53] Had Nefertiti been caught up

[00:19:55] in some court drama?

[00:19:56] Perhaps her husband's mad reformation

[00:19:58] had finally pushed her into open rebellion.

[00:20:01] Had she been killed and replaced

[00:20:03] with an unknown male lover of the pharaoh?

[00:20:06] And was Arkinaten the first openly gay

[00:20:08] or bisexual ruler in history?

[00:20:12] In the early 1900s,

[00:20:13] this was a prevailing thought,

[00:20:14] but as the study of hieroglyphics progressed,

[00:20:17] archaeologists blew the case wide open

[00:20:19] and revealed an even stranger truth.

[00:20:23] Something happened around

[00:20:24] the 12th year of Arkinaten's reign.

[00:20:27] We still don't know what,

[00:20:28] but the prevailing theory is that Nefertiti,

[00:20:31] far from being disgraced,

[00:20:33] was elevated to the rank of co-ruler.

[00:20:36] Royal wife had become co-king.

[00:20:39] There was precedent for this.

[00:20:41] The 18th dynasty saw more women

[00:20:43] in power than any other.

[00:20:45] Had Shepsut, the woman king,

[00:20:46] been the best example of this?

[00:20:48] But to make things even more confusing,

[00:20:51] Arkinaten himself disappears soon after this.

[00:20:54] The last solid piece of evidence

[00:20:56] we have for his rule,

[00:20:57] a faded tag attached to a jug of wine,

[00:21:00] references his 17th year on the throne.

[00:21:03] And then, after that, nothing.

[00:21:05] Nothing at all.

[00:21:07] What had happened?

[00:21:07] Had Arkinaten finally lost his mind?

[00:21:10] Was Nefertiti's promotion to co-ruler

[00:21:12] not a power grab,

[00:21:13] but the desperate measure of a government

[00:21:16] fearing total collapse?

[00:21:18] Whatever had happened, Arkinaten was gone.

[00:21:21] And in his place was King Nefertiti

[00:21:24] and a co-king Smenkakari.

[00:21:28] Trying to find anything about Smenkakari

[00:21:30] is like grasping at mist.

[00:21:32] Theories as to who he was,

[00:21:34] if he was a he,

[00:21:35] range from Arkinaten's lover,

[00:21:37] his son,

[00:21:38] or even Nefertiti again.

[00:21:41] Perhaps the queen formally embraced

[00:21:42] a masculine name to help establish her rule.

[00:21:45] Again, there was precedent for this.

[00:21:47] Another theory goes that after the death of Arkinaten,

[00:21:50] Smenkakari was a rival claimant for the throne.

[00:21:54] Perhaps he'd been raised up by a traditionalist

[00:21:56] who didn't want a woman as head of state.

[00:21:58] Whoever he or she was,

[00:22:00] they weren't around for long.

[00:22:02] Two or maximum three years later,

[00:22:05] Smenkakari was gone

[00:22:06] and Nefertiti was probably

[00:22:08] the sole ruler of Egypt.

[00:22:11] What had happened to the heretic king?

[00:22:14] If there's one thing ancient Egypt is famous for

[00:22:17] besides the pyramids,

[00:22:18] it's record keeping.

[00:22:20] Damned as his memory was,

[00:22:21] maybe, just maybe,

[00:22:23] under the shifting sands of Arkinaten

[00:22:25] there's another chest full of clay tablets

[00:22:27] waiting to tell the full story.

[00:22:29] Arkinaten's religious reforms

[00:22:31] emphasised the present and,

[00:22:33] apart from picking the location of his burial,

[00:22:35] he doesn't seem to have given much thought

[00:22:36] to the afterlife.

[00:22:38] But perhaps we can garner a glimpse

[00:22:40] of his frenzied mind

[00:22:41] by the objects found in his tomb.

[00:22:44] Alongside the pharaoh's body

[00:22:46] were two shabtis,

[00:22:47] miniature figurines,

[00:22:49] and next to them,

[00:22:50] two magic bricks dedicated

[00:22:52] not to the Arten,

[00:22:54] but to Osiris,

[00:22:55] the old god of the underworld.

[00:22:57] In his final moments on Earth,

[00:22:59] did Arkinaten's restless soul

[00:23:01] return to the fold?

[00:23:04] In 1906,

[00:23:05] Hugo Winkler,

[00:23:06] a German archaeologist,

[00:23:08] was digging in central Anatolia,

[00:23:10] now eastern Turkey.

[00:23:11] Winkler was no Egyptologist,

[00:23:13] he was instead looking for

[00:23:14] the fabled Hittite capital of Hattusa.

[00:23:18] The Hittites, you'll remember,

[00:23:19] were one of the other power holders

[00:23:21] at the time of Arkinaten

[00:23:22] and his father, Amanatepe III.

[00:23:25] After several months of digging,

[00:23:26] Winkler's crew reported

[00:23:28] an enormous cache of clay tablets,

[00:23:30] almost 10,000 in total.

[00:23:32] Winkler cracked the crate open

[00:23:34] and looked at the language.

[00:23:36] It was one he knew well,

[00:23:37] cuneiform,

[00:23:39] the language of the Amanatepe letters.

[00:23:42] Pouring over the tablets,

[00:23:43] one caught his eye,

[00:23:44] and its contents would turn out

[00:23:46] to be one last tantalising clue

[00:23:48] in the mysterious tale of Arkinaten.

[00:23:51] In a correspondence

[00:23:52] directed to the Hittite king,

[00:23:54] it read, quote,

[00:23:55] My husband died,

[00:23:56] a son I have not.

[00:23:58] But to you they say

[00:23:59] the sons are many.

[00:24:01] If you were to give me

[00:24:01] a son of yours,

[00:24:02] he would become my husband.

[00:24:04] Never shall I pick out a servant of mine

[00:24:06] and make him my husband.

[00:24:08] I am afraid.

[00:24:11] The correspondence was signed

[00:24:13] Dahamanzu.

[00:24:14] Dahamanzu is a new name for us,

[00:24:16] but archaeologists quickly realised

[00:24:18] this was the Hittite pronunciation

[00:24:20] of the Egyptian title

[00:24:22] Tehmetnasu,

[00:24:23] meaning the king's wife.

[00:24:26] Dating these tablets

[00:24:27] narrowed the writer down

[00:24:28] to just two people,

[00:24:29] Tutankhamun's wife,

[00:24:31] Ankasenamun,

[00:24:32] or

[00:24:33] Nefertiti.

[00:24:35] If the queen really did request

[00:24:37] a foreign king to marry her,

[00:24:39] it was a desperate last resort.

[00:24:41] As Amanatep III had once

[00:24:43] told the Mitanni king,

[00:24:44] no daughter of the king of Egypt

[00:24:46] is given to anyone.

[00:24:48] And here was Nefertiti

[00:24:49] not only offering a daughter,

[00:24:50] but inviting a son

[00:24:52] to marry into the Egyptian royal line.

[00:24:55] Inheriting the kingdom of Egypt,

[00:24:58] could there be a greater dowry payment?

[00:25:01] The Hittite king,

[00:25:02] incredulous as he was,

[00:25:03] jumped at the opportunity,

[00:25:05] scrambling an expedition force together

[00:25:06] he duly sent a son as requested.

[00:25:09] But the queen's treachery

[00:25:11] caught up with her.

[00:25:12] The Hittite entourage

[00:25:13] was met halfway

[00:25:14] by an Egyptian governmental force

[00:25:16] and slaughtered.

[00:25:18] If Nefertiti had been Dahamanzu,

[00:25:20] then her treacherous plot

[00:25:22] would be a last act in public office.

[00:25:24] Soon after,

[00:25:25] she too died.

[00:25:28] While the final years

[00:25:29] of our Kanatan

[00:25:30] remain for now a mystery,

[00:25:32] the subsequent years

[00:25:33] are some of the most well documented

[00:25:34] in Egypt's history.

[00:25:36] Akhenaten was gone,

[00:25:37] Nefertiti was gone.

[00:25:39] Whoever Smenkakari had been

[00:25:40] was gone.

[00:25:42] From the lowliest labourer

[00:25:44] to the most refined courtesan,

[00:25:46] almost every person in Egypt

[00:25:48] desired a return to the old ways

[00:25:50] and the old gods.

[00:25:52] Not only that,

[00:25:53] but all wanted this

[00:25:54] blemish on the record

[00:25:55] of their state expunged.

[00:25:57] Akhenaten never reigned

[00:25:59] and Akhetaten never existed.

[00:26:02] The quickest way back to stability

[00:26:04] was a run-of-the-mill pharaoh

[00:26:05] at the helm.

[00:26:07] No unorthodox beliefs,

[00:26:08] no strange representations,

[00:26:10] no father-daughter marriages,

[00:26:11] a boring standard pharaoh.

[00:26:14] Luckily,

[00:26:15] there was one to be found

[00:26:17] and you already know his name,

[00:26:19] Tutankhamun,

[00:26:20] King Tut.

[00:26:22] How Tutankhamun came to be

[00:26:24] is a bit of a mystery.

[00:26:26] He is probably Akhenaten's son,

[00:26:28] but possibly his brother.

[00:26:30] As for his mother,

[00:26:31] no one is really sure.

[00:26:33] A prevailing theory was that

[00:26:34] he was the son of Kya,

[00:26:36] Akhenaten's first wife

[00:26:37] who disappeared from the scene early on.

[00:26:39] Another theory speculates

[00:26:41] that he was the incestuous offspring

[00:26:43] between Akhenaten

[00:26:44] and one of his daughters.

[00:26:45] The boy king certainly had

[00:26:47] some physical defects

[00:26:48] consistent with incestuous co-parenting.

[00:26:51] Whoever's offspring he was,

[00:26:52] he was young and pliable.

[00:26:54] Guided heavily by a council of regents,

[00:26:57] Akhenaten's probable son

[00:26:59] set to work undoing everything

[00:27:00] and anything his father had changed.

[00:27:03] The first to go was his name.

[00:27:06] Like most of Akhenaten's children,

[00:27:07] he was named in honour of the Aten.

[00:27:10] Tutankhamun was the child's birth name,

[00:27:13] a name meaning

[00:27:14] living image of the Aten.

[00:27:16] This was quietly altered

[00:27:18] to Tutankhamun,

[00:27:19] the living image of a moon.

[00:27:22] Up and down the Nile,

[00:27:23] the heavy temple doors

[00:27:24] that had remained closed

[00:27:25] for nearly 15 years

[00:27:26] slowly creaked open.

[00:27:28] Cobwebs were brushed

[00:27:30] from Horus's face

[00:27:31] and the towering statues of Amun-Ra

[00:27:33] were hauled back

[00:27:34] to their places of prominence.

[00:27:36] A flurry of activity gripped Thebes

[00:27:38] as workmen,

[00:27:39] all eager to do their part,

[00:27:41] repaired the temples

[00:27:42] and churned out new statues,

[00:27:44] showing Tutankhamun,

[00:27:45] the boy king,

[00:27:46] sitting proudly beside Hathor and Ra.

[00:27:49] Within the great temple of Amun at Thebes,

[00:27:52] Tutankhamun,

[00:27:53] or more accurately,

[00:27:54] his regents installed a plaque

[00:27:56] that emphasised his part

[00:27:57] in the restoration of the Old World Order.

[00:28:00] Part of which reads, quote,

[00:28:02] When his majesty was crowned king,

[00:28:04] the temples and the estates

[00:28:05] of the gods and goddesses from Elephantine,

[00:28:08] as far as the swamps of lower Egypt

[00:28:10] had fallen into ruin.

[00:28:12] Their shrines had fallen down,

[00:28:13] turned into piles of rubble

[00:28:15] and overgrown with weeds.

[00:28:16] Their sanctuaries were

[00:28:18] if they had never existed at all.

[00:28:20] Their temples had become footpaths.

[00:28:22] The world was in chaos

[00:28:23] and the gods had turned their backs

[00:28:25] on this land.

[00:28:26] Hearts were faint in bodies

[00:28:28] because everything that had been

[00:28:29] was destroyed.

[00:28:31] Now the gods and goddesses of this land

[00:28:33] are rejoicing in their hearts.

[00:28:35] The lords of the temples are in joy.

[00:28:37] The provinces all rejoice

[00:28:38] and celebrate throughout this whole land

[00:28:40] because good has come back into existence.

[00:28:44] By the time of Tutankhamun's death,

[00:28:46] about nine years later,

[00:28:48] almost everything was back to normal.

[00:28:50] Akhetaten,

[00:28:51] the heretic king's treasured capital,

[00:28:53] emptied quickly.

[00:28:55] The towering, great Aten temple

[00:28:57] stood quiet and still

[00:28:59] in the center of the dead city.

[00:29:01] The grass being golden,

[00:29:02] rays of art and still grazed its structure

[00:29:04] and crossed the horizon each day,

[00:29:07] but none were there to welcome them.

[00:29:10] Towards the back of the valley

[00:29:11] in his great royal tomb,

[00:29:13] Akhetaten was interred,

[00:29:14] just as he'd ordered.

[00:29:16] The dead king's lonely sarcophagus,

[00:29:19] the only reminder

[00:29:20] of the so-called Amarna period.

[00:29:23] Over the next few years,

[00:29:24] weeds sprouted in between

[00:29:25] the marble tiles.

[00:29:27] Carian birds made their nest

[00:29:29] in the awnings and locals chipped away

[00:29:31] at the great Aten temple,

[00:29:32] quarrying off stones

[00:29:33] for their own dwellings.

[00:29:36] Years turned to decades.

[00:29:39] The mortar that supported

[00:29:40] the murals of the Aten

[00:29:41] cracked in the hot desert air

[00:29:43] and mosaics of Akhetaten

[00:29:45] and the royal family

[00:29:46] fell from the walls

[00:29:47] and lay forgotten

[00:29:48] on the floors of empty buildings.

[00:29:51] Within a generation,

[00:29:52] few remembered the cult of Aten

[00:29:54] and those that did

[00:29:55] didn't wish to recall it.

[00:29:57] When a future pharaoh

[00:29:58] set out to record every king

[00:30:00] in Egypt's history,

[00:30:01] Akhetaten was skipped.

[00:30:03] When scribes were forced

[00:30:05] to mention his name,

[00:30:06] they referred to him as

[00:30:07] the enemy or that criminal.

[00:30:10] Even this, it seems,

[00:30:12] did not satisfy Egypt's

[00:30:13] loathing of their dead king.

[00:30:15] Sometime later,

[00:30:17] someone snuck back in

[00:30:18] and returned to the ghost city

[00:30:19] to perform one last act

[00:30:21] of indignation

[00:30:22] on the heretic pharaoh.

[00:30:23] Just as he had once done

[00:30:24] to their gods,

[00:30:26] they did to him.

[00:30:27] With hammer and chisel,

[00:30:28] they pried open

[00:30:29] the outer lid of his tomb

[00:30:31] and hacked off his face

[00:30:32] and name from his wooden sarcophagus,

[00:30:34] trapping his soul

[00:30:35] eternally in the mortal world.

[00:30:38] Around 1500 years later,

[00:30:41] after the eternal power of Egypt

[00:30:42] had been eclipsed by another,

[00:30:44] soldiers of the Roman Republic

[00:30:46] camped in the heretic king's

[00:30:48] lonely halls.

[00:30:50] Sheltering from the winds

[00:30:51] of the desert,

[00:30:52] perhaps they lit a fire

[00:30:53] and cooked a stew.

[00:30:55] One legionnaire

[00:30:56] wandered off from the others

[00:30:57] and carved his name

[00:30:58] into the stone entrance hall.

[00:31:00] Perhaps he looked around

[00:31:02] and wondered

[00:31:03] what this place was.

[00:31:05] Religions came and went

[00:31:07] and empires fell,

[00:31:08] until one day

[00:31:09] a French surveyor

[00:31:11] employed in the army

[00:31:12] of Napoleon Bonaparte

[00:31:14] marched past

[00:31:14] the sand-covered ruins

[00:31:16] and noticed the telltale signs

[00:31:18] of large-scale habitation

[00:31:19] in this unmapped corner of Egypt.

[00:31:22] By then, only Bedouin nomads

[00:31:24] inhabited the half-buried ruins

[00:31:26] and they knew nothing

[00:31:27] about its history.

[00:31:28] The French surveyor

[00:31:29] would be the first to map

[00:31:30] the ancient city

[00:31:32] in over 3000 years

[00:31:34] and his sketch

[00:31:35] would generate some interest.

[00:31:37] The grid-style plan of the city

[00:31:38] gave credence

[00:31:39] to the site being one of importance,

[00:31:41] at least at some point.

[00:31:43] Over the next century or so,

[00:31:44] archaeologists would pass

[00:31:46] through the area

[00:31:47] and marvel at their unique frescoes

[00:31:49] and distorted figures,

[00:31:51] at least the ones

[00:31:52] that hadn't been smashed apart.

[00:31:54] But it was only in 1887

[00:31:56] when a peasant woman

[00:31:58] sold a box of clay tablets

[00:31:59] that the story of Akhenaten,

[00:32:01] the heretic king,

[00:32:03] would come to light.

[00:32:06] What can we say about Akhenaten?

[00:32:08] Despised as he was

[00:32:10] during and after his reign,

[00:32:12] he occupies

[00:32:13] a truly special place

[00:32:14] in Egyptian history.

[00:32:15] For a man whose memory Egypt

[00:32:17] was so keen to banish,

[00:32:18] he's one that's proven

[00:32:19] near impossible to forget.

[00:32:22] Visionary,

[00:32:22] innovator,

[00:32:23] despot,

[00:32:24] heretic.

[00:32:26] However you see his rule,

[00:32:27] there's been no shortage

[00:32:28] of special interest groups

[00:32:29] wanting to co-opt his image

[00:32:31] for their own cause.

[00:32:32] Afrocentrists point to him

[00:32:34] as the first of many glorious

[00:32:36] black free thinkers

[00:32:37] whose memory has been

[00:32:39] misappropriated and tarnished

[00:32:40] by white scholars

[00:32:41] in their western agenda.

[00:32:43] Some point out that he was,

[00:32:45] on the world stage,

[00:32:46] a pacifist,

[00:32:47] a man whose only wish

[00:32:48] was to build a utopia

[00:32:50] for his beloved citizens.

[00:32:52] Nazi pseudo-scientists

[00:32:54] also put their claim on the pharaoh,

[00:32:55] inventing a nonsense family tree

[00:32:58] and speculating that

[00:32:58] Akhenaten was

[00:32:59] at least partially Aryan,

[00:33:01] evidenced by the sun worship

[00:33:03] which they claim

[00:33:04] is an old Aryan practice.

[00:33:06] Many claim him

[00:33:06] as the first monotheist,

[00:33:08] the first individual in history

[00:33:10] to promote the worship

[00:33:11] of a single deity.

[00:33:13] Some take it even further

[00:33:14] and claim the hymn to the Arten,

[00:33:16] which we read earlier,

[00:33:17] directly inspired passages

[00:33:19] in the Bible,

[00:33:20] specifically

[00:33:21] Psalms 104, 16-23.

[00:33:25] And psychoanalyst

[00:33:26] Sigmund Freud

[00:33:27] takes to the extreme,

[00:33:28] speculating that

[00:33:29] maybe Moses had served

[00:33:30] Akhenaten as a high priest

[00:33:32] and after the collapse of his reign,

[00:33:34] rehashed his teachings

[00:33:35] to found a new religion.

[00:33:38] Whatever you or anyone else

[00:33:40] believes about him,

[00:33:41] the secret of Akhetaten,

[00:33:43] once buried on the East Bank

[00:33:44] of the Nile,

[00:33:45] has been unearthed permanently.

[00:33:47] And for Akhenaten,

[00:33:49] a man so desperate

[00:33:50] to be remembered and worshipped,

[00:33:52] well, 3,300 years later,

[00:33:55] perhaps the cult of Arten

[00:33:56] is stronger than ever.

[00:33:59] This has been Anthology of Heroes.

[00:34:01] If you've enjoyed this episode,

[00:34:02] please spend just five seconds

[00:34:03] giving us a five-star rating

[00:34:05] on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

[00:34:07] Ratings go a long way

[00:34:08] to entice first-time listeners

[00:34:09] to check out the show.

[00:34:11] Blessed by the Arten would you be

[00:34:12] if you did so.

[00:34:14] Perhaps you'd also consider

[00:34:15] joining our Patreon page.

[00:34:16] We've recently revamped

[00:34:17] our Patreon offerings

[00:34:18] to include some really interesting

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[00:34:21] We have a new mini series

[00:34:22] called Quickfire starting soon

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[00:34:40] Good on you guys.

[00:34:41] See you on the next one.

[00:34:48] History is complicated.

[00:34:50] The story of human progress

[00:34:52] is long, messy

[00:34:53] and riddled with controversies

[00:34:55] big and small.

[00:34:56] On Conflicted,

[00:34:58] we dive head first

[00:34:59] into history's most infamous events

[00:35:01] and contentious figures.

[00:35:02] We try and untangle

[00:35:04] the good from the bad,

[00:35:05] the facts from the fiction

[00:35:07] and the monsters

[00:35:08] from the misunderstood.

[00:35:10] Was Genghis Khan

[00:35:11] a murderous butcher

[00:35:13] or a civic pioneer?

[00:35:15] Did the allied powers go too far

[00:35:17] in firebombing

[00:35:18] the German city of Dresden

[00:35:19] at the twilight of World War II?

[00:35:22] And how did the Marquis

[00:35:23] de Sade acquire such

[00:35:25] a sinister reputation?

[00:35:26] And was any of it true?

[00:35:28] These are just a few

[00:35:30] of the tough questions

[00:35:31] we wrestle with

[00:35:32] and investigate on Conflicted.

[00:35:34] So if you love history

[00:35:36] or just enjoy a good story,

[00:35:37] please join me,

[00:35:39] your host Zach Cornwell

[00:35:40] for a fascinating new topic

[00:35:42] each and every month.

[00:35:44] Conflicted, a history podcast

[00:35:45] is available on Spotify, Apple

[00:35:48] or wherever else

[00:35:49] you get your podcasts.

[00:35:50] I hope to see you soon.

[00:36:03] The Battle of Waterloo

[00:36:05] was one of the most famous

[00:36:06] turning points in world history.

[00:36:09] But what happened next?

[00:36:11] My name is David Montgomery

[00:36:13] and I'm the host of The Siecle,

[00:36:15] a history podcast

[00:36:16] that tackles exactly that.

[00:36:18] Join me as I cover

[00:36:19] France's overlooked century

[00:36:21] in between Napoleon

[00:36:22] and World War I.

[00:36:24] The Siecle, spelled S-I-E-C-L-E

[00:36:28] is part of the Evergreen

[00:36:29] podcast network

[00:36:30] and can be found

[00:36:31] wherever you get podcasts.