Nefertiti: the life story of the Egyptian queen. The status of women in ancient Egypt Disputes about the beauty of the queen
Statehood of ancient Egypt.
In the Ancient East - the predominant, but not overwhelming role of the general, public, while observing the Golden Mean.
State-legal relations– the embodiment of living law (law enforcement). They are neither relative nor absolute, unlike manifestations of private wills. State-legal relations are the exercise of law, which is not formulated in an act of will, but is known in advance and predetermined. At the forefront is such a feature of state power as impartiality. What a government official does, he does not for himself, but for the state. Thus, he is impersonal. Hence the imperative nature of state acts.
Pharaoh - at the pinnacle of government power. The name “pharaoh” comes from “per-ao” - “high house, temple” or “neb-nuter” - “lord, god”. When the pharaoh appeared, the subjects fell on their faces. It is a great honor to have the right to kiss the knees of Pharaoh. It is forbidden to mention his name in everyday speech, so as not to jinx him. Instead of a name, use the third person indefinite personal pronoun “one”.
The personification of the pharaoh-god, but he is not really a god, but
Head of the cult (spiritual ruler, sacred concept of the state)
Has partially secular functions:
* sovereign of both parts of the country,
* a symbol of the country’s unity (important, since separatism was never completely eliminated).
* the supreme judge - hearing appeals, judged cases that concerned him personally, gave sanction to certain types of punishment (cutting off an ear). Here limited by the power of the vizier
* Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy. Here he was limited by the power of the vizier.
* higher control functions.
The pharaoh was surrounded by a magnificent palace and harem.
The pharaoh was not a guarantor of the safety of the welfare of his subjects, this is the Nile, and he was not higher than the Nile.
The throne was inherited through the maternal line. Hence the practice of incest in dynasties.
Pharaoh's Court– the highest administrative body + temple function (the pharaoh was a god) + management of the king’s personal household.
Vizier (jati, chati)- secular ruler, the second most powerful figure after the pharaoh. Until the IV Dynasty inclusive, this position was occupied by princes-future heirs, after which it passed to persons from a non-royal dynasty. 6th dynasty - the principle of inheritance of the position of vizier (as a rule, the successors of one of the strengthened nomarchs of Ancient Egypt). The vizier of the last pharaoh of the 11th dynasty overthrew the ruler and founded the next one. After the expulsion of the Hyksos, their own positions of viziers were established for the south and north of the country, from now on their power and the power of the pharaoh were mutually balanced. Concentration of actual power in one hand. High priest of the god Thoth. Representation of the interests of feudal lords throughout the country before the center.
To carry out tasks there is a large staff of officials - couriers, clerks, bailiffs - an extensive administrative apparatus of the vizier. By the era of the New Kingdom, a “ministerial system” was emerging. Vizier leads big kenbeth(personal office of the vizier, the highest judicial and administrative body of the country, “government”). The court is not separated from the administration
Powers of the vizier are set out in the legal act “Instructions to the Vizier”:
Beloved comrade of the king;
Allows speaking in the palace;
Bears responsibilities for the national economy (regulation of crops, irrigation systems, land relations);
Head of the bureaucratic corps;
- “the only comrade of the king.”
Judicial functions:
High Judge (hearing appeals of complaints before submitting them to the pharaoh),
Border disputes between nomes and field boundaries between communities (the main concern for drawing administrative boundaries in the state),
Monitors the legality of the process in the courts,
Appoints judges of the country's kenbet - serov.
General management:
Appointment of officials to lower and middle government. positions,
Reviews and approves reports of the main government bodies of the country,
Foreign policy (appointment and acceptance of ambassadors),
Corrects the mistakes of subordinates with his decisions
Commands the army and navy,
Maintaining the life of the yard,
Preliminarily considers petitions “in the highest name”
Monitoring the work of the country's officials.
Household:
Monitors the correct collection and assignment of taxes,
Manages the treasury together with the treasurer,
Manages the property of the pharaoh,
Gives orders for the conduct of liturgies,
Keeps the state seal.
Territory and territorial administration.
Historically, Egypt was formed from several territories.
In the predynastic era - the unification of tribes into Upper (the entire Nile south of Memphis) and Lower Egypt (north to the delta). In addition, there are some oases in the Libyan Desert. In different eras of imperial dominance, the border was in the north to the Euphrates. During the era of the ancient kingdom, Egypt captured almost the entire Sinai Peninsula and extended power to the African coast of the Red Sea.
Menes (the founder of the first dynasty), the southern ruler, subjugated the north (more backward, Delta) and united Egypt. Crown of Egypt - for two parts of the country. The southern crown is a high white cap, Khvostov is a pin. Northern - truncated red cap. Menes combined the crowns.
Territorial division.
Strabo: the country was divided into noms, numbers – on toparchy, toparchy - into other divisions. The smallest administrative-territorial unit is Arur.
Nome(Greek “country, region”) – Egyptian name “tesh”, “sep”, “hesep”. Basic tax unit. Nome had its own patron god and its own coat of arms (totem)
After the unification of Egypt into one state (22nd century BC), the former kings - heads of nomes - turned into officials dependent on the pharaoh - governor-nomarchs(“first after the king”) - as a rule, representatives of the most noble local family. The position is hereditary at least until the end of the Hyksos rule (the reign of the 18th dynasty). Inheritance– Cognatian – as a rule, a grandson on the daughter’s side. Before the fall of the nomarchs (that is, before the expulsion of the hexons), the pharaoh formally approved by decree the fact of transfer of office. Nomarchs - feudal dependence on the pharaohs. In the era of the New Kingdom - the disappearance of feudal dependence. The nomarchs had the highest judicial and administrative power within the nomes and collected taxes into the treasury. They had a staff of officials at their disposal.
New feudalism.
Nomes have always been similar to hereditary destinies, thus, the ancient kingdom can be considered as the era of the formation of the early feudal monarchy, which subsequently changed its basis from appanage (recognizing the formal sovereignty of the main nome, but retaining the right to further unhindered ownership of destinies-nomes) to beneficiary, granted.
During the era of the Old Kingdom, the foundations of feudal sovereignty were laid.
In the era of the Middle Kingdom, columns - yahty ("belonging to the field") continue to be preserved. During this period, the peasants become landless - they are attached to the lands of the feudal lord and work for him, but do not become slaves, retaining partial rights and legal capacity.
The nomarch turns into a real king - hatya - with his own court and palace, organizes his own administration, the judicial power is also in his hands. Therefore, the Hyksos, without meeting a unified armed force, seized power. 1580 BC - The nomarchs of Thebes expel the Hyksos, forming the 18th dynasty of Thebes.
Local control nom.
The central authority in the nome is Kenbeth(“angle, focus”). It is believed that the branched system of kenbet of nomes was subordinate to the main kenbet of the country, the head of which was the vizier. In kenbet noma:
Local feudal lords
Representatives of the central bureaucracy on a parity basis
Number of members of kenbets – always even(for social balance).
The noma noma temple and the minor temples in its districts, economic management units, owned vast tracts of land that were their exclusive property. Temples are also popular courts (the bulk of civil lawsuits).
Jajat- presumably, an analogue of the people's assembly, initially at the level of the entire tribe, then at the level of rural communities. The governing bodies had a generic basis.
A papyrus from the reign of Pharaoh Ramses III contains information about the procedure for conducting judicial proceedings in ancient Egypt. Known as the Harem Plot, the papyrus contains three sections. The judicial papyrus, which is kept in (Turkey), and talks about the procedure for convicting persons who united to plot to kill the king.
The main accused was one of the governors of the province of ancient Egypt and his wife Tiy, who hoped to see their son, Pentever, on the throne. It is likely that all the names in the document were fictitious, such as Mesedsure, which translated from ancient Egyptian means: “Re hates him.” This was done in order to show how great the punishment for their crime was.
Evidence of a conspiracy against the pharaoh
Fortunately for the king, the plot was discovered in time, and the perpetrators were arrested. Pharaoh Ramses III commissioned the proceedings. He is mentioned in the papyrus only as “the great lord,” since at that time he, apparently, had already died. Fourteen officials were convicted, including seven from the palace, two administrators, two from the army, two scribes and a herald. Interestingly, some of the names were foreign. The commission was collecting evidence and was supposed to bring the verdict into force. An attempt on the life of a pharaoh in ancient Egypt was punishable by death.
Most of the conspirators personally knew and were close to the king, especially the managers of the harems, how dangerous the situation in the state was. The conspiracy spread outside the palace with the aim of carrying out a coup, and more than 40 people took part in this.
The record of the trial of Queen Tii has not been preserved, but it is known that she was doomed to death. The trial took place over the instigators in groups. The first twenty-eight people were sentenced to death. The second six were forced to commit suicide in the courtroom. Of the four, including Prince Pentevere, they were also sentenced to commit suicide immediately after the trial, apparently in their cells.
The pharaoh of ancient Egypt, as already mentioned, apparently died before the verdict was announced. He was buried in a large tomb in room KV 11, which has an unusual labyrinth of chambers. What sets the tomb apart from the royal tombs is that it depicts secular scenes, the most famous of which is that of blind male harpists, which, unfortunately, are now badly damaged, unlike the copies made by Sir John Gardner Wilkinson. In fiction, the tomb of Ramses III is often referred to as "Harpers' Tomb" or "Bruce's Tomb", after its discoverer James Bruce in 1769.
A woman's life directly depended on her social status. Low-class women worked tirelessly, to the point of exhaustion, and occasionally interrupted work only during the birth of a child. They grew old quickly and died relatively young. True, they still had a small chance of improving their lot. If the son of such a woman occupied a higher position in society (this happened in Ancient Egypt and was not uncommon), she and her husband were guaranteed a quiet old age, and instead of a grave they could get a tomb for burial. But in most cases, luck was in no hurry to smile, and the fate of such women was bleak.
The position of a noble woman was completely different. Although she conceded primacy to a man, her legal status was practically the same. She had her own possessions, which she could dispose of at her own discretion and independently accept reports on housekeeping from her personal manager. Such a lady served as priest in temples and at tombs, built monuments to the dead, was engaged in science and, if desired, was in public service. There are known women who managed the court food workshop, dining room, weaving establishments, palace singers and dancers. Some of the royal women of the Old Kingdom were credited with instructions for making medicinal and cosmetic potions.
Many inscriptions on the walls of tombs and surviving personal correspondence testify to love and respect for the fairer sex. Women's names speak eloquently of the tender feelings experienced by husbands. For example, “First favorite”, “Only favorite”. In frescoes or sculptures, family scenes are full of pastoral idyll. Husbands are often shown hugging their wives. In response, the spouses touchingly and trustingly place their palm on the hand of their loved one. And how many passionately enthusiastic poems of the ancient Egyptian Shakespeares, which have survived to this day, tell about the depth and inviolability of the feelings of the piites for their lovers! It is safe to say that love marriages were not considered something extraordinary in Egyptian society.
Family relations in Ancient Egypt were characterized by a fairly high position of women, emanating from the matriarchal system that served as the basis of the family. In turn, matriarchy as a social system received its recognition in Ancient Egypt due to the enormous importance that the goddess Isis had in the Ennead of the Gods.
Let's remember The Tale of Osiris. It tells of the birth of Osiris, Horus, Set and their sisters Isis and Nephthys. The handsome, tall and noble Osiris is clearly contrasted with the evil and ugly little Seth. Set's hatred of his brother eventually goes beyond all reasonable boundaries, and he decides to kill him in order to take Osiris's place on the throne. However, all assassination attempts fail. Isis vigilantly guards her husband, protecting him from the machinations of Seth. The situation remains unchanged for some time. And then Isis needed to leave for a short time, leaving her helpless husband alone with her envious brother. Seth was so delighted at the opportunity to realize his long-standing dream that on the very first night of Isis’s absence he took a measure from the sleeping Osiris, according to which his zealous assistants made a wooden coffin.
The evening of the next day, Seth gathered his friends for a feast and invited Osiris to it. There were jokes and laughter at the table every now and then, and the wine flowed like a river. Suddenly Seth’s servants entered the banquet hall and brought in a coffin decorated with drawings and inscriptions.
The hospitable host, pointing his hand at the box, said: “Here is a precious coffin!” I will give it to the one who will lie down in it and fill it with his body so much that there will be no free space left!
And the guests did not find anything better than to take turns to fit into it, trying on whether it would fit or not. According to the legend, Osiris was taller than everyone living on earth, and the coffin, made according to his size, should have simply shouted with its bulk for whom it was so carefully made. Why, in this case, the guests tried to try it on themselves is not entirely clear.
Finally, it was the turn of Osiris, who during the entire comic performance behaved more than strangely for God. For some reason, the banal thought did not occur to him that the appearance of the coffin at a feast, especially at the feast of a brother who is asleep and sees taking the throne of Osiris in a not very decent way, should have looked, at the very least, absurd and suspicious, and even more so More than a coffin of this size.
Without hesitation at all, overly trusting, not to say stupid, the king stretched out in the coffin and it, of course, suited him. At the same moment, Seth signaled to the guests, and they closed it, nailing the lid. In the silence of the night, the conspirators took the sarcophagus with the body of Osiris out of the house and, having shaken it well, threw it far into the waters of the Nile. A strong current picked up the coffin and carried it out to the open sea. After some time, the waves washed the sarcophagus ashore near the city of Byblos on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
Isis, returning, realized that her worst premonitions had come true. Seth managed to kill his brother and hide the body in a secret place. She first crossed all of Egypt, and then traveled to Syria in search of the dismembered body of Osiris, her beloved husband. Having experienced considerable difficulties and hardships, Isis found the sarcophagus and returned with it to Egypt, to the city of Buto. Leaving the coffin, as it seemed to her, in a safe place, she went to find out about her son, whom she had left in Buto, not daring to take him with her to Syria.
At this time, Seth was hunting wild animals. There is another discrepancy in the story, since the events take place on a moonlit night. What wild animals could Seth hunt at night? Even if it’s bright, lunar?
Anyway, Seth, to his horror, notices a familiar box. Opening it, he sees the body of his murdered brother. Seething with rage, the fratricide pulls out the corpse of Osiris and dismembers it into 14 pieces. This seemed insufficient to him, and he scatters the remains throughout the Egyptian land.
Once again, the devoted and loving wife walks around the country, collecting pieces of Osiris’ body. With the help of the god Anubis, Isis put them together, immersed the body of the deceased in fragrant resin and soaked it in the juice of medicinal plants. Then she wrapped her in shrouds, anointed her with fragrant oil and placed her on the funeral bed.
Isis wept over the body of Osiris so bitterly, and her grief was so great that Osiris heard his wife’s cry and awakened again to life.
One can easily notice that the red line running through the narrative is the idea that only thanks to Isis the resurrection of Osiris became possible. God, without his beloved wife, turned out to be unable to defend not only his rights to the crown and throne, but even to life. While Isis was near her husband, nothing threatened him. Set and other enemies of Osiris were powerless. As soon as she left her husband for a short time, the conspirators, led by the envious Seth, immediately achieved success. Through sheer persistence and patience, Isis twice manages to find the body of Osiris, and the power of her love for him awakens life in the dead pharaoh. In fact, the goddess thereby saved humanity. Isis never showed her weakness or indecision throughout the entire story, showing an example of true love, loyalty, hard work, fertility and determination.
The honor and respect that was shown to the wife by her husband in everyday life was, in fact, a reflection of the worship of the goddess
Isis for saving Osiris. It is also worth paying attention to the fact that in the predynastic period preceding the emergence of the cult of the wife of Osiris, women in Ancient Egypt were no less revered. They were considered guardians of the mysterious source of life, possessors of powerful psychic power, and guardians of magical rituals and traditions. Probably, the basis of such beliefs was directly related to the mystery of the origin of life in the mother’s womb. From the point of view of the Egyptians, everything that exists on earth began in the feminine.
So, as we see, women in ancient Egyptian society had even greater property rights than men. All land property was inherited through the female line from mother to daughter. The marriage was concluded on the basis of a contract on behalf of the husband and wife. When marrying an heiress, the husband could own the wife’s property only during the wife’s lifetime (it was also possible to transfer all family property to the wife). Divorce was free for both parties. The legal heirs were children of both sexes, but the personal (premarital property) of the spouse went to the daughter. Both husband and wife could make a will. It is worth noting: daughters were loved no less than sons. What a contrast with the present situation of women in the East!
Although polygamy did occur in Ancient Egypt, it was not widespread, since only a very narrow circle of high-ranking dignitaries could afford to support several families. Of course, Pharaoh also treated him like that. The king’s female entourage constituted a harem, which is not surprising, since the gods of Egypt also had “harems” of goddesses (Bat, Isis, Hathor, Nekhbet, Bastet). Today, Egyptologists are not clear about this phenomenon. The conclusions that scientists reach are not always clear-cut. But one thing is certain - the Arab-Turkish and ancient Egyptian harems were very different from each other.
Information has been preserved about the presence of harems among Menes, Amenhotep III, Amenhotep IV, Ramses II, Ramses III.
The children of the pharaoh and high dignitaries and leaders of foreign countries were raised in the harem. Joint games prepared them well for their future life and accustomed them to the difficult task of governing the country. The king’s foreign wives also lived here. They did not become the main consorts of the ruler of Egypt (exceptions were rare). One of the main responsibilities of women was to participate in religious events.
As we can see, the Arab harem and the ancient Egyptian one actually do not show any similarities.
Regarding eunuchs, the opinions of researchers are divided. Some, like E. Reiser, for example, believe that the institution of eunuchs did not exist in Ancient Egypt. One can hardly agree with such an assumption.
Indeed, their presence during the Old Kingdom period has not been discovered to date. But during the Middle and New Kingdoms they already existed. Eunuchs also took an active part in the conspiracy against Amenhotep I, who matured in the silence of the harem (Middle Kingdom, XII Dynasty). And in the tomb of Ey (New Kingdom, XVIII dynasty) the harem is depicted in great detail along with the eunuchs, bored under the doors of the women's rooms.
In a word, from the era of the Middle Kingdom until the reign of the last of the Ptolemies, eunuchs and harem were inseparable. Moreover, their role is not always passive. They are active and enterprising, participating in conspiracies and coup attempts, which their brethren from the Turkish seraglios rarely dared to do.
The pharaoh came to take a break from the heavy burden of ruling the country, and a successor had already been selected for him. Ancient Egyptian documents contain information about three conspiracies organized in the harem - under Pepi I, Amenemhet I and Ramses III. Researchers learned about the latest attempt at a “harem” coup from the investigation materials. When the conspiracy was revealed, the pharaoh, offended in his best feelings, ordered one of his sons (the one who was predicted to take the throne instead of Ramses III) to commit suicide. Next, the female conspirators and their accomplices were executed, among whom were the chief keeper of the harem, the commander of the archers, the keeper of the fan, and even the king’s personal valet.
As a rule, one or two main wives were singled out, the rest of the women were in the position of concubines who could be expelled at the behest of the king. However, ending up in a harem wasn't the worst option. Thus, the girl from the Chester Beatty I papyrus dreams of such a turn of fate. She does not hide her desire to follow Mahi (as Pharaoh Horemheb is called in this document). It is unlikely that such dreams entered the heads of the future concubines of the Turkish Sultan.
Economic function
This function was the main one for the pharaoh. The prosperity of the country is the basis of well-being. If the population is satisfied with their ruler, then there is peace and tranquility in the state.
Egypt is the gift of the Nile. Throughout the entire period of the country's existence, irrigated agriculture was the main branch of agriculture. Therefore, concern for the expansion and preservation of irrigation canals was important and obligatory for the king. The pharaoh had to organize labor-intensive irrigation work. King Ramses IV, informing all the inhabitants of Egypt about his good deeds during his reign, calls on the people to carry out the orders and orders of his son and successor: “Do all sorts of work for him! Drag monuments for him! Dig canals for him! Do work for him with your hands! "The tsar considered the digging of canals to be one of the largest state works.
Kings often speak in the annals of their participation in drawing up the plan of the temple, or of their presence at the ceremonial foundation of some important object (be it the temple of a deity, the pharaoh's own tomb, or some administrative building). The pharaoh is not only obliged to be present during the opening, but also to personally lay the first stone of the future building. Ramses IV wanted to erect a monument to his ancestors and temples to the gods of Egypt. He began his work by studying documents from the books of the “house of life” about the best paths to “mountain behena”, in the subsequent examination of which he took a personal part. Ramesses II's position did not allow him to leave the banks of the Nile. Therefore, he simply studied methods of obtaining water in the desert of Ikaita, remaining in his palace in Hut-ka-ptah (i.e. Memphis).
In addition, the king had to be not only a builder, but also a plowman. When the star Sirius appeared in the east, the agricultural season began in Egypt. The first ritual furrow in the field was made by the pharaoh. During the harvest, the first sheaf - "bedet" - was also cut by the head of state. According to the worldview of the Egyptians of that time, this was necessary so that the gods would bless the work.
Pharaoh also delved into all sorts of technical problems. He constantly received his ministers and engineers to discuss the needs of the country, especially the conservation of water supplies and the expansion of the irrigation system.
There is a scene depicting the king inspecting a public building together with the chief architect, the vizier. The chief architect sent plans for the construction of the royal estates, and we see the monarch discussing with him the question of digging a lake 2000 feet long in one of them.
After finishing work in the royal offices, the monarch went on a stretcher, accompanied by the vizier and retinue, to inspect his buildings and public works, and his hand made itself felt in all the most important affairs of the country. The king visited quarries and mines in the desert and inspected roads, looking for suitable places for wells and stations. Thus, Pharaoh Seti took care of water for gold seekers in the area east of Edfu. This question worried him so much that he personally came to the place to see what was being done for the thirsty people who were working under the scorching sun. One of the temple inscriptions testifies to this.
The 12th Dynasty pharaoh Senusret I conquered Nubia and forced tribal leaders to develop mines in the east. Ameni, the ruler of the Antelope nome, was sent with a detachment of 400 people to retrieve the gold. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the pharaoh sent a young prince, the future Amenemhet II, from Ameni to get acquainted with his country.
Many pharaohs probably took their responsibilities very seriously. Applications from the litigating heirs went directly through the pharaoh. All lands granted by the pharaoh were transferred on the basis of royal decrees, recorded in the “royal writings” in the offices of the vizier. The pharaoh read many tedious rolls of government papers and dictated dispatches to the commanders of the works in the Sinai Peninsula, Nubia and Punta, on the southern shore of the Red Sea. Also, the king received urgent reports every day and was aware of all events. He dictated the answers, and, if necessary, convened his advisers. The phrase: “We came to report to His Majesty...” - the inscriptions on many official steles begin. As we see, the pharaoh was a very busy person.
Political-administrative function
The high position occupied by the pharaoh signified his active participation in governance matters. He used to receive the vizier, who played the main role in the administration, every morning to consult with him regarding the needs of the country and current affairs that were subject to his consideration. After a meeting with the vizier, he met with the chief treasurer. These two people were in charge of the most important departments of administration: the treasury and the court.
The Pharaoh's Chamber, where they made daily reports to the ruler, was the central body of the entire administration, where all its threads converged. Other government reports were also made here, and theoretically they all passed through the hands of the pharaoh. Even from the limited number of documents of this kind that have come down to us, we see a huge number of detailed administrative issues decided by the monarch.
In the interests of local government, Egypt was divided into administrative districts - nomes. The district was headed by nomarchs. Based on existing documents, it is currently impossible to determine to what extent the local rulers felt the pressure of the pharaoh in their governance and administration. In the nome, apparently, there was a royal commissioner, obliged to look after the interests of the pharaoh, and there were also “overseers of the crown possessions” (probably subordinate to him), who were in charge of the herds in each nome. But the nomarch himself was an intermediary through whose hands all the income of the treasury from the nome passed. “All taxes of the royal house passed through my hands,” says Ameni from Antelope nome.
As D. Brested and B. Turaev point out, not all fiefdoms ruled by the nomarch were his unlimited property. His property consisted of lands and income of two kinds: the “father’s estate,” received from his ancestors and formerly ancestral, and the “prince’s estate,” which could not be passed on by will and, in the event of the death of the nomarch, was each time anew granted as an allotment by the pharaoh to his heirs. It was this circumstance that, to a certain extent, made it possible for the pharaoh to keep feudal rulers in his hands and plant supporters of his house throughout the country.
The main administrative body that coordinated and centralized the nomes was the treasury, thanks to the functioning of which grain, livestock, poultry and handicraft products annually flowed into the warehouses of the central administration, and then money, collected as taxes by local governors. There were also other sources of income for the treasury. In addition to internal income, which included taxes from nomes and residences, the pharaoh also received regular income from gold mines in Nubia and on the Coptic road to the Red Sea. “Trade with Punt and the southern shores of the Red Sea, apparently, was the exclusive prerogative of the pharaoh, and should have brought significant income; similarly, the mines and quarries on the Sinai Peninsula, and also, perhaps, the Hammamat quarries represented a regular source of income.” .
Over all financial management stood the “chief treasurer”, who lived, of course, at the court, and gave the pharaoh an annual financial report.
According to historians D. Breasted and B. Turaev, a state structured in this way was strong as long as a strong man was at the head of the state. As soon as the pharaoh showed weakness so that the nomarchs could become independent, the whole was ready to fall apart.
Administration function
To manage a huge state, the pharaoh creates an extensive administrative apparatus. The number of officials in ancient Egypt could compete with modern times. Their appointment depended on the will of the king.
Thus, a certain official talks about his dark origin as follows: “You will talk about it with each other and the old men will teach them to the young men. I came from a poor family and from a small town, but the ruler of both countries (the king) appreciated me. I took great place in his heart. The king, the likeness of the sun god, looked upon me in the splendor of his palace. He raised me above the (royal) comrades, introducing me among the court princes... he entrusted me with work when I was a youth, he found me, the news about me reached his heart. I was brought into the house of gold to make figures and images of all the gods."
The pharaoh had to be especially careful in selecting people for important positions. The vizier was the most powerful man in the state after the pharaoh. It was an incredibly lucrative position with enormous opportunities. The well-being of the country largely depended on the devotion of this person. Wise kings tried to appoint their successor to this position. If this was impossible, then a close friend of the pharaoh became the vizier.
After Hatshepsut's accession to the throne, "her supporters occupied the most influential positions." Senmut stood closest to the queen. He raised the young queen Nefrut. The most influential of the queen’s supporters was Hapuseneb, who was both the vizier and the high priest of Amun, that is, all the power of administrative management and all the power of the priesthood was concentrated in his hands.
Awards to officials and military personnel in ancient Egypt were quite common. The pharaohs long ago noticed that nothing strengthens human loyalty as much as rewards. One courtier defined the pharaoh this way: “He is the one who multiplies goodness, who knows how to give. He is a god, the king of the gods. He knows everyone who knows him. He rewards those who serve him. He protects his followers. This is Ra, whose visible the body is the disk of the sun and which lives forever."
During the wars of liberation and the conquest of Syria, the pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom presented gold to the brave. The custom has taken root. And soon civilians also began to receive honorary awards.
It happened that the reward was given to one person, but more often many people, awarded the pharaoh’s mercy, were gathered in the palace at once. When they left the house, dressed in their best clothes, and sat down in the chariot, all the servants and neighbors lined up at the door to greet the lucky ones. In front of the palace, the chariot was left on a specially designated area. The charioteers were talking among themselves or with the guards. Each praised his master and the rewards that awaited him.
When everyone gathered in the courtyard, the pharaoh went out onto the balcony, behind which was a hall with columns. From the street you can see a whole suite of royal chambers with armchairs and luxurious caskets. Gifts were laid out on tables. They were served to the pharaoh and replaced with others as needed. The royal commanders lined up the recipients and one by one brought them to the balcony. Here they greeted the pharaoh, but only by raising their hands, without prostrating on the ground, and uttered words of praise in honor of the ruler. Pharaoh responded with praise to his servant. He spoke of his loyalty, ability and devotion. And he himself informed those who distinguished themselves about their promotion: “You are my great servant, you listened to everything related to your duties, which you fulfilled, and I am pleased with you. I entrust you with this position and say: “You will eat the bread of Pharaoh, yes.” he will be alive, unharmed, healthy, your lord in the temple of Aten." Such ceremonies were the privilege of only the highest nobility.
Sometimes these ceremonies took place not in the palace, but in the open air, either because the recipient was too important a person and he could not just throw several necklaces from the balcony, or because a lot of people gathered. In such cases, a light gazebo with a canopy was built in a large courtyard, which skilled craftsmen turned into an elegant and luxurious one.
The reward was not only jewelry, but also slaves, most often captured in battle. Horses were a special prize.
But for success in a career, a tactful attitude towards the pharaoh was also necessary, and the sages glorify the one who knows how to remain silent in the royal service. Sohetepibra, a nobleman at the court of Amenemhet III, left on his tombstone an exhortation to his children to serve with faith and truth to the king, and he says, among many other things: “Fight for his name, justify yourself by swearing by him, and you will have no worries. The king's favorite is blessed , but there is no grave for a man hostile to his majesty: his body will be thrown into the water."
In theory, there was no one who would limit the power of the pharaoh as the head of administration. In reality, he had to take into account the demands of this or that class, this or that powerful family, party or individual, and finally, the harem, in exactly the same way as his successors in the East at the beginning of the 20th century. Despite the luxury evidenced by the organization of the court staff, the pharaoh did not lead the life of a wasteful despot. At least in the era of the IV dynasty, while still a prince, he held difficult positions supervising work in quarries and mines, or helped his father, acting as vizier or first minister, and he acquired valuable experience in business even before his accession to the throne management.
One of the first pharaohs to experience co-ruling was Amenemhet I. In 1980 BC, under the influence of an assassination attempt that arose among those close to him, Amenemhet appointed his son Senusret as his co-ruler. The prince took up a new high post and energetically began to carry out his duties. Even before the assassination attempt, Amenemhet made Egypt a prosperous country. Therefore, the prince had to engage in foreign policy, where he achieved enormous success.
Most likely, Senusret I appreciated the benefits that he received from sharing control with his father, and this is what prompted him to appoint his son Amenemhet as his co-ruler. After the death of his father, Amenemhet II easily became the sole head of state, since he was his father's co-ruler for three years. His son Senusret II also served as his father's co-ruler for three years. Most likely, such management played a significant role in the fact that Egypt flourished under these kings. It is possible that the pharaohs of subsequent dynasties appreciated the full usefulness of co-government, since many kings had such experience.
No matter how high the official position of the pharaoh was as the august god at the head of the state, he nevertheless maintained close personal relationships with the most prominent representatives of the nobility. As a prince, he was raised with a group of young men from noble families, and together they learned the noble art of swimming. The friendships that began in this way in his youth were to have a powerful influence on the monarch in the subsequent years of his life. There were known cases when the pharaoh gave his daughter as a wife to one of the nobles with whom he was raised in his youth. And then the strict etiquette of the palace was violated for the sake of this favorite: on official occasions he was not supposed to kiss the ashes of the pharaoh’s feet, but enjoyed the unprecedented honor of kissing the royal foot. As far as those close to him were concerned, this was a simple formality; in private life, the pharaoh, without thinking, sat simply, without any embarrassment, next to one of his favorites, while the serving slaves anointed them both. The daughter of such a noble man could become the official queen and mother of the next king.
There is a scene depicting the king inspecting a public building together with the chief architect, the vizier. While Pharaoh admires the work and praises the faithful minister, he notices that he does not hear the words of royal favor. The king's cry sets the waiting courtiers in motion, and the minister, struck by the blow, is quickly carried into the palace itself, where the pharaoh hastily summons the priests and chief physicians. He sends to the library for a casket with medical scrolls, but all in vain. Doctors declare the vizier's condition hopeless. The king is overwhelmed with grief and retires to his chambers to pray to Ra. Then he orders that all preparations be made for the burial of the deceased nobleman, orders that a coffin be made from ebony and that the body be anointed in his presence. Finally, the eldest son of the deceased is authorized to build the tomb, which will then be furnished and endowed by the king. From this it is clear that the most powerful nobles in Egypt were connected with the pharaoh’s person by close ties of consanguinity and friendship.
Foreign policy, military function and diplomacy
There is no doubt that no matter what natural resources a state has, its prosperity is not possible without an active, and sometimes aggressive, foreign policy. Egypt, especially during the empire, was a huge country. However, this country was not strong. After each period of unrest, the pharaohs had to reunite the country.
Almost until the New Kingdom, Egypt did not have a standing army. If the country was in danger, the pharaoh mobilized the population, and it defended the state. Most often at that time, conflicts were local, and did not require the personal intervention of the pharaoh. The army was led either by the nomarch of the threatened territory or by a specially appointed official. The pharaoh had with him “retinue people” who made up his personal guard, and “companions of the ruler” - a group of noble warriors loyal to him, from which, according to E. A Razin, military leaders were appointed: “chief of the army”, “chief of recruits”, “ military commander of Middle Egypt" and other commanders.
The pharaoh personally led the army during punitive or conquest expeditions. The king tried to document the results of particularly successful campaigns in inscriptions. During the reign of Thutmose III, 17 military campaigns were carried out in Palestine and Syria. Conquests in Western Asia were carried out under the personal command of Thutmose III. When the question of which way was best to go to Megiddo was being decided: convenient, but long roads, or a narrow, but short path, Thutmose ordered to take a straight road, declaring that he would go “himself at the head of his army, showing the way with his own steps.” .
Nubia caused Egypt the most trouble during the Middle Kingdom. The young pharaoh Senwosret I personally led the troops that “penetrated Uauat as far as Korosco, the end of the desert road... and captured many prisoners among the Majai in the country beyond.” Work was also resumed in the Hammamat quarries, in addition, “troglodytes, Asians and inhabitants of the sands were punished.” Later, under his personal leadership, a campaign was carried out in the country of Kush.
As historian D. Breasted writes, Senusret I “closely followed the development of Egypt’s foreign interests.” Most likely he was one of the first pharaohs to establish relations with the oases.
Senusret III finally and completely conquered Nubia. For better communication with Nubia, the pharaoh ordered his engineers to clear a channel in the granite rock, which had been made under Senusret I. The pharaoh personally led several campaigns to Kush until the south was finally conquered.
Under the warlike Senusret III, the Egyptians invade Syria for the first time. One of his military companions named Sebekhu mentions in his memorial tablet in Abydos that he accompanied the king during a campaign in Rethena (Syria), in a region called Sekmim.
All issues related to war and peace were decided by the pharaoh himself. Pharaoh Psammetichus II was in Tanis and was engaged in godly deeds when he was informed that the Negro Kuar had raised his sword against Egypt.
During the New Kingdom, the role of the army increased sharply. The most important thing is that the army has now become permanent. The Pharaoh himself was at the head of the army. Egypt became a military state. This could not but affect the entire Egyptian society. The military career became prestigious, and the sons of the pharaoh, who previously held high administrative positions, now became military leaders. From among the military officials, the tsar now appointed deputies to administrative positions.
But foreign policy was not made up of conquests alone. The pharaohs closely monitored the expansion of trade relations. An important area in Egypt's foreign policy were expeditions organized personally by the pharaoh to obtain luxury goods for the royal needs.
Queen Hatshepsut decided to build an extraordinary temple. It was supposed to be a god's paradise, where Amon would feel like he was at home in Punt. But the new temple needed myrtle trees. Then the queen organized an expedition to Punt to get them. The campaign ended in unprecedented success. The ships returned home, laden "very heavily with the wonders of the land of Punta, every fragrant tree of the Divine Country, heaps of myrtle resin and fresh myrtle trees, ebony and pure ivory, green gold from Emu, quinnamon wood, incense, eye ointments, baboons, monkeys ", dogs, skins of southern panthers, natives and their children. Nothing like this was brought to any king who ever lived in the north."
Diplomatic ties were established between the pharaohs and the kings of other great powers. Thus, an agreement was concluded between Ramesses II and Hattusilis III, the prince of the Hittites. According to him, if any enemy decides to attack the lands subordinate to the Egyptian king, then after the pharaoh’s request “come, bring military forces with you against my enemy,” then the prince must do this: “if you cannot come yourself, then at least You must send your archers with bows and your war chariots." Pharaoh must do the same.
During the first period of the empire, Egypt was at the center of world politics. In Asia, the rule of Amenhotep III was generally recognized; even the Babylonian court did not challenge his supremacy in Syria and Palestine. When the kings tried to involve the Babylonian king Kurigaltsu in an alliance directed against the pharaoh, he sent them a categorical refusal on the grounds that he was in an alliance with the pharaoh: “Stop plotting an alliance with me. If you are plotting hostility against the king of Egypt, my brother, and If you want to unite with someone, won’t I come out and ruin you, for he (Pharaoh) is in alliance with me?” All powers - Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni and Alasiya (Cyprus) - did everything to gain the friendship of Egypt.
The Tell el-Amarna archive is of great importance for the study of diplomatic relations in Egypt. About 400 letters were found written in Babylonian cuneiform on clay tablets. These letters are official correspondence between the pharaohs and kings of the above listed states during the period of the new kingdom. The vast majority of the letters came from Asia, and only a very small number of letters (copies, drafts, unsent letters) were intended to be sent to Asia. The latter are all written on behalf of the pharaoh. “Of these, three letters were addressed to the Babylonian kings, one letter to the king of Arzawa, and six letters to the dependent rulers of the conquered city-states of Syria, Palestine, and Phenicia.” Even if these letters were not written directly by the pharaoh's hand, they were written directly under his dictation.
If the news was so important that it could not be entrusted to a letter, then ambassadors were sent to Egypt. The reception of foreign ambassadors served as an occasion for a magnificent ceremony, and especially flattered the pharaoh when he gave an audience to many envoys from all over the world at once. The Ramesses always received Nubians, blacks, people from Punt, Libyans, Syrians and envoys from Naharina. At their court, Cretans with long curled hair and colorful loincloths are no longer visible, who once brought rhytons, jugs with spouts, bowls with handles, large bowls decorated with flowers, and asked to be allowed to “be on the water of the King.” These embassies ceased, but the glory of the pharaoh reached countries that Thutmose and Amenhotep had never even heard of: Media, Persia, Bactria and the banks of the Indus.
For these receptions, a gazebo was built in the center of a large square. She was surrounded by guards, servants with umbrellas and scribes. The ambassadors lined up on four sides, displaying their precious offerings in front of them. Scribes wrote them down and then sent them to the warehouses of the nearest temple. In return, the pharaoh gave the ambassadors the “breath of life” or bestowed gifts that were much more valuable than those presented to him. Pharaoh really liked to pose as a golden mountain among other countries. He did not refuse to help “princes” and kings who found themselves in a difficult situation. And they tried to contact him with a marriage contract or some other way, without ceasing, however, to maintain relations with possible rivals of the Egyptians.
We see that the foreign policy of the pharaohs was extremely diverse, and it was not very different from the modern foreign policy of modern states.
Legislative, judicial functions
Egypt was a highly developed country in all areas, including legal. But not a single complete set of laws has reached us. There is no doubt that the main lawmaker in Egypt was the pharaoh.
Several decrees of Pharaoh Seti I in favor of the Temple of Osiris have been preserved, which establish severe punishments for theft of the property of the temple. D. G. Reder believes that the usual punishments of the current legislation turned out to be insufficient, and it was necessary to resort to emergency measures.
There is an image of Ramesses II, where he, sitting on the throne, says to his keeper of the seal: “Call the nobles who are waiting before so that I hear their opinion about this country. I will consider this matter myself.”
The meeting is over. All that remains is to get to work. Pharaoh will be kept informed of the matter at all times. The granite stele will subsequently testify to the success of this enterprise.
Thus, we come to the conclusion that although there were advisers under the pharaoh, they did not play any significant role in the drafting of laws. However, it is impossible to say with certainty that the pharaoh was involved in local legislation. Most likely, this function belonged to the nomarchs, who knew local peculiarities and traditions better.
The chief judge of all Egypt was the pharaoh. However, as in all other branches of government, the king had assistants. Like a treasury, judicial administration was generally subject to the jurisdiction of one person - the supreme judge of the entire kingdom.
No matter how powerful the vizier was, the people turned to him as a person invested with the highest judicial powers and able to restore trampled justice; his position was traditionally the most popular in the long line of servants of the pharaoh. The people looked at him as their great protector, and the highest praise for Amun in the mouth of his admirer was to call him “the vizier of the poor, who does not take bribes from the guilty.” His appointment was considered so important that it was made by the king himself. When appointed to a new position, the king tells the vizier that he must behave like one who “does not tilt his face towards princes and advisers, and also does not make all the people his brothers”; and he also says: “It is an abomination for God to show partiality. This is the instruction: you will act the same, you will look at the one who is known to you as well as at the one who is unknown to you, and at the one who is close. Also, as well as against someone who is far away... Such an official will greatly prosper in his place... Do not become inflamed with anger against a person unjustly... But instill fear in yourself; let them fear you, for only that prince is the prince who is feared. "Behold, the true fear of a prince is to act justly. If people do not know who you are, they will not say: he is only a man." Also, the vizier's subordinates must be fair people; So the king advises the new vizier: “Here, they should say about the chief scribe of the vizier: “A fair scribe - they must talk about him.” In a country where bribery of the court begins already with the lower employees, whom they encounter before reaching the highest officials, such "justice" was truly necessary. So great was the respect for the people who held this high position that the words "life, prosperity, health" were sometimes added to the name of the vizier, which, in fact, should have accompanied only the name of the pharaoh or prince of the royal house.
For a very long time there was no specific class of professional judges in Egypt. However, any person who held a high administrative position and knew most of the laws could administer justice. This is exactly what happened most often.
The punishment of convicted criminals was ordered by the pharaoh, and therefore the relevant documents were sent to him for resolution, while the victims awaited their fate in captivity.
Under certain conditions, which are not yet entirely clear to us, it was possible to appeal directly to the tsar and offer relevant documents at his discretion. Such a document is the legal papyrus of the Old Kingdom, now kept in Berlin.
Statements from the litigating heirs also passed directly through the pharaoh. All lands granted by the pharaoh were transferred on the basis of royal decrees, recorded in the “royal writings” in the offices of the vizier.
"The Wanderings of Sinuhet" is the only case known to us when the pharaoh pardoned the culprit. The narrator described in detail how all this happened. The pharaoh not only forgave Sinuhet, gave him gifts and allowed him to return to his homeland, but also wanted to look at him. Our hero appeared at the border outpost of the Path of Horus. He distributed gifts received from the royal court to his nomad friends and trusted the guards, who brought him by ship to the residence of Ititaui. Everyone in the palace was warned in advance. The royal children gathered in the guardroom. The courtiers, whose duties included escorting visitors to the pillared hall, showed Sinuhet the way, and now the sinful subject appeared before the ruler, who was seated on the ceremonial throne in the gilded hall. Sinuhet stretches out on the floor before him. He realizes the full gravity of his offense, and horror covers him: “I was like one engulfed in darkness. My soul disappeared, my body weakened, and there was no longer a heart in my chest, and I did not distinguish life from death.”
Sinuhet was ordered to stand up. Pharaoh, who had just been severely reproaching him, relented and allowed Sinuchet to speak. Sinuhet did not abuse the royal generosity and ended his short speech with the words: “Here I am before you - my life belongs to you. May your majesty do according to your will.”
Pharaoh orders the children to be brought. He draws the queen's attention to the fact that Sinuhet has changed a lot. He lived among Asians for so long that he became like them. The queen screams in surprise, and the royal children confirm in unison: “Truly, this is not him, the king, our lord!”
After much praise, they ask for mercy on Sinuhet, for he acted out of thoughtlessness. Sinuhet leaves the palace not only pardoned, but also rewarded: now he has a home and can henceforth enjoy the beautiful things given to him by the pharaoh.
Pharaoh could be considered a god, the legitimate son of Amon, but this did not save him from his enemies. Special cases of a private nature were “heard” by the chief justice and the judge “under Nekhen”; in one case, when a conspiracy arose in the harem, the accused queen appeared before two judges “under Nekhen”, specially appointed for this purpose by the crown, and among them was not the pharaoh himself, the supreme judge.
The “Biography of the nobleman Una” describes the trial against the wife of the king Uretkhetes. “The case was conducted in the royal women's house against the wife of King Uretkhetes in secret. His Majesty ordered me (the nobleman) to go down to conduct the interrogation alone, and there was not a single chief judge - a riding dignitary, not a single dignitary except me alone, since I "I took advantage of the order and was pleasing to His Majesty and since His Majesty relied on me. It was I who kept the record alone with one judge and the mouth of Nekhen, and my position was the head of the palace hentiush."
Towards the end of the reign of Ramesses III, one of his wives, named Tii, decided to transfer the crown of the old pharaoh to her son, whom the Turin papyrus calls Pentaur, although this was not his real name. She made an agreement with the chief manager of the palace, Pabakikamun ("Blind Servant"). It is unknown how the pharaoh destroyed their plot. It is only known that the main instigators and their assistants were arrested, and with them all those who knew about their despicable plans and did not notify the pharaoh about it. Judges were appointed: two treasurers, a fan bearer, four cupbearers and one herald. Pharaoh preferred people from his circle to ordinary judges. In a preliminary speech at the trial, the beginning of which has not been preserved, he says that there will be no mercy for anyone.
In both of the above cases, we have before us a conspiracy against God himself, and the fact that in those distant times the people who took part in the harem conspiracy were not immediately put to death without further consideration is remarkable evidence of the pharaoh’s high sense of justice and amazing judicial tolerance of that era. The immediate death penalty, without the slightest attempt to legally establish the guilt of the convicted person, did not seem illegal in the same country in the last century.
Religious function
Ancient peoples attached great importance to religion, the Egyptians were no exception. The king was officially considered a god, and one of his most common titles was “Good God”; so great was the veneration that was due to him that when speaking about him, they avoided mentioning his name. When the king died, he was numbered among the host of gods and, like them, received eternal worship in the temple in front of the huge pyramid in which he rested. To ensure peace and prosperity for the country, there must be a ruler on the throne, appointed by the gods and descended from their divine flesh. However, if this main basic condition - the divinity of the pharaoh - was not met, everything would go to waste. The country was falling into decay. No one else made sacrifices to the gods, and they turned away from Egypt and its people. Thus, the main duty of the pharaoh is to express his gratitude to the gods, the omnipotent rulers of all things.
Most steles reported that the pharaoh, being in Memphis, Ona, Per-Ramses or Thebes, did what was pleasing to the gods: he restored sanctuaries that had fallen into disrepair, built new ones, strengthened the walls of temples, installed statues, updated furniture and sacred boats, erected obelisks, decorated altars and sacrificial tables, and in his generosity surpassed everything that other kings did before him.
Here, for example, is the prayer and confession of Ramses III: “Glory to you, gods and goddesses, lords of heaven, earth, waters! Your steps are wide on the boat of millions of years next to your father Ra, whose heart rejoices when he sees your perfection, sending happiness country of Tameri... He rejoices, he grows younger, seeing how great you are in the heavens and powerful on earth, seeing how you give air to nostrils deprived of breath. I am your son, created by your two hands. You have made me a ruler, so be it he is alive, unharmed and healthy, of the whole earth. You have created perfection for me on earth. I fulfill my duty in peace. My heart tirelessly seeks what to do necessary and useful for your sanctuaries. By my commands, written in every office, I grant to them people and lands, cattle and ships. Their barges sail on the Nile. I made your sanctuaries, which were in decline, prosper. I established for you divine offerings besides those that were for you. I worked for you in your golden houses with gold , silver, lapis lazuli and turquoise. I kept vigil over your treasures. I filled them with numerous things. I filled your granaries with barley and wheat, I built for you fortresses, sanctuaries, cities. Your names are carved there forever. I have increased the number of your workers by adding many people to them. I have not taken from you a single person, not a dozen people for the army, and for the ship crews from those in the sanctuaries of the gods, since the kings built them. I have issued decrees so that they will be eternal on earth for the kings who will come after me. I sacrificed all sorts of good things for you. I built you warehouses for the celebrations and filled them with food. I have made for you millions of vessels, ornamented, gold, silver and copper. I have built for you boats that float on the river, with their great dwellings lined with gold."
After this introduction, Ramesses lists everything he did in the main temples of Egypt. He goes on for a long time about the gifts brought in honor of Amun, the lord of the two thrones of the Both Lands, Atum, the owner of the Both Lands in On, the great Ptah, located south of his wall, and in honor of the other gods. Since the pharaohs appeared, one can say about almost each of them what is inscribed on the stele from Amada:
“This is a beneficent king, for he performs works for all the gods, erecting temples for them and carving their images.” So Thutmose III decided to expand the Karnak Temple. “At the end of February, on the new moon holiday, which, thanks to a happy coincidence, coincided with the day of the tenth holiday of Amun, he was able to personally celebrate the foundation ceremony with the greatest pomp. As a good omen, the god appeared and even took a personal part in measuring with a rope” the future area of the temple.
In addition to the construction of temples and sanctuaries, many pharaohs were also high priests of the main god for some time.
The ruler had to perform various religious rituals: he scatters grains of “besen” around himself, hits the temple doors twelve times with his mace, sanctifies the naos with fire, and then runs around the temple, holding a vessel in each hand, and in other cases, an oar with a square. In addition, the pharaoh had to participate in some major religious holidays. During the great festival of Opet, he was supposed to appear on a sacred boat over a hundred cubits long, which was towed from Karnak to Luxor. During the festival of the god Mina at the beginning of the Shemu season, the pharaoh himself had to cut the sheaf of Bedet. Ramesses III, for example, could not entrust this duty to anyone else, even though this holiday coincided with the day of his coronation.
Ramesses II at the beginning of his reign accepted the rank of great priest of Amon. This did not prevent him from immediately appointing another great priest, to whom the young pharaoh gladly ceded his onerous and boring priestly duties. However, Ramesses II, like his predecessors and successors, never relinquished his responsibilities towards the gods. By this he maintained calm in the country, since while he himself was considered the son of God, the common people generally accepted their fate and did not dare to revolt: it was not in their interests to quarrel with God.
Official cults in large temples demanded more and more time and attention from the monarch as the rites became more complex due to the development of a complex state religion. Under such conditions, the responsibilities inevitably exceeded the strength of one person, so the pharaoh began to appoint priests.
The most important was the appointment of the High Priest of Amon. Ramesses II, as we know, at the beginning of his reign took the rank of High Priest of Amun. After a short time, having decided to transfer this sacred position to another, he appointed not the servant of Amun, but the first priest of the god Inhara (Onuris) from the Tinite nome. Before making the final decision, he made sure that the god himself chose his priest. Pharaoh listed to him the names of all the courtiers, military leaders, prophets and palace dignitaries assembled before him, but the god expressed his approval only when the name of Nebunenefa was mentioned.
"Be grateful to him, for he called you!" - says the pharaoh in conclusion.
The pharaoh then gave the new high priest two gold rings and a staff made of gilded silver. All of Egypt was notified that from now on all the possessions and affairs of Amon were in the hands of Nebunenef.
Another duty of the ruler was to expand the god's domain.
Since ancient times, the pharaoh was the heir of the gods, the son of the sun god, and owned Egypt, which previously belonged directly to the gods. Therefore, the possessions of the gods spread along with the possessions of the pharaoh. The king in that distant time was called “the one who acquires the world for him (the god) who placed him (the pharaoh) on the throne.” For the ruler, the whole world is a huge area of influence of the deity. Therefore, all military campaigns were carried out for the glory of God. And their results are recorded on the walls of the temple so that God can see them.
To be a pharaoh, you must not only be born into the family of a king, but also have a huge supply of energy and knowledge.
There is no doubt that the ruler of Egypt devoted a lot of energy to the state, but he also received no less. Pharaoh was surrounded with greatness and reverence. He lived in a beautiful palace, surrounded by concubines, and not only worked, but also enjoyed life.
Nefertama of three pharaohs
As my father Ra-Gorakhti lives, rejoicing in the sky under his name Aten, to whom it is given to live forever and ever, so my heart delights in the queen’s wife and her children. May the wife of the great Tsar Nefertiti be allowed to grow old - she will live forever and ever! - for this thousand years, and she would have been at the hand of the pharaoh all this time, and he would have been alive, safe and healthy!(From the testimony of the husband to the Theban Sanhedrin)
BACKGROUND
The year was 1580 BC or so. The founder of the XVIII dynasty, the former Theban prince Ahmose, had just expelled the Hyksos - Semitic tribes of unknown origin who ruled Egypt for a century and a half. He did a good deed for Egypt, but in the memory of the Hyksos he probably remained ungrateful: after all, it was they who showed the Egyptians a horse and taught them how to drive a chariot. Overwhelmed with happiness, Ahmose moved the capital to his native Thebes - a city that the Egyptians actually called Ne. (The Greeks called this city Thebes for its similarity with the city of the same name in Boeotia. About the Egyptian city, Homer wrote 6-7 centuries later: “Thebes of the Egyptians, where the greatest wealth is stored in houses, the city of a hundred gates.” Although there were never a hundred gates there, but Homer couldn't even see them.)
In those days, almost every Egyptian city was the center of the cult of some god, although it would be more correct to say that sooner or later any sanctuary was “overgrown” with a city. In Thebes, Amon was loved more than anyone else, especially the priests, who from their love had both a table and a house. Amon has been known since ancient times as a careerist and has been climbing to the top of the pantheon for centuries, pushing aside the more humble gods with his elbows. In the end, this god, who is mortal sometimes with the head of a ram, sometimes a jackal, and occasionally a human one, achieved his goal, and as soon as Ahmose founded the New Kingdom of Egypt, the priests declared Amon the supreme god of Upper and Lower Egypt. This was a clear usurpation in relation to the other two and a half thousand gods.
Ahmose's successors turned out to be energetic and aggressive pharaohs. One feels that a century and a half of inaction under the Hyksos yoke has damaged their national pride. They rushed to conquer everything, and only death could stop them. For example, Thutmose III, who reigned for 54 years, attacked the Nubians and Libyans, took Palestine and Syria and, having defeated the Mitannian army at Carchemish, crossed the Euphrates in 1467. After this, the kings of Babylon, Assyria and the Hittites began to send tribute to Egypt, although no one asked them to do this - they seemed to be paying off in advance.
The heir of Thutmose, Amenhotep II, also did not sit idly by: several times he organized “preventive” campaigns in the conquered lands, occupied Ugarit and again went to the Euphrates. This Amenhotep had a bow, and I don’t know whether he himself decided so or who among his entourage advised him, but one day the pharaoh announced that there was no stronger archer in the Egyptian army than him, and only he himself could draw his bow. Later, this bow was found next to his mummy: the robbers did not covet this treasure.
In general, unbridled boasting was the favorite skill of the pharaohs. In inscriptions they managed to win even where they could barely escape. Here is a typical example of the arrogance of that era, although there is some truth in it:
The leaders of Mitanni came to him (Amenhotep II) with tribute on their backs to pray to the king to grant them the sweet breath of life... This country, which did not know Egypt before, is now begging the good god.”If you believe the inscriptions, from each campaign (and Thutmose III alone made seventeen of them against Syria alone), the pharaohs brought tens and even hundreds of thousands of prisoners. Adding up these data and adding speculative numbers from monuments that have not reached us, it is easy to see that the pharaohs enslaved more people than then lived on earth, including American aborigines. The priests of Amun, of course, were involved in the additions, but it was not flattery that motivated them. They actively pursued the idea that victories were won not by the pharaoh and the troops, but by the god Amon. In this way, they scored political points, grabbed a good chunk of trophies, and increasingly forced the pharaoh to act according to their orders. So that the pharaoh had nowhere to retreat at all, the priests declared him the son of Amun, although he, in the old fashioned way, continued to consider himself the son of Ra - the sun of both horizons, whose cult was more ancient and was celebrated in the city of Heliopolis (He). Without arguing with him, the priests compromised and identified Amun with Ra. The result was a god named Amon-Ra. After this, their power and income increased greatly.
The successor of Amenhotep II - Thutmose IV - did not really like such things, so in his homeland he restored the cult of Ra in its previous form, but was afraid to go out for a fair fight with the priests of Amon. He did another nasty thing to them: he did not do anything significant to expand the possessions of Egypt, as a result of which the priests lost some weight, but for now they remained silent.
The next pharaoh - Amenhotep III - also did not have much love for the priests of Amun, but endured it out of necessity in order to die in his bed. In the tenth year of his reign, he transferred the cult of Aten to Thebes and organized festivities in his honor at Karnak. Aten (Yot) is the “Solar Disk”, one of the incarnations of the god Ra. The cult of Aten, thus, was a modification of the cult of Ra and a competitor to Amun, and at first it was only about restoring the rights of the “fatherly” god, whose power had been trampled upon by the Hyksos and the priests of Amun. However, Aten had one significant difference, which later became the cornerstone of the main modern religions. Ra, familiar to the Egyptians, was depicted as a man, or a man with the head of a falcon. But Amon and other solar deities were sometimes depicted in exactly the same way. Except for Aten. Aten is the one whom any Egyptian could observe every day with his head raised: the solar disk, the giver of blessings, extending to people rays-hands that hold the symbol of life in the form of a cross “ankh” - the sun god in its true, natural form. The first deity in world history who does not have the appearance of a person, an animal, or some monstrous image.
It is clear that Amenhotep’s cowardly pricks with which he pestered the Theban priesthood, in addition to socio-economic and political ones, also had many small, everyday reasons like: I’ll show them who’s boss! (By the way, the word “pharaoh” literally means “house (table) of the king”) The pharaoh and supporters of secular power still did not dare to go into open conflict (after all, he died under the name “Amon is pleased”), but his son was growing up, almost from the cradle he sharpened his teeth on the Theban priesthood. This is what Nefertiti’s future father-in-law bet on. But there was a problem.
In Ancient Egypt, power was inherited, but through the female line. Each pharaoh had one legal wife and the wives of the harem, respectively, and the children were divided into the children of the queen and the children of the harem. The throne was inherited by the legitimate son or “son of the harem,” but he must marry the half-sister of the main wife. In the minds of the Egyptians, it was the legitimate princess who married the son of Ra, who, before his death, was indicated by the “past” son of Ra, that is, the fading pharaoh. This custom turned out to be very tenacious. Even in the 1st century BC. e., when Egypt was ruled by the Macedonians Ptolemies, the famous Cleopatra was forced to marry her brothers one by one and in this way secure the rights to the throne.
Amenhotep III himself was the son of Thutmose IV and a Mitannian harem princess. Formally, he had no right to the throne. Perhaps Thutmose did not have daughters from the queen, or they died in childhood, and then Thutmose had to make his son his co-ruler during his lifetime, avoiding the pitfalls of matrilineal law and wanting to continue the dynasty.
Amenhotep III reigned for 39 years (1405-1367) (Egyptologists still do not have a definite decision regarding the dates. Everyone considers their own chronology to be the only correct one. However, the discrepancies here are small), sitting in Thebes. He did not like military campaigns; he only agreed to build some grandiose temple in order to immortalize himself (which he succeeded in). He led the life of a sybarite, enjoying luxury in the palace, and most of all he loved to ride with the queen on a boat called “The Radiance of Aten.”
Meanwhile, the neighbors - Assyria and Babylon - having guessed the weakness of the pharaoh, instead of paying tribute, began to demand gold, openly and without hesitation. Amenhotep sent, buying peace for himself and his subjects with gold. Even the subject Mitannian king demanded gold, appealing to family feelings:
In my brother’s country, gold is as good as dust... May my brother give me more than my father and send it to me.”Unheard of insolence! The Mitanni king not only demands, but demands it delivered to your home. But Amenhotep decided not to argue - peace is more valuable. But the empire was bursting at the seams!
Probably, already at the court of Amenhotep III, a “pacifist” idea was born to save the empire peacefully. They decided to introduce the cult of Aten everywhere in order to create a single visible god for their diverse subjects, replacing local gods, and on the basis of monotheism to restrain the conquered peoples from the fourth threshold of the Nile to the Euphrates, without resorting to force. Aten, as a religious symbol accessible to general understanding, was most suitable for this role. A god named Amon, who changed heads like handkerchiefs with a runny nose, clearly would not suit the Semites and Ethiopians. However, the priests of Amun - the most powerful party in Egypt - were only satisfied with him. The only thing left was to either forget the idea or fight.
Amenhotep's wife, Queen Teye, was not the daughter of the pharaoh. At one time she was considered a foreigner, like her husband’s mother: a representative of the Semitic peoples or Libyan. Based on this, all the “quirks” of her son Akhenaten (Before moving to the new capital, Akhenaten’s name was Amenhotep IV, but we will immediately call him Akhenaten so as not to confuse the reader.) were attributed to foreign maternal influence, although the name Teye is typically Egyptian (This is also not quite the correct formulation of the question. It is known, for example, that the Germans and Tatars who went to Muscovy already in the first generation adopted Russian names and nicknames.). The greatest Egyptologist of the past, G. Maspero, suggested seeing a romantic story in the marriage of Amenhotep III: a king madly in love and a beautiful shepherdess. He didn’t guess completely, but he wasn’t wrong about anything: Teye could easily be classified as a shepherdess. Her father was the chief of the charioteers and the chief of the herds of the temple of the god Ming - Yuya (in relation to us, the commander-in-chief of the air force and part-time deputy minister of agriculture). At first they saw him as a Syrian prince, then, in pursuit of sensations, they announced that he was the biblical Joseph, but recently it became known that Yuya was a native of the Egyptian city of Akhmim.
And Teye’s mother, Tuya, at one time lived in two harems (either in turns or every other night): she was the “ruler of the harem of Amon” and the “ruler of the harem of Mina.” In addition, she bore the title “the king’s adornment,” which was suspicious from all points of view. Perhaps this fact allowed Amenhotep III to take Teye as his wife, that is, he certainly broke the tradition and at the same time, as if not unconditionally. However, he definitely broke another tradition when he began to indicate his wife’s name after his name in official documents. Before him, the pharaohs hid such manifestations of feelings for their beloved wives (Amenhotep idolized Teye so much that he ordered her to be venerated as a deity in a personal temple. True, this temple was located at the third cataracts of the Nile.).
From our point of view, it is completely unclear what he found attractive in Thay. With her sculptural portrait, three-quarters of which consists of lush hair from someone else’s head, it is quite possible to scare children before bed, and if you remove the wig, then in the morning. As beautiful as the famous bust of Nefertiti is (although this is only a test piece), the face of the mother-in-law is so unpleasant (with the correct, in general, features).
But Amenhotep himself was a real man. His two faces still decorate the Neva embankment, and St. Petersburg alcoholics drink with great pleasure in the company of these sphinxes, friendly patting Nefertiti’s father-in-law on the cheeks. (Some even say: “Well, well, lie still.” I heard it myself.)
In the fourth year of Amenhotep's reign, Teye gave birth to a son named after his father, only numbered IV. Somewhere around this date, a little earlier or later, Nefertiti was born.
CHILDHOOD, ADHOOD, YOUTH
We have very few facts about this time, so sometimes we have to plunge headlong into speculation.
It is not known for sure where and when Nefertiti was born. Her parents are also unknown. But Neferiti had a sister named Benremut and a nurse Gia - the wife of the noble courtier Ey (Looking ahead, let's say that Ey, already a very old man, after the death of Tutankhamun, married his widow - Nefertiti's third daughter - and became a pharaoh. At first he nursed his mother, and in anticipation of insanity, he married his daughter, who - absolutely unbelievably! - was nursed by the same Tia.).
Many believe (and there are indirect reasons for this) that Nefertiti was born in the first decade of the reign of Amenhotep III in Thebes. Its origin is vague, but difficult to discern. From the original version that Akhenaten followed in his father’s footsteps and married a foreign princess of Libyan or Central Asian origin. (They even thought that she had problems with the fifth point.) She had to refuse as soon as it became known that Nefertiti was raised by an Egyptian. Of course, the heroine could only be half Egyptian (say, her mother was a foreigner from a harem), but the future queen of “all times and peoples” had a sister. And the very name, on which supporters of the “foreign” version of origin relied, - The Beautiful One Came - is of Egyptian origin. Such names were not uncommon in Egypt. For example, the boy could be called Welcome, but you can’t conclude from this that he came from afar to visit!
Then came the turn of the hypothesis according to which Nefertiti was Akhenaten’s half-sister, that is, Amenhotep III was “chosen” for her father, and a side wife from the harem for her mother. Due to the ingrained opinion among Egyptologists that the pharaohs married (in the main marriage) exclusively to sisters, this hypothesis persisted for a long time, although it had no basis, except for speculative ones. Not a single inscription or document calls Nefertiti “the queen’s daughter,” just like her sister. The title of Benremut in the inscriptions is “sister of the wife of the great king Nefer-nefre-yot Nefr-et.” (This is the throne name of Nefertiti - Beautiful with the beauty of Aton, the Beautiful has come.) - she is alive forever and ever!” Consequently, the sisters did not owe their birth to Amenhotep III. Nevertheless, the external resemblance between Akhenaten and Nefertiti is striking, although one, by our standards, is a freak, and the other is a beauty. Often their images were even confused, and they still are sometimes confused. Most likely, the spouses were relatives, since the assumption that Nefertiti was homeless without a tribe or from a poor family should be immediately dismissed as untenable: no one would bother with her at court, and even appoint a high-ranking person as a nanny. A nod towards Moses, thrown in a basket to the will of the Nile and picked up by the princess, does not work here: firstly, this is from the realm of legends; secondly, Nefertiti would have to be abandoned along with her sister; thirdly, Moses became a victim of nationalism. The Egyptians loved their own children very much, especially since in a fertile country they did not cost their parents anything. There was an unwritten law to feed and raise all children. Any poor man could afford a horde of children: the hungry tenth son simply went to the banks of the Nile and ate plenty of reeds and lotuses. What can we say about pharaohs and other wealthy nobles, they multiplied like rabbits.
It remains to be assumed that Nefertiti and Benremut were the daughters of the brother or half-sister of Amenhotep III and were the granddaughters of Thutmose IV, for each pharaoh left offspring numbering in the dozens. (Sex record holder Ramses II had 160 children). Amenhotep III himself had several sons and sixteen daughters, but Nefertiti was not noted among them.
However, this option cannot be denied: Nefertiti was the daughter of a certain high-ranking courtier or priest. For example, the same Aye, only not from Tia, but from another wife; it was not for nothing that later, when Nefertiti was deified, he received the title “father of God,” which characterized him as the father-in-law of the pharaoh. And if we take into account that Aye later became a pharaoh (hence, he had at least some grounds for the throne), then the last assumption seems to be the most acceptable. It is impossible to resolve this issue without new archaeological data, although it may turn out that both versions will coincide: the pharaohs, as now, appointed close relatives to responsible positions.
It is likely that at birth Nefertiti had a completely different name, and she became “The Beautiful One” only on the throne.
Side evidence in favor of Nefertiti’s non-royal origin is the fact that immediately after Akhenaten’s marriage, Amenhotep III made his son co-ruler, that is, he acted like Thutmose IV.
We have to operate with these guesses because before Nefertiti’s accession to the throne, nothing was heard, as if she was immediately born as a queen. There is nothing surprising about this. Almost nothing is known about her husband’s childhood and adolescence. There lived a boy at the palace, grew up sickly, and spent all his free time in the garden among flowers and butterflies. (Does his pacifism come from childhood?) Young Nefertiti was also walking somewhere nearby (judging by her position as a nurse, the heroine grew up, if not in the palace, then close to it and probably visited there often). Thus, Nefertiti and Akhenaten met in the sandbox. It’s possible that the children’s nurses were girlfriends and brought the future spouses closer together during joint walks, but this is in the category of “blind guesses.” In Ancient Egypt, children were breastfed until they were three years old, after which the wet nurse became for the child something between Arina Rodionovna and a governess. Tia was an excellent (maybe professional) nanny, Nefertiti loved her very much, otherwise many years later she would not have entrusted her daughters to her and would not have awarded her the title “who raised the divine.” (But who raised the children of Tia herself? Probably the women of the harem kept by her husband Ey, who himself was Akhenaten’s tutor.).
One is tempted to sketch a series of touching pictures: little Akhenaten gives his toys to the babbling Nefertiti, knowing that by morning the personal master from the palace will make new ones; the sobbing Nefertiti, surrounded by flowers and butterflies, does not know how to help her beloved friend, who is again suffering from an epileptic fit or again sick with stomach, fever and similar illnesses; at a feast in the palace, Akhenaten and Nefertiti eat duck for two, drink from the same glass, lick each other’s fingers and laugh loudly, taking their first sip of intoxicating drink; Akhenaten throws a dart at the hippopotamus, and faithful Nefertiti hugs his legs with weak arms so that the restless heir does not inadvertently fall out of the boat; and, finally, the future reformer and his still girlfriend are “washed away” from the service in honor of Amon, whom they hated so much from the cradle.
Having “looked” at these and similar pictures, which could well have ended up in the royal tomb if the artist had not forgotten to reproduce them, we make a legitimate conclusion that Akhenaten liked Nefertiti, he became attached to her, and, having matured, fell head over heels in love, and this did not cause a negative reaction from anyone in the palace, especially from Akhenaten’s mother, who herself was Parasha Zhemchugova by birth. What so seduced the persistent creator of monotheism in young Nefertiti? Were there really few pretty girls running around the palace and around, ready to forget for a while about the feeling of their own girlhood for the sake of the prince? The answer is very prosaic: the growing reformer fell in love like a poet (and he was a poet), presumably, Nefertiti, acting on the poorly studied laws of female logic, took him firmly into circulation. The courtiers showered her with what kind of compliments on the walls of their own tombs with the unconditional indulgence of Akhenaten. Ah, this Nefertiti, “sweet with her voice in the palace”, “mistress of affection”, “great with love”, “sweet with love”! For our consciousness, spoiled by sexual revolutions, such revelations would indicate that Nefertiti did not refuse anyone in the palace and everyone liked it, but in fact this is only undisguised flattery, characteristic of the East. Even the phrase “Tsar Nefertiti’s wife is a fairy tale in bed” would have been taken by Akhenaten as a personal compliment.
Until the age of twenty, the sickly reformer walked around the palace in the position of an immature admirer. Perhaps he was testing a deep feeling that had settled within him. Or maybe he was afraid of losing the throne. Again, cynical pictures emerge in the imagination: an inferior heir with a stick drives away half-sisters who are eager to marry him and make him complete; the dissolute old man Amenhotep III whispers in his son’s ear: “Well, why do you need to make Nefertiti your main wife? - she’ll also go as a sidekick into her harem, without hesitation, you’ll amuse your flesh and forget, and then your sisters disappear, just like that, they’ll die as girls, choose which one you like, you want - Satamon, you want - Baketamon, and the rest are girls - no mistake, I did it myself, if you want - marry everyone at once, they would do everything in a family way, according to the tradition of their ancestors, the official wife of the pharaoh - this is not a palm fan, it broke - threw it away, I did something similar stupid, now the last hairs on the wig I’m tearing up, remember me, but it will be too late.”
But the founder of monotheism remained a stubborn young man and at the age of twenty-one decided to marry. It must be assumed that the noble queen Teye and her brother Aanen, who was the first priest (“the greatest of the seers”) of Ra and the second - Amun, Akhenaten’s teacher Aye and his wife, the nurse Nefertiti, formed a support block for the restless soul. They simply dismissed Amenhotep III as an eccentric who knew nothing about love and life. Teye, riding in a boat with the pharaoh, ate his baldness, advocating for his son; her brother blatantly lied to Pharaoh that the marriage was already blessed in heaven; Aye and his wife, who knew the bride and groom from the cradle, whispered on the sidelines of the palace that Ra himself had sent the future queen for the peace of the empire. It’s not a shame to show such a beauty to foreign ambassadors and amuse your own eyes! Amenhotep III waved his hand
So, the wedding took place, the first passion of the reformer was quenched, Nefertiti is pregnant. No one yet knows who, but we know - a girl. Everyone is happy, only the old pharaoh has a headache: how to live to the thirtieth year of his reign, arrange a heb-sed for the people and declare his son co-ruler.
The “holiday” of Heb-Sed, “celebrated” after thirty years of reign and then repeated every three years, was very ancient. The first Egyptians looked at the leader-pharaoh as we look at a barometer. The harvest, offspring in the herd, successful hunting and military victories depended on the leader’s health. A decrepit old man on the throne meant drought and mass deaths of people and livestock. Having waited for the “holiday,” the Egyptians killed the pharaoh and, perhaps, even ate him, rejoicing and rejoicing that the son had finally united with his heavenly father. But by the time of Amenhotep III, the kheb-sed had been modernized. Now it was enough for the pharaoh to demonstrate a series of athletics exercises to the people, do ritual gymnastics to prove his cheerful spirit, and perform a cross-country race. (This custom is still latently alive. Suffice it to remember how elderly politicians we know can dance, fighting for votes on the eve of elections.), after which the priests staged the murder of the pharaoh and even buried the “killed man” in a false tomb specially built for the heb-sed , which is called the cenotaph. It is believed that most pyramids are just such cenotaphs.
So, after waiting for heb-sed, doing ritual exercises and “burying” himself in the cenotaph, Amenhotep III publicly declared his son pharaoh-co-ruler. But, probably, he did the exercises “with a C”, the people did not like it, the people doubted the physical fitness of the pharaoh. Perhaps there was another murmur: he himself was not sitting rightfully, but he also brought his son! And then the old libertine proved his right by marrying his own daughter Satamon, that is, the Pharaoh’s daughter.
Well, Nefertiti began to be called “the king’s beloved wife, beloved by whose image the ruler of both lands is pleased,” that is, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt.
For some time everyone was happy: the land fed, the livestock multiplied, the kings' subjects sat quietly - but events were already brewing in the country, comparable only to the Great October Revolution in Russia. Having gained power, Akhenaten intensively began to prepare a plague epidemic for Egypt - the introduction of monotheism. Akhenaten really wanted everyone to think like him and act accordingly. After all, such people are much easier to manage
SIX YEARS IN THEBES
The question “who to become?”, which tormented us in childhood, was solved for Egyptian girls through four options: a dancer, a priestess, a mourner or a midwife. However, men could not provide every Egyptian woman with an eight-hour workload in their specialty and therefore offered them the most ancient profession part-time, which was then paid not with money (which did not yet exist), but with bracelets and rings. The men chased the midwives at inopportune hours, recklessly caroused with the dancers, courted the priestesses out of piety and went to the heavenly father, accompanied by a crowd of sobbing and tearing their clothes citizens. Far from debauchery, rural women devoted most of their time to housework and children, and during the season they helped their husbands in the fields, and only sporadically, out of social necessity, they likened themselves either to a mourner or to a midwife. The ancient Egyptian women did not suffer from the feminist infection. In addition, unlike our contemporaries, they urinated while standing (men sitting); they walked the streets barefoot, but only put on shoes in the house; having come to despair, they clutched not at their heads, but at their ears; finally, many Egyptian women were natural alcoholics; at feasts they got drunk in smoke, and had to be carried home.
Having become the wife of the pharaoh, Nefertiti no longer puzzled over whether to become a dancer or a priestess. She had only one position - to serve the pharaoh one step ahead of the courtiers and court ladies, to be the first wife of the state, “the mistress of all women,” the wife of the son of Ra.
Like any queen, she was given her own farm, the size of which we do not know, but it is clear that it is not six acres or even a government dacha with an attached environmentally friendly state farm. In the lower reaches of the Nile, Nefertiti’s vineyards were located (judging by the abundance of marks on the vessels, they were very respectable), her herds grazed somewhere nearby, her own ships carried goods to her own warehouses, and her own treasurer and housekeeper was always at hand in the crowd of her own servants, scribes and guards. Thus, life was organized, peace and order were guaranteed, even love was enough, although the husband was very busy with religious reforms and the construction of new temples.
Akhenaten’s youthful idea (which had already become a hereditary trait) - to replace all the gods with the sun - still itched the pharaoh’s epileptic brain. Now, having received real power, he went on the offensive along the entire front, not noticing the bridges he had burned behind him. In vain did his father try to re-hunt, in vain did the courtiers, who had their own “advantages”, dissuade him from polytheism, in vain did even his beloved uncle - the second priest of Amun - prove to Akhenaten the idiocy of such an undertaking.
(An example of Uncle Aanen’s speech in the ear of the reigning nephew:Think about it, Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, how stupid you are! Without you, don’t the people know which gods are more beneficial to worship? It is logical to pray to the crocodile: he can eat. It is logical to bring gifts to the Nile: he will take it and dry up. It makes sense to respect even a god with the head of a ram (of which I am a priest), at least because he is not of this world. But what rational grain can be found in sun worship? Hasn't the sun ever risen? Or didn't it sit down? Have you noticed any tricks in him? Did it throw unexpected curves in the sky? Eclipses?.. Complete nonsense! They were calculated two thousand years ago for two thousand years in the future. The sun has never let anyone down. The people will not understand you, you will remain a fool, and your name will become a household name.
But young Akhenaten did not accept logic and objections; there was only one answer:
Sun-Seam. ( Another of the names of Ra and Aten.) , my father, may he rejoice in heaven over my gifts!)
In the first four years of his reign, the religious oppositionist managed to quarrel with the Theban priesthood four times. Apparently, the priests came to the palace and threatened the pharaoh with heavenly punishments or promised to leave his body without burial, as they had successfully frightened Thutmose VI and Amenhotep III before. (“Party card on the table!” in '37 - a slap on the head next to this threat.) But it was all to no avail: Akhenaten only got angry and got into trouble.
To the holy of holies - the sanctuary of Amun in Thebes (modern Karnak) - the pharaoh ordered the House of Aten to be built on the eastern side in order to greet the rise of his beloved father at dawn with a quiet song and vegetable gifts. More than a hundred colossi of Akhenaten were erected in the temple. The people were amazed when they looked at them: clothes, a crown, crossed arms with symbols of power (a whip and a staff) - it seemed the same as before, but the face and body! Where has it been seen that the pharaoh was depicted in his natural form, as a living and even outwardly unpleasant person?! From time immemorial, pharaohs and gods have been shown equally beautiful, equally stylized and equally idealized. Egyptologist A. More left us the following description of the pharaoh’s appearance: “He was a young man of average height, fragile build, with rounded, effeminate forms. The sculptors of that time left us true images of this androgyne. (A creature invented by Plato, a man and a woman at the same time. Once Zeus cut him in half, since then both halves have been looking for each other, and only those who find are guaranteed love to the grave.), whose developed breasts, overly full hips, convex thighs produce an ambiguous and a painful impression. The head is no less peculiar: an overly delicate oval of the face, slanted eyes, smooth outlines of a long and thin nose, a protruding lower lip, an elongated and slanted back skull, which seems too heavy for the fragile neck supporting it.” (After consulting with doctors, Egyptologists decided that Akhenaten had Frohlich's syndrome. “People affected by this disease often tend to be overweight. Their genitals remain underdeveloped and may not be visible due to folds of fat (indeed, some of Akhenaten's colossi are asexual) "Tissue obesity is distributed differently in different cases, but fat layers are deposited in a way that is typical for the female body: primarily in the areas of the chest, abdomen, pubis, thighs and buttocks. " Because of this “diagnosis,” cutting-edge scientists blame Akhenaten cohabited with his successor Smenkhkara, others consider him a woman, and one of the pioneers of Egyptology, Mariette, saw him as a castrated captive from Sudan.).
To all the perplexed questions of visitors to the House of Aten, the sculptor Bek only shrugged: “The king himself taught me,” although he knew perfectly well where the dog was buried: if Akhenaten had not changed the canon and style of images, the illiterate Egyptian would not have caught the difference between Amun and Aten. The new religion required new pictorial forms, and since the sun is now depicted not as a falcon, but in its natural form - all around, then why should the son of the sun look insincere?
Along the way, the reformer assembled a team of associates. The smart ones came running themselves, feeling that atonism was serious and, at least, until the end of their lives. The main violins at the court were played by Teye's mother, Eie's teacher and Aanen's uncle. Vizier Rames, who had served Akhenaten's father, remained in the same position. The Theban prince Parennefer (probably a distant relative) was appointed keeper of the seal and supervisor of all work in the House of Aten. Having led an expedition to get a stone for this temple, he went to the rapids and fulfilled his assignment with honor. However, among the old acquaintances who attended all the solemn holidays and official drinking parties in the palace, among the priests and scribes, it turned out to be difficult to find the required number of people devoted to the idea of Aten; simply put, Akhenaten did not believe in their sincerity. And the reformer “went to the people,” offering positions to small landowners and even talented artisans not directly connected with the Amon priesthood and palace. A striking example of this is May, the chief architect, the bearer of the fan to the right of the king, who said about himself this way: “I am a poor man by father and mother, the king created me, (and before) I asked for bread.”
Of course, among those like Mai there were many rabble who “believed” in the ideals of the monotheistic revolution solely for the sake of material benefits and a sense of power. This was the case with all revolutions and coups. But who certainly cannot be accused of insincerity is Nefertiti. Unexpectedly, she turned out to be almost the most ardent supporter of Aten and his favorite. Walking behind her husband, at sunrise and sunset, she performs the service of the sun, without in any way diminishing her dignity next to the son of Aten. Moreover, sometimes Nefertiti serves the sun alone or with her daughter, from which it follows that the pharaoh and the queen lived separately, each in their own chambers with their own prayer rooms, and the daughter (and then daughters) was with Nefertiti.
Apparently, during the first six years of his reign, spent in Thebes, Akhenaten was busy developing a new religion, so we do not know whether he adored Nefertiti tirelessly during this time. Those manifestations of love that have been sung for a hundred years are not on the monuments in Thebes. Everything is very strict and chaste. The fact that Akhenaten takes Nefertiti with him when he goes to reward officials can hardly be considered a manifestation of deep feeling - this is etiquette. But to publicly caress each other, kiss, hug and cuddle - there is nothing like this in Thebes, there was nothing like it in the entire previous history of Egypt. Moreover, Nefertiti is accepted abroad as a toy of the pharaoh, nothing more. Tushratta, king of Mitanni. (A country on the territory of modern Syria, at that time on the southern outskirts of the Hittite kingdom.), in letters he sends greetings to Teya and his daughter Taduhepe, who lives in the royal harem, and about Nefertiti - not a single cuneiform icon. It can only be implied in expressions like: “And warm greetings to all other wives.” Tushratta either knows nothing about Nefertiti (which is unlikely) or does not take her seriously.
Somehow I can’t believe that in the first years of his reign the pharaoh did not have enough strength to publicly put his wife on the same level as himself; I can’t believe it, knowing Akhenaten’s character: narcissistic and selfish. The pharaoh could endure the slaps that Tushratta Nefertiti showered only in one case - he never read the letters of the vassal kings, so as not to be upset by requests to send gold or spy messages about the enemy’s military preparations. Absorbed in the ideological struggle for the right of Aten to be called the main god of Egypt and the territories subject to him, Akhenaten did not want to know at all what was happening on the borders of the empire. Why distract yourself in vain? The bet was placed on Aten as an all-unifying and all-reconciling force. If people have one god, they will have nothing to share, the mystic pharaoh reasoned. But at the same time, a god was required that would be understandable to everyone: for the Egyptians, Semites, and Nubians, Amon with the head of a ram or Ra with the head of a falcon were definitely not suitable for this: some tribes did not see rams, while others considered the falcon to be a harmful bird. Therefore, Akhenaten chose a god that everyone understood - the sun. He also chose an appropriate appearance, which had nothing in common with anthropomorphic idols: Aten was depicted in the form of a disk from which rays of arms emanated, bringing all kinds of benefits to people.
In the fourth year of his reign, Akhenaten received the third most sensitive stick from the priests of Amon. It is unknown what exactly the priests were pestering him about, but the pharaoh was seriously frightened: he was already imagining poison in the wine or a hired killer behind the curtain. And the “living embodiment of Ra” decided to act. In addition, he and Nefertiti had a second daughter, Maketaten.
Seeing that all life in Thebes is permeated with the cult of Amon, which he cannot defeat in this city, Akhenaten decided to build a new capital so that he and the priests would leave each other alone. This was the most correct move, because by that time the gods had already “divided” most of Egypt, and it would have been blasphemy to drive them out of their homes. Akhenaten needed a place free from the influence of any god, and he found one - or they found it for him.
Having gone 300 kilometers down the Nile, Akhenaten found himself in a convenient valley, amphitheatrically surrounded by mountains and a river. On the other bank, 15 kilometers away, was Hermopolis - the sacred city of the god of wisdom Thoth. (The Greeks equated their Hermes with Thoth, hence the name Hermopolis - the city of Hermes. In Egyptian it was called Shmun. By the way, Thebes is Ne in Egyptian, and Heliopolis is He.). Here Akhenaten decided to found a new capital. Area 180 sq. km around was declared the property of Aten. The boundaries of Akhetaten - the Sky of Aten - were marked by huge steles. At the founding ceremony of the new Solnechnogorsk, Akhenaten, Nefertiti and Meritaton raised their hands and swore an oath to the Aten. Akhenaten, as the main instigator, made a short speech, which was later immortalized on the border steles and sounded in a free retelling something like this:
May I create Akhetaten for my father Aten in this very place on the east side (on the left bank of the Nile), which he himself surrounded with mountains, and in no other. And I will offer sacrifices to Aten here. And let Nefertiti not tell me: “There is a good place for Akhetaten in another place,” I will not listen to her. And let not any dignitary in all the land of Egypt to its end tell me the same thing. And I myself will never say: “I will abandon Akhetaten here and build it in another place.” But I will create here the House of Aten (that is, the temple) and the Palace of Aten, and a palace for myself and a palace for my wife. And tombs, wherever we die, let them be carved for us in the eastern mountains - for me, for my wife, for the children and for all seven, nobles and military leaders. And if all this is not done, it will be very bad.
Apparently, when choosing a place for the new capital, Akhenaten openly did not give a damn about the opinions of his wife and dignitaries, from which we can conclude that there were opinions different from his. But it’s strange that Nefertiti even had her own opinion; after all, she is an oriental woman and must obey. Maybe these seven - the highest officials - looked for another place for the capital and encouraged Nefertiti to whisper to Akhenaten what they needed and convenient?
Historians still argue, going to unacceptable extremes, did Nefertiti influence Akhenaten or did she obediently nod her head every time, a cast of which is now the pride of the Berlin Museum? Some believe that the cult of Aten itself was inspired by Nefertiti, that Akhenaten sat on the throne and, like an ass-fool, repeated orders after his wife. At least this was the case during the first six years of Akhenaten’s reign. It is interesting to note that excavations at Karnak have uncovered tens of thousands of building stones dating back to the early years of Akhenaten's reign. And what’s surprising is that images of Nefertiti are found on them twice as often as her married husband. On one of the blocks, the fragile Nefertiti beats with a club the prisoners who are kneeling in front of her. The scene is almost classical for Egyptian art, but the woman appears
So for the first and only time. In other images, the queen stands alone in front of the altar, that is, she herself acts as a mediator between God and people, although this responsibility belongs to only one person on earth - her husband. There are images of Nefertiti driving a chariot and clutching the highest symbol of power - the scepter. In the Theban Temple of Aten, her giant statues are located between the statues of Akhenaten, and yet such honor is expected only for the living incarnation of the god on earth! There was also an alley of sphinxes, some of which had the face of Nefertiti, and others of her husband. Finally, in some inscriptions she is called “the one who finds Aten,” that is, she is put on the same level as her husband. Maybe she should also be recognized as a pharaoh? Such cases are known in the history of Egypt. The last pharaoh of the Old Kingdom was Nitocris, and the last pharaoh of the Middle was Nefru-sebek, and in the New Kingdom, a hundred years before Nefertiti, Hatshepsut sat on the throne. Let us also remember the words of Akhenaten at the founding of Akhetaten, which can be interpreted something like this: “I will not listen to my wife! Let it be my way for once!”However, many Egyptologists do not allow this possibility. “It would be difficult to expect that next to such an autocratic and purposeful ruler could stand any other crowned person and exert a guiding influence on the course of state life,” wrote one of the largest Russian Egyptologists of this particular period, Yu. Perepelkin. According to the assumption of others, in the minds of Akhenaten, the god Aten, the creator of all living things, put forward by him, was, as it were, bisexual, therefore Akhenaten himself personified the masculine principle in him, and Nefertiti - the feminine. Hence the “privileges” of the pharaoh that extended to her. Still others believed that this happened later, in Akhetaten, while in Thebes Akhenaten considered himself the incarnation of Ra on Earth, and his wife - his wife Hathor. After all, one of the hypostases of Hathor was called “The Beautiful One Has Come” - Nefertiti. Finally, neither Nefertiti herself nor her husband not only never beat captive enemies with clubs, they never even saw captives in their entire lives, and they tried to keep a respectful distance from their enemies or pretend that under the power of the almighty Aten there were simply enemies it can not be.
But even if we assume that before moving to Akhetaten, Nefertiti really had great influence and led Akhenaten in the ideological struggle, then as soon as the boats set sail from the pier of Thebes and the last priest of Amun disappeared from sight, Akhenaten showed his wife “who’s boss.” In one of the inscriptions he says:
My heart delights in the queen’s wife and her children. May the wife of the great king Nefer-nefre-Aton Nefertiti be allowed to grow old - she will live forever and ever!.. And if she were at the hand of the pharaoh - he is alive, safe and sound! May the daughter of the Tsar’s Meritaton and the daughter of the Tsar’s Maketaton, her children, be allowed to grow old... if only they would be under the hand of the Tsar’s wife, their mother, forever and ever!”So, in one inscription, the pharaoh described all the functional responsibilities of his wife. Nefertiti's destiny is her husband's love, her place is family. True, she was later deified, and Akhenaten even awarded her the title “mistress of the earth to its ends,” but this was only a forced consequence of his title - “lord of the earth to its ends.”
THE SKY OF ATON AND NEFERTITI
In order to carry out what he had planned in childhood and distribute foot wraps at the state level, Lenin had to become a communist tsar. Akhenaten was a king. The power that Ilyich earned with his hump, Akhenaten received as a gift by inheritance. Moreover, he did not set himself Lenin’s goals: it made no sense to socialize everything in a country that already belonged to him. True, Akhenaten treated temples as Ilyich treated the church. This is where their similarity ends, although it is precisely this that is fundamental in both teachings - atonism and Marxism.
Returning from reconnaissance, in which the pharaoh placed border steles and consecrated the Sky of Aten, Akhenaten developed vigorous activity. He was in a hurry because his plans included the construction of two more Akhetatons: the second in Nubia, and the third either in Palestine or Syria. Architects, stonemasons, sculptors, artists, artisans and workers of all kinds were called from all over Egypt (“refuseniks” were rounded up). Still alive, but already broken by his own powerlessness and idleness, Pope Amenhotep III, who turned out to be a “fake” (the real one is the god Aten!), looked at his son’s foolishness with reproach, but did not actively intervene. He even liked that the rebellious child would move out of the yard: after all, Akhenaten promised not to touch Amun and the other gods of Egypt, his goal was only to return to the triad of solar gods (Ra, Horus and Akhtu), now appearing in the single form of Aten, their greatness, shaken by Amon
Build a city in two to three years with an area of 100 square meters. km was not difficult for the ancient Egyptians. They already had experience in building pyramids, which are no faster to build even with the help of modern technology. And sure enough (almost according to Mayakovsky), not much time has passed, and out of love for the pharaoh the loyal subjects are naked. (In the literal sense of the word, because they worked naked. Akhenaten and Nefertiti themselves were avid fans of nudism. In many images, they walk around the palace naked and even listen to the reports of the seven as if it were happening in a bathhouse. However, in the nudism of the reigning couple, apparently, a religious meaning was hidden.) Egyptian enthusiasm built a real garden city with temples, palaces, estates, houses, official institutions, warehouses, stables, shopping arcades and workshops. Along the way, wells were dug, ponds were laid out, canals and streets were laid, trees with soil were brought in and each one was planted in a personal tub. All the work was supervised by the royal architects, who are known to us by name, since the pharaoh, for their diligence, granted them their own tombs in the mountains of Akhetaton - Parennefer, Mai (the same one who previously asked for bread), Bek, Tutu, Hatiai, Maanakhtutef.
Stone for the buildings was brought from the farthest borders of Egypt: granite from Aswan, alabaster from Hatnub, sandstone from Silsile. But since there was little time, and not a lot of people, most of the city was built not from stone, but from raw brick, only lining the main buildings with stone on the outside. On the fly, we had to come up with new decorative motifs that would please Aten. As a rule, these were landscapes, of which the most remarkable is the view of awakening and jubilant nature - plants and animals welcoming the appearance of Aten in the east. But the masters completed the task.
In the sixth year of his reign, Akhenaten ordered the court to load ships and move to the still unfinished capital. It is unlikely that many people had to leave their homes. For example, the same Parennefer, who managed to build himself a tomb in the necropolis of Thebes, which was not cheap. (He, of course, could not sell it, since it was painted for him.) But the pharaoh did not leave a choice. Hundreds, or rather thousands, of longships and barges loaded the pharaoh’s “economy”, state archives, belongings of nobles, servants, harems and disappeared from sight of the remaining Thebans for a decade and a half. Those who saw off the caravans had mixed feelings. On the one hand, they were glad that the heretic would be far away, but on the other hand, they were afraid that it was from afar that he would give “free rein to his hands.” Finally, over thousands of years they had become accustomed to looking at the pharaoh as the guarantor of their life and the son of God, so many suddenly felt like orphans.
Together with her court, she boarded her own ship, studded with gold, and Nefertiti, already pregnant with her third daughter Ankhesenpaaton, sat under a canopy that depicted her in the most unimaginable situations (for example, on a hunt), hugged her two daughters and left, never to return again .
The city with a population of 40-50 thousand people stretched for 12 kilometers, and with undeveloped vacant lots for all 30. The main street of Akhetaton, on the sides of which stood the Great Temple, the pharaoh's palace, the mansions of the priests and government institutions, ran along the Nile.
Of course, the central building of the city was the main temple - the “House of Aten in Akhetaten”, the length of which was about 800 meters. It was oriented from west to east to meet and greet Aten. Naturally, this building did not have a roof so that Aten could stay in his house permanently. In the central part of the temple, archaeologists discovered three hundred and sixty (!) altars and quickly found an explanation for this find. The Egyptian year consisted of exactly this number of days. (Plus five additional days that did not belong to any season, remaining “orphaned.”), therefore, each altar corresponded to a specific day of the year. The number of altars had a sacred meaning, connecting time and space. Every day in life, according to Akhenaten’s religious doctrine, was one and only, and therefore it should be celebrated accordingly. Greeting Aten with his wife, children and priests at dawn, Akhenaten even prepared a special text of a hymn for each day, which was never repeated. (Actually, there was a “blank”, to which some lines were either added, or others were taken away.), because the previous day is different from what Aten, rising from behind the Nile, brings with him. The Egyptians called this state of affairs the law of the Snake, that is, the law of continuous change. (The ancient Greeks also had a similar doctrine, expressed in the phrase: “You cannot enter the same river even once,” because as long as you enter, the river will flow and not stand still.) By pronouncing (or singing) a hymn to Aten, the pharaoh performed the ritual of reanimating the god so that life on earth would continue to exist. Probably, Nefertiti also shook her sistrums (rattles) and sang: it is not for nothing that in many inscriptions she is called “sweet-voiced”, they say that “at the sound of her voice everyone rejoices.” In response, Aten brought the ankh, a symbol of life, to the noses of Akhenaten and Nefertiti with his rays of hands.
In Akhetaten there were also temples - “Seeing Aten to Rest” and “Palace of Aten in Akhetaten” and three sanctuaries, equally called “Shadow of Ra” and belonged to the women of the royal family: Nefertiti, her daughter Meritaten and Akhenaten’s mother Teye. With the exception of the “Palace of Aten”, none of these sacred buildings have yet been discovered. And regarding the cult life of the Akhetatonians, it only remains to add that in every house, even the very poorest, there was always a prayer house. At the same time, despite the “impatience” of Aten with other gods, replicated by historians, many prayer houses were dedicated to Amon, Isis or Bes.
Like any city built suddenly by the will of one person, Akhetaten did not have a historically established center. It consisted of separate closed quarters in which people of a certain profession lived. That is why, for example, after excavations of the sculptors’ quarter, there is practically no hope that monuments equal in importance to the bust of Nefertiti will be discovered. It is interesting that when the city was planned, social differentiation was already laid down in it: merchants, minor officials and artisans lived in the northern part, and high-ranking officials and sculptors lived in the south.
The main decoration of the city (besides the temples) were three palaces. Two of them - the Northern Palace and Maru-Aten (southern palace) - were of an entertainment and dacha nature and were located on the outskirts of the Aten Sky. Between them, in the very center of the city, adjacent to the “House of Aten in Akhetaten,” was the Great Palace. It was a magnificent building 262 meters long, divided by the main road into two parts: the official and private apartments of the pharaoh's family. They were connected to each other by a covered brick bridge, which had three spans (which gave it the appearance of modern triumphal arches): chariots and carts passed through the wide central one, and the side ones were reserved for pedestrians. On the second floor of the covered passage there was a “window of apparitions.” From it, on holidays, the reigning couple appeared before the people and the army, who awarded especially distinguished subjects with gold jewelry. Naturally, the official part of the palace was larger and better decorated, but little remains of it. But in the personal apartments of Akhenaten Amenhotepovich and his wife, archaeologists were able to identify a room that was almost certainly Nefertiti’s bedroom, since there were six more smaller bedrooms nearby - according to the number of the queen’s daughters. The “loot” from Nefertiti’s bedroom turned out to be not so rich: in the hallway, archaeologists found an image of the royal family, and in the bedroom itself there was a washbasin and a stone slab-bed from which there was a drain. Was Nefertiti bathing in bed!?
The dwellings of high dignitaries were estates surrounded on all sides by a fence and a garden, which necessarily included a pond and a gazebo. The area of the dwelling itself exceeded 500 square meters. meters. Above the entrance to the estate, the name, titles of the owner and prayers to Aten were carved. Then the hieroglyphs were filled with blue paste, which created an extraordinary harmony with the yellow limestone. These inscriptions were sometimes altered, and from them one can trace the career of an official or his disgrace. Many government nouveau riche came from the poorest strata, these are those “to whom he (Akhenaton) allowed to develop.” The name of one official is even translated as “Akhenaton created me.” Linguists have noticed that the classical Egyptian language in Akhetaten is greatly diluted with vernacular, and neologisms appear in it. Nevertheless, the good king knew how to show severity when necessary. Such a fate, for example, befell the already mentioned Mai. We do not know what crime or betrayal he committed, but his name was erased from everywhere, and the images in the tomb were covered with a thick layer of plaster.
The poorest strata lived in houses with an area of 80 square meters. meters. Such was the poverty in Akhetaton!
Finally, another part of the city was the necropolis, three groups of tombs located in the eastern spurs of the mountains. This is where the most impressive reliefs with images of the reigning couple and their relatives come from: each dignitary considered it necessary to emphasize, in this way, his loyalty. It was these reliefs that told us about the private life of Nefertiti. A relief from the royal tomb depicts the sobbing Nefertiti and Akhenaten: they are mourning their second daughter Maketaton, who left the world untimely. One of the leading Russian art historians and Egyptologists, M. Mathieu, could not even resist saying: “The death scene of Maketaton, in terms of the strength of the feelings conveyed, surpasses everything that was created before and after it; We will not find such images of suffering parents anywhere.” It is difficult for us to judge, but there is an opinion and indirect evidence that it was after this death that everything in Akhenaten’s house went wrong.
In such a city, Nefertiti had to meet maturity, perhaps old age and die.
Actually, Akhenaten never intended to introduce monotheism among the Egyptians and subject peoples. His idea was much simpler. He tried to project the structure of his own empire onto the sky. Just as there is a pharaoh on earth and their own kings sit in the ruled countries, in the same way Aten reigns in heaven, and other gods may well exist “in the localities” who recognize the primacy of Aten.
