July 06, 2020

129: Amarna, the Hard-Knock Life

31 minutes

Child labour, plague, and dark deeds at Amarna. By regnal year 14 (c.1349 BCE) Akhenaten's capital city had grown to almost thirty thousand people. This massive growth carried a price, one that archaeologists are finding in the city's vast cemeteries...

Date c.1349 BCE.

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Music by Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.com

Music by Ancient Lyric www.bettinajoydeguzman.com

Select Bibliography:

Dabbs, Gretchen R. ‘Bioarchaeology of the Non-Elite North Tombs Cemetery at Amarna: A Preliminary Assessment of the Non-Elite Individuals of the North Tombs Cemetery at Tell El-Amarna, Egypt’. Bioarchaeology International 3, no. 3 (2019): 174–86. https://doi.org/10.5744/bi.2019.1012.

Dabbs, Gretchen R. ‘Human Bones from the South Tombs Cemetery: The 2013 Study Season’, 2013. https://www.amarnaproject.com/documents/pdf/STC-2013-bioarchaeology.pdf.

Dodson, Aidan. Amarna Sunrise: Egypt From Golden Age to Age of Heresy. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2014.

Egypt Exploration Society Website. ‘The Northern Cemeteries of Amarna’, 2018. https://www.ees.ac.uk/the-northern-cemeteries-of-amarna.

Kemp, Barry J. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. 3rd Revised Edition. London: Routledge, 2018.

Kemp, Barry J. ‘Tell El-Amarna, 2016’. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 102 (2016): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.2307/26379068.

Kemp, Barry J. The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People. First paperback edition. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014.

Kemp, Barry, Anna Stevens, Gretchen R. Dabbs, Melissa Zabecki, and Jerome C. Rose. ‘Life, Death and Beyond in Akhenaten’s Egypt: Excavating the South Tombs Cemetery at Amarna’. Antiquity 87, no. 335 (2013): 64–78. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00048626.

Kuckens, Kathleen. ‘The Children of Amarna: Disease and Famine in the Time of Akhenaten’. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 2013. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/888.

Panagiotakopulu, Eva. ‘Pharaonic Egypt and the Origins of Plague’. Journal of Biogeography 31, no. 2 (2004): 269–75. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0305-0270.2003.01009.x.

Shidner, Ashley. ‘Growing Up in Tell El-Amarna: An Examination of Growth and Non-Specific Stress Indicators in New Kingdom Children’. University of Arkansas, 2018.

Stevens, Anna. ‘Death and the City: The Cemeteries of Amarna in Their Urban Context’ 28, no. 1 (2018): 103–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774317000592.

Amarna Project website, ‘The South Tombs Cemetery’, 2013. https://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/recent_projects/excavation/south_tombs_cemetery/2013.shtml.

Zakrzewski, Sonia R. ‘Variation in Ancient Egyptian Stature and Body Proportions’. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 121, no. 3 (1 July 2003): 219–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.10223.

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