156: Oh, Ay Just Can't Wait to be King

The servant ascends. Considering his background, it's not surprising that King Ay turned out to be quite "conservative." His early deeds continued the policies of Tutankhamun (a regime in which Ay had actively participated). The new pharaoh completed one of Tutankhamun's temples (the Ḥwt-Neb-kheperu-Ra in Waset/Thebes), and evoked Tutankhamun in his art. Ay also started his own monuments, at Akhmim / Akhmin (Khent-Menu). There, colossal statues and sanctuaries for Min would convey pharaoh's agenda...

Date: c. 1334 BCE.

King: Kheper-Kheperu-Ra, It-Netjer Ay ("Ra is Supreme of Manifestations, the God's Father Ay").

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Music: Keith Zizza https://www.keithzizza.net/.

Music interludes: Luke Chaos https://twitter.com/Luke_Chaos.

Select Bibliography:

A. Ashmawy, ‘The Administration of Horse Stables in Ancient Egypt’, Egypt and the Levant 24 (2014), 121—139.

T. R. Bryce, ‘The Death of Niphururiya and Its Aftermath’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 76 (1990), 97–105.

N. Kawai, ‘Studies in the Reign of Tutankhamun’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Johns Hopkins University (2005).

K. P. von Kuhlmann, ‘Des Felstempel des Eje bei Achmim’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 35 (1979), 165—188.

B. Lurson, ‘Ay, Neferti, Nakhtmin and Ameny: Politics and Rhetoric at the End of the Eighteenth Dynasty’, Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 146 (2019), 164–208.

P. E. Newberry, ‘King Ay, the Successor of Tut’ankhamūn’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 18 (1932), 50–2.

O. Schaden, ‘The God’s Father Ay’, PhD Thesis, University of Minnesota (1977).

O. J. Schaden, ‘Clearance of the Tomb of King Ay (WV-23)’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 21 (1984), 39–64.

A. R. Schulman, ‘The Berlin “Trauerrelief” (No. 12411) and Some Officials of Tutʿankhamūn and Ay’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 4 (1965), 55–68.

K. C. Seele, ‘King Ay and the Close of the Amarna Age’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 14 (1955), 168–80. 

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