Post of 22 July 2022

In the mid-14th century BC, an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten (1351-1334) changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten and ordered to build a new capital named Amarna far away from the old capital Thebes due to an epidemic in Egypt.

Akhenaten did not only change his capital to Amarna but brought a revolutionary religious change in the 3,000 years old religion of Ancient Egypt.

American Egyptologist Arielle Kozloff suggested that Akhenaten ordered hundreds more statues of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, the wife of the ancient god Shiv for healing the epidemic. In Ancient Egypt the wife of Shiv, goddess Sekhmet was considered as a “goddess of healing”.  

Pharaoh Akhenaten ordered that in the new capital only one god, the sun god Aten should be worshipped and all others god and goddess be discarded. Egyptologists explain that Akhenaten was fed up with the powerful priests in the old capitals of Thebes, who worshipped many gods and goddesses.

Archaeologist Jorrit Kelder of University of Leiden, Netherlands proposed that the epidemic/plague might have pushed Akhenaten to take more drastic action against priests and their gods’ for failure to protect Egypt. Whilst, Akhenaten’s new city Amarna, quickly became a critical hub in an international network of trade and diplomacy. This started a “cosmopolitan age” for Egypt.

Kelder said that same epidemic/plague might have caused Akhenaten death as well as those of his wife Nefertiti (born 1370 BC in Thebes) and three daughters in the new capital. Some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly after her husband’s death and before the ascension of Pharaoh Tutankhamun known as King Tut.

Australian Archaeologist Hitchcock expects Covid-19 pandemic will also bring change. He says, “history suggests that the post-covid normal is unlikely to look much like the old normal.”

#Note: This post is based on the article written by Laura Spinney, published in New Scientist, London, 23 July 2022.