The Stela of Akhenaten and his family is the name for an altar image in the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

which depicts the

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton ( ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning 'Effective for the Aten'), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eig ...

, his queen

Nefertiti Nefertiti () () was a queen of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the Great Royal Wife, great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for their radical overhaul of state religious poli ...

, and their three children. The

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

stela A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

with the inventory number JE 44865 is 43.5 × 39 cm in size and was discovered by

Ludwig Borchardt Ludwig Borchardt (5 October 1863 – 12 August 1938) was a German Egyptologist. He is best known for finding a famous bust of Nefertiti at Amarna. __NOTOC__ Life Born in Berlin in 1863 into a well-established Jewish family, Borchardt was t ...

in Haoue Q 47 at Tell-el Amarna in 1912.Wilfried Seipel im Ausstellungskatalog ''Nofretete - Echnaton'', Nr. 47 When the archaeological finds from Tell-el Amarna were

divided Division is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic. The other operations are addition, subtraction, and multiplication. What is being divided is called the ''dividend'', which is divided by the ''divisor'', and the result is called the ...

on 20 January 1913, Gustave Lefebvre chose this object on behalf of the Egyptian Superintendency for Antiquities (the modern

Supreme Council of Antiquities The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA; ) was established in 1994, responsible for the conservation, protection, and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavations in Egypt. From 1994 to 2011, the SCA was a department of the Egyptia ...

) instead of the

Bust of Nefertiti The Nefertiti Bust is a painted stucco-coated limestone bust of Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten. It is on display in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. The work is believed to have been crafted in 1345 BC by Thutmose ...

Description

On the left side Akhenaten sits on a stool, handing a jewel to his eldest daughter,

Meritaten Meritaten, also spelled Merytaten, Meritaton or Meryetaten () (14th century BC), was an ancient Egyptian royal woman of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Her name means "She who is beloved of Aten"; Aten being the sun-deity whom her father, Pharaoh ...

, who stands in front of him. Nefertiti sits opposite him, on the right hand side, playing with two of their daughters on her lap. These are

Meketaten Meketaten (, meaning "Behold the Aten" or "Protected by Aten") was the second of six daughters born to the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten and his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti. She likely lived between Year 4 and Year 14 of Akhenaten's reign. Although l ...

and

Ankhesenpaaten Ankhesenamun (, "Her Life Is of Amun"; c. 1348 or c. 1342 – after 1322 BC) was an ancient Egyptian queen who lived during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. Born Ankhesenpaaten (, "she lives for the Aten"), she was the third of six known daughters ...

. In the upper part, in the middle of the stela is the disk of the

Aten Aten, also Aton, Atonu, or Itn (, reconstructed ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system formally established in ancient Egypt by the late Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. Exact dating for the Eighteenth Dynasty is contested, thou ...

, whose rays end in hands holding the symbol of life (

Ankh The ankh or key of life is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself. The ankh has a T-shape topped by a droplet-shaped loop. It was used in writing as a tri ...

) and are thereby depicted as life-bringing. In the background there are various inscriptions with the names and titles of the people depicted. The stela is bordered on three sides by a band of further hieroglyphs, marked with blue paint, which still partially survives. At the base of the stela are small holes on both sides which indicate that the stela was fitted with wings on each side. The so-called "Doctrinal name" of the Aten used here is still in its first form. The stela's dating to the end of the first half of Akhenaten's reign follows from this, as well as the depiction of the daughters and stylistic features typical of the Amarna period. Such stelae are typical of the Amarna period in Ancient Egypt and are found particularly in the graves at Amarna, which was the capital of Egypt under Akhenaten, with the name Akhetaten. These stelae were altars, which were placed in private chapels or houses for the worship of the royal family and the sun-god Aten.

Allegations of forgery

In an interview for ''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' in 2009 in connection with a claim that the

is a forgery, German egyptologist Rolf Krauss argued that the bust is most likely authentic, while this stela is not. As a basis for his view, Krauss claimed, among other things, that the word ''

Maat Maat or Maʽat ( Egyptian: ''mꜣꜥt'' /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ) comprised the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Maat was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regul ...

'' (truth, justice) is written incorrectly in four places. He further criticised the depiction of Akhenaten as

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply l ...

, which in his view is contrary to ancient Egyptian iconography. The yellow weathering on the stone was claimed to be fake, not a

patina Patina ( or ) is a thin layer that variously forms on the surface of copper, brass, bronze, and similar metals and metal alloys ( tarnish produced by oxidation or other chemical processes), or certain stones and wooden furniture (sheen prod ...

, with the support of colour analysis. Another Egyptologist, Christian Loeben commented favourably, "The relief is a pastiche, a fraudulently manufactured stylistic mishmash""Krimi um die Königin"; Matthias Schulz, in ''Der Spiegel'', Issue No.22 of 25 May 2009, pages 134-135

Bibliography

* ''Das Ägyptische Museum von Kairo.'' von Zabern, Mainz 1986, , No. 167. * Wilfried Seipel in Exhibition catalogue ''Nofretete - Echnaton.'' von Zabern, Mainz 1976, Nr. 47. *

Cyril Aldred Cyril Aldred (19 February 1914 – 23 June 1991) was an English Egyptologist, art historian, and author. Early life Cyril Aldred was born in Fulham, London, the son of Frederick Aldred and Lilian Ethel Underwood, and the sixth of seven childre ...

. ''Akhenaten and Nefertiti'' - Exhibition catalogue for the 150th anniversary of the

Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Fla ...

, Brooklyn Museum/ Viking Press, New York 1973, , p. 11, Fig. 2 (Illustration is reversed).

External links

Description of the altar with picture on globalegyptianmuseum

References

{{reflist Egyptian Museum Altars

Forgery controversies Cultural depictions of Akhenaten Cultural depictions of Nefertiti 1912 archaeological discoveries Archaeological discoveries in Egypt