Lørdagsseminar om Amarna
Mødedato: lørdag d. 25. marts 2023 kl. 11-16
Kl. 11 – Gravpladserne i Akhetaten, v. Ph.d. Sofie Schiodt, Postdoc Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen
Siden 2006 har et internationalt hold af forskere foretaget udgravninger af en række gravpladser i Amarna (oldtidens Akhetaten). Denne by blev grundlagt af farao Akhenaten, som kun regerede i 17 år, hvorefter byen blev forladt, og den giver dermed et enestående øjebliksbillede af Ægypten i det 14. århundrede f.v.t. I december 2022 færdiggjorde vi den sidste udgravningssæson ved gravpladserne, og mens der stadig ligger meget databehandlingsarbejde forude, har udgravningerne allerede givet os et fascinerende indblik i, hvordan livet så ud for den almene ægypter under Akhenaten. I dette foredrag vil jeg fortælle om de opdagelser, vi har gjort i løbet af det årelange arbejde, og hvilken ny viden det bidrager med.
Kl. 12.15 – Frokost (medbring selv mad og drikke)
Kl. 13 -The Great Aten Temple at Amarna: 2012-2022, v. Barry Kemp – zoom i lokalet
The Great Aten Temple at Amarna: 2012-2022, v. Barry Kemp, Director of the Amarna Project, Senior Research Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and Professor Emeritus at Cambridge University
The Amarna Project commenced its work at the site of the Great Aten Temple in 2012 and has continued until now. The temple comprises a space measuring 750 x 270 m, surrounded by a thick mud-brick wall. Inside are the remains of two stone temples: the Long Temple towards the front (in the past identified with the building with the ancient name Gempa-aten) and the Sanctuary towards the back. This leaves the greater part of the space within the enclosure unaccounted for.
Most of the expedition’s work so far has been concentrated on the Long Temple and the ground in front. It had previously been excavated by the Egypt Exploration Society in 1932 (the director being John Pendlebury). In further pursuit of an answer, in 2021 and 2022 a new excavation was begun at the very back of the temple enclosure (carried out by Fabien Balestra, a member of the expedition). It began with a re-examination of a wide gateway flanked by buttresses attached to the enclosure wall, first identified in 1932. Beyond it and within the temple enclosure, two adjacent areas have been excavated.
The programme of the expedition includes the rebuilding of the outlines of the temple in new stone blocks once an area has been cleaned and recorded by drawing and photography. The costs of the stone blocks (purchased from a fine limestone quarry at El-Tura) are partly borne by public subscription.
For details of how to become engaged see:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/be-part-of-the-great-aten-temple
Reports on the work at the temple can be found (freely available) at:
https://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/recent_projects/excavation/great_aten_temple/
The Amarna Project’s free newsletter, Horizon, can be found at:
https://www.amarnaproject.com/downloadable_resources.shtml
The digital reconstructions of the temple which appear in the lecture are the work of Paul Docherty.
Kl. 14.15 – Pause
Kl. 14.45 – Colours for the Aten: The Manufacture of Glass and Faience in the workshops of Amarna, v. Anna K. Hodgkinson
When the new capital city of Akhetaten was established, workshops and craftspeople were required to furnish and embellish the palaces, temples and the villas of the elite. Colourful inlays from faience, glass and stone were produced, and these would adorn architecture, wooden furniture and burial equipment, creating beautiful marshland scenes and images of royal power.
Jewellery, and cosmetic vessels from faience and glass, were popular throughout the population and produced in great numbers. Focussing on the results of recent fieldwork at Amarna site M50.14-16 and glass-working experiments, this lecture will discuss both how glass- and faience objects were made, and what role a domestic workshop had in the city of Amarna.