TELL el-AMARNA
Tell el-Amarna, site of the ancient Egyptian
city Akhetaton, on the Nile River, north of the modern city of
Asyût. Akhetaton was built during the reign of Amenhotep IV,
better known as Akhenaton, sometime between 1350 and 1334 BC; the
city served as the Egyptian capital until Akhenaton's death. The
period during which Akhetaton was important is known in Egyptian
history as the Amarna period.
In 1887, a peasant at Tell el-Amarna found about 400 tablets
inscribed in Akkadian cuneiform. The tablets formed part of the
correspondence, later known as the Amarna letters, of Akhenaton
and his predecessor, Amenhotep III, with the governors in
Palestine and Syria and the kings of Babylonia, Assyria, and
Mitanni. These tablets and other archaeological remains serve as
valuable sources of information about the Amarna period.
SUGGESTED READING: AKHENATEN
- KING OF EGYPT ; by Cyril Aldred. Thames & Hudson
(1991).