Barry Kemp
The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and its People by Barry Kemp is a detailed and comprehensive account of Professor Kemp’s findings during the 35 years he spent excavating the ancient city of Akhetaten, known as Tell el-Amarna, in Egypt.
Professor Kemp explores every aspect of this ancient site. He begins with Akhenaten’s vision to establish a city in the middle of the desert dedicated to the worship of Aten, the sun-god. From there he goes on to explore the city’s available resources; its physical lay out; the pharaoh’s palaces/apartments; the city’s inhabitants, including their quality of life, clothing, food, and spiritual lives. He concludes with an overall view of the city’s very nature.
This is not a study of the lives Akhenaten and Nefertiti. It is very much an analysis of the site’s excavations and what they reveal about its structure, architecture, and inhabitants. Professor Kemp describes in painstaking detail the size of buildings and records the measurements of even the smallest objects. He analyzes each item and describes its composition and the location of its discovery. The extensive technical details can get overwhelming in their intricacy, but the work as a whole is fascinating. Although we are introduced to some prominent characters who lived and worked in Amarna, the focus is squarely on the archaeological findings. Included in this comprehensive study are drawings, extraordinarily beautiful color plates, and photographs of reconstructions and models of the city. There is also an extensive bibliography, notes, index, and list of illustrations.
In his analysis of the site’s excavations, Professor Kemp contests modern notions of cities, work places, homes, and living space. He provides an intense and penetrative view of the life at Amarna, a place he describes as an “urban village.” The study does not provide insight into the person of Akhenaten or the aftermath of his brief reign. But Professor Kemp does dispel some of the mythology surrounding Akhenaten, specifically that Akhenaten required strict and exclusive worship of Aten. Evidence has been unearthed that demonstrates former household gods were still worshipped in Amarna, suggesting there was more flexibility in spiritual leanings than had previously been assumed.
This definitive study of Amarna is highly recommended. It is an invaluable resource for information on a fascinating interlude in the civilization of ancient Egypt.