DID AKHENATEN KILL HIS PEOPLE WITH STARVATION?

Juan José López Galván ©

As if it were not enough that he had been the object of detraction on the
part of his contemporaries, several authors of our time are publishing a
considerable series of articles and some books in which Akhenaten's
memory continues being attacked. It is as if we were in the presence of
some modern Horemheb, Seti I and Ramses II, who strove to erase
Akhenaten's name from the records of history by performing another
authentic damnatio memoriae. Thus, an author has contempt for the
Pharaoh; another has called him a false prophet of Egypt, and comparing
him to dictators like Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Titles such as Akhenaten: A
Machiavellian Prince; Akhenaten―Angel of Death?; The Dark Side of the
Sun, and others of the same kind, circulate rampantly on the network
through academic sites such as Academia Edu and JSTOR as well as pages
of journal magazines such as The Guardian and Ancient Origins, among
others. One of the latest and most recent accusations against Akhenaten,
that of being a tyrant who killed his people with starvation, is based on the
skeletal remains of the inhabitants of Akhenaten buried in the city's two
cemeteries.

What is very disappointing, and surprising, is to find that most of the

present stream of thought averse to Akhenaten comes from the scholar
community, which, in theory, has a higher level of education than the
average reader. This because in the composition of their writings the
writers have concealed, consciously or unconsciously, many additional
data, which may show a more positive image of Akhenaten. They have
only focused on the limited evidence represented by the skeletal remains
of the Amarna cemeteries, and have disdained much and very important
documentary and archaeological evidence, thus arriving at an erroneously
one-sided conclusion. Many people not only read those papers being
influenced by the ideas that their authors inprint on them, but also gladly
share them on social networks, with the result that the influential negative
impact extends to thousands more. What is really serious about this matter
is that a very large number of people are psychologically being affected by
accepting and taking for granted what is published in these works as
something unquestionably certain, since they have not set out to verify
how much truth there is in them.
 The skeletal remains were examined by forensic physicians who
diagnosed that at least 50% of the corpses buried there showed signs of
malnutrition and chronic diseases caused by heavy work, many of whom
died very young, including children. From the diagnoses, it has been
inferred that those persons were forced by Akhenaten to build the city of
Akhetaten in oppressive conditions, which not only left its mark on their
malnourished bodies, but also because of the hard work to which they
were exposed. Certainly, the forensic evidence in the remains of the
skeletons cannot be refuted and the logical conclusion is that a large part of
the population was forced to work hard without being adequately fed.
What I do not agree with is in blaming Akhenaten for the disastrous
condition of those people, for which I going to show much data which, on
purpose or inadvertently, have been overlooked by publications on the
subject. This article, therefore, is a reply to all those who support the
accusation against pharaoh Akhenaten as a tyrant who killed his people
with starvation.

As we've already noticed, much of the data on this topic focuses exclusively
on the recent discoveries of skeletal remains unearthed at Amarna
cemeteries and the results of the forensic analysis made on them, without
considering additional evidence, both inscriptional and archaelogical. This
I consider to be a mistake, since a conclusion has been reached about
Akhenaten's conduct based unilaterally on a single source of information,
and not on the whole available evidence. In this article, on the opposite, we
try to harmonize the two available sources, both archaeological and
documentary, into its temporal context, including in the latter concept not
only the reign of Akhenaten, (to whom only the events occurred are
attributed) but the whole period of Amarna; that is, also considering the
reigns of Tutankhamun, Ay and Horemheb. Let's make, for example, an
analogy here. If we place ourselves a little lower than the confluence of
two rivers, we can see only one current, but if we move higher, we will see
that there are actually two currents that feed the one river we saw below.
By applying this analogy to a reliable methodological study, we must
include the two streams of information, both archaeological and
documentary, in order to obtain a complete and truthful picture of
historical reality. So let's get started.

In one of those negative articles, the author categorically states: "Although

the ancient city of Amarna, known during the reign of Akhenaten as
Akhetaten, was decorated abundantly with pictorial tombs murals of
bountiful food in the form of meat and bread piled high on lavish tables the
food was not for public consumption. Instead the food was for the Aten
and only those in the higher echelon were allowed to partake in the feasts
laid out for the god".1 As we can see, the author only bases her conclusions
on the pictorial representations of Amarna, and avoid making mention
elsewere in her work to some Amarnian text that verifies her point of view;
this is the case that occurs in all other publications that deal with this same
subject. However, if we make use of Amarna's extensive documentation
and other archaeological evidence related to our subject -as in fact we are
going to do- the grim picture painted by this and many other similar papers
will quickly dissipate and then a totally different resplendent image will
emerge.

Contrary to the limited evidence presented in those articles which has led
to the conclusion that Akhenaten was a tyrant who caused his people to
starve to death, the present writer has found much conclusive evidence in the
work of different Amarna excavators that speak of the good treatment and
adequate food he provided not only for his workers, but also for the
inhabitants of the entire city, and even more, for the whole country, as we
shall be able to prove later. All available evidence will show that Akenaten
implemented an extensive food distribution program that benefited his
workers, fedding very well to those who lived in the Workmen´s Village, as
well as those in the Stone Village and, by implication, all his workers,
including those who built Akhetaten. It will also show that good food
reached the entire city, including the poor class of Akhetaten. Finally,
evidence will be shown that the food distribution program went beyond the
purely local level, extending to the national sphere.

.
1 Kathleen Kuckens, The Children of Amarna: Disease and Famine in the Time of Akhenaten, pp.64-5.