Akhenaton’s brief reign, of around 16 years, occured during a difficult time in Egyptian history and many Egyptologists and other commentators maintain that Akhenaton was primarily responsible for this decline, though there is some evidence to suggest that it had already begun before his reign.

The Aton

Akhenaton, possibly in a move designed to lessen the political power of the Priests, introduced the worship of one god, the Aton , or Sun disk. This meant that the Pharaoh, not the priesthood, was the sole link between the population and the Aton which effectively ended the power of the various temples.

This also signified the first known form of monotheism in known history. Interestingly, when Akhenaton’s successors, Ay and the general Horemheb re-established the temples of Amun they selected their priests from the military, enabling the Pharaoh to keep tighter controls over the religious orders.

Akhetaton

When Akhenaton established his new religion he built an entire city dedicated to the Aton, complete with a necropolis and royal tomb . This city was Akhetaton, the Horizon of the Ateon, and at the peak of Akhenaton’s reign over 20,000 people lived there.

This city was built in middle Egypt, perhaps chosen as it was an area not tainted by the worship of other gods. After the death of Akhenaton the city was abandoned, and the old religions which had been suppressed quickly re-established their control over Egypt. It is thought that this return was started by the shadowy figure of Smenkhkare, and completed by Tutankhaton who changed his name to Tutankhamon and moved his capital from Akhetaton to Memphis.

Akhenaton is, perhaps, unfairly depicted by history as not being a particularly successful Pharaoh. Records seem to indicate that he allowed true Egyptian influence to dwindle, but this may not be true.

These ideas come from famous Amarna letters found in Akhetaton, in which Egyptian vassal cities were pleading for assistance, however no replies remain intact. As there are no surviving records of Egyptian territory being lost at this time, it is quite possible that Akhenaton was a skilled politician who did not require the military might that some of his predecessors had found essential.

Erasure of Akhetaton

Later Pharaohs attempted to erase all memories of Akhenaton and his religion. Much of the distinctive art of the period was destroyed and the buildings dismantled to be reused. Many of the Talitat blocks from the Aton temples in Thebes were reused as rubble infill for later pylons where they were rediscovered during restoration work and reassembled.

It is interesting to note that this destruction was directed at Akhenaton personally and not the Aton itself which would return to it’s former place in the lower end of the Egyptian religious hierarchy.

The backlash against the religion of Akhenaton led to the widespread destruction of his palaces and temples. Work began on dismantling Akhetaton shortly after it was abandoned. Restoration work on the great pylons of Ramesses II at Karnak showed that they used ‘recycled’ Aton temples for the filling. This has left modern Archaeologists with the worlds biggest jigsaw puzzle. A section of a temple wall has now been restored and is on display in the Luxor Museum .

Ankhesenamun was probably only around 13 years of age when she married the 10 year old boy King, Tutankhamon.

The reason why Tutankhamon may have married at such an early age was a matter of tradition - the King would be expected to have a wife, or indeed many wives, to aid him in dispensing the religious aspects of his office.

Ankhesenamun was the daughter of Akhenaton, Tutankhamon’s father, and her mother was Nefertiti, his step-mother. This close blood relationship may, according to experts, explain why the only two children from the marriage were both born premature and died.

It is further believed that Ankhesenamun was previously married to Smenkhare but only for a year or two, prior to marrying Tutankhamon, who succeeded Smenkhare as Pharoah around 1333BC.

When Tutankhamon died, Ankhesenamun possibly became afraid of Horemhab who was growing in power and may, possibly, have had a hand in Tut’s death. At that time, the religion that Tutankhamon’s father had created, was much reviled amongst many of influence and Horemhab was one who was intent on ending worship of the god Aton.

Ankhesenamun sent word to the Hittites that she would give the throne of Egypt to one of the princes in return for marriage. Prince Zannanza took up the offer of what could have proved to be an interesting alliance, only to be murdered on Egypt’s borders, again possibly murdered by Horemhab or one of his agents.

Instead, she ended up marrying Ay who had been close to Tutankhamon and may have been her natural grandfather. They took the throne even before Tutankhamon was buried but Ankhesenamun disappeared from history shortly afterwards, replaced as Ay’s wife by Tey.

No-one knows for sure what Ankhesenamun’s fate was but it may be that Ay married her purely to legitimise his own position as Pharoah and then had her killed when he had cemented his position on the throne.

This decision is based mainly upon the period of 2000 - 500 B.C. and rests upon the fact that the history we have recorded at this moment in time is, at best, chaotic.

“Egyptologists are now secretly admitting, but only amongst themselves in their inner cabals (colloquiums), that the chronology framework for ancient Egypt between 2000 and 500 BC is chaotic and that a ‘new political history for ancient Egypt will take another hundred years to establish’”. Mr Don Stewart, currently auditing the Egyptology Profession, and a former economist for the United States Department of Agriculture’s FAS, also former analyst for New Zealand Science Ministry ‘MoRST’, today announced these findings from an Egyptology colloquium he attended in 2002. He added, “Egyptologists at the Colloquium raised the possibility of considering a new process whereby they will in future ignore any evidence which is not found ‘in situ’ in archaeological investigations or anything that is not either pottery-, statue- or building- or any other physical object-based.”

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Cosmetics were often applied to the face and eyes in an attempt to look young. Even Cleopatra is known to have used lactic acid in order to peel her skin, believing it made her appear more beautiful. Formulas, written on papyrus, have been discovered by archaeologists and describe how facials were made from honey and plants.

There have also been descriptions of anti-wrinkle treatments derived from aloe which was commonly used in ancient Egypt. It is believed that all classes of Egyptian society were concerned with their appearance and so it is believed that cosmetics were used even by the lower classes.

As today, good looks and care of the body were concerns shared equally by both the men and the women. The desert climate of Egypt is obviously hot and arid which led to the widespread use of body oils which acted as moisturisers.

Back in April the chances of such a loan looked slim indeed as the German Culture Minister, Bernd Nuemann, had grave concerns over the transport of the bust, citing conservational issues. He also claimed that German had a lawful right to own the bust, something Zahi Hawass is less convinced about.

Hawass has done a fine job of procuring ancient Egyptian antiquities from around the world in recent years but is still after a few key artifacts. Another that he has his eye on is the Rosetta Stone which currently resides in the British Museum. So far, his efforts have proved fruitless as the British Museum continues to stall, stating that they are still reviewing his request.

‘Secrets of Egypt’s Lost Queen’ promises an exciting look into how the discovery was made, via a range of scientific methods, including archaeology and forensics.

Hatshepsut may not have been discovered with a hoarde of treasure but the importance of discovering, and now identifying, her mummy may eclipse the the relevance of Tutankhamon’s unearthing in terms of historical interest.

Howard Carter’s unearthing of the tomb of Tutankhamon may have represented the first and only time that a full cache of treasure has been discovered but the boy king was otherwise unremarkable in the history of ancient Egypt.

Conversely, Hatshepsut was an important historical figure - the queen who stole the throne, dressed as a man and called herself a pharaoh. Despite leading Egypt through an extremely prosperous part of her history, Hatshepsut was all but obliterated from history, with almost all references to her removed after her death.

The programme tonight is a 2 hour special which follows Dr Zawi Hawass and a team of top forensic scientists as they use knowledge of royal mummification to firstly narrow the search for Hatshepsut down to four mummies.

Computer tomographic scanning further reduces the choice to two mummies but it is a box containing a tooth that perfectly fits one of those mummies that eventually leads to the positive identification of Hatshepsut.

Many people believe that the removal of these organs had some spiritual or religious significance, however, it was done for far more practical reasons - soft organs consist primarily of water and other fluid which would lead to quick decomposition of the obdy should they have not been removed. This is why so many Pharoah’s and other mummies have been discovered in excellent condition over the years.

Of course there was some spiritual significance attached to the process too - the Egyptians believed that the organs were required by the deceased in the afterlife and placing them in canopic jars ensured that they were protected by the Sons of Horus themselves.

The organs were placed into 4 canopic jars which had lids fashioned after the four sons of Horus. In later years this changed to humanoid figures that were half man, half beast, such as the Jackal, Falcon and Baboon.

Canopic jars were generally fashioned from limestone or alabaster and were placed around the deceased’s sarcophogi, ready for use in the afterlife. The organs that were removed and placed in the jars were -

• liver
• stomach and upper intestines
• lower intestines
• lungs

Strangely, the brain was almost always removed too, through the nasal cavity, but not often kept.

The word papyrus means something along the lines of  ‘a thing that belongs to the house’ which experts have interpreted as meaning it was a fundamental part of the bureaucracy of ancient Egypt.

Ancient Egyptians discovered papyrus along the banks of the Nile where it is a common marsh plant. They stripped away the rind from the stem and then cut this into short pieces which were then further trimmed into narrow pieces.

This pith was then kept damp until the fibres became pliable. At this time two layers of the soaked papyrus would be laid on a flat surface, one on top of the other, at right angles. Pressure would then be applied until all the excess moisture was squeezed out.

Following this the resulting sheets were dried in the sun for several days until they were completely free of any water and were fused together. Scribes would then polish the sheets and glue several together to form scrolls.

The new examination also voids the belief that one of the other mummies belonged to Tohotmos I, Hatshepsut’s father. Instead it is now thought that the mummy belongs to a non royal.

Egypt Farouq Hosny and Secretary General of the Supreme Council for antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawas declared that the team which comprised Egyptologists, archeologists and University Professors uncovered serious secrets that were not known previously during the conduct of studies and researches with radio-active materials over six mummies existing presently at the Egyptian museum and date back to the era of Modern Kingdom.

Two of these mummies were found in the tomb 35 at Kings Valley, another two were found in the mummies disguised burial at El-Deir Al-Bahary in 1982, while the last two were found at tomb No. 60 at Kings Valley by Heward Carter, one of them it was verified that it belongs to Queen Hatshepsut and the other for the Royal Nanny “Set Ra In”.The most astonishing and important discovery – that was announced during the press conference at the main parlor of the Egyptian Museum – is what was disclosed by Dr. Zahi Hawas during the study of mummies of Tohotmos 1st, 2nd and 3rd . It was revealed that the mummy which was thought belonging to King Tohotmos 1st was not a royal one and it was not for Tohotmos 1st but for unidentified person, which blow up all facts and information previously known on this mummy as belonging to Tohotmos 1st…

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