Akhenaten's Atenist revolution and the Amarna period
- Date
- c. 1348 BCE
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Egypt (Akhetaten / Amarna)
- Era
- Ancient Civilizations
- Significance
The pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who renamed himself Akhenaten, overturned Egypt's traditional polytheism in favour of the exclusive worship of the Aten, the visible sun-disk.
Around his fifth regnal year he proclaimed sweeping reforms, suppressed the powerful cult of Amun, closed temples, and founded a new capital, Akhetaten (modern Amarna), on virgin ground midway between Memphis and Thebes (c. 1346 BCE). Atenism functioned as Egypt's state religion for roughly two decades and is often described as one of the earliest documented experiments in monotheism or monolatry. The period also produced a distinctive naturalistic 'Amarna' art style and the Great Hymn to the Aten. The reforms proved deeply unpopular and were reversed soon after Akhenaten's death; later pharaohs erased him as a heretic. The episode remains a landmark in the history of religion and of the relationship between royal power and priestly authority.
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Empires active in c. 1348 BCE
- New Kingdom of Egypt1550 BCE – 1077 BCE
- Shang Dynasty1600 BCE – 1046 BCE
- Hittite Empire1650 BCE – 1178 BCE
- Mitanni1500 BCE – 1300 BCE
- Elamite Kingdom2700 BCE – 539 BCE
Related religion & ideology events
- Composition of the Rigvedac. 1500-1200 BCE
- Enuma Elish: the Babylonian epic of creationc. 1150 BCE
- Zoroaster and the rise of dualist religionc. 1200–900 BCE
- Construction of Solomon's Temple (First Temple) in Jerusalemc. 957 BCE
- Chavín de Huántar and the first pan-Andean religious cultc. 900 BCE
- Great Ziggurat of Ur and temple-centred religionc. 2100 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Religion
Accessible sweep of humanity's faiths and belief systems from prehistory to the present.
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