Relief

Relief

Standstone

An Egyptian fragment from a sandstone relief carved with part of three cartouches. The two on the left are the cartouches of the Aten, that on the right is Queen Nefertiti. In the reaction following the death of the heretic pharaoh Ahkenaten, iconoclasts tore down many of the buildings erected in his reign but fortunately many fragments of reliefs were used as rubble filler for the walls of new structures and so were preserved. The fragment almost certainly comes from Karnak, where it had been reused in this way. The use of the word 'shu' (sunlight) in the cartouche of the Aten dates this fragment to the earlier part of his reign (pre year 9). Early in the reign of Akhenaten, until year 9 (c. 1344 BC), the Aten was given a cartouche naming it "Alive is Re-Harakhty who rejoices in the horizon, under his name of Shu who is also Aten." After this point, Shu was removed from the name of the Aten as the belief system surroudning the god became more abstract. The new name of the Aten read "Alive is Re-Harakhty who rejoices on the horizon, under his name of Re who comes in the form of Aten."

The stone was possibly part of a 'talatat', a small stone block or regular size used in the construction of temples during the reign of Ahkenaten. It may have originally been part of a temple relief dedicated to the Aten and Nefertiti at Karnak where Akhenaten constructed many religious buildings in the early part of his reign.

Purchased from Charles Ede Ltd, London, with funds from the Dr E Harwood Bequest and the Alumni Friends of the University of Queensland, 2012.

1352 BC - 1344 BC

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