On display are more than 100 ancient artifacts, some of which have never before been on display. Items include a statuary of gods, goddesses and royalty, monumental reliefs, golden jewelry, personal items from the royal family and artists’ materials from the royal workshops of Amarna.
Central to the exhibition is a monumental wall relief depicting the solar deity Aten as a disk hovering above the Pharaoh Akhenaten and his favorite wife Nefertiti. The Aten’s rays descend toward the couple, each terminating in a hand. Some time after the restoration of the traditional religion, this relief was cut down, placed face down on the ground, re-inscribed, and reused, probably as a base for a statue in the shape of a sphinx for the later pharaoh Merenptah. Ironically, this recycling accidentally preserved the decorated front of the relief from total destruction.
The “Amarna Period” proved to be short lived — by the time that Tutankhamun died, at about the age of 19, hardly a decade into his kingship, the Amarna Period was not only coming to an end, but the Egyptian people’s traditional beliefs and religious practices were being restored. And plans were also underway to abandon and dismantle the city.
The ancient Egyptians were thorough in their efforts to dismantle the royal city, which left a considerable task for 20th-century excavators. Only fragmentary evidence remained, such as hieroglyphic texts, small royal stamps, tiny molds, half-finished sculptures, and artifacts bearing glimpses of the royal family.