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Akhenaten and Sargon

Posted By: Charles Pope
Date: Friday, 30 December 2005, at 8:29 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Amarna and the 6th Dynasty (Senusret)

The idea of a collapse in the Old Kingdom may be an illusion based on mistaken chronology. There was drought in Egypt and infighting but no fall of the royal family.

There was also drought in Amarna Period. Perhaps this is why Akhenaten chose to identify with the 6th Dynasty. It was also necessary for him as the designated Moses to identify with all those who played the part before him. That included Wahibre/Hammurabi and Pepi/Sargon. By naming his youngest son Tutankhamun (as a play on Teti-ankh-kem of the 6th Dynasty), Akhenaten demonstrated (to those who understood family history) that he was a type of Pepi/Sargon. Akhenaten also emulated Khufu and the god Re himself before that.

What is really interesting about this association is that Tut seems to have been given a tragic typecasting from birth. His very name suggests that he (as Tetiankhkem) was expected to die in young adulthood and probably be murdered by family rivals. I would suspect that Tut had profound congenital defects and that this is what prompted the fatalistic typecasting.

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