People at Amarna

I have recently listened to an excellent lecture by Chris Naunton People at Amarna - which is about the ancient city of Ahketaten; the archaeological remains at Tell El Amarna; and the Egyptologists who  made discoveries and studies at this site, which have contributed to our knowledge of that particular and fascinating period of Egyptian history.   The lecture gave a whistle-stop tour of the archaeologists/Egyptologists/artists who recorded their finds at Tell El Amarna and which are invaluable records for todays scholars. He has written a book on this subject called ‘Egyptologists Notebooks' and it was published September 2020 (its definitely on my Christmas wish list!).  I really recommend checking out the lecture and I was astounded by how much research he has put into this subject.

One of the things which strikes me after listening to the lecture is how many original artefacts have been lost since the earliest records of the site.  In particular when Flinders Petrie excavated there he discovered a wonderful floor painting showing naturalistic scenes of birds and animals.  Instead of removing the floor and bringing it back to England to conserve it he left it in situ and covered it with a structure to create a museum.  However this back fired on him because the tourists who came there annoyed the surrounding farmers when they traipsed through arable land.  So the farmer smashed the floor to pieces in anger.  I was so dismayed to hear this and it reminds me (a little bit) of the destruction of archaeological-historical sites in Syria by militant groups in recent times.

Perhaps Petrie should have removed the floor and located it elsewhere.  This I know is political, when the right thing to do is leave it in Egypt.  I am torn – I am able to visit museums and get close up to the beautiful creations, and I don’t know if I will have the opportunity to visit Egypt.  Wall paintings found in tombs at Amarna have now degraded much more than when they were recorded in the early part of the 20^th Century,  but it’s not easy to remove a whole wall of a tomb.  Nor should it be done as these are sacred sites which once house the remains of people and should be respected.

I love to see the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum; the ferocity of the horses is so powerful.   Who knows if the marbles would have survived the pollution if they had been left on the Parthenon in Athens.

(Incidently Chis states in the lecture that some of the broken fragments have been gathered up and are on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo)