Very exciting announcement of the discovery of a well-preserved ancient Egyptian town! ‘The Rise of Aten’ was a large administrative and industrial settlement on the West Bank of Luxor dating to the reigns of Amenhotep III-IV c1390 BC. Thread👇 english.ahram.org.eg/News/408778.as
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Few settlements have been excavated in Egypt since they were along the Nile, ie. beneath where people still live today. What has survived is generally state purpose-built settlements like Deir el-Medina, for workers who built royal tombs, or Amara West, a colonial town in Nubia
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So this new city will surely provide valuable new information! The ‘Rise of Aten’ will be especially fascinating to compare with Amarna- the city that it was abandoned for when Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten broke away from the old administration and founded a new capital
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It’s a bit sad though that the press release about the new city felt the need to state that ‘the mission expects to uncover untouched tombs filled with treasures’ when the city itself is a treasure of information, including lots of new data on craft industries!
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If thousands of years in the future you wanted to understand life in Britain, do you think it would be more valuable to find the grave of Elizabeth II or Buckingham Palace rather than the remains of a neighbourhood in East London or Glasgow? 🤔
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Ultimately I’m sure we will learn so much more about life in ancient Egypt from the new settlement of ‘the Rise of Aten’, even just from the perspective of experiencing these streets and buildings preserved to an amazing 3 metres high!
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If you’d like to learn more about Egyptian settlements & homes, check out this book by cambridge.org/core/books/arc & check out online events : a course on cities & a great series on houses & domestic life with & ! ees.ac.uk/pages/events/c
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It’s worth adding here that several astute colleagues have noticed that some of the ‘lost city’ was actually excavated in the 1930s! The publicity may be overblown, but re-excavation can still yield new results & it’s good to have more work focussing on understanding settlements!
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#Luxor #GoldenCity seems very close to the Village of Amenhotep III excavated by @ifaocaire in 1930s. You'll recognise the undulating walls. You can get more info on that dig in Robichon and Varille publication, available online: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt
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