| Author | Message | ||
     Aymen (217.29.140.15) |
Dear Colleagues, Below I present a copy of my latest study 'A Jubilee of Three Suns'. The study provides evidence for the possible connection between the second jubilee of King Amenhotep III and the solar eclipse of 08/15/1352 BC. I hope you would enjoy it! Best Regards, Aymen ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT AYMEN MOHAMED IBRAHEM ECLIPSES AND JUBILEES IN ANCIENT EGYPT PART III A JUBILEE OF THREE SUNS ABSTRACT The author shows that the second jubilee of King Amenhotep III (1386-1348 BC) was celebrated for the total solar eclipse of 08/15/-1351, and coincided with the first jubilee of King Akhenaten (1356-1338 BC). The author shows that the elevation of King Amenhotep III to full solar divinity may have been inspired by the solar eclipse of 08/15/-1351. The author presents his revised chronology of the Amarna Period. Notes: 1. The article is simplified for the general reader. 2. The chronology used in this study is the result of the author's own works indicated below. SUMMARY JUBILEES OF THE SUN The heb-sed, or the royal jubilee, was typically celebrated in the thirtieth regnal year of an Egyptian monarch. However, there are a number of royal jubilees which had been celebrated atypically earlier than 'Year 30'. In the previous two parts of this series I have demonstrated that some untraditional royal jubilees, such as those of Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BC), and King Akhenaten (1356-1338 BC), were most probably celebrated for heavenly jubilees, i.e., solar eclipses. My view is that the eclipses urged the celebration of the heb-sed, the pharaohs may have held the ceremonies taking the pharaoh of heaven (the Sun) as their model! If you have not read the earlier parts yet, it is recommended to read them first at my website at: http://www.geocities.com/aymen_ibrahem Also, if you read to me for the first time, it is important to read first my following studies, available at my website. 1. The Philosopher Pharaoh and the Total Solar Eclipse. 2. An Astronomical Approach to the Puzzle of Coregency between Amenhotep III and IV. 3. The Solar (Eclipse) Gods of Ancient Egypt, Part V, The Million Arms of the Sun. In this part, we make a sixth trip to the Amarna Period, as we are invited to attend the second royal jubilee of ancient Egypt's (and the ancient Near East's) wealthiest man, King Amenhotep III (1386-1348 BC). I find it the most curious case of all the known atypical jubilees. In his lengthy, prosperous reign (in which gold was as much as sand in Egypt), King Amenhotep III celebrated three jubilees, in Years 30, 34, and 37, respectively. The celebrations misleadingly seem traditional, one would naturally think that the king celebrated a traditional jubilee in Year 30, then celebrated some more as frequently as he wishes, or as possible. But a closer look has earned me quite amazing discoveries, the object of this paper! It is a new tackle to one of the numerous enigmas of the Amarna Period. I am pleased that my eclipse-theory has plausibly explained many of those elusive riddles! THE REVOLUTION OF THE SUN By excavating the marvelous ancient Egyptian skies, with the tools of an archaeoastronomer, I managed in the five previous trips to Amarna to obtain wonderful results, treasures of information that provide good answers to the mysteries of Amarna. For instance, I have shown that King Akhenaten made the choice of the location of the City of Akhetaten according to the totality path of the solar eclipse of 08/15/-1351. Also, of particular importance to this study are my strong arguments that the coregency between King Amenhotep III and IV actually existed; the accession of King Akhenaten was in 1356 BC; and the coregency was about eight years long. Consequently, as I have shown that the reign of King Amenhotep III occupied the period (1386-1348 BC), this implies that Year 30 of King Amenhotep III was 1356 BC, and the celebration of his second jubilee in Year 34, took place in 1352 BC, the year of the historic eclipse. To me, this was enough tempting to consider the possible relation between the jubilee and the solar eclipse. THREE SUNS! It has been believed that the jubilee of King Akhenaten may have been celebrated for the Aten, since the king should have waited until Year 30 (1). In Part I of this series, I showed that the jubilee of King Akhenaten was for the solar eclipse of 08/15/-1351. But the jubilees of King Amenhotep III seem to be much more than just demonstrations of the king's physical fitness . . . Some of the late depiction of King Amenhotep III apparently show him in a divine rather than human nature (2). The jubilee celebrations seem to have aimed to his elevation to the status of full solar divinity (3). Recently, it has been strongly argued that these ceremonies were associated with the rise of Atenism, the cult of the younger coregent, Akhenaten (4). Also, it is believed that the jubilee of King Akhenaten may have coincided with one of the jubilees of King Amenhotep III - whose celebration may have marked the transformation of the elder monarch into a solar god (5). There was also another case of a joint jubilee, that of Queen Hatshepsut and King Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC), which was atypically celebrated in Year 15. I have shown that this jubilee was in response to the annular solar eclipse of 08/23/-1463. Pursuing my solar-eclipse-approach to the riddles of the Amarna Period, I find it clear that the two jubilees were simultaneous, and the revolution in the cult of King Amenhotep III have been inspired by the solar eclipse of 08/15/-1351. That is, the jubilee was for three Suns: the god Aten (the eclipsed Sun), and the deified, reigning monarchs, Amenhotep III and IV. The arguments are as follows. In my paper 'An Astronomical Approach to the Puzzle of Coregency' I gave unambiguous pieces of evidence for the coregency between Kings Amenhotep III and IV; dated the beginning of this coregency to 1356 BC; showed it was about eight years long; and dated Year 4/5 of King Akhenaten as 1352 BC. Thus, Year 34 of King Amenhotep III, the year of the king's second jubilee, was 1352 BC, the year of the historic solar eclipse. Thus, the possible joint jubilee of King Akhenaten and his father as that of Year 34 of the elder monarch. It seems clear now that the two jubilees may have coincided and were held for the eclipsed Sun (as Aten). THE REIGN OF THE SUN The highest recorded date from the reign of King Akhenaten is Year 17. For this, it is commonly accepted that the reign of King Akhenaten was about seventeen years long. However, with my eclipse-ideas, I find evidence that this may not be entirely accurate! One of the peculiarities of the Atenism, the Amarna Religion, was that the god Aten was regarded as a reigning heavenly pharaoh, with royal titulary written in two cartouches, and documented regnal years. I believe the structure of the chronology of Dynasty XVIII should be changed a little! Having explained the relation between the king and his deity Aten in my study 'The Million Arms of the Sun', which stated that the two Suns are co-ruling pharaohs and since the events had been dated according to the regnal years of Aten as well, I believe this coregency must have started in Year 4 of King Akhenaten, the year of the eclipse! Thus, "Year 17", the latest known date King Akhenaten, may have been Year 17 of the rule of Aten too. That is, Year 17 of Aten would be equivalent to Year 21 of King Akhenaten, if he considered himself the sole ruler of Egypt throughout his reign. This raises the length of the effective reign of King Akhenaten to just over 20 years, including the alleged 17-years-long coregency with the Aten. A TALE OF FOUR SUNS! Therefore, if this solar coregency had been so considered in the Egyptian records, a third monarch, King Smenkhkare, whose reign lasted about 3 years, must have joined this coregency later in the reign (in Year 14). Thus, the million armed Sun, Aten has been coregent with three other Suns: Kings Amenhotep III, Amenhotep IV, and Smenkhkare. But if the recorded "Year 17" was ascribed to King Akhenaten only, this would mean that King Smenkhkare was a successor of King Akhenaten, who reigned solely for 2-3 years - it is recommended to review my paper 'An Eclipse-Based Hittite Chronology' at: http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt4.htm. CONCLUSION It seems that Kings Amenhotep III, IV, and the Aten (the eclipsed Sun), celebrated a joint jubilee in Year 34 (= 1352 BC) of King Amenhotep III, which was equivalent to Year 4/5 of King Akhenaten and Year 1 of "King Aten". Thus, the images depicting King Amenhotep III beneath the raying Sun-disc of Aten, have been made in the king's life, according to my arguments for the coregency with his son, and since Atenism did not pay much attention to the afterlife. The reign of King Akhenaten may have been as long as 20 years, if we take into account the possible consideration of the regnal years of the god Aten. If so, King Smenkhkare must have been a member of the divine coregency in Year 17, being a co-regent of King Akhenaten and King Aten for about 3 years. Thus, King Akhenaten may have been a coregent of three other Suns at different times: King Amenhotep III, Aten, and then Smenkhkare. Also, he was married to a Sun (Queen Nefertiti) whose beauty far dwarfed that of Aten! I also would like to present my revised chronology of the Amarna Kings: AKHENATEN 1356-1336 BC ATEN 1352-1336 SMENKHKARE 1338-1336 TUTANKHAMUN 1336-1327 AY 1327-1323 Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem Website: http://www.geocities.com/aymen_ibrahem Email: aymen_ibrahem@hotmail.com Copy rights: Aymen Ibrahem, March 30, 2002. * Please do not reproduce without permission! THE CHRONOLOGY USED IN THIS STUDY The text on the base of the standing obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BC) at Karnak represents to me an enlightenment! The text has helped me to decipher the way the ancient Egyptians described solar eclipse, and to discover the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'solar eclipse'. Then it became easy for me to find many ancient Egyptian solar eclipse records. A surprising discovery was the Great Hymn to Aten describes a total solar eclipse [Aymen Ibrahem, www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt2.htm]. This has paved the way to me to obtain an absolute, eclipse-based New Kingdom and Hittite chronologies. The author uses his eclipse-based New Kingdom and Old Kingdom chronologies, in which Year 9 of King Amenhotep I = 1517 BC, Year 15 of Queen Hatshepsut = 1464 BC, Year 4 of King Akhenaten = 1352 BC, Year 9 of King Seti I = 1285 BC, Year 8 of King Ramesses the Great = 1271 BC. Also, the author has demonstrated that the advent of Dynasty IV was in 2625 BC, with an error of a few years due to the uncertainties of the lengths of some of the reigns of the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom. Also, a margin of error of only a few years exists in the dates of Dynasty XXI (1070-945 BC). The author's related studies are: 1. The Dream that Has Come True, Part I, An Eclipse-Based New Kingdom Chronology, www.jas.org.jo/article.html, JAS, 2000. 2. The Dream that Has Come True, Part II, An Eclipse-Based Hittite Chronology, www.eclipse-chasers.com/egypt4.htm, 2000. 3. The Dream that Has Come True, Part III, An Eclipse-Based Old Kingdom Chronology, SEML, 2000. Also, the Middle Kingdom and the dates of the Late Period are exact and available in most text books. FURTHER READINGS My website contains most of my studies at: http://www.geocities.com/aymen_ibrahem The site includes links to my publishers. Also, I wholeheartedly acknowledge the following friends for their enormous, most valued efforts in kindly publishing and promoting my research. They are introduced in order of appearance in my career. The Jordanian Astronomical Society http://www.jas.org.jo/ Dr. Eric Flescher (KCStarguy@aol.com) has kindly established an archive, which includes many of my studies, at his website at: http://ericsblacksuneclipse.com Eclipse Chasers http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/ References 1. Aidan Dodson, Monarchs of the Nile, p. 99, the AUC Press, 2000. 2. Ibid., p. 95. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid., p. 99. Other references include: 1. Ahmed Fakhry, Pharaonic Egypt, the Angloegyptian Publishing, 1995. 2. Ahmed Fakhry, The Pyramids, Chicago University Press, 1962. 3. Seleem Hassan, The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Vol. V., The EGBO, 2000. 4. Labib Habachi, The Obelisks of Egypt, The AUC Press, 1988. 5. Gay Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt, The British Museum Press, 2000. 6. The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, The AUC Press, 1995. 7. Munfred Lurker, Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt, Thames and Hudson, 1995. 8. Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids, The AUC Press, 1997. 9. D. Redford, Akhenaten the Heretic King, the AUC Press, 1992. 10. Cyril Aldred, Akhenaten King of Egypt, Thames and Hudson, 1988. 11. Joyce Tyldesley, Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh, Penguin Books, 2000. 12. P. Clayton, Chronicle of the Pharaohs, Thames and Hudson, 1994. 13. N. Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell Publishers, 1994. 14. Siliotti, Guide to the Pyramids of Egypt, The AUC Press, 1998. 15. D. Redford, The Osford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Oxford University Press, 2001. 16. K. A. Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant, The AUC Press, 1992. | ||
| JvH (212.68.202.42) |
Aymen, Hello : most interesting ! However, your links ...egypt4... and other, do not work ... | ||
| Aymen (217.29.140.15) |
Thank you JvH, for your interest and kind comment. I am deeply thankful. My website is temporarily closed. I'll check the links. Also, you can find all the studies at the Forum of Akhet Egyptology http://www.akhet.co.uk/index.htm and here at Guardian's Egypt. Best Regards, Aymen | ||
| Aymen (217.29.140.15) |
Hi JvH, egypt4 now works! Best, Aymen | ||
| Aymen (217.29.140.15) |
Hi JvH, Thank you opnce again for your comment, which I proud of. Also, the following links are useful: www.eclipse-chasers.com/akhet.html www.eclipse-chasers.com/egygod5.htm www.eclipse-chasers.com/egygod6.htm Best Regards, Aymen |
