Abstract
IN the season's excavations of the Egypt Exploration Society at Tell el-Amarna, which have recently been brought to a close, the most notable achievement has been the completion of the exploration of the great palace of Akhenaten, or rather of what was left of it by the spoilers by whom it was destroyed at the collapse of the Aton religion and the abandonment of the city. The building was of a remarkable size. It has now been shown by the recent excavation to have been little less than a kilometre in length. At the south end was a vast hall in which the roof was supported by six hundred square pillars of mud brick. The walls had been covered with faience tiles in green with a characteristic decoration of inlaid white daisies. Among the relics found in this building were a large number of fragments of huge statues. These evidently had occupied a position along a plaster pavement leading to a columned hall. They had apparently stood on the oblong bases which were found at intervals along this passage. It is to be concluded that the statues were hacked to pieces when the palace was destroyed. Near the palace entrance was a well-preserved copper crowbar, which, no doubt, had been used as one of the implements of destruction. Among the examples of the sculpture, for which the site is now famous, this season's finds included a remarkably fine head of Akhenaten executed in black granite.
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Excavations at Tell el-Amarna. Nature 135, 836 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135836b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135836b0