Episode R10 – The Bull and the Aten

“I am a faithful servant of the king, and I have not rebelled and I have not sinned, and I do not withhold my tribute, and I do not refuse the requests of my commissioner.  Now they wickedly slander me, but let the king, my lord, not impute rebellion to me!…If the king should write to me, ‘Plunge a bronze dagger into thy heart and die!,’ how could I refuse to carry out the command of the king?”  – Labayu (Caananite warlord) writing to Amenhotep III 

Discoveries at Tell El Amarna and the Valley of the Kings showed the wealth and influence of the Egyptian New Kingdom, while archives uncovered in central Anatolia shed light on Hittite civilization.  Excavations and Knossos confirmed Mycenaean Greek dominance and revealed the majesty of Minoan Crete.

Series References and Further Reading:

https://audio.ancientworldpodcast.com/R_References.pdf



12 thoughts on “Episode R10 – The Bull and the Aten

  1. "Livia did it!"…ahahahahaha. Thanks for that. Really enjoyed the new series, and looking forward with bated breath to the mysterious upcoming "long haul"! – Matt

  2. I figured THoR fans would like that one 😉 Glad you enjoyed the series. I'm currently working on the first episode of the upcoming series. It'll still be awhile before I start posting, but everything is still coming together well. Take care!

  3. You are completely correct – not sure why I didn't catch that! I knew his name meant "effective for the Aten," and I knew his city was "horizon of the Aten," but I missed the N/T change! Thanks

  4. Just catching up — I laughed out loud at the Livia line, during my workout at the gym! Now I'm looking forward to the intriguing Bloodline series.

  5. Oh my God, this will be about Akhnaten!
    I have a crash on him ever since I’ve seen Philip Glass opera “Akhnaten” online performed by the Metropolitan Opera last year (everyone who has missed it – don’t refuse yourself such an artistic feast).

    Oh, I’m so happy about this episode. Love to get to know more about discovering Amarna and the Amarna Tablets.

    What a wonderful day : )

    Ivonna

    1. With your crush on Akhenaten (or however it is transliterated into English), you might want to check out the History of Egypt podcast. The podcaster, Dominic Perry, has many episodes on this era of Egyptian history. Also, Dominic conducts an interview with the current (or recent) cast members of the opera. Modern opera rarely makes an appearance in history podcasts.

  6. Hey hey, as I’ve written you previously on one of the Ancient World Podcast episodes – Akhnaten is neither homonymous nor semantically identical to the city name, which is: Akhetaten.

    They may seem similar, like “procession” and “profession” may seem, but we won’t to be more careful, don’t we.

    Akhnaten means “Effective to Aten”
    Akhetaten means “Horizon of Aten”

    Best,

    Ivonna

    1. You are obviously 100% correct! Another listener informed me of this some time back. Apologies, errors occasionally slip in 😉 Take care!

  7. For those interested – you can hear this famous dialogue between Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter in the clip:

    “Tutankhamon visits the 21st century”

    in which I have have expressed in pictures the thought I’ve entertained ever since reading the book “Der goldene Pharo” by Karl Bruckner, which is:
    what would Tutenkhamon’s reaction be to the discoveries, mores and inventions of the modern era. How would he feel, if he visited our times.

    In the clip you can see him watching the discovery of his own grave : )

    Oh, and the link:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR0A6eLU7lM

    Ivonna

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