Game of Toes in Amarna: Missing Body Parts and Funerary Practices of King and Commoner

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Ancient Egyptian painted relief showing foot and toes. Design by Anand Balaji. (Photo credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York);Detail.

Game of Toes in Amarna: Missing Body Parts and Funerary Practices of King and Commoner

Pharaoh Akhenaten was the subject of great controversy when he lived; and this did not cease after he died. If anything, his memory has both troubled and impressed people down to this day. Be it his religious revolution, death and burial – or his missing left toe – the Amarna king is somehow always in the news. The baffling funerary accompaniments found on the remains of his subjects who were buried in Akhetaten too have given Egyptologists much food for thought.

Remains of the Head of King Akhenaten from a massive statue, wearing the khat or nemes and double crown. This was among the large heads found by Henri Chevrier in 1926. Luxor Museum.

Remains of the Head of King Akhenaten from a massive statue, wearing the khat or nemes and double crown. This was among the large heads found by Henri Chevrier in 1926. Luxor Museum.

A Question of Burial

Akhenaten ushered in staggering changes in the way Egypt was ruled. Through a series of overt and daring means – such as introducing Atenism and shifting the royal capital from Thebes – he left an indelible mark upon the country’s history. For this, he was reviled, misunderstood, and vehemently denounced. All this apart, his eventual death and burial have posed a conundrum too.


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