The Mystery Resolved? I think Not!
Shovelbum said:
Two problems with that:
One, Akhenaten was likely Tut's father (he was the ruler immediately prior to Tut), and Akhenaten (known as "the heratic pharaoh") is the Pharaoh who established monotheism in Egypt for a time, with the worship of Aten. Doesn't seem too likely a candidate to opposed Moses's monotheistic religion, does he?
Two, among scholars there is debate over two Pharaohs for the "Exodus Pharaoh": the Late Date pharaoh, Rameses II (c.1290 BC) and the Early Date pharaoh, Amenhotep II (1450-1425 BC). .
One, Akhenaten was likely NOT Tut's father... he would have bragged all over the walls if he had fathered a son.
Two, Akhenaten did NOT establish monotheism in Egypt ...
!
Three, the "Exodus Pharaoh" was likely either Thothmes IV or more likely Amenhotep III early in his reign, as approximately 480 years earlier there were Semitic traders who came to Egypt, 37 of them, and this unusual event was recorded in a noble's tomb in the reign of Sesostris III... and Amenhotep III's firstborn son, Prince Thothmes, died under mysterious circumstances, before Akhenaten was made CoRegent. And
then Amenhotep III began to greatly favor the Aten over Amen-Re as representative of the Chief God. It was Pharaoh's choice to make.
The evidence shows that the Aten, the Disc, the Face of the Sun, was only one aspect of Re, the physical manifestation of Re, long recognized as such in Eternal Egypt, long before Amen, the Hidden One, became the 'Chief of the Gods". True, there was a need to make Egypt's God a universal god that reigned over all its Empire.
The cult of Aten did not begin during the reign of Thutmose IV, but he did begin to declare Aten the power of the sun that reigned over all the lands it shone upon.
Then there are all those troublesome letters out of Palestine, the "Amarna Letters", with all their complaints about the "Habiru" terror and pleas for help from Pharaoh to send Egyptian archers and troops, which never came.
"The Hapiru sack the territories of the king. If there are archers (here) this year, all the territories of the king will remain (intact); but if there are no archers, the territories of the king, my Lord, will be lost! " from Amarna tablets: Letter from Abdu-Heba of Jerusalem.
Why did Pharaoh ignore these pleas for help from his vassal kings?
Was he truly indifferent? Or did Pharaoh fear to confront the Habiru's fearsome god again and lose?
Rumpled Fedora said:
A few years back on the Discovery Channel, they had this hour long special called, "The Assassination of King Tut". I taped it but now I can't find it...
These SHOWS are being constantly re-aired. Just tonight one was on Discovery, and Sunday night there will be a new one on the National Geographic channel. There will probably be a lot more with the upcoming Tutankhamen exhibit starting June 16 in L.A. Many of the same shows are aired on several different channels including Discovery, The History Channel, The Learning Channel, A&E, PBS, even the Travel Channel, as well as National Geographic.