Echnaton: Agyptens falscher Prophet.

• Author: Quack, Joachim Friedrich
• Position: Book Review

Echnaton: Agyptens falscher Prophet. By NICHOLAS REEVES. Translated by B. Jaros-Deckert. Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt, vol. 19. Mainz: PHILIPP VON ZABERN, 2001. Pp. 239, illustrations. [euro]29.

The Amarna Period is certainly one of the most hotly debated periods of Egyptian history, and equally the one most prominently present in the consciousness of a larger public. As is well known, king Akhenaton has come to be viewed in the most extraordinarily different ways, claimed by the most divergent movements. As documented by D. Montserrat, Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt (London, 2000), his portrait has wavered between one of praise as the first great monotheist and denigration as a tyrant. Reeves' book, here under review, leans distinctively towards the latter direction, asserting that Akhenaton was a false prophet and that Egypt would have been better off if he had never lived.

The original version of this book was published in 2001 (London: Thames and Hudson). The German translation reviewed here runs quite fluently, with only a very few less felicitous choices and one passage ("a puppy," p. 52) where the translator left the English version standing, obviously at a loss as to its meaning in this context. In general, the presentation seems directed mostly towards a lay public, with numerous illustrations and the dispensing with a scholarly apparatus of footnotes. Only a very selected number of publications are given at the end of the book for further readings. For the German edition, this list has been augmented by some German-language titles. Furthermore, citations from ancient texts have frequently been adapted from available current German-language publications. The editorial work behind this should be appreciated.

What the reader is actually presented with is Reeves' personal view of the history of the Eighteenth Dynasty and especially the Amarna period. Given the pace of scholarship in this area, it comes as no surprise that by the time the book was published, several important new studies had already appeared in print. On p. 226 Reeves mentions M. Gabolde, D'Akhenaton a Toutankhamon (Paris, 1998), but he was unable to take into account its rather innovative proposals. (For a critical evaluation, see W. Murnane, OLZ 96 [2001]: 9-22.) Other new monographs are W. Helck, Das Grab Nr. 55 im Konigsgrabertal (Mainz, 2001) and F. Giles, The Amarna Period. Egypt (Warminster, 2001). For the important sarcophagus from KV 55...