Books by Anna Stevens

An illustrated cultural guide to the archaeological site of Amarna, the best-preserved pharaonic city in Egypt Around three thousand years ago, the pharaoh Akhenaten turned his back on Amun, and most of the great gods of Egypt. Abandoning Thebes, he quickly built a grand new city in Middle Egypt, Akhetaten-Horizon of the Aten-devoted exclusively to the sun god Aten. Huge open-air temples served the cult of Aten, while palaces were decorated with painted pavements and inlaid wall reliefs. Akhenaten created a new royal burial ground deep in a desert valley, and his officials built elaborate tombs decorated with scenes of the king and his city. As thousands of people moved to Akhetaten, it became the most important city in Egypt. But it was not to last. Akhenaten's death brought the abandonment of his city and an end to one of the most startling episodes in Egyptian history.Today, Akhetaten is known as Amarna, a sprawling archaeological site in the province of Minya, halfway between Cairo and Luxor. With its beautifully decorated tombs and vast mud-brick ruins, it is the best-preserved pharaonic city in Egypt. This informed and richly illustrated guidebook brings the ancient city of Akhetaten alive with a keen insider's eye, drawing on ongoing archaeological research and the knowledge and insight of Amarna's modern-day communities and caretakers to explain key monuments and events, while offering invaluable practical advice for visiting the site. With over 150 illustrations, maps, and plans, Amarna is both an ideal introduction for visitors to Amarna and a window onto the extraordinary reign of Akhenaten.

In this study the author approaches the realm of 'private religion' in Egypt some 3,300 years ago. The two broad research questions that frame this study are: What was the structure of the private religious landscape at Amarna (Central Egypt, on the Nile), and what were the ideas that shaped this landscape? The starting point is a corpus of objects and structures from settlement remains at one site, Amarna, the location of Egypt's capital for a brief period (c.350 - 330 BCE) towards the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty. At the height of its occupation, Amarna was the administrative, political and religious centre of Egypt. (Estimates of the city 's population at this time range between 20,000 and 50,000 people.) This publication is divided into three parts.Part I places the study in context. The history of the Amarna period, the layout of the site and its excavation history are summarized. Part 2 explores the issue of how to define private religion and identify its material remnants: the inventory of the material evidence - objects, architectural emplacements and buildings. It is hoped that the dissemination of this material will assist others researching similar topics, making available unpublished evidence from most of the main phases of excavation at the site. Part 3 explores the design, manufacture and acquisition of the material components of religion, and considers the forms of the conduct in which they were used. Also examined are the transcendental forces involved: the royal family and Aten, and 'traditional ' deities and spirits, including private ancestors. Part 3 also considers the shape of the religious cityscape, and the questions of who was participating in religion, and what was done with the material when it was no longer in use. The study concludes with a discussion of the motivating factors that underlay religious conduct, and which open a small window onto the ideas that shaped the religious landscape more broadly.