Archaeologists Discover the “Lost Golden City”: Buried for 3,400 Years

By Sneha Mahadevan, 8th Grade

Just months ago, archaeologists have discovered the buried remains of an industrial royal metropolis that existed just outside the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes; they have for now dubbed it the "lost golden city of Luxor."

Because the discovery was so recent, archaeologists have just barely begun to unearth the mysteries of the large site. However, what they can tell so far is that it has been amazingly well-preserved, a fact that both interests and excites the team working on the project that Egyptologists have named "The Rise of Aten," after the writing on a mud seal that they found identifying the city as "the domain of the dazzling Aten."

"It's very much a snapshot in time - an Egyptian version of Pompeii," says Salima Ikram, an archaeologist and National Geographic Explorer who leads the American University in Cairo's Egyptology unit. "I don't think you can oversell it. It is mind-blowing."

Looking at Hieroglyphic inscriptions found on some clay caps of wine vessels at the site, archaeologists have been able to date the city back to the reign of the 18th-dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III (1386-1353 BCE), known for his peaceful rule during an exceptionally prosperous era when Egypt was at the height of its international power. Mud bricks found at the site were also inscribed with Amenhotep III's cartouche (a cartouche is an oval-shaped carving of hieroglyphics that represents the name or title of a monarch).

Amenhotep III built this metropolis just outside the capital city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor). After his death, he was buried in the Valley of the Kings; his mummy was discovered in 1889. Analysis revealed that Amenhotep III died when he was between 40 and 50 years old, likely after suffering from a variety of ailments in his later years.

The king's eldest son, Thutmose, died young, so the title of pharaoh was inherited by his second son, Amenhotep IV. He, however, changed his name to Akhenaten, abandoned the traditional polytheistic religion that mainly worshiped the god Amun, and began his own religion, worshiping Aten, the Sun; he even tried to repress the worship of Amun entirely. Akhenaten also left Thebes and moved the capital away to the location of what is currently the city of Amarna, halfway between Thebes and Memphis. In this short-lived city, he ruled alongside his wife, Nefertiti.

Akhenaten was succeeded by his son, the famous boy-king Tutankhamun (a.k.a. King Tut), who took the throne after his father's death. Tutankhamen did not continue with his father's controversial ways, and he moved the capital to Memphis, ordered the construction of more temples and shrines at Thebes - the city his father had left - and ended the rebellion of Akhenaten, even attempting to completely wipe his father's name from history.

When the "lost golden city" was excavated, archaeologists were actually looking for Tutankhamun's mortuary temple. They had believed they would find it there because of its close proximity to other similar sites: to its north is Amenhotep III's mortuary temple; in the same general vicinity were found two more pharaohs that were also of the 18th dynasty, Ay - Tutankhamen's successor - and his successor, Horemheb; to the south of the site is Medinet Habu, a mortuary temple built almost two centuries later for Ramses III, the last of the Egyptian pharaohs. Based on these, excavators came to the space hoping that it might be the location where King Tut's subjects would have placed the food and funerary items they offered him when he died (around 1325 BCE).

Though they didn't find exactly what they were searching for, their expedition was not in vain. Instead, they unearthed something entirely different: zigzagging mudbrick walls up to nine feet high (a rare element in ancient Egyptian architecture) and piles of ancient artifacts that are almost three-and-a-half thousand years old. The structures are filled with various commonplace items, including many that pertain to the artistic and industrial production that financed Thebes. Among the relics are rings, scarabs (amulets and impression seals cut into the shape of beetles, inscribed with hieroglyphics), pottery vessels, debris from thousands of statues, tools that were likely used for spinning or weaving and for casting molds, items related to metal and glass production, a production area for mud bricks, homes where workers might have lived, a bakery and kitchen with the facilities to feed a large work-force, and buildings that appear to have been related to administration. In one excavated area was enclosed the skeleton of a cow or bull, as well as a human skeleton in an odd position: its arms were pinned at its sides, and the remains of a rope were around its knees. Additionally found was a cemetery filled with rock-cut tombs, which seems promising to reveal new information.

"Work is underway and the mission expects to uncover untouched tombs filled with treasures," says archaeologist Zahi Hawass, leader of the Egyptian team and former secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Another one of the discovered artifacts is a vessel holding about two gallons of what used to be either dried or boiled meat. On it is written "Year 37." The vessel also revealed the names of two of the city's inhabitants in an inscription that, after being translated, reads, "Dressed meat for the third Heb Sed festival from the slaughterhouse of the stockyard of Kha made by the butcher luwy."

"As history goes, one year after this pot was made, the city was abandoned and the capital was relocated to Amarna," wrote Hawass. "But was it? And why? And was the city repopulated again when Tutankhamun returned to Thebes? Only further excavations of the area will reveal what truly happened 3,500 years ago."

On top of this, continued investigation of the ancient city might help explain Akhenaten's strange actions. Was he a rebellious visionary, a mad heretic and a zealot, or did he simply move the capital as a political strategy to weaken the power that Amun-worshipping priests had over Egyptian culture and society? Historians have put forth arguments for many such theories, but no one knows the real reason for sure. However, the "Rise of Aten" project may provide new clues concerning why Akhenaten walked away from the royal family.

Regardless of what it may reveal, the lost metropolis is being considered an extraordinary find. Betsy Bryan, an Egyptologist at Johns Hopkins University, called it "the second most important archaeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun."

Though it's hard to say just yet where exactly in Egyptological significance this ranks, experts agree that the unearthing of the 3,400-year-old "lost golden city" is one of the most impressive archaeological findings since King Tut's mummy was found almost a hundred years ago. But, as with most things, only time will tell what new details it will offer and what hidden secrets of the past it will uncover.

Sources:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/04/archaeologists-find-lost-golden-city-buried-under-sand-for-3400-years/

https://email.nationalgeographic.com/H/2/v600000178c77be542b3bdc56e966f4578/39688010-4433-46c1-8d86-a5e1e80143f3/HTML

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/lost-city-discovered-luxor-1957997