9. THE DEATH OF QUEEN TIY.
It is possible that Queen Tiy took up her residence at the City of the Horizon in recognition of the lavish arrangements which her son had made for her. But whether this is so or not, it does not seem that she lived very long to enjoy such renewals of the pomps which she had known in her younger days. Her death appears to have taken place shortly after these celebrations, and, probably by her express commands, she was embalmed at Thebes and carried from her palace up the winding valley to the royal burying-ground amongst the rugged Theban hills. Akhnaton showed his affection for her by presenting the furniture for the tomb, and in the inscriptions on the outer coffin one reads that “he made it for his mother.” The queen-dowager had evidently expressed a wish to be buried near her father and mother, Yuaa and Tuau; for the tomb, which is situated on the east side of the valley, is within a stone’s-throw of the sepulchre where they lay. It was entered by a steep flight of steps leading down to a sloping passage, at the end of which was the large burial chamber, the walls of which were carefully whitewashed. On passing into this chamber a great box-like shrine, or outer coffin, was to be found, occupying the greater part of the room. The door to the shrine was made of costly cedar of Lebanon covered with gold, and was fitted with an ornamental bolt. Many of the nails which held the woodwork together were made of pure gold,—a fact which plainly shows us the wealth of the royal treasuries at this time. Scenes were embossed on the panels showing the queen standing under the rays of the Aton. The shrine itself was also made of cedar, covered with gold, and on all sides were scenes of the Aton worship. Here Akhnaton was shown with Tiy, and the life-giving rays of the sun streamed around their naturally drawn figures. Inside this outer box the coffin containing the great queen’s mummy was laid. The usual funeral furniture was placed at the sides of the room: gaily coloured boxes, alabaster vases, faience toilet-pots, statuettes, &c. Some of the toilet utensils were made in the form of little figures of the grotesque god Bes, which indicates that Akhnaton still tolerated the recognition by other persons of some of the old gods. In the inscriptions upon the outer coffin he had been careful to call his father, Amonhotep III., by his second name, Nebmaara, as often as possible, in order to avoid the writing of the word Amon, his dislike of everything to do with that god being profound. He allowed it to be written, however, here and there, as it seemed right to him that it should appear. Akhnaton’s prejudice against the old state god is also shown in another manner. Amon’s consort was the goddess Mut “the Mother,” whose name is written in hieroglyphs by a sign representing a vulture. Now when the inscription mentioned the king’s mother, Tiy, the word mut, “mother,” had to be written; but in order to avoid a similarity—even in spelling—to the name of the goddess, Akhnaton had the word written out phonetically, letter by letter, and thus dispensed with the use of the vulture sign.[58] Again, in the name Nebmaara, the meaning of which is “Ra, Lord of Truth,” the sign maa, “truth,” represented the goddess of that name. Akhnaton’s religion was much concerned with the quality of truth, which he regarded as one of the greatest necessities to happiness and well-being; and the fallacy of supposing that there was an actual deity of truth was particularly apparent to him. He was, therefore, careful to write the sign maa in letters instead of with the hieroglyph of the goddess.
When the funeral ceremonies came to an end, when the last prayer was said and the last cloud of incense had floated to the roof, the golden door of the shrine was shut and bolted, the outer doorways were walled up, and an avalanche of stones, let down from the chippings heaped near by, obliterated all traces of the entrance. Thus Akhnaton paid his last tribute to his mother and to the originator, it may be, of the schemes which he had carried into effect; and his last link with the past was severed. With the death of this good woman a restraining influence, as kindly as it was powerful, slipped from his arm, and a new and fiercer chapter of his short life began.
[VI.]
THE THIRTEENTH TO THE FIFTEENTH YEARS OF THE REIGN OF AKHNATON.
“The episode of the retirement of the king with his whole court to the new palace and city, ... and the strange life of religious and artistic propaganda which he led there, ... is one of the most curious and interesting in the history of the world.”—Budge: ‘History of Egypt.’