THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OP TEL EL-AMARNA. 3 



the capital of his fathers. Along with the other followers of 

 the new creed, he left Thebes and built himself a new capital 

 on the edge of the desert to the north. Here he assumed 

 the name of Khu-en-Aten, " the glory of the solar disk," while 

 his architects and sculptors consecrated a new and peculiar 

 style of art to the new religion, and even the potters decorated 

 the vases they modelled with new colours and patterns. 



The archives of the empire were transferred from Thebes to 

 the new residence of the king, and there stored in the royal 

 palace, which stood among its gardens at the northern extremity 

 of the city. But the existence and prosperity of Khu-en-Aten's 

 capital were of short duration. When the king died, he left 

 only daughters behind him, whose husbands assumed in 

 succession the royal power. Their reigns lasted but a short 

 time, and it is even possible that more than one of them had 

 to share his power with another prince. At any rate, it was 

 not long before rulers and people alike returned to the old 

 paths. The faith which Khu-en-Aten had endeavoured to 

 introduce was left without worshippers, the Asiatic strangers 

 whom he and his father had promoted to high offices of State 

 were driven from power, and the new capital was deserted, 

 never to be inhabited again. The great temple of the Solar 

 Disk fell into decay like the royal palace, and the archives of 

 Khu-en-Aten were buried under the ruins of the chamber 

 wherein they had been kept. Here they remained, concealed 

 by the friendly sand, until the fellahin, searching for sebalih, 

 or nitrous earth, with which to manure their fields, at last 

 brought them to light. 



I happened to arrive at Cairo shortly after the discovery 

 was made, and as no cuneiform scholar had as yet seen the 

 tablets, I was of course very anxious to examine them. A few 

 had already been secured by the Boulaq Museum ; the rest of 

 those which had been brought to Cairo had passed into pri- 

 vate hands, and had been carried away elsewhere. Owing to 

 an unfortunate misunderstanding, I failed to see the ones 

 which were in the Museum, and it was not until a little before 

 my departure from Egypt, in April, 1888, that M. Bouriant, 

 the Director of the French Archasological School, obtained 

 possession of about a dozen, which he kindly allowed me to 

 copy. M. Bouriant's tablets were all, unfortunately, more or 

 less injured, and I sought in them in vain for an indication of 

 date. One of them, however, contained a reference to " the 

 conquest of Amasis" (Kasad Amasi), and as Egyptian history 

 knows of only two kings of that name, the founder of the 

 Eighteenth Dynasty, and the contemporary of Nebuchad- 

 nezzar, I was bound to conclude that the latter was referred 



