THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OF TEL EL-AMARNA. Ls 
the Asiatic wars of the Highteenth Dynasty brought the 
Egyptians into contact with Syria and Mesopotamia, that we 
find it occupying a recognised place in Egyptian art. Like 
the religious ideas with which it was associated, it was an 
importation from Semitic Asia. 
We now know that the mother of Amenophis IV. was 
of Asiatic birth. The conquests of Amenophis III., one of 
the greatest of the great monarchs of the Highteenth 
Dynasty, had extended the empire of Egypt as far as the 
banks of the Euphrates. Here his dominions bordered on 
those of Tuisratta, called in the cuneiform tablets King of 
Mitana, a district which is described by Tiglath-pileser I. as 
lying on the eastern shore of the Euphrates, opposite the 
Hittite fortress of Carchemish.* The Egyptians called it the 
land of Nahrina or the “ Rivers,” and included under the 
designation the country westward of the Huphrates as far as 
the streamland of the Orontes. It is the Aram Naharaim, or 
“Syria of the two rivers,’ of Scripture, and it was from 
thence that Chushan-rish-athaim came to oppress Israel in the 
days of Othniel (Judges in. 8-10). Chushan-rish-athaim must 
have been a successor of the grandfather of Amenophis IV. 
For awhile after his father’s death, Amenophis IV. con- 
formed outwardly to the State religion of Egypt, or, at all 
events, made no endeavour to suppress or supersede it. - But 
a time came when the smouldering hostility of the king 
and the powerful priesthood of Thebes burst into a flame. 
Amenophis found it difficult, if not impossible, to remain in 
the capital of his fathers. Along with the other followers of 
the new creed, he left Thebes and built himseif 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 
* In one of the cuneiform tablets at Boulaq the name of the district is 
written Mitana-nanu, 
