Was Akhenaten … Moses? Egyptian scholar Ahmed Osman argued this case on the Graham Hancoock forum, sixteen years ago: His three books on the subject are Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt, Moses and Akhenaten and Lost city of the Exodus. (The first was originally called Stranger in the Valley of the Kings) I have endorsed this fundamental thesis, in a talk on the subject.
That is to say, there exists no Moses in history other than the ex-pharaoh Akhenaten. We surely must reject Wiki’s view that Moses was just a mythical character, after all whatever he did impacted into the Koran and the Talmud and the Torah, plus Manetho the ancient Egyptian historian and Greek and Roman historians. AO’s thesis is endorsed by Manetho. A problem has arisen since he published his books: it concerns dating, which I’d like to discuss.
AO has the Pharaoh Akhenaten about 35 years of age when he is forced to abdicate as pharaoh of Egypt, because the Egyptians are wanting all their old gods back again. For twenty-five years he is in the wilderness (at Serabit-al Khadim in the Sinai desert, AO conjectures, where according to the Bible he meets the high priest Jethro and marries his daughter Zipporah). Then the 18th dynasty draws to its close with no one of royal blood able to inherit the throne, with the general Horemheb as the last of that dynasty who becomes pharaoh by marrying a royal. At its finish Akhenaten then goes up to the royal court (this is after the ‘burning bush’ scene where God tells him to go back) and challenges Ramses I, pointing out that he has the royal bloodline and Ramses didn’t. He still has his royal wand or sceptre. Ramses replies that he has charge of the army so Akhenaten has to leave.
Akhenaten/Moses then goes to the Hebrews at Goshen by the Nile delta and, well, the rest is history. AO thus puts the Exodus at the start of Ramses I reign - not Ramses II as in the Hollywood version.
But, modern scholarship has more than forty years elapse between the end of Akhenaten’s reign and the start of the 19th dynasty and herein lies the problem. The disputed length of Horemheb’s reign is here crucial.
AO has Akhenaten become Moses (so to speak) at around sixty years of age, not eighty as the Bible has it, which seems more credible for his mighty task … whatever you reckon that was.
Let’s check AO’s dates, bearing in mind they were written thirty years ago. Akhenaten’s reign ends in 1361, with no male heirs [1], followed by Tutankhamun 1361-52, ruling for nine tears with no heirs, then Aye 1352-1348 also no heirs and then Horemheb 1348-1335, no male heirs. AO thus puts the Exodus in 1335 with Horemheb as ‘the pharaoh of the Oppression.’ He has 1361-1335 = 26 years that Akhenaten spends in the wilderness.
He has Horemheb rule for 13-14 years which is a sensible and widely-accepted view. The only biography of Horemheb [2] accepts this period for him being Pharaoh.
After the unprecedented expulsion of a royal pharaoh an attempt is made to delete his memory, by way of extinguishing his one-god religion. Therefore the modern reconstruction is difficult. That hiatus also tends to explain why we get a tumultuous sequence of short-reign pharaohs afterwards. Tutankhamun is too young to inherit the throne right away, and Queen Nefertiti makes a comeback as ‘Neferneferuaten’ to stabilise things. The experts are at last finding out What Really Happened after thirty-three centuries!
Modern dating is several decades later that AO’s. Wiki dates for ‘18th Dynasty of Egypt’ have Akhenaten’s seventeen-year reign end in 1335, followed by Smenkhare 1335-1334, Neferneferuaten (aka Nefertiti) 1334-1332, Tutankhamun 1332-1323, Ay 1323-1319 and then Horemheb 1319-1292 (27 years). That adds up to a total of 1335-1292 = 43 years - much too long for AO’s story.
A recent paper has argued that, “…the older researchers support a 27 year reign [of Horemheb, whereas] contemporary researchers are more supportive of a 14 year reign.” Also, a modern study reckons that Akhenaten’s rule terminated (he ‘dies’) with him maybe only thirty years of age[3]. He’s incredibly young to have done so much.
So if we take the modern accepted-dating and the proper reign of 13 years 7 months of Horemheb, we get:
Akhenaten 17 years
Smenkhare 1 year
Neferneferuaten 3 years
Tutankhamun 9 years
Aye 4 years
Horemheb 13 years
This adds up to thirty year ‘waiting period’ for Akhenaten, while he so to speak (and if you’ll excuse the expression) turns into Moses. On this reckoning he’d become Moses around the age of 60 which seems quite feasible.
Let’s also be aware that no mummy of Akhenaten has been found – nor has that of Nefertiti: they have royal tombs prepared but their bodies are not there and cannot be found though endlessly sought [4]. AO’s claim that Nefertiti turns up as Myriam the prophetess in the Exodus story, is thus quite feasible.
For three thousand years after the damnatio memoriae, deletion of the whole Amarna period from ‘history,’ Horemheb was credited with having ruled over this entire period.
In conclusion, we haven’t quite arrived at a date for the Exodus, it was somewhere around 1300 BCE. AO’s thesis remains credible and will give us a historical Moses, tho it needs a slight re-jigging of 18th dynasty dates.
Refs
1. It used to be believed that Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten, however as Dr Huber has cogently argued (Who was the father of Tutankhamun? 2016) he was the son of Akh.’s brother Smenkhare.
2. Charlotte Booth, Horemheb, the forgotten Pharaoh, 2009.
3. Akh ‘was at least 30 years old at death’ Nile Magazine September 2019, Dr Traugott-Huber, ‘The Enigmatic Mummy from KV 55’ 19-29, 24.
4. Nile Magazine, Jan 2019, ‘Finding Nefertiti’ by Dr. Traugott Huber, 39-53, p.44: mummy of tomb KV 55 is not Akh. but his younger brother Smenkhare; p. 49: ‘But still her [Nef.’s] mummy is lacking.’
That is to say, there exists no Moses in history other than the ex-pharaoh Akhenaten. We surely must reject Wiki’s view that Moses was just a mythical character, after all whatever he did impacted into the Koran and the Talmud and the Torah, plus Manetho the ancient Egyptian historian and Greek and Roman historians. AO’s thesis is endorsed by Manetho. A problem has arisen since he published his books: it concerns dating, which I’d like to discuss.
AO has the Pharaoh Akhenaten about 35 years of age when he is forced to abdicate as pharaoh of Egypt, because the Egyptians are wanting all their old gods back again. For twenty-five years he is in the wilderness (at Serabit-al Khadim in the Sinai desert, AO conjectures, where according to the Bible he meets the high priest Jethro and marries his daughter Zipporah). Then the 18th dynasty draws to its close with no one of royal blood able to inherit the throne, with the general Horemheb as the last of that dynasty who becomes pharaoh by marrying a royal. At its finish Akhenaten then goes up to the royal court (this is after the ‘burning bush’ scene where God tells him to go back) and challenges Ramses I, pointing out that he has the royal bloodline and Ramses didn’t. He still has his royal wand or sceptre. Ramses replies that he has charge of the army so Akhenaten has to leave.
Akhenaten/Moses then goes to the Hebrews at Goshen by the Nile delta and, well, the rest is history. AO thus puts the Exodus at the start of Ramses I reign - not Ramses II as in the Hollywood version.
But, modern scholarship has more than forty years elapse between the end of Akhenaten’s reign and the start of the 19th dynasty and herein lies the problem. The disputed length of Horemheb’s reign is here crucial.
AO has Akhenaten become Moses (so to speak) at around sixty years of age, not eighty as the Bible has it, which seems more credible for his mighty task … whatever you reckon that was.
Let’s check AO’s dates, bearing in mind they were written thirty years ago. Akhenaten’s reign ends in 1361, with no male heirs [1], followed by Tutankhamun 1361-52, ruling for nine tears with no heirs, then Aye 1352-1348 also no heirs and then Horemheb 1348-1335, no male heirs. AO thus puts the Exodus in 1335 with Horemheb as ‘the pharaoh of the Oppression.’ He has 1361-1335 = 26 years that Akhenaten spends in the wilderness.
He has Horemheb rule for 13-14 years which is a sensible and widely-accepted view. The only biography of Horemheb [2] accepts this period for him being Pharaoh.
After the unprecedented expulsion of a royal pharaoh an attempt is made to delete his memory, by way of extinguishing his one-god religion. Therefore the modern reconstruction is difficult. That hiatus also tends to explain why we get a tumultuous sequence of short-reign pharaohs afterwards. Tutankhamun is too young to inherit the throne right away, and Queen Nefertiti makes a comeback as ‘Neferneferuaten’ to stabilise things. The experts are at last finding out What Really Happened after thirty-three centuries!
Modern dating is several decades later that AO’s. Wiki dates for ‘18th Dynasty of Egypt’ have Akhenaten’s seventeen-year reign end in 1335, followed by Smenkhare 1335-1334, Neferneferuaten (aka Nefertiti) 1334-1332, Tutankhamun 1332-1323, Ay 1323-1319 and then Horemheb 1319-1292 (27 years). That adds up to a total of 1335-1292 = 43 years - much too long for AO’s story.
A recent paper has argued that, “…the older researchers support a 27 year reign [of Horemheb, whereas] contemporary researchers are more supportive of a 14 year reign.” Also, a modern study reckons that Akhenaten’s rule terminated (he ‘dies’) with him maybe only thirty years of age[3]. He’s incredibly young to have done so much.
So if we take the modern accepted-dating and the proper reign of 13 years 7 months of Horemheb, we get:
Akhenaten 17 years
Smenkhare 1 year
Neferneferuaten 3 years
Tutankhamun 9 years
Aye 4 years
Horemheb 13 years
This adds up to thirty year ‘waiting period’ for Akhenaten, while he so to speak (and if you’ll excuse the expression) turns into Moses. On this reckoning he’d become Moses around the age of 60 which seems quite feasible.
Let’s also be aware that no mummy of Akhenaten has been found – nor has that of Nefertiti: they have royal tombs prepared but their bodies are not there and cannot be found though endlessly sought [4]. AO’s claim that Nefertiti turns up as Myriam the prophetess in the Exodus story, is thus quite feasible.
For three thousand years after the damnatio memoriae, deletion of the whole Amarna period from ‘history,’ Horemheb was credited with having ruled over this entire period.
In conclusion, we haven’t quite arrived at a date for the Exodus, it was somewhere around 1300 BCE. AO’s thesis remains credible and will give us a historical Moses, tho it needs a slight re-jigging of 18th dynasty dates.
Refs
1. It used to be believed that Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten, however as Dr Huber has cogently argued (Who was the father of Tutankhamun? 2016) he was the son of Akh.’s brother Smenkhare.
2. Charlotte Booth, Horemheb, the forgotten Pharaoh, 2009.
3. Akh ‘was at least 30 years old at death’ Nile Magazine September 2019, Dr Traugott-Huber, ‘The Enigmatic Mummy from KV 55’ 19-29, 24.
4. Nile Magazine, Jan 2019, ‘Finding Nefertiti’ by Dr. Traugott Huber, 39-53, p.44: mummy of tomb KV 55 is not Akh. but his younger brother Smenkhare; p. 49: ‘But still her [Nef.’s] mummy is lacking.’