Akhenaten's two Solar Eclipses in May 9 , 1012 & September 1 , 1009 BC that defined Amarna's borders by Eulalio Eguia Jr.

 

Abstract: It is my belief that a series of eclipses during Akhenaten’s reign and during the reigns of two of his immediate predecessors, namely, Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III, heavily influenced Akhenaten to abandon the traditional ancient Egyptian religion of polytheism and introducing Atenism, or worship centered around Aten. These eclipses were specifically the ones seen crossing the horizon or Akhetaten (which means "Horizon of the Aten").

Two horizon solar eclipses occurred during Akhenaten’s 5th and 8th year. Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten in his regnal year five during which time he decreed that a new capital city be built, namely, Akhetaten (meaning "Horizon of the Aten"). By regnal year eight, Akhetaten reached a state where it could be occupied by the royal family. The solar eclipse which occurred during Akhenaten’s year 5, was on May 9, 1012 BC. The solar eclipse which occurred during Akhenaten’s year 8, was on September 1, 1009 BC.

This is the transcript to my Youtube video with the same title and published on July 21, 2024.

Akhenaten was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. As a pharaoh, Akhenaten is noted for abandoning the traditional ancient Egyptian religion of polytheism and introducing Atenism, or worship centered around Aten. He was the husband of Nefertiti. Akhenaten took Egypt's throne as Amenhotep IV but changed his name to Akhenaten in his regnal year five.

Around the same time he changed his name, Akhenaten decreed that a new capital city be built: Akhetaten (meaning "Horizon of the Aten"), better known today as Amarna. By regnal year eight, Akhetaten reached a state where it could be occupied by the royal family.

According to current Egyptian chronology, Hatshepsut’s final year was in 1458 BC, while Akhenaten’s final year was in 1334 BC, meaning that their final years were separated by 124 years. However, in my previous research titled “Sothic rise recorded in the Elephantine Stele was on May 23, 1124 BC during Thutmose III's 1st solo year and Hatshepsut’s final year”, I dated Hatshepsut’s final year at 1124 BC instead, implying that Akhenaten’s final year was in 1000 BC, or 124 years after,  in my revised Egyptian chronology.

A second verification of dating Akhenaten’s final year to 1000 BC was made in my previous research titled “Redating Mursili II's solar eclipse to August 2, 979 BC means Hittite chronology is 334 years early!” Now the solar eclipse mentioned in a text dating to the reign of Mursili II is of great importance for the absolute chronology of the Hittite Empire within the chronology of the Ancient Near East. The text records that in the tenth year of Mursili's reign, "the Sun gave a sign", just as the king was about to launch a campaign against the Kingdom of Hayasa-Azzi in north-eastern Anatolia. The text specifically said "[When] I marched [to the land of A]zzi, the Sungod gave a sign."

Since I dated this solar eclipse in 979 BC during the latter part of Mursili’s 10th year, this means his first regnal year according to my revised Hittite chronology was in 989 BC.  Furthermore, the start of Mursili’s reign is used by Egyptologists for dating Tutankhamun’s death since according to the Hittite annals, Mursili II’s reign started shortly after the death of the Egyptian Queen Dakhamunzu’s husband. This Egyptian Queen is believed by Egyptologists to be Ankhesenamun, the wife of Tutankhamun. Thus, in my revised Hittite and Egyptian chronology, Tutankhamun’s death occurred in 989 BC. 

According to current Egyptian chronology, the number of years between Akhenaten’s final year dated 1334 BC, and Tutankhamun’s final year dated 1323 BC, was 11 years. Because I dated Tutankhamun's death in 989 BC instead, this means Akhenaten’s final regnal year which occurred 11 years earlier, was in 1000 BC. Also, since Akhenaten ruled for 17 years, this means that Akhenaten ruled Egypt from 1017 BC up to 1000 BC.

It is my belief that a series of eclipses during his reign and during the reigns of two of his immediate predecessors, namely, Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III, heavily influenced Akhenaten to abandon the traditional ancient Egyptian religion of polytheism and introducing Atenism, or worship centered around Aten. These eclipses were specifically the ones seen crossing the horizon or Akhetaten (which means "Horizon of the Aten"). Now why are solar eclipses crossing the horizon particularly important to Akhenaten? 

It is believed that Aten was the visible manifestation of the synthesis of two Egyptian gods Ra and Horus. Horus as Horakhty or “Horus of the two horizons”, represents Horus as the god of the rising and setting sun. Horus as the setting sun is also the god Atum while Horus as the rising sun is also the god Khepri. Ra is the god of the sun as it travels in a solar barque between the eastern horizon and the western horizon bringing light to the world. Thus, the synthesis of Horus and Ra represents the day sun, the visible manifestation of which was Aten. 

Amun is also a solar deity or another aspect of Ra, but he represents the invisible, dark, and night sun during when the sun is below the eastern and western horizon. This is why the name Amun meant something like "the hidden one" or "invisible". Now the rising sun represents the transition between Amun to Horus, while the setting sun represents the transition between Horus to Amun. A solar eclipse happening either during sunrise or sunset that casts darkness on the sun represents Amun delaying his transition into Horus or advancing Horus’ transition into himself. 

Thus, for Akhenaten, this kind of solar eclipse crossing the two horizons is particularly evil as it represents the conflict between Amun and Aten, which therefore also represents the conflict between Amun worshipers and Aten worshipers. This is why when Akhenaten saw this series of horizon solar eclipses happening in his reign, he immediately decided to flee Thebes, a bastion of Amun worshipers and priests, and to build his own capital exclusively for Aten worshipers in Akhetaten. 

Solar eclipses that don’t cross the horizons are also evil omens to the Egyptians. However, they represent the conflict between Ra (the solar deity) and Apep (the deity who embodied darkness and disorder, and was thus the biggest opponent of Ra). These eclipses were believed to happen whenever Apep swallows the sun and thus  forebode natural disasters as well as man made disasters in the form of war coming from foreign opponents of Egypt. This is because Apep is not worshiped in Egypt, and his conflict with Ra causes Ra’s protection on Egypt to weaken resulting in disasters. Thus, Apep's movements were thought to cause earthquakes, and his battles with Set (a deity worshiped in Egypt) may have been meant to explain the origin of thunderstorms. 

Two horizon solar eclipses occurred during Akhenaten’s 5th and 8th year. If you still recall, he changed his name to Akhenaten in his regnal year five during which time he decreed that a new capital city be built, namely, Akhetaten (meaning "Horizon of the Aten"). By regnal year eight, Akhetaten reached a state where it could be occupied by the royal family. The solar eclipse which occurred during Akhenaten’s year 5, was on May 9, 1012 BC at 16:12:47 UTC and it had an eclipse obscuration of 58% as it crossed the western horizon at sunset. 

The solar eclipse which occurred during Akhenaten’s year 8, was on September 1, 1009 BC at 3:24:38 UTC and it had an eclipse obscuration of 24.87% as it crossed the eastern horizon at sunrise. You can verify this using Stellarium and by setting the Algorithm of delta T to JPL Horizons, and the location at Thebes with coordinates: 25°43′14″N,  32°36′37″E. I used the location of Thebes as the observational site because this was the capital of the 18th Dynasty during which Akhenaten reigned and before he moved to Akhetaten in his 8th year.

After observing the solar eclipse on the western horizon in 1012 BC followed by the solar eclipse on the eastern horizon in 1009 BC, both the western and eastern boundaries of Aten’s capital Akhetaten were clearly demarcated by the solar deity Aten. This is why an inscription on a boundary stele, declares that the site was chosen by the Sun God himself, ‘in the place which the Aten enclosed on the eastern bank for His own self'. Now another boundary stela from the city of Akhetaten holds a fragmentary proclamation by Akhenaten, which Egyptologist Cyril Aldred translated as follows: … 

As Father Aten lived, something had been said which was more evil than  which the king had heard in his Year 4… more evil than what he had heard in his year 1… more evil than what King (Amenhotep III?) had heard… more evil than what king Tuthmosis IV had heard…

Akhenaten was listing down four horizon solar eclipses that preceded the horizon solar eclipse that occurred during his 5th regnal year which according to him were less evil than the one that happened in his year 5. I will discuss these solar eclipses one by one and you can verify all these eclipses by using Stellarium and by setting the Algorithm of delta T to JPL Horizons. The horizon solar eclipse that occurred during Thutmosis IV’s reign was on January 25, 1062 BC at 4:46:28 UTC as observed in Thebes. It had an eclipse obscuration of 80.88% as it crossed the eastern horizon at sunrise. 

1062 BC is 45 years before 1017 BC which is the date I gave to the start of Akhenaten’s reign in my revised Egyptian chronology. Using current Egyptian chronology as a reference, 45 years before the start of Akhenaten’s reign corresponds to the early part of the 2nd year reign of Thutmosis IV. 

The horizon solar eclipse that Akhenaten describes as more evil than what happened during Thutmosis IV’s reign was the horizon solar eclipse that happened on Akhenaten’s 5th year on May 9, 1012 BC at 16:12:47 UTC which had an eclipse obscuration of 58% as it crossed the western horizon at sunset. While the eclipse obscuration of this eclipse at 58% was less than the eclipse obscuration of 80.88% during Thutmosis IV’s reign, the eclipse that happened during Akhenaten’s reign was seen in Taurus while the eclipse that happened during Thutmosis’ reign was seen in Aquarius. And the Egyptians gave great importance to Taurus whose eyes I believe were the eye of Horus and the eye of Ra. I discussed this in my research titled “Sothis is Aldebaran the Eye of Ra & the red Sirius is Ain the Eye of Horus - the two Eyes of Taurus”.

The horizon solar eclipse that occurred during Amenhotep III’s reign was on August 31, 1055 BC at 3:22:59 UTC as observed in Thebes. It had an eclipse obscuration of 7.88% as it crossed the eastern horizon at sunrise. 

1055 BC is 38 years before 1017 BC which is the date I gave to the start of Akhenaten’s reign in my revised Egyptian chronology. Using current Egyptian chronology as a reference, 38 years before the start of Akhenaten’s reign corresponds to the year before the start of Amenhotep III’s 1st year reign. In my opinion, this means Amenhotep III’s reign started a year earlier and lasted a year longer than what current Egyptian chronology tells us which gives him 37 years reign from 1388-1351 BC. 

However, Amenhotep's greatest attested regnal date is Year 38, which appears on wine jar-label dockets from Malkata. He may even have lived briefly into an unrecorded Year 39 and died before the wine harvest of that year. And by giving Amenhotep III a full 38 years reign instead of just 37 years, then the horizon solar eclipse that occurred on August 31,1055 BC actually marked his 1st regnal year. Also, the highest attested regnal year of Amenhotep III’s immediate predecessor, namely Thutmose IV, was year 8. And yet current Egyptian chronology gives Thutmose IV a total of 9 years reign from 1397-1388 BC. By deducting one year from Thutmose IV’s final year and giving it to the first year of Amenhotep III instead, then what Akenaten said in his boundary stele about horizon solar eclipses occurring during Thutmosis IV’s and Amenhotep III’s reigns is proven correct.

The horizon solar eclipse that occurred during the latter part of Akhenaten’s 1st year was on July 22, 1016 BC at 3:12:35 UTC as observed in Abu Simbel with coordinates 22°20′13″N, 31°37′32″E. The center of this solar eclipse was at 6°49′43″N which is south of Thebes, and therefore unobservable in Thebes but was observable at Abu Simbel instead. Abu Simbel was part of Lower Nubia, and the Eighteenth Dynasty empire conquered all of Lower Nubia under Thutmose I (a pharaoh who ruled much earlier than Akhenaten). It had an eclipse obscuration of just 1.21% as it crossed the eastern horizon at sunrise. Now you might ask, is an eclipse obscuration of 1.21% observable to the naked eye? Probably not. This however tells me that ancient Egyptian astronomers were able to calculate and predict eclipses even with eclipse obscuration as little as 1%.

Around regnal year two or three, Amenhotep IV who later became Akhenaten organized a Sed festival. Sed festivals were ritual rejuvenations of an aging pharaoh, which usually took place for the first time around the thirtieth year of a pharaoh's reign and every three or so years thereafter. Egyptologists only speculate as to why Amenhotep IV organized a Sed festival when he was likely still in his early twenties. I believe Akhenaten organized this Sed festival in the early part of his year two after witnessing the horizon solar eclipse that happened in the latter part of his year 1 on July 22,1016 BC to prove his capacity to rule after the evil omen of the eclipse had passed.

The horizon solar eclipse that occurred during the early of Akhenaten’s 4th year was on November 25, 1014 BC at 15:05:32 UTC as observed in Thebes. It had an eclipse obscuration of 2.20% as it crossed the western horizon at sunset. 

Thus, during Akhenaten’s entire reign, he witnessed a total of 4 horizon solar eclipses in addition to two horizon solar eclipses that happened during two of his immediate predecessors. In my opinion, this unusually high number of horizon solar eclipses observed in the “Horizon of Aten” that time heavily influenced Akhenaten  in his future actions as a devout worshiper of Aten.