Welcome to the Amarna Project
The ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten (modern Amarna) was the short-lived capital built by the pharaoh Akhenaten and abandoned shortly after his death (c. 1332 BCE). Here, Akhenaten pursued his vision of a society dedicated to the cult of one god, the power of the sun (the Aten). Amarna is also the best preserved and most accessible city from ancient Egypt. It offers the key to understanding a unique chapter in the history of religious experience, and of what it was like to be an ancient Egyptian. The Amarna Project (British Mission to Tell el-Amarna) works, with the permission of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities, to:
- Safeguard Amarna through preservation, protection and outreach programs.
- Support researchers and the wider community, locally and internationally, through the creation of public, educational and academic resources, and opportunities for collaboration and engagement.
- Further knowledge of Akhenaten, his city and its people, and of Amarna as a contemporary heritage site.
Amarna Future Fund
Help us carry forward research & recognise the career of Prof. Barry Kemp through our Future Fund, which will support our Cairo Office & Expedition House for the next decade.
MATCHED FUNDING CHALLENGE : USD 50,000 / GBP 36,000 has been pledged as matched funding. Help us raise an extra USD 50,000 / GBP 36,000 to secure this pledge & double the impact of your gift. Donate via the:
Latest news
In the field – Autumn 2025
In late 2025, the Amarna Project returned to Amarna to undertake:
- excavation & reconstruction at the Great Aten Temple & among Amarna’s ancient houses
- a varied program of post-excavation study
- glass-production experiments
- a community engagement program that culiminated in an Open Day attended by over 200 children and families
Stay tuned for an update on the fieldwork in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology!
New research article
… the authors present the identification of a bone whistle recovered from the Eighteenth Dynasty (late 14th century bc) city of Akhetaten (modern Amarna), Middle Egypt. …. this object is the first of its kind identified in a dynastic context and demonstrates the potential insights that wait to be gained from intensive examination of Egypt’s osseous technologies.
New monograph
This volume … will be of interest to all those working in the areas of craft activity and domestic space as well as to general readers wishing to learn more about the lives of the citizens of Akhetaten.
Epidemic at Amarna?
In the Oct. 2025 issue of the American Journal of Archaeology, Gretchen Dabbs and Anna Stevens review the long-standing question of whether Akhetaten was affected by an epidemic, centring the bio/archaeological evidence from Amarna’s cemeteries.
The paper – Mortality crisis at Akhetaten? Amarna and the bioarchaeology of the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean epidemic – is now available online, free and open access.
JEA 2025
Preliminary results from our field seasons at Amarna from Autumn 2024 to Spring 2025 are now published (open access) in the latest issue of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology:
Stevens, A., G.R. Dabbs, S.M. Ricketts, K. Spence, A. Clapham, M.C. Langley, K. Thompson, G. Tully and C. Stimpson. 2025. Tell el-Amarna, Autumn 2024 to Spring 2025. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 111, 15–31.
