Research at these cemeteries offers great potential to help fill gaps in knowledge around the mortuary beliefs and practices, health and life experiences of the non-elite in ancient Egypt. The goal of the Amarna cemetery study is to better understand how Akhetaten was experienced as a ‘lived city’ by its inhabitants, through collaboration between archaeologists and bioarchaeologists. The four cemeteries are located to the north-east and south-east of the riverside city, near the North Tombs and South Tombs respectively. We estimate that there are between around 11,350–12,950 people buried across the four cemeteries. While all have been disturbed by looting, which complicates excavation and analysis, they have produced one of the largest and most systematically recorded assemblages of cemetery data yet available from ancient Egypt: a total of c. 889 interments. The study of human remains and archaeological materials recovered from the cemeteries is ongoing.
While each cemetery is distinctive in its burial profile, the majority of interments are pit graves containing a single individual, the bodies surviving mostly in skeletal form. No obvious evidence for embalming has yet been encountered. The bodies were usually wrapped in textile and then enclosed in a mat made of plant material (palm midrib, tamarisk, reed, etc), or sometimes placed in a wooden, pottery or mud coffin. The graves were occasionally marked by a stela which, to judge from the best-preserved examples, showed the deceased receiving offerings. Burial objects are not common, but include pottery vessels (sometimes containing food), jewellery, and cosmetic and personal items (e.g. eye-paint sets, a mirror, a walking staff). Other than occasional inscriptions on coffins, stelae, and small amulets, there is very little written material and limited direct evidence of personal details such as names, occupations, and so on.
Bioarchaeologically, each cemetery is distinct in certain ways, although they share many commonalities that reflect living conditions at the city, and many variations between them can probably be attributed to economic and social differences between sectors of the urban population. Overall, the individuals buried in the four cemeteries exhibit skeletal markers of substantial stress loads, such as low adult stature, high frequency of linear enamel hypoplasia, extreme trauma, particularly of the vertebral column, and high frequency and sometimes severity of degenerative joint disease.
The main features of each cemetery as currently understood are summarised below.
South Tombs Cemetery
This is the largest of the cemeteries, located in a wadi adjacent to the South Tombs. It was excavated from 2005–13, with 381 graves excavated and full or partial skeletons of a likely 494 individuals recovered. We currently estimate, by projecting the average number of interments in an excavation square across the approximate area of the cemetery, that around 6000 individuals were buried here. Many probably lived in the Main City, the nearest residential area. Most burials are single pit graves where the deceased is wrapped in textile and matting. The excavated graves included a single mudbrick-lined tomb, and produced 40 wooden coffins and up to 17 grave stelae or miniature pyramid stones. In terms of the burial population, the excavated sample contained six fetuses (1.2%), 183 sets of subadult remains (birth to 15 years; 37.0%), and 305 adult individuals (61.7%). The sex ratio for adults reveals slightly more females (n=157; 59.0%) than males (n=109; 41.0%), where sex can be estimated.
North Tombs Cemetery
This cemetery is located in a wadi adjacent to the North Tombs. It was excavated in 2015 and 2017, with 141 graves excavated and 252 individuals recovered. It is the most divergent of the Amarna cemeteries, in part due its large proportion of multiple burials (c. 50% of sampled graves). While textile and matting body wrappings were common, burial objects were rare, and no wooden coffins or stelae were found. The variable number of individuals in the multiple burials makes it difficult to calculate an overall population, but a preliminary estimate is 4000–5000. The distinctive nature of the cemetery extends to the skeletal remains, with the excavated sample displaying a very restricted demography: 96.4% of individuals for whom a precise age estimate was possible died between the ages of 5–25 years, with peak mortality at ages 12 and 17 years. No fetal remains were recovered and only four individuals less than five years old were identified in the sample. Only two individuals older than 35 years are present. The demographic curve is inverted from the expected U-shaped demographic curve of preindustrial sites, with a large number of deaths of older subadults and young adults and almost no young or old individuals. There is also a dramatic difference in the adult (n=120; 47.6%) sex distribution here compared to the other cemeteries. Of adults for whom a sex estimate is possible (n=96), females (n=73; 76.0%) outnumber males (n=23; 24.0%) by a factor of 3.2 (more than three females for each male). The reason for this is not yet clear. Given the young age of the skeletal sample, it may in part be due to difficulties in identifying young adult males from skeletal remains, although even if all the individuals of uncertain sex were assumed to be male (n=24), the sex ratio would still be 1.6 (more than three females for every two males). The individuals buried at this site show signs overall of extreme workloads, which leads to the preliminary interpretation that the cemetery served young labourers. It is not yet clear where this population resided at the ancient city, and if they lived regular housing areas or might have been accommodated in encampments of some kind.
North Cliffs Cemetery
This burial ground is situated on the low desert below the tomb of one of the city’s priests, Panehesy (North Tomb 6), who was responsible for preparing offerings for the Aten at the Great Aten Temple. One excavation season was conducted here in 2018, with 72 likely graves excavated and 57 individuals recovered. The sampled burials were mostly single interments, with occasional wooden coffins and stelae, and a similar range of burial objects to the South Tombs Cemetery. This site was particularly disturbed by looters, which creates difficulties in estimating the cemetery size, but this was probably around 900–1400. There are 18 subadults (36.7%) in the excavated sample and 39 adults (63.3%). The sex distribution of adult individuals is relatively equal, with 18 (54.5%) identified as female, 15 as male (45.5%), and the remaining six of indeterminate sex. All age groups are represented except fetuses. Broadly, the demography is similar to that of the South Tombs Cemetery. It is also not clear where this population lived at Akhetaten, but logical to propose that many resided in one or both of the northern suburbs (North City, North Suburb), and conceivable that they were connected with Panehesy or his work at the Great Aten Temple.
North Desert Cemetery
This cemetery is located south-west of the North Cliffs Cemetery. Excavations were conducted here in 2018, 2021, and 2022; its burial population probably numbers around 450–550. The cemetery encompasses a low escarpment of clay-like rock and is distinctive in its range of grave architecture. Pit graves occur on the desert floor and along the edges of the escarpment, while at least five shaft-and-chamber tombs (heavily looted) are located on and around the surface of the escarpment. The pit-grave burials are again of the standard type, with the body usually placed singly and supine, in textile and matting, with only a few examples of burial items and wooden coffins. Three of the shaft-and-chamber tombs were fully excavated. Two were double-chambered with brick-lined shafts 3.0 and 3.8m deep. Both were robbed, but in combination produced disarticulated skeletal elements from a minimum of 10 individuals (subadults, adult males, and adult females), and painted coffin fragments. The third tomb was smaller, but also had two chambers: one contained at least six intact or partly disturbed interments, while the other preserved some small fragments of a painted wooden coffin. The bioarchaeological analysis of this cemetery is ongoing. A minimum of 86 individuals was excavated from the cemetery overall. Preservation in this cemetery is generally poorer than found in the other three and a consequence is a higher proportion of individuals identified only by the basic demographic profile. One fetus was identified (1.2%). Of the remaining individuals, 35 (40.7%) are subadults and 50 (58.1%) are adults. Generally this cemetery most closely approximates the expected U-shaped demographic curve of preindustrial sites, although like other Amarna cemeteries there is an underrepresentation of infants (0–5 years). Of the adults studied to date, when a sex estimate was possible, the sex ratio is even (22 males; 22 female).
Funding
The study of Amarna’s cemeteries has been generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (grant no. RZ-51672-14), British Academy (grant no. SG121253), National Geographic, King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies (University of Arkansas), USAID (American Research Center in Egypt), McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Amarna Research Foundation, Aurelius Trust, Thriplow Trust, Amarna Trust, Institute for Bioarchaeology, Pasold Research Fund and public donations. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Anna Stevens & Gretchen R. Dabbs
Further reading
In addition to the following publications, which include key syntheses of project results to date, see the fieldwork reports in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology from 2006 onwards and the Bioarchaeology and Burial section of our Publication List. Note that, as with any long-term project, our understanding of the cemeteries has evolved as excavations have produced more data. Some of the early findings of the project, particularly as regards the bioarchaeology, should be utilised with caution, as some findings have been revised and expanded over time.
Bettum, A. 2024. Ritual scenes on private coffins from the Amarna Period. In N. Strudwick and D.A. Aston (eds), From Objects to Histories: Studies in Honour of John H. Taylor. Wallasey: Abercromby Press, 48–66.
Dabbs, G. R. 2019. A preliminary assessment of the non-elite individuals of the North Tombs Cemetery at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. Bioarchaeology International 3(3): 174–186.
Dabbs, G.R., J.C. Rose and M. Zabecki. 2015. The bioarchaeology of Akhetaten: Unexpected results from a capital city. In S. Ikram, J. Kaiser and R. Walker, eds, Egyptian Bioarchaeology: Humans, Animals, and the Environment. Leiden: Sidestone Press, 43–52.
Kemp, B., A. Stevens, G.R. Dabbs, M. Zabecki and J.C. Rose. 2013. Life, death and beyond in Akhenaten’s Egypt: Excavating the South Tombs Cemetery at Amarna. Antiquity 87, 64–78.
Rose, J.C. 2006. Paleopathology of the commoners at Tell Amarna, Egypt, Akhenaten’s capital city. Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 101 (Suppl. II), 73–6.
Rose, J.C. and M. Zabecki. 2009. The commoners of Tell el-Amarna. In S. Ikram and A. Dodson, eds, Beyond the Horizon: Studies in Egyptian Art, Archaeology and History in Honour of Barry J. Kemp, vol. 2, Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities, 408–22.
Stevens, A., G.R. Dabbs and J. Rose. 2016. Akhenaten’s people: Excavating the lost cemeteries of Amarna. Current World Archaeology 78, 14–21.
Stevens, A. 2018. Death and the city: the cemeteries of Amarna in their urban context. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 28, 103–26.
Stevens, A. 2018. Beyond iconography: The Amarna coffins in social context. In J. Taylor and M. Vandenbeusch (eds), Ancient Egyptian Coffins: Craft Traditions and Functionality. British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 4. Leuven: Peeters, 139–60.
Stevens, A. C.E. Rogge, J.E.M.F. Bos and G.R. Dabbs. 2019. From representation to reality: Ancient Egyptian wax head cones from Amarna. Antiquity 93, 1515–33.