Mortality Crisis at Akhetaten? Amarna and the Bioarchaeology of the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean Epidemic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4540458 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gretchen R Dabbs (0000-0002-9060-7003, Southern Illinois University Carbondale), Anna Stevens (0000-0001-6118-2715, Monash University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 129 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 455-489 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/736705 |
| OpenAlex | W4414265187 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 61 |
The question of whether the ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten (14th century BCE; modern Amarna) was affected by an epidemic has long been debated. Evidence such as the deaths of several Amarna-period royals within a short period and the identification of Egyptian soldiers as the source of the plague that affected the Hittite empire in Muršili II’s plague prayers has been cited to support the idea. More recently, the presence of burials containing multiple individuals in the Amarna cemeteries, high disease frequencies, and some unusual demographic characteristics have been used to support claims of an epidemic. This paper surveys the debate and then discusses archaeological and demographic hallmarks of epidemics identified by others at cities with historically documented disease outbreaks. Through this lens of expectation, we integrate archaeological and bioarchaeological data from ongoing work at Amarna’s cemeteries with pertinent data from long-running settlement excavations at the site to assess whether there is empirical evidence of epidemic disease at Amarna and the wider implications of this. We conclude that when the evidence is considered as a whole, there is little to currently suggest Akhetaten was affected by a mortal epidemic.1 Content warning: Readers are advised that this article contains a photograph of human remains
Archaeological evidence · Bioarchaeology · Bronze Age · Epidemic disease · Excavation · Hittite language · Plague (disease) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Paleopathology and ancient diseases
Sex- And Age-Related Mortality Profiles During Famine
Demography in Archaeology
The Kingdom of the Hittites
Collapse, environment, and society
A Competing‐Risk Model for Animal Mortality
A World Upturned
Bioarchaeology of the Non-elite North Tombs Cemetery at Amarna
Building a Bioarchaeology of Pandemic, Epidemic, and Syndemic Diseases
Compounding vulnerabilities
Slot-type fractures of the scapula at New Kingdom Tell El-Amarna, Egypt
Mostagedda and the Tasian Culture
The Royal Tomb at El-'Amarna, II. The Reliefs, Inscriptions, and Architecture
Updating the Accounts
Reflections on plague in African history (14th–19th c.)
Putting Africa on the Black Death map
The Year 16 graffito of Akhenaten in Dayr Abū Ḥinnis. A Contribution to the Study of the Later Years of Nefertiti
Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemic- and Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic
The Persistence of American Indian Health Disparities
The skeletal manifestation of malaria
Paleodemographic comparison of a catastrophic and an attritional death assemblage
Death and the City
Multiple Burials in Ancient Societies
Social Exclusion in Ancient Egypt
Demographic data on the remains of ancient Egyptians
Plague and Lethal Epidemics in the Pre-Industrial World
If a population crashes in prehistory, and there is no paleodemographer there to hear it, does it make a sound
Fleas From Pharaonic Amarna
Life, death and beyond in Akhenaten's Egypt
Ancient roads and GPS survey
Migration in Archeology
Burial and the dead in ancient Egyptian society
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |