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Details
LOT 0048
Egyptian Copper Ring with the Name of Akhenaten
NEW KINGDOM, 18TH DYNASTY, 1353-1336 B.C.
3/4 in. (7.28 grams, 19.03 mm overall, 12.08 mm internal diameter).
A 'stirrup' type ring with a substantial oval-shaped bezel bearing the name of Pharaoh Akhenaten - Nefer-kheperu-re Wah-en-re; supplied with a museum-quality impression.
Provenance
Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s.
Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent.
Private collection, since the late 1990s.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Literature
Cf. Lacovara, P., Teasley Trope, B., and D’Auria, S.H., The Collector’s Eye: Masterpieces of Egyptian Art from The Thalassic Collection, Ltd., Atlanta, 2001, pp.106-107, no. 59, for an almost identical ring in electrum.
Footnotes
Akhenaten, an 18th Dynasty pharaoh (c. 1353-1336 BCE), introduced a major religious shift by promoting the Aten, the sun disc, as the sole god. Rejecting the traditional polytheistic religion of ancient Egypt, Akhenaten elevated the Aten above all other gods and even changed his name from Amenhotep (IV) to Akhenaten, meaning ‘Effective for the Aten’. He founded a new short-lived capital in Middle Egypt called Akhetaten. However, traditional polytheism was restored after his death, and his reforms were largely reversed.
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