GOING BEYOND THE BLISS OF IGNORANCE


Attempting to answer two historical mysteries/questions

Who was Nefertiti ?
and
On tracking the Actual Exodus
with R.D.Morningstar.





Once set the four pillars {Velikovsky & Osman, Freud & Yates} of Akhnaton's identification, we may draw hypothesis on a plateau of sound probability :
A first glance at the scientific, archeologic and egyptologic evidences concludes that the a Middle-Ages Western legendary figure (HT3) has preserved the memory of the triple identity (Akhnaton-Moses-Oedipus) of the pharaoh Amenophis.4; and we know today that - whatsoever surprising and sometimes unbelievable for the early readers - a second or close look a the 20th century data shows that there is not a single contradiction between Akhnaton-Moses-Oedipus and the canonical knowledge (Archeology, Bible, Mythology).
With this absence of incompatibility, the persistent contradictions appear like a symptom which is also clarified by Freud's psychoanalysis and Yates' psychohistory.

So are we considering a thesis which is 1) abundantly documented and argumented, 2) remarkably harmonious and much more explicative in what is already known of the history of our civilization, 3) without contradiction and discrepancy with this knowledge - and if my reader at that point would feel uncomfortable, he should start with the chapter regarding the symptom of the repressed knowledge, which explain why the Akhnaton-Moses-Oedipus has been a surprise for the 20th century ; for in this page we shall intend to go further.
We shall take again the thesis to tackle two points which remains mysterious for any scientific or traditional knowledge. Today two mysteries remain : who was Nefertiti and what has been her role ? How exactly the Exodus took place ?
In this page, I shall draw an hypothesis regarding these two point.


About Nefertiti - a famous Egyptian Queen of the end of the 18th Dynasty (1350B.C.) - my friend David Gittens said once that she my have been a native from the Hittite land we call today Turkey. I am not sure if he did not thought he was making a mistake, but his idea stroke me, especially for I had never hear of this possibility. All that we can be sure of, it that Egyptologists do not know where Nefertiti was from, and that they never (for what I know) mention that she could have been from the Aegean area.

Courtesy of Robert Morningstar

What is not or never said is always intriguing - especially when it is a possibility while everyone is looking somewhere else. It is for example because Freud never said that Moses could have been Akhnaton (he always said that he could have been close disciple of Akhnaton) that I began to ponder the possibility, with certain results.

About the Exodus - the Hebrew way out of Egypt, usually dated around 1300B.B. - another friend, Robert D. Morningstar, suggested a novel idea. Robert actually believes that the Exodus was a complex long term event that included the Amarnian period of Akhnaton/Moses. Morningstar believes that the Historical Exodus is "embedded" in recorded Egyptian History; it has not been recognized as such because it is has been called by another name, i.e. Akhnaton's departure from Thebes and the establisment of the Amarna period "in the wilderness".
This idea also has never been considered in modern times. I am going to wave these two hypothesis into a fiction, a novel, a fantasy, to please the well learned people who always appreciate to be entertained with a little delusion show. It may please also the ignorant people, for they will feel at home... (for 15 years I explore Akhnaton-Moses-Oedipus people who knew nothing have always reacted as if it was a very natural hypothesis)

Here is the fiction - and since we have to make sure that is it not a Science Function piece, I shall make more precise what we do not know.



Nefertiti : She has been Akhnaton's wife, and probably Tutankhamon's mother. Akhnaton and Nefertiti were both young when they married. They began to reign in Thebes, while Akhnaton's parents were still alive. After several temples had been built in Thebes for Nefertiti - who was ruling the dawn of a new religion, Atonism, with Akhnaton, they migrate in a new city, Amarna (The City of Horizon) to complete the full expression of their cult.
The origin of Nefertiti is unknown - some say that she was a princess sent from Babylonia for the Father's harem - there are no prove, even no indication to support this hypothesis - there are other very vague hypothesis, also without foundation but a guess. The hypothesis being not made (censor?) that she could  have come from the Aegean Hittite land, or Crete, or other tribe/kingdom of this area - this absence is part of the enigma.

It was at Amarna that Akhnaton and Nefertiti could promulgate in the most efficient manner, the sole God Aton religion for the entire Egypt and its colonies. During several years, Nefertiti was leading the ceremonies equally with Akhnaton. She gave birth to several children. Then her image in Amarna gradually faded - there is hardly any mention of her during the last days of Amarna. What happened to her is unknown.


.To assess the situation of the Atonian scene, as for the definition of a behavior, one may have a view of the context - in this case the 18th Dynasty which began around1570B.C. with Ah-Moses then several Thot-Moses and ended shortly after Akhnaton.


The 18th Dynasty began as the traditional ruling families were refuged down in the very south of Egypt and the land was governed by strangers. With the Thot-Moses, a gradual yet powerful recovery extended the New Kingdom far beyond the traditional borders of Egypt - that included Sinai, Palestine, Syria, even Babylonia. When Akhnaton's father became King, the entire world which was somewhat connected to Egypt's history was reconquered. There is no doubt that the Egyptian rulers were contemplating the future of an immense Egyptian Empire, which was encompassing the horizon of the known world.
Many politician believed that an unified Empire was a necessity if Egypt wanted to prevent  new foreign invasions. It was easier to control included neighbours than to keep them as strangers and probable threats; the military situation allowed such plan, but for a northern part (Aegean) and what is now known as Turkey (Hittite kingdom).
It is likely that the logical cultural unification asked for a religion - which was an obvious political tool in those times. The Thebean rulers and their new associates must have considered to implement the entire territory with a sole religion - a religion which had to be Egyptian, but also simple, primal and universal as Atonism could be.
The cult of Aton had been a solar monotheism in  the very early Egyptian history. It was easy to bring back this ancient forgotten Solar cult, and thrust forward a new era with its renewed version. In this way many various tribes and cultures could be spiritually gathered, as later Christianity - for example - was able to unify the large Mediterranean and European territories.

So Amenophis.3, Akhnaton's father, began to announce the religion of Aton, a probably presented his son as a sort of Messiah in the New Kingdom which was encompassing the whole Isthmus (between Africa & Eurasia). This is a much more realistic view than the claim that Akhnaton, on his own right and by his single individual power, invented and promulgated the religion of Aton . Clues indicate that it was planed and prepared in Thebes, by his father and the strategists - and it is also quite probable that a marriage was to be integrated in the construct. This is giving a foundation for understanding who was Nefertiti.


Once we have assessed what was before Akhnaton & Nefertiti's wedding - if we are looking for the best condition to understand the mystery of their marriage, we shall also take advantage in what happened after their disappearance:


An major political strategy is apparent during
Ramses.2's reign which followed Akhnaton's endeavor and apparent failure. There again, a bit a logical thinking may not be damaging for our intellect.
When History builds an Empire, an inertia imposes a long-term direction which carries on over hitches and delays. This is quite certain. Therefore, there is a high probability that the successor of a failure will go over again, and
show the plan which had fail a first time.
It is quite clear that Ramses.2 (who was in the same strategic situation than Akhnaton was when he came in power) did not applied such resumption with the religion policy (Ramses.2 re-enforced the former religion of Amon in Egypt); but Ramses.2 was
still facing the Hittite issues, and what known as his most glorified deed has been a negotiation (Quades) with the Hittites, that he concluded with a marriage with a Hittite princess.
This is to indicate with a certain probability what kind of
political alliance based on wedding, has already be attempted in Akhnaton's time.


We can now summarize.
When Akhnaton came to power, the entire world connected to Egypt (the Horizon of Egypt) was under his control, except for a resistant area known as the Hittite Kingdom (and/or some similar parts of the Aegean) - it was ideally the reason to make a political wedding alliance. We don't know if it has been the case - since we don't know where Nefertiti comes from - but we know that Ramses married a Hittite princess in a way that was favorable to resume Akhnaton's territorial policy. It would thus be unreasonable to neglect the fact that Akhanton's wedding with Nefertiti could have been a first attempt for this political maneuver.

To summarize :
1) Because a failure is usually followed by a second attempt.
2) Because is was logical to marry an Hittite princess with Akhnaton.
3) Also because the Amarnian art - which is so peculiar - shows striking similarities, or influence with the Aegean Art which was for instance flourishing in Crete.
4) Because Nefertiti's statue may show an Eurasian appearances.
5) Because also - in the context of a repressure - historians never mention the Aegean origin of Nefertiti,


For these reasons there is a good probability that Nefertiti could be Hittite (or related) - especially if we consider why the 'Oedipus complex' of Akhnaton-Moses drove him to end his journey in Kolona. In thus becoming Akhnaton-Moses-Oedipus, he rejoined the very place where its most repressed part of his early influence came from.
This is leading us on the track of a certain claims which mention an integration, in Akhnaton's drama, of some Northern mythological contribution - that we may not consider yet, before a much more profound examination :



What shall we discover in building up our fiction or hypothesis ? Let us resume the fiction:


Akhnaton's father and his politicians, acknowledging the end of the military phase of Egypt's recovery, planed to gather the spiritual forces of their new territory, under a sole religion, inspired by an early original Egyptian monotheism - the Aton Sun God worship. They presented Pharaoh's son as the Messiah who was to be the leader of the new spiritual impulse.
All the countries (Babylonia, Syria, Palestine etc...) in the cultural compound had more or less already blended their history with Egypt - a unique a new blood was to be included. It was the Hittites. They had even not militarily subdued - but looked as if they were ready for an alliance. For this project, a princess was sent to Amenophis.3 (Akhnaton's father), to marry his young son and future pharaoh.
This princess was Nefertiti and, indeed, she brought with her an important influence : when Akhnaton gained his independence as a ruler, he developed with Nefertiti the full expression of Atonism in a new capital where the art and religious expression showed a deep transformation of Egyptian style in art and way of life. There is no indication that this new mentality was due exclusively to Akhnaton - on the contrary the very 'familial' expression of the Amarnian culture indicates that Akhnaton was probably able to honor the influence of his wife - who was then the source for very Northern structure of civilization, usually unknown in Egypt.

However, Nefertiti was not sole responsible for the new capital, not more than Akhnaton alone - but a political group (well named, by Freud, Neo-Egyptians) was backing the project. If my hypothesis is correct it is understandable that the first temples to Aton - where Nefertiti is represented equal to Akhnaton - where built in Thebes (as Amenophis.3 was still alive and ruling) - but the process had to develop even further. It became a logical necessity that, in order to give a chance to the New Empire, i.e. to include the whole Eurasian/African Isthmus, Egypt would present a new Capital. This was intended to thrust the pretended new era of the 'civilized world'. Once the alliances were made, and the new religion preset, the final step was the physical capital (which was incidentally built on one of the most ancient site of the Egyptian history, yet outnoded until this 'Renaissance').

By the area known today as Assiout, Akhnaton and Nefertiti, the young couple of a new Era in Mankind (according to their point of view) went certainly through an extraordinary experience, inventing freedom and creativity. If they had spoken English, John Lennon and Yoko Ono ruling the United Nation in New York City, with the song 'Imagine' for their cultural dogma, may have give an idea of the splendor they embraced in the early days of the 'City of the Horizon'.

Alas, this magnificent experience was soon darkened with difficulties - the Aegean area was still too instable and the alliance with the Hittite proved to be soon betrayed with attacks in Syria by Hittites troupes. Akhnaton refused to send his armies against possible dissidents in the land of his wife. Moreover, at the border, the threat was still far and indecipherable, while Akhnaton and his Jewish relatives had not yet exploited all their trumps - there was also internal difficulties in Egypt that can be summarized as follow:


Egyptology recall that Akhnaton's parents visited Amarna - soon before his father probably died of age. It is when the
Queen Tyie (Akhnaton's mother) may have exert a new influence on his son; Nefertiti's presence was declining. And this is the point where we must add a major factor in the whole picture of Amarna's fate. 

It we refer back again to the beginning of the 18th Dynasty - when the Egyptian royalty was refuged in the very South of the land - as a result of the associations and alliances which take place within a compound of exiled communities, when the kingdom was eventually restored, the several blended tribes and/or cultures tended to separate again.
This may have happened when Thot-Moses overthrowned Atshepsout female kinship - and again this may have been
an issue in Akhnaton's reign.
It is noticeable that Akhnaton's mother, was a very powerful political figure besides her husband, Amenophis.3. While he was setting the Egyptian policy from Thebes, his wife Tyie owned cities and many land in the North of the country, by the Sinai. Egyptology shows that
Queen Tyie was from a tribe that history now calls 'Hebrew'.
Then, when she was a widow, Tyie came to Amarna when it seems that
she partaked power with her son Akhnaton (while Nefertiti presence faded).
It is likely that a ancient or permanent
racial and/or narcissistic issue (perhaps pre-gender) must therefore be accounted and added with the early 'national' background in Akhnaton's and Nefertiti's history.


These factors suffice to draw now an hypothetical sketch of the events which took place with the establishment of Atonism :



2nd summarization


As Amenophis.3 intended to crown the military recovery which extended Egypt as far as the horizon of the known world, his strategists suggested the establishment of a unique religion for the entire territory. The religion was chosen amongst an early, simple and universal monotheist egyptian cult (Atonism). It was planned that the pharaoh's heir, Amenophis.4, would be presented as a Messiah for this great cultural project. As a single piece (Aegean territory/ Hittite kingdom) of the 'ideal' land had staid independent - Egypt manage to arrange a wedding between Amenophis.4 and an Aegean Princess.
Although Amenophis.3 had already married a northern woman (Queen Tyie/Hebrew), and in spite of protesting tensions within the Thebean court regarding the purity of the 'Egyptian' leadership, the plan was carried on. A far Northern princess, Nefertiti, was married to Amenophis.4 and a the Atonian project began to develop at first in Thebes. 

Soon, Amenophis.4 intensified the characterization of the project. In order to emphasize the revolution in the world order, he changed his name into 'Akhnaton" and founded a new capital (the City of the Horizon/Amarna) that would efficiently represent the vast compound of varied races and people. The art in Amarna expressed this diversity and the monotheistic worship of Aton was simple and able to sublimate every cults.
Unfortunately, instability in the Aegean debased the Hittite association and, while Babylonian and Syrian cities were threatened or under attack, the glory of Amarna decaid. Nefertiti could not represent any longer the northern influence that integrated in an unified civilization, and while Amenophis.3 was dying of age in Thebes, Queen Tyie convinced her son to show his presence in the physical middle-land that was the Sinai where she owned land with her tribe. 

So Akhnaton left the City of the Horizon for a journey by the Sinai peninsula. He left Amarna and Nefertiti - expecting to come back with a new League which would be diplomatic and stronger than any military involvement in Syria.

Akhnaton's
first journey
in Sinai

While Thebes
infiltrates
Amarna

Unfortunately he did not realize that he was moving too far from Thebes the center of gravity of his Kingdom, ; and perhaps also was he implying a mysterious and obscure cultural or intellectual factor...  


One should not be shocked to imagine Akhnaton traveling from Amarna to a crucial conference on the Isthmus  (Sinai and/or Arabia between Africa & Eurasia) - one of the beautiful archeological piece representing Tyie has been found on the Sinai, and it is well known that there were Egyptian military and industrial places. If Akhnaton was not paralyzed in Amarna, he had certainly good reasons to attempt a meeting, instead of sending his troupes, where he could plan and readjust his global strategy. From there, he could answer the need for practical laws - which had to temper the abstraction of his sole and absolute religion.

There are good reason to think that in the context and, according to the development of the mentalities at that age, a key-writing (what Fabre d'Olivet called a Secret Alphabet, a pluri-dimensional set of letters) was the very law that the King ruler could give in order to assemble the disparate ideographic intellects of his subjects.

Courtesy of David Gittens

In the Sinai {my scholar reader will not forget that this is a fiction, a novel} Akhnaton recollected the knowledge of many of the most ancient, advanced and varied traditions - he adjusted them with some very esoteric and usually secret Egyptian teachings. He then established the linguistic media which was called at that time Table of the Laws.Yet, in accomplishing this necessary maneuver, the Promethean Akhnaton was threatened on the other side, by an excessive distance from the Thebean control. When he came back to Amarna with the new project that he had conceived with the 'sage' conference of the Isthmus, he found a devastating situation.


When Akhnaton came back from the Sinai peninsula, it is legitimate to call him now 'Moses'. At that moment, he was already 'lost' for Thebes. He was still rejecting military involvement, but was bringing back an even more advanced league project.
This program was combining social symbols which were traditionally kept secret, that Atonism was making Public Law, (in out door rituals, open temples transparency, 'perestroyka' like) - it realized a framework which was expected to reinforce a social code, which had been too simple or abstract during the first redeployment Atonism. 

Alas, when Akhnaton came back from the Sinai, ready to establish the new code, he found the worse failure he could fear. Not only had the Amonist priesthood declared its opposition, but taking advantage of his absence, the Thebean influence had gained and intoxicated Amarna.
Moses found the reestablishment of the old animal cult, the same way that Archeology finds today traces of Amonism in the very place of the City of the Horizon. The resulting anger of Moses has also been remembered in the Hebrew history.
 

In other words, if the first delivery of the Tables took place in Amarna, after having counted on the Hebrew foundation to center his new politics. Akhnaton realized that he had failed to assemble the puzzle of the New Empire. He could not stay in Amarna - history shows that the City was closed to be destroyed and razed to the ground. The only place he could go was back to the Sinai. In anger Akhnaton left forever the City of his love and glamour , and abandoned it to desolation.
However the process could not be stopped - and the Aton enlightenment continued his intellectual development.
Once the plague had ruined his policy, Oedipus' record tales that the falling King realized that he had opted for a 'mother's influence' which contradicted his global project. In Sophocles report, Tyresias reveals to the King that, without knowing it, he had repudiated the principles of his life. Moses began to admit and understand the visions of this seer, only when he went for the second time in the Sinai.


Nefertiti probably never joined him to his journey in the Sinai. When he went in the Hebrew peninsula for the second time, it was under other conditions. He was there alone -without wife or mother, but with his daughter, as Antigone was with Oedipus in his exile. He heard of the final fall of his first endeavor (Akhnaton) - as Sophocles tales the news he received about his two sons (Tut and Semenkhare), and the death of both of them he could predict.
He was also ready to achieve his second endeavor (Moses). I have written an article which suggests which structure lays in the difference between the first and te second version of the Table of the Laws. There is another article which points to the function of the 'Orpheic' initiation in Akhnaton's story - this was the part which had come with Nefertiti in the renovation of Atonism. As he may have repudiated this initiation in the first delivery of the 'Tables' in the City of the Horizon - once he understood and could operate the sublimation of his parental attachment, he was also ready to rejoin ultimately the spirit he had betray in Nefertiti's remembrance.
Therefore, once the adapted second version of the Tables were published, a task remained for the Truth bearer - as the Bible says, he left the Sinai for a secret destination; that we can understand today - recognizing Oedipus-Akhnaton - being the land where his wife had come from. So the initiator of the Western industry/civilization completed his operation as he revisited each places of the complex symbol he had to compose.
The Primal Scene was over - ready for being memorized.

 
 

I know that every researchers before me have sabotage their initial disclosure. Freud, Velikovsky, Osman, Bernal Note about resistance - therefore I may do the same in extending the above hypothesis beyond the sound thesis that I have waved during 15 hears.
To conclude thus risky extrapolation, I shall just summarize:
After a solid ground suggests that Moses, Oedipus and Akhnaton were the same figure, I have tried to describe what could be the explanation for two blind spots which remain in the historical analysis: where was Nefertiti from, and where is the Amarnian phase mentioned in the Bible.
As I have been waiting for these 15 years for some honest scholar to invalidate the first triple identification, I would like to assure my reader how much I will be longing for him to show me where the above extension could be wrong or incompatible - otherwise his/her silence would be too shameful.



HOME PAGE


NOTE - {Velikovsky & Osman, Freud & Yates} - back

This circular
animation
summarize
the structure
of the
identification,
was
also shown
in akh.com
first Edition,
static
&
animated

This summary
is detailed in
the following
articles:
Akhnaton
Moses
Oedipus
Freud
Velikovsky
Osman
Trismegistus,
and
History
or
animation

NOTE - "not a single contradiction" - One good example is given with the Biblical affirmation that Moses was Hebrew; that is compatible with our present thesis, according to Osman's studies. - back




© CYBEK of New York, 1999.