# Amarna-period erasures of Amun’s name proceed during Nefertiti’s tenure as Great Royal Wife

Date: 1348

## The fact

During the Amarna years, Amun’s name and images were chiselled out in Thebes while Aten cult was elevated. Reliefs show [Nefertiti](/people/nefertiti) officiating to Aten. Conventional chronology places this in the 1340s BCE.

## Context

Religious monopoly is not the same as a modern party system. It is still a documented exclusion of a major priesthood’s public name. Nefertiti’s ritual prominence makes her a complex contributor, not a bystander and not sole pharaoh unless a co-regency is separately proved.

Nefertiti is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Met Amarna essay and the Amarna Project independently describe Aten cult and Amun erasure. They do not give a notarised 1348-01-01.

Official or archival record: Met Heilbrunn — Amarna (https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/amar/hd_amar.htm; Metropolitan Museum of Art).

## Significance

Polarisation path. Medium confidence on personal authorship of erasures, high on the programme occurring in her tenure.

Conventional years are not fake precision. The day 01-01 is a placeholder for year-precision. The erasure is not a placeholder.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Amun was erased while she was Great Royal Wife and Aten officiant. Not established: that she issued a unique decree dated 1 January 1348 BCE.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Nefertiti: https://factrail.ai/people/nefertiti

## Drivers

- Political Polarization: https://factrail.ai/drivers/political-polarization

## Sources

- https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/amar/hd_amar.htm
- https://www.amarnaproject.com/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/eg-amun-erasure-amarna