Tomb sheds light on Egyptians' sun worship

CAIRO, Thursday 15 February 2001

A tomb dating back to the mid-14th century BC could shed light on the early years of ancient Egyptians' veneration of the sun god Aten, Dutch archaeologists said this week in describing their discovery of a priest's burial site.

Inscriptions on a column found at the 20-metre by 10-metre tomb unearthed at Sakkara, 25 kilometres south of Cairo, belonged to the priest Meryneith in the time of King Akhenaten's rule (1379-62BC).

Rene van Walsem, an Egyptologist with Leiden University in the Netherlands, said the tomb dated 20 years earlier than previous New Kingdom tombs found in the area and expanded knowledge of the early Akhenaten years. The pharaoh was believed to have feuded with the priesthood of Amun, the main god of Thebes, then devoted himself to worshipping Aten, a sun god.

"It was very important for us to know the transition from polytheistic religion to a more or less monotheistic Aten," Mr van Walsem said.

His colleague, Egyptologist Maarten Raven, of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, said the priest had changed his name from Meryneith to Meryrei, an indication that adoration of the traditional gods was forbidden part of the way through his career. Meryneith means "beloved of the goddess Neith", the traditional goddess of war.