The Moses Legacy

Chapter 81

‘Look, I know this is painful,’ said Daniel. ‘If you want me to stop, I will.’ He understood how difficult it must be for these serious men of religion to find their sacred truths contradicted by a text more ancient than the Bible; their patriarch exposed as an incestuous adulterer and a murderer who betrayed his own daughter.

The high priest refused to succumb to the pain. ‘No… please continue.’

Daniel looked down and again struggled with the text as he continued. And Neferayim had the ear of Tutankhaten and advised him to fulfil his father’s wishes and worship the Aten and not to allow the priests of Amun to pray to their false god or to offer sacrifices to him. And the king worshipped the creator of all. And Neferayim persuaded Pharaoh to marry Ankhesenpaaten his favourite granddaughter who was also his daughter. But Horemheb had the other ear of the king and he told him that Neferayim and Nefertiti killed his mother because she wanted to restore the old gods.

‘Is that new?’ asked Daniel. ‘Or more of what we already know?’

‘A mixture,’ said Gabrielle cautiously.

‘But why didn’t Horemheb simply tell Akhenaten about the murder of King Tut’s mother? Why this elaborate, roundabout response?’

Gabrielle had to think about this.

‘Well, we do know that from the twelfth year of Akhenaten’s reign, Egypt was in turmoil. They stopped building in Amarna and Egypt was economically strapped. Their new enemy, the Hittites, were becoming more powerful. And Akhenaten may not have had all his marbles. From what it said earlier in the papyrus, Nefertiti was ruling as co-regent. Although co-regencies were quite common in ancient Egypt at that time, it was rare for it to be with a woman. Not unprecedented, but rare. It was more likely to be with a son, in order to prepare him for leadership. If he ruled with Nefertiti as co-regent, instead of waiting for his son to get older, that could suggest that he was no longer able to rule by himself. Maybe the death of his beloved wife/sister affected his mind in some way.’

‘That’s logical,’ said Daniel.

He looked at the high priest to see if he wanted to add anything. The high priest nodded towards the papyrus, making it clear that all he wanted to do was get this over with. He could have told them to stop, but it was clear that he had no intention of running away from the truth. He would go wherever the truth took him. Daniel continued. And when Tutankhaten heard this he became bitter and angry and he summoned Neferayim and cursed him and threatened him with death. But Neferayim begged for his life and told the king that it was his daughter and not he who had killed the mother of the king. And so Tutankhaten spared his life but ordered him to prove he was true by cutting out the words that praised the Aten from his tomb.

Daniel looked at Gabrielle. ‘That was at the other tomb, right? The Amarna tomb, not the one we were locked in.’

‘That’s right.’

‘And was it erased? The Great Hymn to Aten, I mean.’

‘Parts of it were chiselled out. Let’s talk about it later. Carry on.’ And Pharaoh restored the old gods and ordered the city of Akhetaten abandoned and changed his name to Tutankhamen to show his support for the old gods and their priests. Then Tutankhamen appointed Horemheb to be his heir.

‘Now we’re getting to things that are quite familiar,’ said Daniel.

‘Very familiar,’ Gabrielle agreed. ‘The counter-revolution, the abandonment of Akhetaten, the restoration of the Amun priests in Luxor. And that was only the beginning.’