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One of the best-known 18th Dynasty pharaohs is Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten in honour of the Aten. He moved the capital to a new city he built and called it Akhetaten.
The Aten was by this point in Egyptian history considered to be an aspect of the composite deity Ra-Amun-Horus. These previously separate deities had been merged with each other.
A house altar depicting the Pharaoh Akhenaten and his receiving life from the rays of the Aten sun disk, on display at the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. A new culture of art was introduced during this time that was more naturalistic and a complete turnabout from the stereotypical style that had ruled Egyptian art for the last 1700 years. Concerning art and Akhenaten, an area of interest to many Egyptologists is the peculiarity of Akhenaten's physical features. Styles of art that flourished during this short period are markedly different from other Egyptian art, bearing a variety of affectations, from elongated heads to protruding stomachs, exaggerated ugliness and the beauty of Nefertiti. Significantly, and for the only time in the history of Egyptian royal art, Akhenaten's family was depicted in a decidedly naturalistic manner, and they are clearly shown displaying affection for each other. Nefertiti also appears beside the king in actions usually reserved for a Pharaoh, suggesting that she attained unusual power for a queen. Early in his reign the typical artistic representations of the royal family were strikingly bizarre, typically featuring elongated heads and over-slender limbs. By the middle of his reign under a new royal sculptor the depictions had become much more realistic, as the famously iconic representation of Nefertiti discovered near the beginning of the 20th century attests. (The sculptor Thutmose’s bust of Nefertiti, on display at the Altes Museum, Berlin)
Towards the end of his 17-year reign, Akhenaten took a co-regent, Smenkhkare, whose family relationship is obscure: he was either a brother of Akhenaton, or son, or perhaps Nefertiti taking on a pharonic name. Their co-regency lasted only 2 years at most. When Akhenaten died, worship of the old gods was revived. In truth, their worship had never ended, but had instead gone underground. Smenkhkare died after a few months of sole reign, and in his place was crowned a young boy: Tutankhamen, He was a young child when he ascended to the throne, and undoubtedly it was his advisers that made the decisions for him. His given name was Tutankhaton, but with the resurgence of Amun, he was re-named Tutankhamun.
Following Akhenaten's death, a comprehensive political, religious and artistic reformation returned Egyptian life to the norms it had followed previously during his father's reign. Much of the art and building infrastructure that was created during Akhenaten's reign was defaced or destroyed in the period immediately following his death, first instituted during the reign of Tutankhamen, and continued into the reigns of his successors Ay and Horemheb. Stone building blocks from his construction projects were later used as foundation stones for subsequent ruler’s pyramids, temples and tombs, which were consequently well-preserved when they were later uncovered by archaeologists.
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