Editing Amarna (section)

==Rediscovery and excavation==

===18th and 19th&nbsp;century excavations===
The first western mention of the city was made in 1714 by [[Claude Sicard]], a French [[Jesuit]] priest who was travelling through the Nile Valley, and described the boundary stela from Amarna. As with much of Egypt, it was visited by [[Napoleon]]'s ''corps de savants'' in 1798–1799, who prepared the first detailed map of Amarna, which was subsequently published in ''[[Description de l'Égypte]]'' between 1821 and 1830.<ref name="amarnamapping">{{cite web |url=http://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/recent_projects/survey/index.shtml |title=Mapping Amarna |access-date=2008-10-01 |df=dmy-all |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081008012317/http://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/recent_projects/survey/index.shtml |archive-date=8 October 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

After this European exploration continued in 1824 when Sir [[John Gardiner Wilkinson]] explored and mapped the city remains. The copyist [[Robert Hay (Egyptologist)|Robert Hay]] and his surveyor G.&nbsp;Laver visited the locality and uncovered several of the Southern Tombs from sand drifts, recording the reliefs in 1833. The copies made by Hay and Laver languish largely unpublished in the [[British Library]], where an ongoing project to identify their locations is underway.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.astene.org.uk/associated_events_societies/hay.htm |title=The Robert Hay Drawings in the British Library |access-date=2008-10-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060627025558/http://www.astene.org.uk/associated_events_societies/hay.htm |archive-date=2006-06-27}}</ref>

The [[Prussia]]n expedition led by [[Richard Lepsius]] visited the site in 1843 and 1845, and recorded the visible monuments and topography of Amarna in two separate visits over a total of twelve days, using drawings and paper squeezes. The results were ultimately published in ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien'' between 1849 and 1913, including an improved map of the city.<ref name="amarnamapping"/> Despite being somewhat limited in accuracy, the engraved ''Denkmäler'' plates formed the basis for scholastic knowledge and interpretation of many of the scenes and inscriptions in the private tombs and some of the Boundary Stelae for the rest of the century. The records made by these early explorers teams are of immense importance since many of these remains were later destroyed or otherwise lost.
[[File:Amarna Akkadian letter.png|thumb|upright=0.7|One of the [[Amarna letters]]]]
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===The Amarna letters===
In 1887, a local woman digging for ''[[sebakh]]'' uncovered a cache of over 300 [[cuneiform|cuneiform tablets]] (now commonly known as the [[Amarna letters|Amarna Letters]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://members.tripod.com/~ib205/budge.html |title=Wallis Budge describes the discovery of the Amarna tablets |access-date=2008-10-01}}</ref> These tablets recorded select [[diplomacy|diplomatic]] correspondence of the Pharaoh and were predominantly written in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], the ''[[lingua franca]]'' commonly used during the [[Late Bronze Age]] of the [[Ancient Near East]] for such communication. This discovery led to the recognition of the importance of the site, and led to a further increase in exploration.<ref name="grundon9091">Grundon (2007), pp. 90–91</ref>

===Excavation of the king's tomb===
Between 1891 and 1892 [[Alessandro Barsanti]] discovered and cleared the king's tomb (although it was probably known to the local population from about 1880).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/amarna_the_place/royal_tombs/index.shtml |title=Royal Tomb|publisher=The Amarna Project |access-date=2008-10-01 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080927231423/http://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/amarna_the_place/royal_tombs/index.shtml |archive-date=27 September 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1891 and 1892 Sir [[Flinders Petrie]] worked for one season at Amarna, working independently of the [[Egypt Exploration Fund]]. He excavated primarily in the Central City, investigating the [[Great Temple of the Aten]], the Great Official Palace, the King's House, the [[Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh]], and several private houses. Although frequently amounting to little more than a [[sondage]], Petrie's excavations revealed additional [[cuneiform]] tablets, the remains of several glass factories, and a great quantity of discarded [[faience]], glass, and ceramic in sifting the palace rubbish heaps (including Mycenaean sherds).<ref name="grundon9091"/> By publishing his results and reconstructions rapidly, Petrie was able to stimulate further interest in the site's potential.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/tellelamarna00petr]Petrie, W. M. Flinders, "Tell el Amarna", London, Methuen & co, 1894</ref>

===20th&nbsp;century excavations===
The copyist and artist [[N. de Garis Davies|Norman de&nbsp;Garis Davies]] published drawn and photographic descriptions of private tombs and boundary stelae from Amarna from 1903 to 1908. These books were republished by the EES in 2006.

In the early years of the 20th&nbsp;century (1907 to 1914) the [[Deutsche Orientgesellschaft]] expedition, led by [[Ludwig Borchardt]], excavated extensively throughout the North and South suburbs of the city. The famous bust of [[Nefertiti bust|Nefertiti]], now in Berlin's [[Neues Museum|Ägyptisches Museum]], was discovered amongst other sculptural artefacts in the workshop of the sculptor [[Thutmose (sculptor)|Thutmose]]. The outbreak of the [[World War I|First World War]] in August&nbsp;1914 terminated the German excavations.

From 1921 to 1936 an Egypt Exploration Society expedition returned to excavation at Amarna under the direction of [[T. Eric Peet|T.E.&nbsp;Peet]], Sir&nbsp;[[Leonard Woolley]], [[Henri Frankfort]], [[Stephen Glanville]],<ref>Grundon(2007), p. 71</ref> and [[John Pendlebury]]. [[Mary Chubb]] served as the digs administrator. The renewed investigations were focused on religious and royal structures.

During the 1960s the Egyptian Antiquities Organization (now the [[Egypt]]ian [[Supreme Council of Antiquities]]) undertook a number of excavations at Amarna.

===21st&nbsp;century excavations===
Exploration of the city continues to the present, currently under the direction of [[Barry Kemp (Egyptologist)|Barry Kemp]] (Emeritus Professor in Egyptology, [[University of Cambridge]], England) (until 2006, under the auspices of the [[Egypt Exploration Society]] and now with the {{cite web |url=http://www.amarnaproject.com/ |title=Amarna Project}}).<ref name="kemp" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ees.ac.uk/fieldwork/amarna.htm |title=Fieldwork – Tell El-Armana |access-date=2008-10-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080424101113/http://www.ees.ac.uk/fieldwork/amarna.htm |archive-date=2008-04-24 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1980 a separate expedition led by [[Geoffrey Thorndike Martin|Geoffrey Martin]] described and copied the reliefs from the Royal Tomb, later publishing its findings together with objects thought to have come from the tomb. This work was published in 2&nbsp;volumes by the EES.

From 2005 to 2013, the Amarna Project excavated at a [[Southern Tombs Cemetery|cemetery]] of private individuals, close to the southern tombs of the Nobles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7209472.stm |publisher=news.bbc.co.uk |title=Grim secrets of Pharaoh's city |access-date=2008-10-01 |author=John Hayes-Fisher |work=BBC Timewatch |date=2008-01-25}}</ref>