Editing Akhenaten (section)

=== After Akhenaten ===

Following Akhenaten's death, Egypt gradually returned to its traditional [[polytheism|polytheistic]] religion, partly because of how closely associated the Aten became with Akhenaten.{{sfn|Hornung|2001|p=56}} Atenism likely stayed dominant through the reigns of Akhenaten's immediate successors, [[Smenkhkare]] and [[Neferneferuaten]], as well as early in the reign of Tutankhaten.{{sfn|Dodson|2018|pp=47, 50}} For some years the worship of Aten and a resurgent worship of Amun coexisted.{{sfn|Redford|1984|p=207}}{{sfn|Silverman|Wegner|Wegner|2006|pp=165–166}}

Over time, however, Akhenaten's successors, starting with Tutankhaten, took steps to distance themselves from Atenism. Tutankhaten and his wife [[Ankhesenpaaten]] dropped the Aten from their names and changed them to [[Tutankhamun]] and Ankhesenamun, respectively. Amun was restored as the supreme deity. Tutankhamun reestablished the temples of the other gods, as the pharaoh propagated on his Restoration Stela: "He reorganized this land, restoring its customs to those of the time of Re. ... He renewed the gods' mansions and fashioned all their images. ... He raised up their temples and created their statues. ... When he had sought out the gods' precincts which were in ruins in this land, he refounded them just as they had been since the time of the first primeval age."{{sfn|Hoffmeier|2015|pp=197, 239–242}} Additionally, Tutankhamun's building projects at [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] and [[Karnak]] used [[talatat]]'s from Akhenaten's buildings, which implies that Tutankhamun might have started to demolish temples dedicated to the Aten. Aten temples continued to be torn down under Ay and [[Horemheb]], Tutankhamun's successors and the last pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Horemheb might also have ordered the demolition of Akhetaten, Akhenaten's capital city.{{sfn|van Dijk|2003|p=284}} Further underlining the break with Aten worship, Horemheb claimed to have been chosen to rule by the god [[Horus]]. Finally, [[Seti I]], the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty, ordered the name of Amun to be restored on inscriptions where it had been removed or replaced by [[Aten]].{{sfn|Hoffmeier|2015|pp=239–242}}