Akhetaten

Akhethotep (fl. 24th century b. c.e.) Official of the Fifth Dynasty and the son of the vizier Ptah-hotep Akhethotep served niuserre (r. 2416-2392 b. c.e.) as vizier, a position also held by his father before him. He also served as a judge and as an overseer of priests involved in the mortuary rituals conducted at the pyramids of deceased pharaohs. His grandson, ptah-hotep (2), the great sage famous for his Maxims, was buried in an alcove of Akhethotep’s tomb. Elaborate paintings testify to the wealth and prestige of this distinguished family Akhethotep’s tomb was discovered in saqqara, near modern Cairo.

Akh-iker-en-Re See ancestor cult letters.

Egypt’s vast empire in the New Kingdom Period (1550-1070 b. c.e.). The ’amarna letters were written in Babylonian, a late form of the Akkadian language.

Alara (fl. c. 780 b. c.e.) Powerful ruler of Napata, in Nubia The kingdom of napata, located in nubia, modern Sudan, maintained Egyptian traditions in religious, social, and governmental affairs. Alara was the brother of kashta, who founded the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling from 770 to 750 b. c.e. Kashta and his successor, piankhi (1), ruled only a part of Egypt in their lifetimes. The Nap-atans would later claim all of Egypt when shabaka marched northward in 712 b. c.e. and conquered the entire Nile Valley Alara’s daughter, tabiry, the mother of Shabaka, married Piankhi. Alara’s wife was a noblewoman named Kassaga.

Akhlane (Akhlamu) An ancient Semitic nomadic group in northern Syria, called “the enemies of the Assyr ians.” In the reign of akhenaten (Amenhotep IV, r. 1353-1335 b. c.e.), the Akhlane appear in the Egyptian correspondence known today as the ’amarna letters. They are described as a vigorous clan on the Euphrates River and in the area of the Persian Gulf. The Assyrians, who found them a formidable foe, called them the “Akhlamu-Aramaeans.” The Akhlane disappeared soon after Akhenaten’s reign, possibly absorbed into other cultures or renamed in later historical periods.