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Lot Essay
As Roeder notes (op. cit.), this block derives very likely from the text above a scene of a princess standing behind the king. It bears 3 columns of hieroglyphs comprising the two cartouches of Akhenaten and a third column to the right, reading: "Neferkheprure-Wanre, Akhena[ten],...[Daughter of the king of his body, beloved] of him, of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt." The cartouche to the left appears to have been intentionally damaged in antiquity in an act of damnatio memoriae. Following the death of Akhenaten in 1336 B.C. many of his monuments were destroyed, and his name was erased from buildings and official records.
Between 1929 and 1939, German excavators in Egypt, led by the Roemer-und Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim, found numerous talatat in Hermopolis, over 12 miles north of Amarna, in the foundations of a temple built in the time of Ramesses II. The use of standardized talatat blocks were employed only during Akhenaten's reign. The rubble from his demolished buildings was reused as fill in the foundations of later edifices.
Between 1929 and 1939, German excavators in Egypt, led by the Roemer-und Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim, found numerous talatat in Hermopolis, over 12 miles north of Amarna, in the foundations of a temple built in the time of Ramesses II. The use of standardized talatat blocks were employed only during Akhenaten's reign. The rubble from his demolished buildings was reused as fill in the foundations of later edifices.