his fragment depicts Akhenaton in the form of a sphinx making offerings to the sun god Aton. He pours a libation over tables full of lotus flowers and some form of stylised bread or cake. He appears here with the exaggerated facial style typical of the first years of artistic expression in the new city. He wears a traditional bag headdress and broad collar. The artist's use of a sphinx body here directly connects with what is known as the Harmachis, an ancient solar deity dating back to the time when the pyramids were built and possibly legitimising Akhenaton's solar connection. The name of Akhenaton, Nefertiti and Akhetaton (the name of the city) appear within the oval bands known as cartouches. Small stellae such as this one were commissioned privately and placed in the homes of the devotee or within the garden space.

uring Egypt's three thousand years of history, the pharaoh Akhenaton was the most controversial individual to have sat on the Egyptian throne. Up until the reign of Akhenaton the Egyptian people worshipped a pantheon of different gods that represented the Egyptian vision of divine order. Many of these gods were elemental such as the god Shu … the air, Tefnut … moisture and Hapi … the god of the Nile river. Other gods were manifested in the amalgamation of different animals and their respective behavioural traits. When Akhenaton had become king, Egypt was still at the height of her power and influence over the known world. The supreme god of the state was Amun … the hidden one, whose cult centre was in Thebes (ancient Waset) the capital city of all Egypt at this time. His many temples and their attendant priesthoods became very powerful. Powerful enough it seems, to rival the power and position of the king. This was the spiritual and political climate that Akhenaton was thrust into on his ascension. Evidence alludes to a likely co-regency with his father Amunhotep the third some years before Akhenaton becomes king outright. Observing some of the surviving artefacts from this era suggests a breaking from established religious order had already begun with the introduction of new iconography including images of the king Amunhotep the third feasting with his family beneath the benevolent rays of the solar disc.

khenaton as he is known today was actually crowned Amunhotep the fourth, but during the fourth year of his reign he changed his name to Akhenaton, and abolished over two thousand years of accumulated religious order by closing all of Egypt's temples forbidding the worship of all but the new sole deity … Aton. He also sailed upstream to find a piece of untouched land to establish a city for his new god and his faithful subjects. The transformation of Egyptian consciousness into a relatively monotheistic culture could only be possible away from the established cities that had been built on the premise of polytheism. The centrepiece of this new religious ideal was the Aton … the solar disc whose rays shone down on the royal family and the offerings they bestowed, each ray terminating in human hands. Wherever the ray extended closest to the nose of the king, queen or princess the Aton would offer the breath of life in the form of an inverted Ankh hieroglyphic amulet. Only Akhenaton and to some extent his family communed directly with Aton. This must have led to some dissention among the rest of the population especially those who secretly clung to the old ways of worship.

fter approximately seventeen years Akhenaton was dead. The zeal required to sustain the new religion did not manifest in Smenkhare the heir apparent. Lasting no more than two years as king the city was abandoned as Amun thundered back into power rendering the new city redundant. As Thebes reanimated back to its former bustling glory, the beautiful city of the horizon-Akhenaton's sun city was being dismantled down to its foundations to be recycled elsewhere, and its remains were covered by the shifting sands within a generation.