AKHENATEN

At the outset of the reign relatively large blocks were used in the Sun Temple of
Re-Harakhty, but later the new sanctuaries of the Aten were erected from small,
easily carried sandstone blocks, called TALATAT ("three"-blocks) in the scholarly
literature, because they are one handbreadth in height and two in width.

Isolated blocks were already visible in the vicinity of the temples at Karnak and
Luxor in the nineteenth century, but since the beginning of the twentieth ex-
tensive restoration efforts by French and Egyptian Egyptologists have recovered
such 'taltat' by the tens of thousands from a great variety of structural elements.

A SMALL PIECE OF 'TALATAT' WITH THE 'ATEN' CLEARLY VISIBLE

Besides the temple complex of Karnak, the temples of Luxor, Tod, Nag el-Madamud
and Armant have yielded up still more blocks. Together with those still in the Tenth
Pylon at Karnak, we must reckon with more than fifty thousand decorated blocks
that once constituted whole temple walls: a gigantic jigsaw puzzle to be reconstruct-
ed into scenes of the cult!

There was an early attempt to do this by computer, but the results were rather
disappointing.

Since 1965, when Ray Smith took on the project, only a small selection has been
published, and these are marked by dubious combinations and reconstructions.

Still, work on the blocks has brought to light a host of iconographic treasures that
enrich our knowledge of the early years of Akhenaten.