New evidence of a sick, deprived population working under harsh conditions contradicts earlier images of wealth and abundance from the art records of the ancient Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna, a study has found.
Tell el-Amarna was the capital of ancient Egypt during the reign1 of the pharaoh Akhenaten, who abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in favor of the Aten sun disk and brought in a new and more expressive2 style of art.
Akhenaten, who ruled Egypt between 1379 and 1362 BC, built and lived in Tell el-Amarna in central Egypt for 15 years. The city was largely abandoned shortly after his death and the ascendance of the famous boy king Tutankhamun to the throne.
Studies on the remains3 of ordinary ancient Egyptians in a cemetery4 in Tell el-Amarna showed that many of them suffered from anemia5, fractured bones, stunted6 growth and high juvenile7 mortality rates, according to professors Barry Kemp and Jerome Rose, who led the research.
Rose, a professor of anthropology8 in the University of Arkansas in the United States, said adults buried in the cemetery were probably brought there from other parts of Egypt.
"This means that we have a period of deprivation9 in Egypt prior to the Amarna phase," he said.
"So maybe things were not so good for the average Egyptian and maybe Akhenaten said we have to change to make things better," he said.
Kemp, director of the Amarna Project which seeks in part to increase public knowledge of Tell el-Amarna and surrounding region, said little attention has been given to the cemeteries10 of ordinary ancient Egyptians.
Rose displayed pictures showing spinal11 injuries among teenagers, probably because of accidents during construction work to build the city.
The study showed that anemia ran at 74 percent among children and teenagers, and at 44 percent among adults, Rose said. The average height of men was 159 cm (5 feet 2 inches) and 153 cm among women.
"Adult heights are used as a proxy12 for overall standard of living," he said. "Short statures reflect a diet deficient13 in protein. ... People were not growing to their full potential."
1 reign [reɪn] 第7级 | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;vi.占优势 | |
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2 expressive [ɪkˈspresɪv] 第9级 | |
adj.表现的,表达…的,富于表情的 | |
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3 remains [rɪˈmeɪnz] 第7级 | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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4 cemetery [ˈsemətri] 第8级 | |
n.坟墓,墓地,坟场 | |
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5 anemia [ə'ni:mi:ə] 第10级 | |
n.贫血,贫血症 | |
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6 stunted ['stʌntid] 第8级 | |
adj.矮小的;发育迟缓的 | |
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7 juvenile [ˈdʒu:vənaɪl] 第8级 | |
n.青少年,少年读物;adj.青少年的,幼稚的 | |
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8 anthropology [ˌænθrəˈpɒlədʒi] 第8级 | |
n.人类学 | |
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9 deprivation [ˌdeprɪˈveɪʃn] 第9级 | |
n.匮乏;丧失;夺去,贫困 | |
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10 cemeteries [ˈsemitriz] 第8级 | |
n.(非教堂的)墓地,公墓( cemetery的名词复数 ) | |
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11 spinal [ˈspaɪnl] 第11级 | |
adj.针的,尖刺的,尖刺状突起的;脊骨的,脊髓的 | |
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