ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how excavations at Amarna have been interpreted since the first European travellers reached there at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and how these interpretations have affected the Akhenaten legend. The archaeology of Amarna influenced architecture as well as fashion accessories and decorative arts. In the years preceding the Second World War, strange or uncanny aspects of Amarnas archaeology were downplayed, and it metamorphosed from a numinous mystery into a version of suburban London, the prototype garden suburb. The chapter focuses on digging strategies, because it seems to me that the people involved in digging and publicising Amarna have all had particular agendas about the presentation of Egypt. It reviews antiquarians and archaeologists who made efforts to popularise their discoveries at Amarna. Post-processualists would argue that archaeology often supports largely Eurocentric structures or assumptions, which benefit the status quo and are therefore not committed to political change again, something the history of excavations at Amarna illustrates.
