Egyptian Superstars

On Sunday 28th Feb 2010,  the Egyptian Culture Ministry announced the finding of a three-millennial-old gigantic head of Amenhotep III made of red granite.

Amenhotep III was the father of Amenhotep IV, aka Akhenaten, the heretic king who instituted what might have been the world’s first recorded attempt at monotheism, moved his capital to the new city of Akhetatan (modern Tel Amarna), and is well known to most historians because of the copious Akkadian tablets that his son Tutankhamen (originally name Tutankhaten) left behind in that city when he moved his capital back to Thebes after his father’s death, tablets that provide a incalculably important window into the political situation of the ancient Near East in the Late Bronze Age. All that to say, from an historian’s point of view Amenhotep III’s claim to fame was having sired the heretic king… or not.

Every report of the finding of Amenhotep III’s visage has had words to the affect of those by Carol Whyte at Examiner.com:

A team of archaeologists headed by Dr. Hourig Sourouzian, discovered the head of King Tut’s grandfather, Amenhotep III, who ruled from 1387 – 1348 B.C.

Now of course, this is statement is accurate. However, I am still miffed that King Tut seems to be more the Egyptian superstar than his illustrious father.