• Akhenaten’s capital, Akhetaten, long thought abandoned due to plague, shows no archaeological evidence of an epidemic.
• Burial sites reveal no mass graves or delayed interments; most remains were carefully buried in individual textile-wrapped coffins.
• Scholars argue earlier plague theories rely on distant sources; Akhetaten’s remote location likely shielded it from Mediterranean outbreaks.

The 17-year reign of Akhenaten ranks among the most dramatic in all of ancient Egyptian history. Born Amenhotep IV, he changed his name after becoming pharaoh in 1353 B.C.E., signaling his devotion to Aten, whom he soon instituted as the state’s sole deity. For good measure, he built Akhetaten, a new capital on the Nile equidistant from Memphis and Thebes, Egypt’s political and religious centers of power.

Shortly after Akhenaten’s death in 1336 B.C.E., however, the city was abandoned and within a couple of decades its stone temples were being dismantled. Over the past half century, Egyptologists have argued an epidemic caused Akhetaten to be deserted, with some claiming the city’s isolated location was originally chosen to escape disease.

Now, a comprehensive review of the archaeological ruins of Akhetaten, today known as Amarna, and its surrounding cemeteries suggests there is no evidence that the city was struck by a catastrophic plague in the 14th century B.C.E.

Limestone relief of Akhenaten and his Family, from Akhetaten (18th Dynasty, 1348–1336 B.C.E.). Photo: Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images.

Akhetaten’s short history has been a boon for modern-day archaeologists. Its remarkable state of preservation and lack of overbuilding offers an unusually clear and intact snapshot of Akhenaten’s erstwhile capital. Gretchen Dabbs and Anna Stevens, from Southern Illinois University and the University of Cambridge respectively, paid particularly close attention to data that has emerged from the city’s cemeteries, which were excavated between 2005 and 2022.

The city was surrounded by four large desert burial grounds that were intended for the general population. First off, the numbers. Previous surveys estimated there were between 11,350 and 12,950 burials across the cemeteries. This stands at the lower end of what might be expected for a city of Akhetaten’s size and length of occupation. As for the graves themselves, the vast majority are single pit graves whose individuals were carefully wrapped in textiles and placed in coffins. The mass graves common to epidemics, the researchers wrote, are nowhere to be found. Where multiple burials do occur, they are typically adult females placed alongside subadults—those aged 15 years and under—which implies a cultural tradition related to care and protection.

As for physical markers of disease, across the nearly 900 internments that were previously recorded by archaeologist, there is no direct evidence of a plague-like disease in the skeletal material—though tuberculosis was identified in one and possibly six other individuals. “The skeletal remains at Amarna lack indicators of delayed burial sometimes noted in epidemic contexts, such as carnivore or rodent modification and decomposition before burial,” the researchers wrote in a paper published in The American Journal of Archaeology. “There is little to currently suggest Akhetaten was affected by a mortal epidemic.”

Map of the eastern Mediterranean in late Bronze Age. Photo: Dabbs and Stevens.

The authors also challenge the sources of the plague theory. First of all, that there was an unusually high number of deaths within the royal family during the Akhetaten period—nine within a span of 15 to 18 years. But in the context of 14th-century B.C.E. life expectancy, the article noted, many of these deaths can be explained by old age (50 in ancient Egypt), childbirth, and infant mortality (30 percent in the premodern period).

Next, there’s the textual evidence, which has typically served as the foundation for the theory. Hittite plague prayers show the empire suffered a two-decade epidemic and name Egyptian prisoners of war as the source of disease. A cache of letters found in Amarna show local diplomats corresponding with areas around the Mediterranean all suffering from the outbreak of disease. None of these sources, however, directly mention such a disease impacting Akhetaten itself.

There may very well have been plague in the Hittite empire, the authors noted, but “the location of Akhetaten some 400 km from the Mediterranean should also be noted for the possibility this provided a buffer against diseases affecting regions to the north.”