Exhibition: Amarna

Asbury Park Press

Treasures from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun are currently holding court at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute Science Museum.
That blockbuster exhibition brings to life an intriguing story from the golden age of ancient Egypt.
Meanwhile, another part of the story — equally compelling — unfolds at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, also in Philadelphia. "Amarna: Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun," a low-key companion exhibit, illuminates the story of Tut's boyhood home and ancestors.
Amarna is the modern name for a lost city originally known as Akhetaten. It's where Tut was born and grew up some 3,300 years ago during the New Kingdom.
The city rose and fell like a meteor in the desert in little more than a generation, circa 1353 to 1336 B.C. This was near the end of the 18th dynasty of the pharaohs, a pinnacle of power and culture in Egypt.