Traditionally, the survival of the deceased requires passing a trial before the divine tribunal presided over by Osiris.  Akhenaten saw no other reality, no other life, than the physical, bathed in the rays of Aton: light as single principle explains the whole cosmos. But it ties in completely with the visible universe, which forces him to reject anything that does not belong to it, night, life in the underworld, and Osiris…

Akhenaten did not want to set up a new nocturnal divine landscape: the theological changes he introduced banish indeed any mythological representation.

It is also now specified in several tombs that the sun makes its way "in peace" and for good reason: it's the end of the nocturnal fighting against the Apophis snake that tries to stop the solar boat.

What happens after death? We do not know much about it. This is undoubtedly the biggest failure of the new religion invented by Akhenaten in that it offers no clear answer to the fundamental question of the changes after death.
It seems that earthly life is prolonged, at the site of Akhetaten, as expressed in the tomb of Tutu: at dawn, the deceased rises, grooms and dresses "in the same way as when you were on earth".
The deceased then left his tomb and wandered more or less like a ghost in the city, with access to temples and palaces. We thus see Meryre proclaim himself in his chapel "Justified in Akhetaten".
The importance of these structures in the afterlife of the deceased could be one of the reasons for the frequency with which they are represented in the tombs.
Note that this concept implies a conglomeration of the dead around the King (living or dead), and recalls the beginning of the Old Kingdom, when the courtiers spent their eternity around the tomb of the king they had served.

The deceased is entirely dependent on the king, as he had been during his life time.  It is that King who decides who is maâty (justified) and to whom he grants permission to possess a tomb.
Akhenaten IS the maat, and do his will, is to act according to Maat (on the maat and the Goddess Maat, see ). So those who are loyal and conform to his requirements – they, and they alone - are justified (Ay, Tutu). The good pleasure of Akhenaten replaced the tribunal of Osiris.
Given the role of the king in the afterlife survival of individuals, his omnipresence is not a surprising addition to the decoration of tombs.

Before the Amarna period, the tomb was a magical protective envelope that was actively involved in the survival of the deceased. Under Akhenaten, the tomb seems to be nothing but an empty shell without any magical function. The question can therefore be asked: why, in these conditions, is there still a tomb for the deceased?
Even at Amarna, the tomb remains essential and constitutes the true "kingdom" of the deceased who no longer enjoys the protection of Osiris. It serves as a protective place for the mummy as mummification is still practiced to ensure that the body will be preserved; a desire which is expressed in the texts.

The Ba (imperfectly translated for lack of better word by "soul") of the deceased lies in the tomb and receives the offerings that his family or priests are supposed to bring (hence the importance of the niche with the statue, since that is where they were deposited). Able to move, the Ba left the tomb every morning to reach the site of Akhetaten and also enjoy the offerings that the king has made to the Aten.
The inscriptions from the site of Kom el-Nana - one of the last surviving peripheral cult complexes of ancient Akhetaten - prove that it is the "Sunshade of Re" temple of Queen Nefertiti (see ). The Sunshade of Re served as the locus for the king's divine renewal and daily rebirth, brought about by Nefertiti's attributes as a fertile stand-in for the goddess Hathor. Inscriptions from the temple also reveal that it played an important role in the mortuary cults of the elite dead at Amarna – with dead courtiers coming to Nefertiti's Sunshade of Re as spirits to obtain offerings to sustain them for eternity.
All this explains why the deceased seems obsessed with the need to become a "living Ba".

The outer room (the bar of the inverted T) is the first place on entering the chapel. This is where the owner comes, lists his titles and, generally, describes his official activities.

The internal part is, in contrast, dedicated to funeral rites, the cult of the deceased and to his passage through the underworld. The following scenes can be in one or the other room: banquet scenes, linked or not with the celebration of one of the great Theban festivals (festival of Opet, The Beautiful Festival of the Valley…) hunting and fishing in the marshes; hunting in the desert; agricultural activities; the deceased making offerings to the gods.

The depictions of offerings to the deceased are usually multiple and can be anywhere.

In the pre-Amarna tomb, the deceased appears numerous times, often larger than the other characters, and is almost always accompanied by members of his family, at the least by his children and his wife.

The texts are written in traditional (Middle) Egyptian, a language that has no longer been used for decades, but that is considered canonical.

Most of these traditional themes disappear. They are replaced by a much smaller number of new themes.

If on occasion the wife of the deceased is present, none of his children or parents is ever mentioned or shown. In particular, there is no scene showing the eldest son filling the sem-priest function for his father.

Scenes in connection with professional activities disappear. One case is an exception to this rule; that of Mahu, a very special case, because that person is the head of the Akhetaten police.

Most importantly, the scenes of funerals or funeral rites disappear completely. At Huya’s, Any, and Panhesy’s tombs some sketches are confined to the walls of the statue niche. Obviously they were tolerated there because they do not refer to the Gods, but only the King and the Queen.

There is a preponderance of images over the texts. These texts undergo a significant evolution for the sake of realism, they are now writen in Late Egyptian, which is the spoken language of the time.

On a wall, the decoration is distributed in the form of superimposed registers converging towards the deceased's image. Registers may have different themes and their sequence may not be simultaneous.

The framing and composition of the scenes was described as "tableau" by Assmann, a term intended to highlight that the scenes focused, frame by frame, upon one specific place at a time. The meaning of the decoration changes and the choice of themes is affected. The aim is no longer to cover all the walls of the chapel with scenes, but to associate "tableaux" (Assmann, Arp) which are satellite scenes of the main scene: the king sacrificing, the king distributing rewards... These scenes take place at a precise place and at a precise time; they may occupy some parts of the wall, while other areas seem to have remained deliberately undecorated. In general, a wall is occupied to its full height by one large scene centered on a representation of the king; to this large composition (which can extend to an adjacent wall, such as in ), are grafted a variable number of sub-registers with compound sketches related to the main theme and with contemporary themes to that main one.
The places and situations depicted are always related to the titles and/or functions of the grave owner. He is present - even if on a very small scale - and interacts with the royal family when and where he used to during his lifetime.
The number of different scenes in a chapel is independent of its size: the small tomb of Mahu (TA 09) is exceptionally rich in them, while a large burial like that of Ay (25 TA) includes only a restricted number of themes. Hence, it is virtually impossible to discern a fixed hierarchy among the group by comparing the tombs. This absence of an obvious hierarchy was a typical mechanism kings employed for controlling a newly organized court society.

The innovative nature of the scenes, a diversity in the rendering of characters, which are represented in more lively and less rigid manner than before, however, should not mislead one: it is a device that seeks to compensate for the low number of themes since, as we have seen, most of the traditional topics are banned.
Another trick to have less area to cover is to surround the wall, or separate scenes, with accumulated bands of thick coloured lines it is (to my knowledge) at Amarna that we find a good example in Meryre’s tomb. Unless they are protective bands designed to isolate the city of Akhetaten?

While the silhouettes of characters from the Amarna period shock us and seem clearly far from traditional canons, the difference is in reality not that important. Indeed, the representations are typically Egyptian and are faithful to the rules of aspective. The representation of the human body continues to be seen by assembling sections seen from different angles, each believed to best represent the part shown. Similarly buildings are detailed from an architectural point of view, realizing a sort of exploded view without attempting a. perspective view.

It should be emphasized that the most visible changes mainly involve Akhenaten and Nefertiti in the context of a gradual alignment of images of the king and queen, probably underpinned by the will of Akhenaten to show how and to what point the royal couple is extra-ordinary, different from other human beings.

The grid proportions have changed compared to previous eras, from 18 to 20 squares (see ). Thus the neck and upper chest lengthen, while the belly hangs over the loincloth. The shoulders and waist are narrow. Under the belt, the body widens, with wide hips and prominent buttocks. The legs are shortened and the arms are slender and without musculature. The head is large, stretched backwards, with sagging features.  It is as if Akhenaten had wanted to be closer to female beauty standards of the time, he called himself "the beautiful child of Aten".But this new official androgynous image is also part of a policy framework as the king, who is the manifestation of the Aten on earth, is also the father and mother of all life. Nefertiti is shown with the same extreme criteria, corresponding to hyper feminisation, also with a prominent pubic triangle, because she embodies the feminine cosmic principle.

But we must admit, in the absence of a written text, we will probably never know why Akhenaten chose to be represented in this strange way, other than perhaps it also emphasizes observable reality.

These stylistic innovations, chosen personally by Akhenaten, have of course influenced the artisans, who have transposed some parts into private tombs. This is why some of the characters, including the owner, are readily dolichocephalic, with short legs, limbs without musculature and a little paunchy. Moreover, following the royal directives, artisans have added animation, particularly for non-royal personages, as well as in the small scenes that punctuate the great compositions.
Some of these "Armana-isms", e.g. shortened legs, will persist until the reign of Sethy I.

It is in the themes more than in the style that there is real change. The new ideology is based on the consubstantiality between Aton and the king since Aten is known only to his son Akhenaten, It was only in an absolutely physical way that men could worship and pray to this intermediary Akhenaten or rather to his marriage with Nefertiti. God and goddess on earth, the king and queen replace the statues, with the advantage of being mobile, so surely alive. Politically, this meant that no oracle delivered by a stone statue could thwart the royal power.
In the decoration, these new concepts result in an absolute pharaonic centralism, portrayed in front of a large audience and especially in the presence of courtiers and servants.

Dimitri Laboury writes :
"This celebration of the life of Pharaoh, as a liturgy, is conspicuously present from its invention in year 4, of proper Atenist imaging and ideology - because, from all the evidence, it is one of the fundamental principles – it reintroduces the courtiers into the royal iconography, as spectators and necessary interlocutors in ritualized scene settings from the life of the sovereign. It is probably a part of the composition of Atenist scenes […] and in the attitude and given roles for extras attending the actions of the king lies the most singular feature of this new art that expresses, at the same time, more clearly the actual divine status of Amenhotep IV - Akhenaten"
and he continues :
"[…]All those who approach Pharaoh, the servants of the palace to the vizier, are portrayed in full manifestation of their devotion to their sovereign, kissing the ground or bowing very low, almost at right angles, it is as if the whole Egypt was suddenly struck with back pain, with the notable exception of the Royal family."

After a few trials without showing hands hanging down directly from the solar disk appeared, the simple and brilliant image of the disk seen from the front, from which emanate rays terminating in hands, that became the emblem of the Amarna period. It perfectly illustrates the new design: Aten is not exactly the sun, but the light contained in the solar disk, which is the immutable source of all life; its hands can hold out the ankh sign of life or the sceptre of power was
The Aten wears a uraeus, to emphasize his royal character, which will be reinforced by writing his name in a double cartouche.
His rituals take place directly under sunlight, the traditional face to face between God and King is ended as the Aten is in the sky. The scene is no longer centred on a God but on Akhenaten under the rays of Aten, the king becoming consubstantial with the God.

For the record, in the New Kingdom, two of the five names of the reigning Pharaoh are surrounded by cartouches, his birth name and his coronation name. The Great Royal Wife also has her name inscribed in a cartouche. There is no cartouche around divine names (there are very few exceptions).

By contrast at Amarna, things are different. According to the new theology, the Aten is king in heaven as his son Akhenaten is king on earth; therefore, Aten's canonical name (or programme-name) sees him inscribed in parts of two cartouches displaying the will to bring the god at a level closer to the king's.
Note that this name has changed three times during the reign, is surprisingly precise and prohibits assimilation or interpretations with other deities that the ancients were fond of. The initial version of the name reads "ankh-Re-Horakhty-jubilant-in-the-horizon-in-his-name-of-Shu-who-is-in-the Aten" and it includes the names of deities Hor-akhty (= Horus-of-the-double-horizon) and Shu (the space between heaven and earth that transmits light). In the year 14, they disappear in favour of phonetic transcriptions: "Horus" is replaced by "the-lord-of-double-horizon" and "Shu" with "light"

The Cartouches of the King, the Queen and the solar disk are frequently present in the tombs and are often offered by the royal couple in scenes of worshipping the disc. We even see Akhenaten and Nefertiti making offerings of the name of Aten to the Aten, or provide an image of themselves doing the offering. Thus in the tomb of Ipy we see Nefertiti present to the Aten an image of herself and the name of the Aten ()

The main feature of the Amarna tombs is the more frequent representations of Akhenaten and the royal family (Nefertiti and princesses) than the deceased. We have already seen, this almost obsessive presence is the keystone of the system devised by Akhenaten.

That Pharaoh is present by his image, or his cartouches (which makes no difference), is not new during the New Kingdom, although there is a constant increase in the number of such representations in private royal tombs. The sovereign in these passively receives tributes and offerings.

But the situation is very different at Amarna, for the king, far from remaining passive, is the very engine of the action. Seen making offerings to the Aten, going about in a chariot, eating and drinking in his palace, even to rewarding deserving staff from the window of appearances… as Balcz has written: "The King ousted the dead out of their own tomb for his own glory".

The tomb owners are depicted performing the functions of their offices and accepting rewards given by the royal family. An important observation to be made is, therefore, that the figure of the king features prominently on the walls of the private tombs of el-Amarna. There is one interesting exception, the tomb of Mahu TA 09. Mahu is "Captain of the Medjaw of Akhetaten" and is ensuring security at the city's borders. He is shown in close contact with the vizier, with whom he worked during his lifetime, but not with the king in person. Likewise he is not depicted attending to the king in the palaces and temples, as are the other tomb owners whose titles relate to these places and functions.

So much so that there is little autonomous in the small chapel entrance hall of the deceased (sometimes with his wife). However, even there, Akhenaten is present since he is the recipient of the prayer the dead person recites. In the rest of the chapel, the deceased appears only as a subordinate part in the royal action.

For Arp, these new rules that restrict the owner to the bare minimum, should therefore therefore not be interpreted in a negative light but should rather be considered as evidence that those tomb-owners' relationships with the king were quite close. And being in the king's vicinity was of great importance to the tomb owners, who expressed their wishes to be as close to the king as possible and indeed claimed to have heard his teachings. The reason for this is easy to guess: Akhenaten is the master of the destiny of the living official and remains master of his postmortem destiny. Thus, the owner of the tomb is showing visitors that he had special links on earth with the sovereign and hopes to see them prolonged after his death: he enhances his prestige and strengthens his position.

The major decision of Akhenaten's reign remains the foundation of Akhetaten, a locality exclusively dedicated to the worship of one sun god location. The sovereign had set a specific program of building temples and palaces in motion which he did record on the sixteen steles that define the boundaries of this city.
In some private tombs, the owners have represented, sometimes on a large scale, some of these buildings, including the palace. Their motives are unclear: to show their commitment to the doctrine of the king for whom the city of Akhetaten was the centre of the universe? desire to include places where the Ba could go after death? simply looking to fill an empty space?

In the tombs of the northern group (Panhesy, Meryre, Huya, Ahmose, Pentu), different parts of the palaces are shown horizontally and are less detailed, while in the tombs of the southern group (Parennefer, Tutu, Ay) they are superimposed and more detailed.
In most cases, there are three sectors (named according to our modern conventions):
• at the front is a courtyard with loggia;
• in the middle part, a dining room and annexes;
• at the rear part, living rooms and a bedroom.
All these representations have similarities but also differ in the number, size and arrangement of parts. It could be that from a basic design formed of some architectural elements characterizing "the palace" - for example, the window of appearances - the tomb owner has chosen to add for him the most significant elements. The artisans then adapted to the proportions to the available space.
This would explain why these representations are not true to the archaeological record and do not constitute a list of the constituent parts of these buildings.