Talatat

Talatat are limestone blocks[1] of standardized size (c. 27 by 27 by 54 cm, corresponding to 1⁄2 by 1⁄2 by 1 ancient Egyptian cubits) used during the 18th Dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Akhenaten in the building of the Aten temples at Karnak and Akhetaten (modern Amarna).

[3] After the Amarna Period talatat construction was abandoned, apparently not having withstood the test of time.

The blocks used in the Temple of Amenhotep IV in Karnak, and the other abandoned temples devoted to the deity Aten, were reused by Horemheb and Ramesses II as filler material for pylons and as foundations for large buildings.

The decorated stones are being photographed and the scenes they depict are reconstructed as part of the Akhenaten Temple Project.

[6] The term talatat was apparently used by the contemporary Egyptian workmen and introduced into the language of archaeology by the Egyptologist H. Chevrier.

Reconstructed Talatats from the Gempaaten
A group in the Louvre
Relief Depicting the Purification of Queen Kiya (?) , Metropolitan, New York. Sunk relief and paint, the hair later changed by adding plaster.