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Ring bezel, Amarna, Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten (1353–1336 BCE), faience, ring bezel decorated with the cartouche of Tutankhamun.—University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology photo

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Figurine of Ptah, Memphis, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III — Tutankhamun (1390–1322 BCE), polychrome faience, brilliantly colored and designed as part of a larger statue, this figurine was likely set up in a shrine or temple at Memphis.

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'AMARNA" ON VIEW AT UPENN MUSEUM w/2 cuts

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PHILADELPHIA, PENN. — “Amarna, Ancient Egypt’s Place in the Sun” is on view at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology through October.

Tutankhamun, ancient Egypt’s most famous pharaoh circa 1332–1322 BCE), grew up in the royal court at Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna). This royal city, located in a previously uninhabited stretch of desert, existed only a short time.

It hardly survived the death of its founder, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun’s probable father, who introduced the belief in a single deity, the disk of the sun, called the Aten. The Egyptians abandoned both the new religion and the new city, and Tutankhamun led his people back to the traditional beliefs.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum has a considerable collection of artifacts from this significant period, including many from the 1920s excavations of Amarna.

This special exhibition, a complement to the nationally traveled blockbuster exhibition, “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia (February 3–September 30), features more than 100 artifacts.

Highlights include statues of Tutankhamun and Egyptian gods; a monumental wall relief proclaiming the universal power of the Aten; jewelry and other personal items owned by the royal family and materials from Amarna craft workshops — even amulets of censored gods and goddesses, undoubtedly still secretly revered by their owners. These items serve to tell the story of the rise, and fall, of this unique royal city, the role of Pharaoh Akhenaten in a generation of religious change, and the part that young Tutankhamun played in its rapid reversal.

Penn Museum Egyptologists Josef Wegner, associate curator, and Jennifer Houser Wegner, research scientist, co-curated the exhibition along with Eckley B. Coxe, Jr Curator David Silverman, national curator of the “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.”

The museum is at 3260 South Street. For information, www.museum.upenn.edu or 215-898-4000.