I thought it was well-established that the Egyptians used slaves.
“I thought it was well-established that the Egyptians used slaves.”
True, but the Amarna period gets this weird pass as some brilliant, idealistic, humanitarian age of enlightenment by moderns. It always struck me as a period with a bit of interesting artistic creativity, but marred by decadence, weakness and an embrace of the sickly. Sort of like the post WWII West. A veneer over the same old grind though, as proven here. There is nothing new under the sun.
There's a politically motivated claim that ancient Egypt had no slaves, and it's possible to get afoul of the antiquities authority if you don't tow that line. The claim is ridiculous of course.