The Millennium Shrine - Atem as a Character

This page is all about Atem's role within the fiction of Yugioh itself, specifically the manga. I won't bother giving a full bio; his Yugipedia page does a plenty good job of that already. Instead, I'd like to talk about several particular topics that interest me.

When and Where was Atem Born?

This question is a bit more complex than one might think, so let's take it one element at a time.

First, the date, since that's the most straightforward part. According to guidebooks, his birthday is officially designated as "the 19th day of the third month of harvest season," as per the ancient Egyptian calendar. Now, I've seen people give some really bizarre conversions into the Gregorian calendar, usually saying something about the flooding of the Nile, but it really doesn't need to be that complicated. Why? Because the ancient Egyptian calendar is still in use today. If we follow the Coptic calendar, Atem's birthday is the 19th of Epip, which converts to either July 25th or 26th depending on leap years. This year it falls on the 25th. Happy birthday!

Next, the year. During Battle City, Ishizu states that the Nameless Pharaoh reigned during the 18th dynasty. This, however, doesn't actually make much sense. Think about it! They're constantly referencing the events of "three thousand years ago." The technological and cultural context of Yugioh seems to place its story contemporary with its publication- certainly, it can't take place any earlier than the mid-1990s. If we assume Atem died precisely 3,000 years before the year 1996, that puts us at 1004 BCE. Exploring timelines of ancient Egypt, such as this one from the Metropolitan Museum of Art or this one from the University of Memphis (Tennessee, not Egypt), we can see that this falls within the 21st dynasty, not the 18th. And if we subtract another 16 years, we get his birth year, for a final date of July 25th/26th, 1020 BCE.

So that just leaves the question of his birthplace. Since Atem is a pharaoh, and the direct descendant of his predecessor, it can be reasonably assumed that he was born and raised in the capital city. And since we now know he's from the 21st dynasty, that city would be Tanis, located near the western shore in the Nile delta. This site is known as San el-Hagar today.
Btw, check out these sick ass bracelets found at Tanis in the tomb of Shoshenq II. Let it never be said that Third Intermediate Period dudes didn't slay.