Amarna letters

1. Akhenaten’s Foreign Policy:
The Amarna Letters
Migdol-type fortress and Egyptian governor’s palace at Afek, Israel.

2. Amarna Archive - History
• 1887 local Egyptians came upon clay tablet and
started clandestine digging
• Sold to Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin), Cairo
museum (Egypt), British Museum (London),
Louvre (Paris) and private collectors
• 1891-1892 Petrie
• 1903 Chassinat
• 1911-1914 Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft
• 1921-1924 Egypt Exploration Society

3. EA 294: Adda-danu to Pharaoh
“Say to the King, my
lord, my god, my
Sun…”

4. Find spot
• Brick stamp: “house of
the letters of the
pharaoh”
• Near “House of Life”
• Petrie found examples
in situ
• No stratigraphy
• Impossible to know
originally filing system

6. Tomb of Scribe Thay (19th dyn. - TT23)

7. Further Archaeology
• 1 letter found at Tell
el-Hesi (Palestine)
belongs to the
correspondence
• Other similar texts
found at Hazor
(Palestine)

8. Numbering System
• Knudston’s numbering system: begins with
Babylon then works counter clockwise around
the Near East to Canaan
– Babylonia (EA 1-14)
– Assyria (EA 15-16)
– Mittani (EA 17, 19-30)
– Arzawa (EA 31-32)
– Alashia (EA 33-40)
– Hati (EA 41-44)
– Syrian and Canannite vassals EA 45- )

10. Amarna Archive - Language
• Clay tablets written in cuneiform, the lingua
franca of the Near East in this period
• EA 15 (Assyrian)
• EA 24 (Hurrian)
• EA 31-32 (Hittite)
• Rest Babylonian
• 3 lines of Hieratic on EA 23

11. Letters to/from Great Powers
• Exchanges of gifts between rulers (e.g., fancy
furniture, gold, linen)
• Diplomatic marriages
• Address each other as “brother”

12. Egypt
Hittites
Alasiya
Ugarit
Assyria
Babylon
Mittani
Arzawa

15. Chronology
“Despite a long history of inquiry, the chronology of
the Amarna letters, both relative and absolute,
presents many problems, some of bewildering
complexity, that still elude definitive solution.
Consensus obtains only about what is obvious,
certain established facts, and these provide only a
broad framework within which many and often
quite different reconstructions of the course of
events reflected in the Amarna letters are possible
and have been defended....The Amarna archive, it is
now generally agreed, spans at most about thirty
years, perhaps only fifteen or so.” (Moran)

16. Chronology
• Babylonian - the last years of Amenophis III until late in the
reign of Amenophis IV, perhaps even as late as the first year
or so of Tutankhamun
• Assyrian - late in the reign of Amenophis IV, if not later
• Mittanian - ca. year 30 of Amenophis III until year 4-5 (very
short coregency or no co-regency) or year 14-15 (coregency
of ca. 10 years) of Amenophis IV
• Arzawa - Amenophis III
• Hittites - EA 41 is addressed to ljuriya, who, according to
one reconstruction of Hittite history, is either Amenophis
IV, Turankhamun, or Smenkhkare. EA 42-44: non liquet
• Alashia - non liquet

17. Cast of Characters
State King Dates of reign (debated)
Assyria Assur-uballit 1353-1318
Babylonia Kadasman-Enlil I
Burna-Burias II
(1364-1350
1349-1323
Hittite Suppiluliumas 1380-1340 (1343-1323/22
or 1319/18)

18. Letters to/from Vassals
• Various titles: mayor, ruler, king, prince
• Political developments in North: 1) emergence of new
state, Amurru; 2) resurgence of the Hittites
• South: 1) constant rivalries, shifting coalitions and
attacks and counter attacks among the small city-states
• Main purpose of the king’s writing:
– to acquire personnel and other goods
– to introduce Egyptian officials & secure obedience to their
orders
– arrange for supplies for troops
• Non-extant letters of the king are often cited