Letters of Amarna

The letters of Amarna are of the shelves of a diplomatic nature, found on the site of Such el-Amarna, name modern of the capital of the Nouvel Empire of ancient Egypt under the reign of Amenhotep {{IV}}, more known under the name of Akhénaton, which reigned from -1369 to -1353. These shelves, written for the majority in Wedge-shaped Akkadien , are made of clay. One currently counts 382 of them.

Discovered and constitution of the corpus

The discovery of the shelves is allotted to an Egyptian woman towards 1887, which while digging discovered these antiquities, that it resold at the market. After having located the place, many excavations took place. Flinders Petrie discovered many shelves between 1891 and 1892, in the form of twenty and one fragments. Mr. Chassinat, director of the French Institute of oriental archeology (IFAO) of Cairo, acquired of two additional shelves in 1903. Since Knudtzon, twenty four new shelves were found or identified. Nevertheless it is known that part of the letters found by the clandestine diggers disappeared irremediably, certain specialists in wedge-shaped having initially taken these shelves for forgeries, because they did not see what wedge-shaped shelves would have done in Egypt, and they had refused them.

The found shelves with Amarna are kept in the museums of Cairo, Europe and the the United States; more than two hundreds are in Vorderasiatischen Museum of Berlin; fifty are kept with the Egyptian Musée of Cairo; seven with the Museum of Louvre; three with the museum of Moscow; one in the collection of Eastern Institute of Chicago.

Correspondence between large kings

A first whole of the shelves of the correspondence of el Amarna relates to the letters exchanged by the kings of Egypt with large the courses foreign of the time: Babylon, the Assyrie, the Mitanni, the Hittites, the Arzawa and Alashiya (Cyprus).

Political context

The letters of el Amarna of the correspondence between large kings give us many information on the political context of this period, which proves particularly animated, even if the Pharaon is then an actor more passive than active, large Egyptian campaigns in Asia being stopped since Thoutmôsis {{IV}} and beginning again only after the death of Toutânkhamon.

In Anatolia first of all, the kingdom hittite is in great difficulty with the whole beginning of the period covered by the files. King Tarundaradu of Arzawa benefits, and sends two letters from it to Amenhotep {{III}}, seeking to contact him, and being presented in the form of his equal. But the new king hittite Suppiluliuma {{Ier}} takes again the control of Anatolia by beating king d' Arzawa, who remanifeste obviously more after that.

Suppiluliuma is shown also active in Syria, dominated by the best ally of Egypt, the Mitanni of Tushratta, whose sister then the girl are married with the Pharaons. One learns in the letters, that this one undergoes a strong pressure on behalf of the king hittite, who finally succeeds in inflicting several heavy defeats to him, before plundering his capital Washshukanni, without the Egyptians not coming to them to assistance.

These events benefit a new speaker, the king Assur-uballit {{Ier}} of Assyrie, old vassal kingdom of Mitanni, which takes its independence, and asserts its statute of large king by sending letters to Akhénaton. This causes the protests of the Babylonian king Burna-Buriash {{II}}, which claims that the Assyrians are its vassal and requires of Akhénaton to get rid of their envoys, which it does not make obviously. The Babylonian king ends up being combined with the Assyrians by marrying the girl of Assur-uballit.

Diplomatic practices

These large sovereigns are the most powerful kings of the time. They are regarded as equal, and are called respectively " my frère". They proceed between them to various kinds of exchanges.

Initially messages, to which the letters belong that one found, and who cover various subjects: policy, or of course relations between the courses (diplomatic exchanges of gifts, marriages). The carriers of these messages are kinds of messenger-ambassadors, because they have as a function to carry the shelf and the present accompanying it to the foreign king, but also to represent the interests of their Master in the other courses, and can thus sometimes carry out negotiations. These messenger-ambassadors is often of dignitaries of the court, and their function lasts only the time of the mission to which they are affected: there does not exist permanent embassy, even if it is known that certain people were specialized in the relations with such or such foreign court.

The large kings exchange themselves also present. They are gifts made in testimony of its affection towards its " frère" , according to the principle of reciprocity: any gift, a counterpresent of equivalent value must answer. These exchanges are often the causes of litigations in the letters, where one often complains not to be oneself considering turning over a sufficient quantity of present. The king of Egypt is very often solicited for his Or, which it has in abundance thanks to the mines of Koush (Nubie), or for Ivoire. The kings of Cyprus provide as for them Cuivre, while the kings of Babylon send Lapis-lazuli coming from Afghanistan. One realizes that these exchanges of present function a little like a kind of trade disguised between different the courses royal, since the gifts sent are it often after a precise request, and that one negotiates much around these sendings.

A last type of exchange is that of the diplomatic marriages. The large kings gave each other in marriage their daughters or sisters, to reinforce their bonds. Are documented in the found letters with el Amarna the marriages of Amenhotep {{III}} with the girl of the Babylonian king Kadashman-Enlil, and of the king of Mitanni Tushratta, with the list of the dowry sent in Egypt. One learns in the letters that the Pharaon refuses to give his own daughters in marriage to his pars, in spite of their requests and protests, undoubtedly by feeling from superiority.

Letters of the vassal ones

The most important part of the corpus of the letters of el Amarna relates to the correspondence between the Egyptian court and its vassal of Palestine and Syria. The principal ones are the kingdoms of Gaza, Jerusalem, Lakish, Sidon, Tyr, Byblos (Gubla), the Amurru, Ugarit, Qadesh, Qatna.

Egyptian administration in Asia

These sovereigns are the " serviteurs" of the Egyptian king: they owe him obedience. Their relationship with the court of el Amarna is thus not governed by rules of reciprocity. The Pharaon orders, they owe obtempérer. The majority are carried out, but others are more recalcitrant. Thus, bank account number-Hadda of Byblos complains constantly in the letters which it sends in Egypt (sixty, that is to say the most important correspondence of the corpus), which has the gift to irritate its interlocutors. Other problems are caused by kings d' Amurru with the critical temperament, Abdi-Ashirta and his/her son Aziru.

The Egyptian empire in Palestine and Syria is apparently divided into three large provinces, centered each one on a capital: Gaza, Ṣumur and Kumidu (Kamid el-Loz, where letters of the same period were found). Y reside of the agents of the Egyptian capacity, supposed to be used as relay between the central capacity and the local kingdoms. But one sees by the letters of el Amarna that the relationship between the Pharaon and his vassal is often direct, when it is about a precise request. For the military control of the area, Egyptian garrisons are established in various points of the controlled territories. The vassal ones keep a certain autonomy nevertheless, and it was often considered, in a way undoubtedly exaggerated, that the Pharaons Amenhotep {{III}} and especially Akhénaton were particularly laxists. It however seems that, from the Egyptian point of view, essence was that the vassal ones remain faithful, pour their tribute, and answer the requests made by the Pharaon (sendings of goods and people, logistical support and military with forwardings, etc), and that they thus intervene in the businesses between vassal only when those are particularly serious (contrary to Hittites which codify the relations between the kingdoms which are subjected to them).

Political disturbances

The political situation of the Asian empire of the Egyptians is run up against enough at the time of the files of el Amarna. King Abdi-Ashirta d' Amurru is the largest troublemaker: he is caught some with his neighbors, in particular bank account number-Hadda, which he ends up overcoming. He allows even of razzier an Egyptian headquarters. After some excuses, the Egyptian court reacts while making come Abdi-Ashirta to Egypt where it disappears. His/her Aziru son takes his place, but appears as little reconciling as his father.

The pressure exerted by the king hittite Suppiluliuma 1st in the north of the Egyptian empire appears on vassal the most septentrional of Akhénaton, which is also the least faithful, because subjected to Egypt since less time than the kings of Palestine. Ugarit, the Nuhasse and Qadesh end up passing under control hittite, while Qatna is destroyed by Suppiluliuma. Aziru d' Amurru lines up in its turn on the side hittite. Such is the situation at the end of the reign of Akhénaton and under those of Toutânkhamon and Smenkhkarê, which will involve a long war between Égyptiens and Hittites, which will find its term only nearly one century later, when peace is concluded between Ramsès {{II}} and Hattushili {{III}}.

Contributions of these letters being studied vétéro-testamentary and Semitic

The letters cananéennes aroused the interest of the specialists in the Old Testament, because they inform us about the political situation of Palestine before the appearance of the Hebrew people. One can read there the mention of a population of Palestine, the “ Apirou ” (the dusty ones?), whose name points out that of the Hebrew X.

The term apirou is clearly a generic term, and it is rather largely used through the Middle East to indicate various populations, generally poor or alive in the desert.

If the term has a total use, one is unaware of the precise direction which was given to him in the specific context of Canaan. He was thus proposed various interpretations of the Apirou cananéens (which are not inevitably the Apirou of the remainder of the Middle East). For some, it is here a generic term designating all the nomads or seminomads of the desert margins of Canaan, in accordance with the means-Eastern use of the time. But this perhaps also specific ethnicity (indicated here by thirds by a generic name), even a group of socially marginalized people specific of Canaan. In all the cases, assimilation of the Apirou cananéens, or some of them, with proto-Hebrew, is possible but not some.

The letters of Armana as well as others of the time and neighbors do not say obviously anything a Royaume of Israel, since this one is supposed to be created about year 1000 before our era.

The letters " cananéennes" comprise many words and expressions of the west-Semitic languages (cananéennes) spoken in their area about source, include in texts written in Akkadien, the scribes of the kinglets of the Raising handling more or less well the language of diplomacy. They are thus of a great interest because of the lack of documentation for these languages, and one find there linguistic parallels with Hebrew of the old will, which indicates that the dialectal proto-Hebrew shapes were spoken in Canaan before the installation about the Hebrew them-even.

See too

Such el-Amarna
Akhénaton
Néfertiti
Toutânkhamon
Suppiluliuma {{Ier}}
Assur-uballit {{Ier}}

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