The Amarna Letters Review

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The Amarna Letters ReviewIf you've been tantalized over the years by references to the Amarna Letters in scholarly works, and disappointed by the few examples in Pritchards, here they are, finally and completely, in all their repetitious, formulaic, fragmentary glory. This isn't exactly light reading, due ancient prose style, the condition of the tablets and the limitations of the translators, but the letters do provide a unique window into a small period of the Bronze Age. Particularly compelling (and annoying!) are the 70 or so letters of the perpetually beleaguered mayor Rib Hadda, who was apparently under siege and begging for help from Pharaoh for several years straight. Besides letters from mayors of towns under Egypt's influence, there are some from Assyrian kings, and a couple from Pharaoh himself. Fundamentalists often refer to the references to the Apiru in these letters as evidence of the Hebrews, but once you read these, it becomes apparent that the Apiru designate mercenary outlaws who ranged throughout Canaan, Syria and Anatolia. Why anybody would want to claim that these Bronze Age Hole-In-The-Wall- James-Gang-type outlaws were God's chosen people is a mystery to me. Anyway, it was great to finally read these letters for myself.The Amarna Letters OverviewAn ancient inscription identified some of the ruins at el Amarna as "The Place of the Letters of the Pharaoh." Discovered there, circa 1887, were nearly four hundred cuneiform tablets containing correspondence of the Egyptian court with rulers of neighboring states in the mid-fourteenth century B.C. Previous translations of these letters were both incomplete and reflected an imperfect understanding of the Babylonian dialects in which they were written. William Moran devoted a lifetime of study to the Amarna letters to prepare this authoritative English translation.The letters provide a vivid record of high-level diplomatic exchanges that, by modern standards, are often less than diplomatic. An Assyrian ruler complains that the Egyptian king's latest gift of gold was not even sufficient to pay the cost of the messengers who brought it. The king of Babylon refuses to give his daughter in marriage to the pharaoh without first having proof that the king's sister-already one of the pharaoh's many wives-is still alive and well. The king of Karaduniyash complains that the Egyptian court has "detained" his messenger-for the past six years. And Egyptian vassal Rib-Hadda, writing from the besieged port of Byblos, repeatedly demands military assistance for his city or, failing that, an Egyptian ship to permit his own escape.

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