Amarna Letters

  amarna letters: The Amarna Letters Jacob Lauinger, Tyler Yoder, 2025-02-28 During Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 1550-1292 BCE), the New Kingdom pharaohs campaigned repeatedly in Syria and the Levant, establishing political control over much of the region. As a result of these conquests, the rulers of Levantine city-states sent letters written in Akkadian in the cuneiform script on clay tablets to the Egyptian pharaohs. So, too, did the kings of the other great geopolitical powers of the time--Assyria, Babylonia, Hatti, and Mittani--maintain an active diplomatic correspondence with Egypt's pharaohs. Beginning in the nineteenth century CE, local farmers and, later, archaeologists working at Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna), the one-time Egyptian capital, discovered remnants of this correspondence, mostly dating to the reigns of Amenhotep III (ca. 1388-1350 BCE) and his son and successor Akhenaten (ca. 1350-1333 BCE), with some dating to Tutankhamun (ca. 1333-1323). This is a period of increasing friction as the great powers sought to extend their borders. The Amarna Letters thus illuminate a pivotal point in Egypts foreign relations during the Late Bronze Age. Even though they provide us with a narrow window of only about thirty years time (1358-1325 BCE), they are an important witness to the general nature of Egypts diplomatic relations during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. This new, digitally borne edition of the Amarna Letters offers the first complete collection of the letters with responsible transliterations that have been checked against available photographs and hand copies; clear and consistent translations; and an up-to-date and extensive bibliography. As such it is, and will remain, an essential resource.
  amarna letters: The El-Amarna Correspondence (2 vol. set) Anson F. Rainey, 2014-11-10 The El-Amarna Correspondence offers a completely new edition of the Amarna Letters based on personal inspection and reading of all the extant tablets. This edition includes new transcriptions and a translation along with an extensive introduction and glossary of the Amarna Letters.
  amarna letters: The Tell-el-Amarna-letters , 1896
  amarna letters: Amarna Letters from Palestine, Syria, the Philistines and Phoenicia Cambridge University Press, 2003-03
  amarna letters: The Amarna Letters William L. Moran, 1992 The acknowledged master of these texts is William Moran, who produced a complete re-edition of the tablets, in French, in 1987. The Amarna Letters is a revised version of this, done into English. Open it, and hear these voices from a vanished empire speak after three and a half millennia. -- Times Literary Supplement
  amarna letters: The Amarna Letters William L. Moran, 2002-01-01 An 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.
  amarna letters: The Verb in the Amarna Letters from Canaan Krzysztof J. Baranowski, 2016-11-14 The Amarna letters from Canaan offer us a unique glimpse of the historical and linguistic panorama of the Levant in the middle of the fourteenth century BCE. Their evidence regarding verbs is crucial for the historical and comparative study of the Semitic languages. Proper evaluation of this evidence requires an understanding of its scribal origin and nature. For this reason, The Verb in the Amarna Letters from Canaan addresses the historical circumstances in which the linguistic code of the letters was born and the unique characteristics of this system. The author adduces second-language acquisition as a proper framework for understanding the development of this language by scribes who were educated in centers on the cuneiform periphery. In this way, the book advances a novel interpretation: the letters testify to a scribal interlanguage that was born of the local use of cuneiform and was affected by the fossilization and transfer processes taking place in these language learners. This vision of the linguistic system of the letters as the learners' interlanguage informs the main part of the book, which is devoted to verbal morphology and semantics. The chapter on morphology offers an overview of conjugation patterns and morphemes in terms of paradigms. Employing a variationist approach, it also analyzes the bases on which the verbal forms were constructed. Next, the individual uses of each form are illustrated by numerous examples that provide readers with a basis for discovering alternative interpretations. The systemic view of each form and the various insights that permeate this book provide invaluable data for the historical and comparative study of the West Semitic verbal system, particularly of ancient Hebrew, Ugaritic, and Arabic.
  amarna letters: Amarna Studies William L. Moran, 2018-08-14 In this volume are collected all of the writings Moran devoted to the Amarna letters over more than four decades, including his doctoral dissertation, which has been one of the most widely cited unpublished works in ancient Near Eastern studies. A citation index makes Professor Moran's comments on individual texts readily accessible.
  amarna letters: The Chronology of the Amarna Letters Edward Fay Campbell, 1964
  amarna letters: Amenhotep III David B. O'Connor, Eric H. Cline, 2001 A collection examining the roots of heresy on the Nile
  amarna letters: Amarna Diplomacy Raymond Cohen, Raymond Westbrook, 2000 This is an important volume for any scholar of the ancient Near East. -- Religious Studies Review
  amarna letters: The Cambridge Ancient History: Amarna letters from Palestine; Syria, the Philistines and Phoenicia , 1966
  amarna letters: Amarna Letters Dennis C.. Forbes, 2015 This is the long-awaited 5th volume in the Amarna Letters series from the publisher of Kmt, A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt. It contains 14 essays by 10 authors on ancient Egypt covering the period ca. 1390-1310 BC, from the reign of Amenhotep III to that of Horemheb. All of the essays have been previously published in Kmt over the past decade. Two hundred & thirty-six pages long, it contains 283 illustrations, most in full color.
  amarna letters: Language of Amarna - Language of Diplomacy Jana Mynářová, 2007 It is a generally accepted presumption that during the Late Bronze Age the language accepted for the 'international' or 'diplomatic' written communication between the representatives or members of the particular polities within the Ancient Near East was Akkadian, or more accurately Peripheral Akkadian. Thus it is the aim of this publication to analyse the corpus of Amarna letters on the subject of diplomatic terminology and procedures.
  amarna letters: Past Links Shlomo Izreʼel, Shlomo Izre'el, Itamar Singer, Ran Zadok, 1998 Selected contents of this volume (1998), collected in honor of Anson F. Rainey, include: Daniel Sivan, The Use of QTL and YQTL Forms in the Ugaritic Verbal System; Edward L. Greenstein, New Readings in the Kirta Epic; Alan Millard, Books in the Late Bronze Age in the Levant; Richard S. Hess, Occurences of Canaan in Late Bronze Age Archives of the West Semitic World; Gershon Galil, Ashtaroth in the Amarna Period; Jun Ikeda, The Akkadian Language of Emar: Texts Related to a Diviner's Family; Agustinus Gianto, Mood and Modality in Classical Hebrew; Masamichi Yamada, The Family of Zu-Ba la the Diviner and the Hittites; Mario Liverani, How to Kill Abdi-Ashirta: EA 101, Once Again; M. Dietrich and O. Loretz, Amurru, Yaman, und die Agaischen Inseln nach den Ugaritischen Texten; Ran Zadok, Notes on Borsippean Documentation of the 8th-5th Centuries B. C.; Zipora Cochavi-Rainey, A Note on the Coordinating Particle -ma in the Old Akkadian Letter Greeting Formula; Ignacio Marquez Rowe, Notes on the Hurro-Akkadian of Alalah in the Mid-Second Millennium B.C.E. Israel Oriental Studies has ceased publication with volume 20.
  amarna letters: Jehu’s Tribute Jeffrey L. Cooley, Rannfrid I. Lasine Thelle, 2025-06-03 The findings of Assyriology have been applied to biblical studies ever since the former emerged as a scholarly discipline in the mid-nineteenth century. Today, the scholarly flow from Assyriology to biblical studies continues, yet rarely are the fruits of biblical scholarship brought to bear on the study of ancient Assyria and Babylon. The present volume aims to reverse this unidirectional trend. Considering that the literature preserved in the Hebrew Bible is the product of a people who had significant contact with both Assyria and Babylonia, then surely the study of the Hebrew Bible has something to offer Assyriology. But what? The contributors approach this question from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including intellectual history, museology, and religious and political history. The authors also offer broad methodological considerations and more focused, text-based case studies. Written by leading scholars in the fields of Assyriology and Hebrew Bible, Jehu’s Tribute presents a fresh approach to the multifaceted relationship between Assyriology and biblical studies. In addition to the volume editors, the contributors include Céline Debourse, Jessie DeGrado, Eckart Frahm, Shalom E. Holtz, Gina Konstantopoulos, Alan Lenzi, Alice Mandell, Dustin Nash, Beate Pongratz-Leisten, Seth Sanders, Anthony P. SooHoo, SJ, and Abraham Winitzer.
  amarna letters: Hebraica William Rainey Harper, Robert Francis Harper, J. M. P. Smith, 1894
  amarna letters: Ancient Egypt DK, 2021-11-16 Discover the intimate details of life under the pharaohs--and their extraordinary legacy--in this fascinating e-guide to Egypt's ancient civilization. Encompassing 3,000 years and 31 Egyptian dynasties, from the time of Narmer to Cleopatra, this fresh appraisal of ancient treasures helps you navigate the political intrigues and cultural achievements of the Ancient Egyptians, from the Pyramids and the Sphinx of Giza to the Great Library and Lighthouse of Alexandria. You'll meet pharaohs such as King Tutankhamun--whose mummified remains and lavish grave goods reveal so much about the society and its beliefs--as well as influential women such as Hatshepsut and Nefertiti, and warriors including Alexander the Great. Lavish photographs reveal the exquisite craftsmanship of their scribes, artists, and metalworkers, and the tomb paintings and relief carvings that captured the everyday life of farmers, artisans, soldiers, and traders in exquisite detail. Exclusive CGI reconstructions use the latest scientific information to recreate the finest tombs, temples, and pyramids. Beautifully illustrated, and unparalleled in scope, Ancient Egypt is the perfect ebook for anyone with an interest in ancient civilizations and Egyptology.
  amarna letters: Exploring the Old Testament Philip E. Satterthwaite, J. Gordon McConville, 2012-01-06 Philip E. Satterthwaite and J. Gordon McConville introduce the content and the context of the historical books--their setting in ancient history and history writing, their literary artistry, their role within the Scriptures of Israel, and their lasting value as theological and ethical resources.
  amarna letters: Royal Women at Ugarit Christine Neal Thomas, 2024-09-27 This volume challenges patrimonialism as a political model for the ancient Near East by engaging with letters and legal texts concerning royal women at Late Bronze Age Ugarit, demonstrating women’s pivotal roles in the exercise of power, and then bringing these insights to bear on the Hebrew Bible. The book offers a new vision of how women figure in ancient political systems. Through an analysis of royal letters, legal verdicts, and regional records, it examines overt claims and implicit anxieties concerning the pivotal roles of royal women. Three case studies from Late Bronze Age Ugarit reveal that a single woman functioning in a range of modalities—mother, daughter, sister, and wife—brokered a network of relationships among a range of men. Patrimonialism depended on the political polyvalence of women. Texts from Ugarit attest to this reality, and the biblical royal women of the House of David amplify its significance. This analysis of women’s activity within and among royal households is productive not only for the study of the Late Bronze Age Levant, but also as a model for analogous inquiries into ancient societies and other systems in which data are thin and patrimonialism widely in evidence. Royal Women at Ugarit is suitable for students and scholars working on women and gender in the ancient Near East, as well as those interested in the political realm of the Late Bronze Age and the intersections of biblical literature with other ancient texts.
  amarna letters: Ancient History Refined Jeff Walling, 2025-02-18 Ancient History Refined is a history book based on three quantitative key elements: 1) a validated timeline, 2) a biblically based generation constant value, and 3) the B&H theory regarding the gauss strength of the earth’s magnetosphere and its influence on C-14 dating, where the proof of concept is the alignment and synchronization of most all historical subject matters of interest (biblical chronologies, C-14 dating, dendrochronology, archaeology, Egyptology, Ipuwer Papyrus, Josephus, Newtonian timeline, Amarna Letters etc.).
  amarna letters: Synchronized Chronology Roger Henry, 2003 Synchronized Chronology resolves the structural problems of Egyptian chronology and then outlines the correct history of the Middle East and Mediterranean from the time of Abraham and his wandering into the Empire of Alexander the Great. Recognizing some overlapping of dates and names in Manetho's List of Kings, frees history to place pharaohs and dynasties where archaeology supports their existence. This resolves a myriad of discrepancies and unlikely assumptions that historians have been forced to swallow, and neatly opens the way to synchronizing Egyptian dynasties with Biblical chronology. Several works have appeared in recent years, challenging Egyptian chronology; none is really successful in fixing the multi-layered problems of Biblical chronology, because they try to compress Egyptian history without recognizing duplicated dynasties. The crisis in Biblical history is reflected in The Bible Unearthed. Palestinian archaeologist William Dever has just published What Did the Biblical Writers Know, and When Did They Know It? Peter James received wide attention for his Centuries of Darkness; David Rohl, in Pharaohs and Kings, relies on the recent archaeological work of Beitak at Tel Dab'a in Egypt. The evidence is compelling that the site's population before the Hyksos took over was none other than the Hebrews. Rohl's work, on the period preceding the Exodus, is complementary to The Synchronized Chronology. Like James, however, he tries to squeeze the remaining Egyptian dynasties without discarding the duplicates. It doesn't work. Anyone who enjoys ancient history, archaeology or a good mystery will find this an intriguing read. The controversial theory is well-researched and sure to generate debate.
  amarna letters: War in Ancient Egypt Anthony J. Spalinger, 2008-04-15 This book is an introduction to the war machine of New Kingdom Egypt from c. 1575 bc–1100 bc. Focuses on the period in which the Egyptians created a professional army and gained control of Syria, creating an “Empire of Asia”. Written by a respected Egyptologist. Highlights new technological developments, such as the use of chariots and siege technology. Considers the socio-political aspects of warfare, particularly the rise to power of a new group of men. Evaluates the military effectiveness of the Egyptian state, looking at the logistics of warfare during this period. Incorporates maps and photographs, a chronological table, and a chart of dynasties and pharaohs
  amarna letters: A Basic Bibliography for the Study of the Semitic Languages Hospers, 2023-11-13 This bibliography lists as completely as possible all monographs and articles necessary for adequate study of Semitic languages. It covers the field in the widest sense. Besides sections dealing with Akkadian, Ugaritic, Phoenician-Punic, Amarna-Canaanite, Hebrew, Syriac and Aramaic, epigraphic South Arabian, Ethiopian languages, and one on comperative Semitics, there are others dealing with Sumerian, Anatolian languages, Hurrian, Urartian, Elamitic, and ancient Persian.
  amarna letters: Canaan in the Second Millennium B.C.E. Nadav Na'aman, 2005-06-23 Throughout the past three decades, Nadav Na'aman has repeatedly proved that he is one of the most careful historians of ancient Canaan and Israel. With broad expertise, he has brought together archaeology, text, and the inscriptional material from all of the ancient Near East to bear on the history of ancient Israel and the land of Canaan during the second and first millenniums B.C.E. Many of his studies have been published as journal articles or notes and yet, together, they constitute one of the most important bodies of literature on the subject in recent years, particularly because of the careful attention to methodology that Na'aman always has brought to his work. Collected here are 23 essays on the Hurrians, the Egyptians and their presence in the Levant during the second millennium B.C.E., Canaanite city-states, the Amarna Letters, and the neighbors of Canaan in the north, such as Alalakh and Damascus. The essays range over such topics as scribes and language, archaeology, cultural influences, and the interrelations of the great powers during this period. The volume includes indexes of ancient personal names, place-names, and biblical references.
  amarna letters: What is Stronger Than a Lion? Brent A. Strawn, 2005 Revised thesis (Ph.D.) - Princeton Theological Seminary, 2001.
  amarna letters: God in Translation Mark S. Smith, 2010-06-28 God in Translation offers a substantial, extraordinarily broad survey of ancient attitudes toward deities, from the Late Bronze Age through ancient Israel and into the New Testament. Looking closely at relevant biblical texts and at their cultural contexts, Mark S. Smith demonstrates that the biblical attitude toward deities of other cultures is not uniformly negative, as is commonly supposed. He traces the historical development of Israel's one-god worldview, linking it to the rise of the surrounding Mesopotamian empires. Smith's study also produces evidence undermining a common modern assumption among historians of religion that polytheism is tolerant while monotheism is prone to intolerance and violence.
  amarna letters: The Ceremonial of Audience Eva Orthmann, Anna Kollatz, 2019-11-11 Audiences are among the dominant elements of courtly life and may be referred to as a central aspect of representation of power in many societies. Audiences also served as a stage for negotiation and political decision-making. Beyond that, the ceremonial of audience acted as an integrative factor, strengthening the connections between the ruler and his subjects, the élite and his dynastic background. It thus reflects the structure, or at least the intended structure of rule, and allows us to get insight into the perception of the ruler in the respective society. This volume offers an approach to forms and structures of audiences in different epochs and regions. Choosing a transcultural and diachronic perspective, it aims at delineating similarities and differences as well as possible lines of development of the ceremonial on a broad basis of case studies. Audienzen gehören zu den prägenden Bestandteilen höfischen Lebens und können als zentraler Aspekt der Herrschaftsrepräsentation bezeichnet werden. Sie dienten aber nicht nur der Repräsentation, sondern waren auch Ort von Verhandlung und politischer Entscheidung. Hinzu trat die integrative Funktion der Audienz: Durch den Vollzug des Zeremoniells wurde auch die Verbindung des Herrschers zu seinen Untertanen, Vertrauten und zu seiner Dynastie dargestellt und gefestigt. Das Zeremoniell der Audienz spiegelt somit das (intendierte) Gefüge der Herrschaft, und lässt Rückschlüsse auf das Herrscherbild der jeweiligen Gesellschaft zu. Der Sammelband behandelt Formen und Strukturen des Audienz-Zeremoniells in transkultureller und diachroner Perspektive, in dem Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede, sowie Entwicklungslinien des Audienz-Zeremoniells auf einer breiten Basis von Fallbeispielen. Dazu versammelt er Beiträge zu unterschiedlichen Teilaspekten des Audienz-Zeremoniells in vormodernen Gesellschaften Europas, Asiens und des nördlichen Afrikas.
  amarna letters: Jerusalem Besieged Eric H. Cline, 2005-11-04 Jerusalem Besieged is a fascinating account of how and why a baffling array of peoples, ideologies, and religions have fought for some four thousand years over a city without either great wealth, size, or strategic importance. Cline guides us through the baffling, but always bloody, array of Jewish, Roman, Moslem, Crusader, Ottoman, Western, Arab, and Israeli fights for possession of such a symbolic prize in a manner that is both scholarly and engaging. -Victor Davis Hanson, Stanford University; author of The Other Greeks and Carnage and Culture A beautifully lucid presentation of four thousand years of history in a single volume. Cline writes primarily as an archaeologist-avoiding polemic and offering evidence for any religious claims-yet he has also incorporated much journalistic material into this study. Jerusalem Besieged will enlighten anyone interested in the history of military conflict in and around Jerusalem. -Col. Rose Mary Sheldon, Virginia Military Institute This groundbreaking study offers a fascinating synthesis of Jerusalem's military history from its first occupation into the modern era. Cline amply deploys primary source material to investigate assaults on Jerusalem of every sort, starting at the dawn of recorded history. Jerusalem Besieged is invaluable for framing the contemporary situation in the Middle East in the context of a very long and pertinent history. -Baruch Halpern, Pennsylvania State University A sweeping history of four thousand years of struggle for control of one city [An] absorbing account of archaeological history, from the ancient Israelites' first conquest to today's second intifada. Cline clearly lays out the fascinating history behind the conflicts. -USA Today A pleasure to read, this work makes this important but complicated subject fascinating. -Jewish Book World Jerusalem Besieged is a fascinating account of how and why a baffling array of peoples, ideologies, and religions have fought for some four thousand years over a city without either great wealth, size, or strategic importance. Cline guides us through the baffling, but always bloody, array of Jewish, Roman, Moslem, Crusader, Ottoman, Western, Arab, and Israeli fights for possession of such a symbolic prize in a manner that is both scholarly and engaging. -Victor Davis Hanson, Stanford University; author of The Other Greeks and Carnage and Culture
  amarna letters: Dictionary of the Ancient Near East Piotr Bienkowski, Alan Millard, 2010-03-09 An authoritative guide to the whole of the cradle of civilization.
  amarna letters: From the Exodus to King Akhnaton Immanuel Velikovsky, 2009 With utmost precision, Velikovsky takes readers on a detailed and highly interesting journey through corrected history about the entire Near East.
  amarna letters: The World in Ancient Times: The ancient Egyptian world , 2004
  amarna letters: A Biblical History of Israel, Second Edition Iain Provan, V. Philips Long, Tremper Longman III, 2015-10-23 For over a decade, A Biblical History of Israel has gathered praise and criticism for its unapologetic approach to reconstructing the historical landscape of ancient Israel through a biblical lens. In this much-anticipated second edition, the authors reassert that the Old Testament should be taken seriously as a historical document alongside other literary and archaeological sources. Significantly revised and updated, A Biblical History of Israel, Second Edition includes the authors' direct response to critics. In part 1, the authors review scholarly approaches to the historiography of ancient Israel and negate arguments against using the Bible as a primary source. In part 2, they outline a history of ancient Israel from 2000 to 400 BCE by integrating both biblical and extrabiblical sources. The second edition includes updated archaeological data and new references. The text also provides seven maps and fourteen tables as useful references for students.
  amarna letters: Faith Building Evidence Douglas E. Schofield, 2020-11-05 “It only takes a minute to enjoy meditations that make you think. Doug Schofield provides a practical resource to learn Christian truths daily.” —Gary R. Habermas, Distinguished Research Professor of Apologetics, Liberty University “If you want bite-size, daily historical evidence that presents the case for the reliability of Scripture and Jesus’ claims of divinity, then I recommend Schofield’s ‘Faith Building Evidence.’” —Josh D. McDowell, Author
  amarna letters: The History of Ancient Palestine Gösta Werner Ahlström, 1993 In this magisterial work the history of the peoples of Palestine from the earliest times to Alexander's conquest is thoroughly sifted and interpreted. All available source material-textural, epigraphic, and archeological-is considered, and the approach taken aims at a dispassionate reconstruction of the major epochs and events by the analysis of social, political, military, and economic phenomena. The book, chronologically structured, is indispensable for the study of the Hebrew Bible and of the ancient Near East.
  amarna letters: Canaanite in the Amarna tablets. 4. References and index of texts cited Anson F. Rainey, 1996
  amarna letters: Cushites in the Hebrew Bible Kevin Burrell, 2020-01-13 Cushites in the Hebrew Bible offers a reassessment of Cushite ethnographic representations in the biblical literature as a counterpoint to misconceptions about Africa and people of African descent which are largely a feature of the modern age. Whereas current interpretations have tended to emphasize unfavourable portraits of the people biblical writers called Cushites, Kevin Burrell illuminates the biblical perspective through a comparative assessment of ancient and modern forms of identity construction. Past and present modes of defining difference betray both similarities and differences to ethnic representations in the Hebrew Bible, providing important contexts for understanding the biblical view. This book contributes to a clearer understanding of the theological, historical, and ethnic dynamics underpinning representations of Cushites in the Hebrew Bible.
  amarna letters: The Amarna Letters Scriptural Research Institute, 1901 The Amarna Letters are a collection of clay tablets found in the ruins of El Amarna, Egypt, in the 1880s. The city of El Amarna was built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten, during his religious reforms in the 1340s BC, but was then abandoned after he died and Egypt reverted to worshiping the old gods. These letters provide a unique glimpse into a period of Egyptian history, that the Egyptians themselves attempted to erase. After Akhenaten's heir Tutankhamen died, his successor Ay was only able to hold the throne for a few years before Horemheb seized it, and attempted to reunite the Egyptians by erasing all records of Akhenaten's reforms, which included erasing Akhenaten's name from almost every record in Egypt. By this period, El Amarna appears to have already been mostly abandoned, and therefore Egyptologists were able to reconstruct the strange story of Akhenaten's reign, in the middle of the New Kingdom era. The Amarna letters were recovered from the royal archives in El Amarna, where they appear to have been archived after having been translated for the royal court. The letters are inscribed on clay tablets in Cuneiform, the dominant form of writing in Mesopotamia, Canaan, and the neighboring cultures in Anatolia and Cyprus at the time. The shape of the Cuneiform logograms used is Akkadian, the parent form of the later Neo-Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian, and Ugaritic forms of Cuneiform, however, the language used in the Letters is not pure Akkadian. The Letters are between various members of the Egyptian royal court, and many different cities and nations across the Middle East, including Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni, and Cyprus, and therefore the language within the Letters is not consistent. Within the letters from Canaanite cities, all of which were subject to Egypt at the time, several transliterated names are also used, which appears to be a direct precursor to the later development of Ugaritic Cuneiform by 1200 BC, which was an abjad similar to the Canaanite script that was developed by 1000 BC, however, used Cuneiform logograms instead of alphabet-like letters. The surviving letters were mostly about trade and diplomacy, however, do include a great deal of information about what was happening in the Middle East at the time. In particular, they demonstrate how limited Egypt's actual control of its Canaanite holdings was, where the governors of cities were constantly requesting military help to defend themselves against each other, the marauding Habirus, and the Hittite-backed Amorites in northern Canaan. The Amarna Letters were written during the mid-1330s BC, during the reigns of the Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, although it is not always clear when in their respective reigns the letters were written, or even which pharaoh was on the throne at the time.
  amarna letters: One Who Loves Knowledge Betsy Bryan, Christina DiCerbo, Marina Escolano-Poveda, Mark Smith, Jill S. Waller, 2022-12-01 The thirty-nine articles in this volume, One Who Loves Knowledge, have been contributed by colleagues, students, friends, and family in honor of Richard Jasnow, professor of Egyptology at Johns Hopkins University. Despite his claiming to be just a demoticist, Richard Jasnow's research interests and specialties are broad, spanning religious and historical topics, along with new editions of demotic texts, including most particularly the Book of Thoth. A number of the authors demonstrate their appreciation for Jasnow's contributions to the understanding of this difficult text. The volume also includes other studies on literature, Ptolemaic history, and even the god Thoth himself, and features detailed images and abundant hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic, Coptic, and Greek texts.
  amarna letters: Selections from the Tell-el-Amarna Letters Percy Stuart Peache Handcock, 1920
Amarna - Wikipedia
Amarna (/ ə ˈ m ɑːr n ə /; Arabic: العمارنة, romanized: al-ʿAmārna) is an extensive ancient Egyptian archaeological site containing the …

Amarna - World History Encyclopedia
Aug 1, 2017 · Amarna is the modern Arabic name for the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten, capital of the country under the reign of …

Home - Amarna Project.
It was here that he pursued his vision of a society dedicated to the cult of one god, the power of the sun (the Aten). As well as this historic interest Amarna …

Amarna: Mapping Akhenaten’s Forgotten Capi…
Nov 7, 2021 · Amarna is one of the longest-running archaeological sites of Ancient Egypt. This means that archaeologists have had the chance …

Amarna: The Lost City of Akhenaten - The Ancient Code
May 2, 2025 · For the first time ever, researchers were able to recreate a 3D model of the Lost City of Akhenaten: Amarna. Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, …

Amarna - Wikipedia
Amarna (/ ə ˈ m ɑːr n ə /; Arabic: العمارنة, romanized: al-ʿAmārna) is an extensive ancient Egyptian archaeological site containing the ruins of Akhetaten, the capital city during the late Eighteenth …

Amarna - World History Encyclopedia
Aug 1, 2017 · Amarna is the modern Arabic name for the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten, capital of the country under the reign of Akhenaten (1353-1336 BCE). The site is …

Home - Amarna Project.
It was here that he pursued his vision of a society dedicated to the cult of one god, the power of the sun (the Aten). As well as this historic interest Amarna remains the largest readily accessible …

Amarna: Mapping Akhenaten’s Forgotten Capital - TheCollector
Nov 7, 2021 · Amarna is one of the longest-running archaeological sites of Ancient Egypt. This means that archaeologists have had the chance to learn a lot about this unique site.

Amarna: The Lost City of Akhenaten - The Ancient Code
May 2, 2025 · For the first time ever, researchers were able to recreate a 3D model of the Lost City of Akhenaten: Amarna. Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, also known as Akhenaten, was one of the most …

Amarna: A Guide to the Ancient City of Akhetaten - Egypt Museum
Today, Akhetaten is known as Amarna, a sprawling archaeological site in the province of Minya, halfway between Cairo and Luxor. With its beautifully decorated tombs and vast mud-brick ruins, …

Amarna (Tel el-Amarna) History & Facts - Egypt Best Vacations
Explore the fascinating history of the archaeological site of Amarna, the capital city built by Akhenaten, the heretic king of ancient Egypt.

Amarna – The City of the “Heretic Pharaoh” - Archaeology News
Nov 15, 2020 · Amarna, also called Akhetaten is an archaeological site and an Ancient Egyptian city, located on the eastern banks of the River Nile, in the present-day Minya governorate of Egypt.

Amarna Period - Wikipedia
The Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian history during the later half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen shifted from the old capital of Thebes …

The Art of Amarna: Akhenaten and his life under the Sun
Jan 20, 2015 · The Amarna period, roughly 1353-1336 BCE, introduced a new form of art that completely contradicted what was known and revered in the Egyptian culture.