The Amarna Letters

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801867150
• ISBN13: 9780801867156
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent overview of the Amarna letters

William Moran's book is the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the Amarna letters. It is well organised, well-sourced and deals primarily with the 350+ clay tablets that Moran was able to personally inspect for himself in the 1970's and 1980's. There can be little surprise that Moran's study is today considered to be the standard translation of the archive of Amarna letters by most scholars. Contrary to a certain book review here, Moran never actually comes out in favour or in opposition of the theory of a co-regency between Akhenaten and his father Amenhotep III. He only outlines the implications of both scenarios on the chronology of the foreign letters in the introduction to his book. (see pp.xxxiv-p.xxxvix) As an Assyriologist, the author rightfully leaves such speculation to Egyptologists and is non-committal on the coregency issue. Moran merely writes: "Another and, depending on one's interpretation of the letter, a possibly even more serious crux concerns the reading of the hieratic docket on EA 27: '[yea]r 2" or "[yea]r 12'? It raises, on one reading of the letter, the vexing and still unsettled question of the co-regency of Amenophis IV (ie: Akhenaten) with his father (ie. Amenhotep III). The letter is addressed to the former, and probably not long after the latter's (ie. Amenhotep III's) death. If so, and if the first reading is correct, then a short co-regency remains a possibility, but it would have to be established, not from the Amarna letters, but from other evidence. But if the second is right, then a co-regency, and a long one of ten years or so, seems inescapable." (p.xxxvii-xxxviii) Since the publication of Moran's work, most Egyptologists have now generally agreed that the hieratic docket on letter EA 27 from Tushratta to Akhenaten should be read as Year 2 rather than Year 12 of Akhenaten's reign. (see Nicholas Reeves' 2000 book "Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet", p.77) This virtually guarantees that there was either no coregency between Akhenaten and his father Amenhotep III or a short one lasting 1 year at the most. William Murnane himself rejected the idea of a co-regency between Akhenaten and Amenhotep III in his seminal 1977 "Ancient Egyptian Coregencies" study although he was open to the idea of other hypothethical royal coregencies between Seti I and Ramesses II. Moran's book is invaluable because he demonstrates that the conventional view that Pharaoh Amenhotep III requested Tushratta to forward him a statue of the healing god Ishtar to cure him of his ill-health in his final years is untenable based on a careful reading of the precise contents of Amarna letters EA 21 and EA 23 which deals with this matter. Instead, Moran shows that king Tushratta of Mitanni states he forwarded the statue to Amenhotep III in order to bless the marriage between Tadukhepa, Tushratta's daughter, with Amenhotep III in Year 36 of the latter's reign. Moran perceptively notes that Tushratta never once claims in these two letter

My curiosity is satisfied!

As Professor Moran points out in his preface, his main objective was to provide an up to date translation of "the entire corpus of Amarna letters which reflects the advances of the last 75 years." Indeed there is little or no explanation about the meanings of the events referred to in these letters. On the other hand, my somewhat incompatible objective in buying this book, was to go to the source in order to satisfy myself about the veracity or otherwise of the interpretations of some of these letters by other historians. However, and possibly because of their repetitive nature, I did get a picture of what was going on in the area of what is now Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, during the last years of Amenhopis III and his son Akhenaten, For me, a thorough reading of the 27 page Introductory chapter and its 140 notes turned out to be absolutely essential reading to get a general idea of the historical context of these letters. This introduction covers the following topics: Discoveries and publications The Archive Language and Writing The International Correspondence The Vassal Correspondence Chronology with copious notes on the various theories and points of disagreement between many of the eminent of the scholars who have studied the tablets. The book includes detailed translations of those tablets which are letters and inventories between the contemporary rulers and Egyptian vassals with the Pharoahs who resided at Akhetaten, the ruins of which are to be found at the site of El Amarna where the tablets were found, and which is about 190 miles south of Cairo on the East bank of the Nile River. Many of the tablets are incomplete or badly damaged, and of the 382 tablets discovered, the translations of about 350 are included in this book, with about 25 of these being too fragmentary for translation. Those which are excluded are not related to historical events and cover such topics as myths, epics, syllabaries, lexical texts, a god list, and 15 which are still to be deciphered. Most of the letters included in the book were sent to the Pharaoh, with only a handful being from the Pharaoh. 44 are classified as International correspondence, with the rest being Vassal correspondence from rulers of various cities in the region. The contents of many of the letters from rulers of these vassal cities are subservient acknowledgements of orders received from the "Chief Executive", but a large number are complaints about other rulers and the depredations of the 'Apiru, which are either a justification as to why the orders have not been followed, or are an urgent request for help to deal with these marauders. Some of them are quite amusing, others are quite pitiful, and I found the laconic titles which Professor Moran has assigned to the letters to be very appropriate and often very amusing. The translations are difficult reading because of the often uncertain reading of the contents of each tablets, The notes attache

Amazing source of information

The book gives rare possibility to take a glipmse of original correspondence from the end od XVIII Dynasty. It requires some kind of "experience" in egyptian topic, very good for enthusiasts of Amarna Period.

Necessary tool for historical studies of Egypt, Israel, ANE

Tel El Amarna is the modern name of where the Nile capital of Egypt once stood. Egypt was briefly ruled from this location by Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1352 - 1336 B.C. 18th Dynasty). Amenhotep, meaning "Amon is satisfied", took on the name Akhenaton, "he who is serviceable to Aton", when he exalted Aton by making the cult of the sun disc the primary religion of Egypt. Under Akenaton the capital city of Egypt was moved from Thebes to Akhetaton, "the horizon of Aton." This new capital city was later abandoned by Tutankhamen when Egypt returned to her old orthodoxy. Akhetaton was never re-occupied in any significant way, and in her ruins were found hundreds of administrative documents known as the Amarna tablets (the first batch found in 1887 by locals). These cuneiform (wedge-writing) tablets are, primarily, communications from Asiatic kings to Egypt.Moran has done a superb job in giving the English speaking world access to the Amarna letters. To my knowledge, this book is the first single volume collection of these important letters in English! Moran is to be thanked. Among other things, these letters are useful to the historian for studies of Canaan during the Israel conquest period. For example, the letters are full of requests for help from Canaanite kings to Egypt concerning a mysterious people called the ha-BI-ru (Hebrews?). Note: To assist us in reading these letters in terms of the ha-Bi-ru and their relationship to Israel, we have three informative articles by M. G. Kline published in the Westminster Theological Journal in issues 18, 19 and 20. He concludes that the ha-Bi-ru are a "scourge employed by Yahweh to chastise the Israelites for their failure to prosecute the mandate of conquest."From Moran's work, other Biblical connections await the careful reader. For example, in reading one of the letters, I came across the phrase referring to the realm of the "Great King" as existing "from the rising of the Sun to its setting." Which is an idea that shows up almost word for word in Malachi and one of the Psalms. If I were industrious, I could work on the underlying languages to see if the connection is valid; at this point I should note that the Amarna letters are available on the internet in transliterated form -- produced by Shlomo Izre'el and located on the Tel Aviv University web site. This simple example, however, should give one an idea of the potential of Moran's work for the non-specialist (of which I am one).Outside of Biblical studies, the Amarna letters provide a rare glimpse of Egypt in her relations with vassals, allies and enemies. The letters are not only informative, but even entertaining at times as we get to see kings wrangling over gift-wives and diplomatic miscues.In the first section, Moran gives an introduction to the history of the letters and the site itself. However, for a more readable introduction, see Pfeiffer's, Tell El Amarna and the Bible. For the specialists, Moran has provided technical footnotes t

At Last

If 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.