His enemies, however, were closing around him, and one of the tablets shows that the city was eventually captured and its king slain. The volumes are available at two standards of compression and page. Amarna letters, cache of clay tablets discovered at tell elamarna in egypt and dating to the reigns of kings amenhotep iii and akhenaton of the 18th dynasty. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in. Complete and updated bibliography and downloadable pdf files of selected publications are available in the profile at academia. For the most recent edition of the amarna letters, see anson f. If the inline pdf is not rendering correctly, you can download the pdf file here. This file is licensed under the creative commons attributionshare alike 3. The name amarna letters derives from the place where the tablets were found. The tell elamarna letters furnish an amount of historical material about equal in bulk to onehalf of the pentateuch. Amarna tablets archives biblical archaeology society. The oriental institute of the university of chicago. Burgstahler is professor of chemistry, university of kansas.
Linguistic features of the elamarna tablets from akko, megiddo and shechem. Side by side, too, with hard and legible pieces, lie broken and crumbling fragments which have suffered sadly during the few years that have elapsed since they were again exposed to the air. The elamarna letters and the ancient records of assyria and babylonia albert w. Library of congresi cataloging inpnblicaiion data tell elamarna tablets. The tell elamarna tablets are a collection of some 350 clay tablets found in 1887 amid the ruins of the ancient egyptian city of akhetaton modern tell elamarna about midway between memphis and thebes. William morans book is the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the amarna letters. Wilhelm, who translated the hittite and the hurrian letters of the amarna corpus. The amarna letters provide invaluable insight into the nature of diplomatic relations among the great nations and petty states of the 14th. This edition includes new transcriptions and a translation along with an extensive introduction and glossary of the amarna letters.
The single most valuable source of information for understanding egypts administration of its northern empire during the amarna period is a corpus of roughly 350 cuneiform tablets, known collectively as the amarna letters. The name for the city employed by the ancient egyptians is written as. Accordingly, scholars have compiled lists that demonstrate examples of words written with either b or p without alteration of. This site, located 200 miles south of cairo, was later named elamarna, and the tablets became known as the amarna tablets or amarna letters. At this juncture, one should acknowledge the cooperation of v. Full text of selections from the tell elamarna letters. In 1988 there were about 400 cuneiform tablets discovered at this site which were part of the royal archives of amenhotep iii and amenhotep iv akhenaten who reigned about 1400 bc. The amarna letters were discovered in 1887 by a village woman digging ancient mudbrick for use as fertilizer. In 1887, a peasant woman was digging in the ruins of tell elamarna in egypt discovered some clay tablets.
Scholars have determined that these amarna letters came from the royal archive of pharaoh akhenaten 5337 b. Xvii kathleen abraham and uri gabbay expenditures by the guzala. The amarna letters essay the metropolitan museum of. These letters were sent to the egyptian pharaohs amenophis ill and his son akhenaten around the middle of the 14th century b. The letters were written in akkadian, which had been the language of international relations for some time. Among them were letters written in babylonian cuneiform script to these pharaohs of egypt by various kings dwelling.
We know of 382 tablets, but many others were probably destroyed, or may even be a part of unknown private. The amarna letters is a revised version of this, done into english. In 1887 a bedouin woman searching among ancient ruins near the nile river discovered some inscribed clay tablets. Mar 15, 2018 this file contains additional information such as exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. Whereas tell means hill in arabic and often refers to stratified cultures embedded in the earth, that is not its meaning here. The series of six volumes, entitled amarna reports, were published by the egypt exploration society between 1984 and 1995 and have been out of print for some time. Tell elamarna elaraarna in upper egypt, consisted of about three hundred tablets. Behold, the king, my lord, hath set his name upon the east and upon the west.
Pdf the representatives of power in the amarna letters. Tell elamarna encyclopedia of the bible bible gateway. They are written in the babylonian language and cuneiform characters and. The amarna letters essay the metropolitan museum of art. It contains only the letters and related inventories. For the main article of the 50 to 35 bc text corpus see. Moranthe johns hopkins university press baltimore and london. Welcome to the website of the amarna project the ancient egyptian city of tell elamarna or simply amarna was the shortlived capital built by the heretic pharaoh akhenaten and abandoned shortly after his death c. Tell elamarna letters 5 assuming the identification of the names, then the habiru, or hebrews, mentioned in these letters must refer to tribes which had either stayed behind at the time of the israelite immigration into egypt, or else had made their way from egypt some two hundred years or so before. Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
Times literary supplement explore the amarna letters by clicking on the link below and visiting. The amarna letters are cuneiform tablets discovered in the new capital built by amenophis iv, who called himself akhenaton 6549 bc. Theamarna letters edited and translated by william l. The first letters were found in 1887 ce and date back to the 14th century bce.
Plan of akenaten tell elamarna black and white aerial photograph of the ruins at tell elamarna. At the feet of the king, my lord, seven times arid seven times do i fall. The site is renowned for its frescoed palaces and for the royal sculpture workshop in which were found moving portraits of the pharaoh, his children, and his. Examines letters from the tell elamarna archive in egypt, written between egypt and other middle eastern nations ca. Besides letters which, indeed, form the main and essential.
The amarna letters are a group of several hundred clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform wedgeshaped writing that date to the fourteenth century b. The largest groups of tablets are kept modern tell elamarna, in middle egypt. The name is a misnomer formed by combining a village name, eltill, with elamarna, one of the names of. All this opinion is now changed, primarily by the information contained in the tell elamarna letters and secondarily by incidental hints from egyptian and babylonian inscriptions now seen to support the high stage of civilization revealed in the tell elamarna letters see archaeology and criticism. While much of this bears more particularly upon general history of the ancient orient, there is scarcely any part of it which does not directly or indirectly supply information which parallels some phase of biblical history. The clay tablets,mostly from syria,but with a few duplicatesof letters from egypt, were depositedin. They are here made available in pdf form, with the agreement of the egypt exploration society. They are an important record of egypt during a period of 15 to 30 years during the later part of amenophis iiis 9153 bc rule and the rule of akhenaten 5336 bc. Solomons treaty with hiram in its international context michael s.
Pdf the amarna letters are generally accepted as the most illustrative example of the international or. These documents, which come mostly from an archive found at tell elamarna in the 1880s, were exchanged between the egyptian court and near eastern rulers of. She had been digging there to use the dust of ancient buildings to fertilize her garden. The original name of jerusalem was babylonian, urusalim. Tell elamarna letters assuming the identification of the names, then the habiru, or hebrews, mentioned in these letters must refer to tribes which had either stayed behind at the time of he israelite immigration into egypt, or else had made their way from egypt some two hundred years or so before. The elamarna correspondence offers a completely new edition of the amarna letters based on personal inspection and reading of all the extant tablets. A new edition of the cuneiform letters from the site of elamarna based on collations of all extant tablets. Tell elamarna letters 9 from abdihiba of jerusalem to the king berlin, va. During the age of the decline of egyptian power in syria,when the great conquests of tahutmes i. Discovered there, circa 1887, were nearly four hundred cuneiform tablets containing correspondence of the egyptian court with rulers of neighboring states in the midfourteenth century b.