Amarna letters

 ( 14th-century Bc Literature ) 

From the internal evidence, the earliest possible date for this correspondence is the final decade of the reign of Amenhotep III, who ruled from 1388 to 1351 BC (or 1391 to 1353 BC), possibly as early as this king's 30th regnal year; the latest date any of these letters were written is the desertion of the city of Amarna, commonly believed to have happened in the second year of the reign of Tutankhamun later in the same century in 1332 BC. Moran notes that some scholars believe one tablet, EA 16, may have been addressed to Tutankhamun's successor Ay or Smenkhkare.Redford, Donald, "The coregency of Akhenaten and Smenkhkare", History and Chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt: Seven Studies, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 170-182, 1967 However, this speculation appears improbable because the Amarna archives were closed by Year 2 of Tutankhamun, when this king transferred Egypt's capital from Amarna to Thebes.

The entire Text corpus of Amarna letters has many standard phrases. It also has some phrases, and quotations used only once. Some are : (EA 252: "...when an ant is pinched (struck), does it not fight back and bite the hand of the man that struck it?"....)

A bird in a cage (Trap)—Rib-Hadda subcorpus of letters. (Rib-Hadda was trapped in Gubla-(Byblos), unable to move freely.)

A brick may move from under its partner, still I will not move from under the feet of the king, my lord.—Used in letters EA 266, 292, and 296. EA 292 by Adda-danu of Gezer.

"For the lack of a cultivator, my field is like a woman without a husband."—Rib-Hadda letter EA 75

"And know that the King-(pharaoh) is hale like the Sun in the Sky. For his troops and his in multitude all goes very well...."—See: Endaruta, for the Short Form; See: Milkilu, for a Long Form. Also found in EA 99: entitled: "From the Pharaoh to a vassal". (with addressee damaged)

"I looked this way, and I looked that way, and there was no light. Then I looked towards the king, my lord, and there was light."—EA 266 by Tagi (Ginti mayor); EA 296 by Yahtiru.

"May the Lady of Gubla grant power to the king, my lord."—varieties of the phrase in the Rib-Hadda letters

a pot held in pledge—The Pot of a Debt. EA 292 by Adda-danu of Gezer.

7 times and 7 times—Over and over again

7 times plus 7—EA 189, See: "Etakkama of Kadesh"(title)-(Qidšu)

I fall, at the feet, ... 7 times and 7 times, "on the back and on the stomach"—EA 316, by Pu-Ba'lu, and used in numerous letters to pharaoh. See: Commissioner: Tahmašši.

"...when an ant is pinched (struck), does it not fight back and bite the hand of the man that struck it?"—A phrase used by Labayu defending his actions of overtaking cities, EA 252. Title: "Sparing one's enemies".

Image:Amarna_letter-_Royal_Letter_from_Ashur-uballit,_the_king_of_Assyria,_to_the_king_of_Egypt_MET_24.2.11_EGDP021806.jpg|Obverse Image:Amarna_letter-_Royal_Letter_from_Ashur-uballit,_the_king_of_Assyria,_to_the_king_of_Egypt_MET_DP-211-142.jpg|Line drawing, obverse

Image:Amarna_letter-_Royal_Letter_from_Ashur-uballit,_the_king_of_Assyria,_to_the_king_of_Egypt_MET_24.2.11_EGDP021805.jpg|Reverse

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• Abdi-Heba
• Amarna letters–localities and their rulers
• Ashur-uballit I
• Amarna Period
• Hittite inscriptions
• Labaya
• List of Amarna letters by size
• List of inscriptions in biblical archaeology
• Mari tablets
• Mutbaal
• Šuwardata
• Ugaritic texts

• Aruz, Joan, Kim Benzel, and Jean M. Evans, eds. Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
• [11] Bristowe, Sydney, Mrs, "The Oldest Letters In The World", LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN, LTD, 1923
• Budge, E.A.W., "On cuneiform despatches from Tûshratta, king of Mitanni, Burraburiyasch, the son of Kuri-Galzu, and the king of Alashiya, to Amenophis III, king of Egypt, and on the cuneiform tablets from Tell el-Amarna", Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 10, pp. 540–569, 1887–88
• Cohen, Raymond, and Raymond Westbrook, eds. Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000
• Gordon, C.H., "Eight new cuneiform fragments from Tell el Amarna", Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 20, pp. 137–138, 1934
• [12] Gordon, Cyrus H., "The new Amarna tablets", Orientalia 16.1, pp. 1–21, 1947
• Goren, Y., Finkelstein, I. & Na'aman, N., Inscribed in Clay – Provenance Study of the Amarna Tablets and Other Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Tel Aviv: Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, 2004.
• Hagen, F., "The hieratic dockets on the cuneiform tablets from Amarna", Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 97, pp. 214–216, 2011
• [13] Handcock, Percy, "Selections from the Tell-el-Amarna letters", London: Society for promoting Christian knowledge; New York, The Macmillan company, 1920
• Mynářová, J., "Egyptians and the cuneiform tradition: On the palaeography of the Amarna documents", in Current research in cuneiform palaeography, eds. E. Devecchi, G.G.W. Müller, and J. Mynářová. Gladbeck: PeWe, pp. 89–102, 2015
• Mynářová, Jana. Language of Amarna – Language of Diplomacy: Perspectives On the Amarna Letters. Prague: Czech Institute of Egyptology; Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, 2007
• [14] Petrie, W. M. Flinders Syria and Egypt From the Tell El Amarna Letters, Methuen & co, 1898
• Rainey, Anson F. Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets: A Linguistic Analysis of the Mixed Dialect Used by Scribes from Canaan. 4 vols. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010
• Sayce, A.H., "The cuneiform inscriptions of Tel el-Amarna", Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, or Philosophical Society of Great Britain 24, pp. 12–31, 1890
• Janet Smith (2025). 9781608996612, Wipf and Stock. ISBN 9781608996612
• Vita, Juan-Pablo. Canaanite Scribes In the Amarna Letters. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2015

• CDLI, Chicago Digital Library Listing of the Amarna letters
• Electronic version of the Amarna tablets, Akkadian in English transliteration.
• High-resolution images, from the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin.
• Mineralogical and Chemical Study of the Amarna Tablets – Provenance Study of the Amarna Tablets – University of Tel Aviv web page
• Sample letter
• Text of some letters, archive.org