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Syria and Egypt from the Tell El Amarna Letters

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Syria and Egypt from the Tell El Amarna Letters SYRIA AND EGYPT TELL LETTERS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION I. DURINGthe age of the decline of E.qptian power in Syria, when the great conqucsts of Tahutmes I. were all gradually lost, a splendid store of information was laid by for us in the culleifornl corresp~ndenceat TclI el Aniarna. Thc clay tablets, mostly from Syria, but with a few duplicates of letters from Egypt, wcre deposited in " The placc of the records of the palace of the kin:," 2s it is caIled upon the stamped bricks which I found still remaining there. A fw years a,qo- the natives, whiIc plundering about the ruins mcl carrj-ing off ,~Ikhenaten'sbricks for their modern houses, lit upon this record chamber containin? many hundreds of tab- Icts. These were shown to dealers; they I1 2 ISTRODYCT!OS sent somc to Dr. Oppc-rt. at Pnriq, who prn- inmnny dificrcnt tvn!.s nnd plnccs ; anti the nounccd them to bc forgeries; otiicrs were first synnp+ nf the ~rliolcwas given in the sent to JX. Grebaut, thcn hcncl of the Dcpart- sccnncl volumc of my I'lisiory of cqijW. mvnt of ~lntiquitics,and wcre trcntccl bj. him l:,lt since tlivn a ni~rcllInrqcr rlulnbcr have with custon1,wy silence. :It last. whsn they I,,;rn p~!i~li~llcrl,with n more critical and wcre supposed to be almost worthicss, a &firiitlve tc~tof thc whole Huyo quantity were carried in sacks to iuqsor to \\'incI;lcr, in Thr TcN cl Arnrrm Lr//t-r.7. Iinwk about among the dealers :here, and .4!1 the summaries of thc letters which thrw wcrc inr~riygrnund to pivccs on the I made bcfilre have been now revised with way. IYhat has been preserved, therefore, ll'incklrr's trmslntions, and summaries of is but a wreck of what mizilt have heen, had dl the new ones have been made from those any person equal to thc occasion placed his translntions. I have retained the original hand upon them in time. Tile tnbicts thus rcfcrcnces to thc oldcr translations, because rcachinq thc dcalcrs' hands bccame 1; nown, I\-inckicr's edition is so extremely bald and and w&e bought up mainly for the British dcficient in general information, so purely Muscum and the Rerlin ;1Iuseum. Some a linguistic exerciw and not an effective drifted to St. Pctcrsburg, Paris, and the edition, that thc oldcr publications arc still Cairo Museums ; anti some into the private of cduc for clctails of place, state, dockets, 2nd co!lections of ?lurch, Rostowicz, others. Rc. Hut in cverv care Yi'inckler's number, 11 similar misernlAe fate attends all dis- \I*.tr.. is placcd qainst each summary. coveries in E,q.pt, unless made by a skilled 2. \Yith rcprd to transliteration I have ohscrvcr, ns v-itnrss thc palncc of Ramcssu (1f:part~dfrom the s!.stem uscd by IYinckler, I I!. at Tell cl Yehudiyeh, the Dcir cl Bahri not without gmd reason. Thc r:yc for trcnsure, the ccrnetcry of El;hniirn, the c.rnplo!-incy out-of-thc-way and little-known palacc of ilmenhntep 111. at Thebcs, as symbois in place of cffixtive letters which are well as unnuml~erecl cemeteries and towns understood, threntcns to place historical and throughout the land. hpistic works as much outside of the Thc tablets thus dispersed were published 0rtiinaI-y reader's pronunciation as a set of 4 IYTROnT,'CTIOY aiC~irs,aw.1 art!- prcscnts nr ohicct.: namccl. chrniicnl c).mlmIs or tlifkrcntinl quntinns. In short nnt:ling is omittr:cl h~tvc:rhin:r: and \\'hen almost cvcrytliin~ rcquircrl can hc or thc c~prrss~din cnmrnmly known rvrms, thcre pl~r-;~scswhich are no value for historv or tlic uriclcrstnnclin~of the The is a p4antr). nhmt nc!opt;nz r:~117tt only srrn~rnnriesare all that ncccl to bc comparcd ~pr~ciali~!scan rcnll. Jh~h!rdlt-t~t.rq, if in and consiclcrcd for their connections : yct in COIIII~OI~i~ic-, n7.c no rf nl 4 ,l ~icctiw,a< in all important cnscs the full translations haw the fcw caws 1f1m-t: sh. ~11,l;h, 15, Rc., arc hccn refwrcd to hcrc, when workin2 out the redly two scpnratc Icttcrs, it is casy to put history and gcn;rxphy, in orcler to makc a hyplicn between them to separate h:m. ccrtain that no minute details were over- So rnistalw cnn thus arise; cvcryone can loo kcd. rcncl and understand the names, antl only the or thcaretic bcauty of one letter, one siqn, is ;. The order the lctters has becu detcr- mind by divicting them into threc main interfered with. I 3ccordin~Iyusc kh for clnsscs : (I) Royal leetcrs antl othcrs during kheth, th for teth, y for yocl, s for samckh, ts for tsxlc, q for qoph, and sh for shin. the pcncchl times ai Amenhotcp 111.. and carI!* in .4mcnhotep 1V. ; (2) thc Xorth 1Yhcn we niny cnrnc to scc Greek nmies written 3s T~cF,rlhillc~, Pilippos, &c., it Syrian war; (3) the South Syrian or Pnlcstine wnr. will be time cnough to suppose that double In the first class thc lettcrs of rliffcrcnt letters arc not wanted. In no possible case places haye no chronological intcrlncking, in my systcm should thc sign j bc u~td and tl~crcforccnch kingtlom and pcrson is instcncl of y, as for the :,.rentor prt of rnan- tdien sepnmtc:l!?. kind it ntems a soft 2, and the y sign cannot In thc sccontl class the main b;lcklonc be misunc!crstond. of is ; The sumninrics of cach letter that nre the scqi~e~ice in thr: histor!. of l<iL;dtli 2nd in thc tlliril serics the histor>. of .Ibd- givcn here include ever)- name of pcrson or khih ((~rEl~ccI-tcrb as forrnerIy renc1ercr.I) is of place that occurs in thc letter, cvcry fact thc main sequence. mentioned which can be of vnluc for jucl~inq The tirst stcp was to the 1t:tlers of of thc positions of persons or the conditions ~I;ICC each of tlicqe pcrson:~l 11i~torir-iin th!. orclcr 22 tt'rittcn in Gt~lh. of tinif*, ju(!:_:iri: from rlw wClninypnww (7f j 1. ,, Berut. thcsc allies of II;?.pr. Thc towns w!iicli thr.~ 7 cnrly uncertain oncs. succcs.;i~.c-l!. Imt, nncl thv rlii1icu1tit:q i!i \~.llich - tIuy. wrc, srrvc to fit thc Icttcrs very ;r, naming Gubla. closcIy toycther one nftrlr thc other. Thc frcqucnt chnnyes of rcsidcncc of RihrltIdi OF letters not namin~Gubla in a gratui- have particularly to be noticed, as othcnvisc tous ni;LnnCr, there arc twenty-five in ail; of all the letters from one residence of his these, from the events, I classcd :- might be supposed to be earlier or latcr than I I written in Gubla. those from anothcr residencc. No change of 10 residence has been assumccl here, except ,, ,, Berut. 2 what is clcarly requircd by the sequence of ,, ,, Tsurnura. 2 early uncertain ones. cvcnts that are namccl. In we - may note the phrasc, " IIay Udnt of Gubla 25 not naming Gubla give power to n~ylord the kinc." Such an invocation of the local dpity might be Here, then, thc test of the gratuitous supposed to show that thc lettcr was written naming of Gubln is almost restricted to from Gubln. Aftcr settling thr nrtlcr ;~nd lcttcrs written from Gubla, and it mixht the locality of cach letter of Ril~nddi,as far sccni, thcrcfore, that in three cases I had as is shown by thc e\+lence of el-cnts, thcn made a mistake, in attributing three of this tllc invocations of tlic ~_rcl)clrIcssnf GuIh class to Ccrut ; but in one of thcsc threc we ware talwl:ltctf. In nimt caws s11c11lcttrr.; haw thc pnsitivc proof that an invocation appmrcd to 1ia1.e h:cn u-rit~crlfrom Cu1 )!;L of J?nxlat of Gebnl rni~htbc written elsc- Tlw rc.wlts appcnr thw, thc kttc rs n:i~ninc where, ns Ribxldi says (No. 2 r I, lYincklcr "I;,ialat of Gubln" ur "<;ub!n !.our hand- 62), I6And behold at this time I am in mnitl " are thirty-two in all ; nf thcsr, from Berut." Hcnce I see no reason to change thc cwnts. I classed :- to Gubln the venue of tllc other two lcttcrs. The nlmvc tcq thcrrforc, is nnt COIIC~U- sidc 3.19 Innq FI~he could. Cut thr mnrc si1.c; b:lt it is il~trrr.;tinz 2.q ~;hn\-;iri~t:lnt usu.11 cnv svcmq to have hcen that thc of thc lcttcrs nnrnin;. GuGln my nrr,ln:e- !?q!.ptinnq had lost interest in Syria, Ioqt mcnt only :,.ivcs cmc in cif:ht tu rrt!lcr thc pon.cr of spring trnnps to manage the placrs; whilc d thore not naminx Gubln cnunrry 2nd t1-1 kecp ordcr, and lost hcnrt nly nrranqcmcnt ~iv~smore than h:~lT to in fnrr:iqn matter< since thcy werc absorbccl other plnce~. Thi.; i.; a perfectly ~111binwx1 in thc homc politics of religious revolutions. test, as it was not visible in thc surnrnarieg So soon xs the strnnfi hand of thc power \r.liirll 1 nrrF.t,arr<l ~nd1t.25 !>P_\-E.~lnnl:r_C! 2: CF E:,.!-p rrl.9w-l to art in a11 erner~encics. a+-- , =- . in the letters until 311 the present arranye- to intcrfcrc in every squabble, and to make ment was clonc capital out of the internal discords of the 4.
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