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Tushratta's Murder in Shuppiluliuma's Letter To Abr-Nahrain 33 (1995) 116-118 TUSHRATTA’S MURDER IN SHUPPILULIUMA’S LETTER TO AKHENATEN (EA 43) BY NADAV NA}AMAN According to Petrie, letter EA 43 was discovered in a pit under the build- ing where most of the Amarna tablets were found.1 The tablet was copied and published by Sayce.2 Shortly afterwards it was transliterated and its origin discussed by Knudtzon,3 who in his edition of the Amarna tablets attributed the letter to a north Syrian king.4 Weber, on the other hand, analysed the historical background of the letter and suggested that it was sent by Shuppiluliuma to Akhenaten and referred to the episode of Tushratta’s murder and Shattiwaza’s escape to Hatti. He therefore concluded that “der Brief 43 vom Îatti-König selber stammt, der in ihm dem Pharao über die Vorgänge in Mitanni berichtet".5 Between the publication of Knudtzon’s edition and 1993 letter EA 43 remained virtually unnoticed. Kühne, for example, did not discuss it in his detailed work on the chronology of the international Amarna letters.6 Nor did Moran translate it in his new edition of the Amarna letters.7 This is because of the damage on the left of the tablet, where about half of every line is missing. It is clear, however, that letter EA 43 is a Hittite-Akkadian state letter, and that almost all the sign-shapes belong to the late “chan- cellery" stage of the Hittite empire.8 An attempt to reconstruct the obverse of EA 43 was recently published by Artzi.9 In his opinion, the letter was sent by a Hittite king to the 1 W.M.F. Petrie, Tell el-Amarna, London 1894, pp. 23-24. For a critical analysis of Petrie’s report, see C. Kühne, Die Chronologie der internationalen Korrespondenz von El-Amarna (AOAT 17), Neukirchen-Vluyn 1973, p. 70, n. 345. 2 A.H. Sayce, “The Cuneiform Tablets", in W.M.F. Petrie, op. cit. (n. 1), pl. 31. 3 J.A. Knudtzon, “Ergebnisse einer Kollation der El-Amarna Tafeln", BA, IV (1899), pp. 333-334. 4 J.A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln, Leipzig 1915, p. 305. 5 O. Weber, in Knudtzon, ibid., pp. 1094-1095. 6 C. Kühne, op. cit. (n. 1). 7 W.L. Moran, The Amarna Letters, Baltimore and London 1992, p. 116. 8 P. Artzi, “EA 43, An (Almost) Forgotten Amarna Letter", in A.F. Rainey (ed.), Kinattutu sa darâti. Raphael Kutscher Memorial Volume, Tel Aviv 1993, p. 7 and n. 1; W.L. Moran, op. cit. (n. 7). 9 P. Artzi, art. cit. (n. 8), pp. 7-10. TUSHRATTA’S MURDER IN SHUPPILULIUMA’S LETTER TO AKHENATEN 117 Pharaoh in order to explain and defend certain political/military steps taken in a client state. Unfortunately, Artzi’s transliteration lacks consistency and the number of signs restored varies from line to line. It seems to me that Weber’s interpretation of the letter is correct and, moreover, that the obverse of the letter (lines 1-17) may reasonably be restored. As Weber already noted, its first part (lines 1-7) refers to Tushratta’s murder by his son. Note the similarity in vocabulary between the descriptions of the conspirators as ameluti zapruti (“malicious men") (line 4) and Shuppiluliuma’s description of the murderer’s act as kî zapurti ipussu (“acted against him in a malicious way") (KBo I 2:30). In the second part of the obverse (lines 8-17) Shuppiluliuma mentions his ‘friendly’ rela- tions with the murdered king and relates how he fulfilled his ‘obligations’ to the late king by defending his sons, particularly his elder son (namely, Shat- tiwaza). The claim of aÌÌutu relations between him and the murdered king serves to explain his firm support for Shattiwaza, his candidate to the throne of Mitanni. Here is my restoration of the tablet, together with a translation and a short commentary. The number of signs at the beginning of each line mainly follows Knudtzon’s estimation of the gap and is controlled by the photograph of the letter published by Artzi: 1. [ ù a-na]-ku a-na muÌÌi-[ka] 2. [al-ta-par a-na Ìi-†i]-ta5 an-ni-ta5 DUMU-[su sa] 3. [mtu-us-rat-ta lem-na ip-p]u-sa-as-su i-na k[u-tal] 4. [LUGAL ussemmeÌ-ma?] LUmes za-ap-ru-ti 5. [. ] an-ni-ta5 sa it-ti-su 6. [ussemmeÌu-ma? ik-su]-du-su ù i-du-ku-su mes 7. [ù Ìi-†i-ta5 lu-ú] i-di a-na pa-ni DINGIR - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8. [ù at-ta lu-ú] te-di-i ki-i a-bu-su 9. [it-ti-ia aÌ-Ìu-ta?] ip-pu-us ki-i a-bu-su 10. [a-na simti-su] it-ta-la-ak 11. [ù DUMUmes-su?] a-na-aÒ-Òa-ar-su-nu-ma 12. [ù ]-pa-su-nu ù DUMU-su GAL 13. [i-na muhhi aÌ-Ìu]-ti sa a-bi-su 14. [ep-pu-sa-as-su] dam-qi-is ki-i ep-pu-sa-as-su 15. [dam-qi-is at-ta] la-a te-di-i 16. [ ] at-ta la-a te-[di-i] 17. [ ]-ma ma-am-ma la-a [i-di] 118 N. NA}AMAN Translation: And I [wrote] you about this [crim]e. The son [of Tushratta] committed [a crime] against him. Be[hind the king’s back he has conspired, assem- bled(?)] malicious men, and [this band(?)] that [conspired] with him seized and killed him. [And may the crime] be known before the gods. [And you must] know that his father has established [friendly relations with me]. Since his father [di]ed I am indeed protecting [his sons(?), and …] for them. And his eldest son, [on account of the friendly rela]tions of his father [I treat him] favourably. How I treat him [favourably you] do not know … you do not know … nobody [knows]. Notes: For a detailed commentary, see Artzi.10 Line 3: For the ku sign at the end of the tablet, see Artzi (note 8), p. 9. For ina kutal sarri, see CAD K 605a. Line 4: For the restoration ussemmeÌma, see Shuppiluliuma’s description of Tushratta’s murder in KBo I 2:29; AHW 1017a. Line 9: The restoration of aÌÌuta is ad sensum. Line 10: For the restoration, see CAD A/1 321a. 10 P. Artzi, art. cit. (n. 8), p. 9..
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