The Near East in the Late Bronze Age (1600-1200 BCE) (Concluded)*

Journal of the History of International Law 11 (2009) 333–356 JHIL brill.nl/jhil

Tracing the Earliest Recorded Concepts of International Law. (4) The Near East in the Late Bronze Age (1600-1200 BCE) (concluded)*

Amnon Altman Department of History, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

4. Dynastic Marriage Alliances Although the subject of dynastic marriages belongs rather to the realm of international relations, it has some aspects that pertain to international law as well. Here I will touch on only one such aspect. We do not have so far any written formal agreement of dynastic marriage from the Ancient Near East, nor do we know what rights the father of the bride acquired on giving his daughter in marriage to a foreign king. Nevertheless, we are fortunate to have at least some of the royal correspondence exchanged between royal courts in the Late Bronze Age pertaining to dynastic marriage,229 from which we learn about some conventional rules. Thus we learn, that in case of such an alliance between royal houses, the parents of the bride would have stipulated their assent to the proposal of a marriage alliance on the condition that their daughter would became the

* The first part of this article appeared in the first issue of the present volume, JHIL, Vol. 11/1 (2009), pp. 125-186. 229) EA 1-5, 11, 14, 19-22, 24-25, 29, 31-32; E. Edel, Die Ägyptisch-hethitische Korrespondenz, I, Nos. 34-68, 103-110.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI: 10.1163/138819909X12468857001541 334 Altman / Journal of the History of International Law 11 (2009) 333–356 main wife of their future son-in-law.230 This, in turn, implies that in case she would give birth to a son, he would become the legitimate heir of his father. In order to ensure this condition was fulfilled and their daughter was treated properly and with due respect, her parents would stipulate that she be allowed to meet with and speak to their messengers.231 Such an alliance might have contributed to closer relationships between the two royal courts to the degree that the two countries were regarded as “one”.232 These arrangements, on the other hand, might have opened the door for the father of the bride to intervene legally in the affairs of his son-in- law’s country. Such a case is actually known from two later Mesopotamian chronicles.233 According to these sources, the Assyrian king Aššur-uballit. I

230) In EA 20: 8-9, 15-16, Tušratta, the king of Mittani, expresses his expectation that his daughter will become the “Mistress of Egypt”. According to KBo XXVIII, 21+22: obv. 38’-41’, and KBo XXVIII, 23: obv. 37-41 (Edel, Die Ägyptisch-hethitische Korrespondenz, I, Nos. 42 and 43; for the latter see also Beckman’s No. 22F), Puduhepa, the Hittite queen, stipulated that her daughter will be made the chief queen of Egypt, a request that was accepted by Ramesses II. For such a demand, see also KBo I, 23 (Edel, No. 68, for which see his discus- sion in Die Ägyptisch-hethitische Korrespondenz Vol. II, p. 256). 231) See EA 1: 10-61 for a quoted complaint of the Babylonian king to the king of Egypt for having banned his messenger to see and talk with his daughter in Egypt, and Amenhotep III’s response. For stipulating in advance this issue, see the letter KUB XXVI, 89: 5’-8’ (Edel No. 104), from Ramesses II to Puduhepa, and KUB XXI, 38 (Edel No. 105; Beckman’s 22E), from Puduhepa to Ramesses. 232) Thus we find Tušratta, king of Mittani, expressing his expectation that when his daughter will be brought to Egypt to become its “mistress”, “on that day shall Hanigalbat (=Mittani) and Egypt be [one]” (EA 20: 16-17; for the restoration, see Moran, The Amarna Letters,p. 49 note 3). Two generations later we find the Hittite Queen Puduhepa, in her letter to Ramesses II, KUB XXI, 38: rev. 13-14 (Edel, Die Ägyptisch-hethitische Korrespondenz I, No. 105; Beck- man’s No. 22E), expressing her belief that “now I know that the land of Egypt and the land of Hatti will become one country.” Similar expression appears in a letter written by Ramesses II to Puduhepa, KUB III 63 (Edel, No. 51), obv. 17-20: “The Sun-god and the Storm-god, and the gods of the land of Egypt and the land of Hatti caused it that the two great lands will become for ever one land”. Note, however, that the same expression and wish – “our two great lands will become one land” – also appears in the Egyptian-Hittite correspondence in connection with the conclusion of the peace treaty with no reference to any marital alliance: KBo VIII 14: 6 = Edel, Die Ägyptisch-hethitische Korrespondenz I, No. 5. 233) The Assyrian “Synchronistic Chronicle”, a concise history of the relations between As- syria and Babylonia through the 15th – 8th centuries, and the Babylonian “Chronicle of the Kassite Kings” (known also by the name “Chronicle P”), a history of the wars of the Kassite rulers of Babylonia in the 14th-13th centuries. For both chronicles see Jean-Jacques Glassner,