In 1887, a cache of nearly 400 clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform was discovered at Tell el-Amarna, the capital city of the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten. Dating to the fourteenth century BCE, it is the only royal archive that has been discovered from New Kingdom Egypt so far. Within the archive are fifty letters exchanged with the other great powers of the day, including the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. However, there are also nearly three hundred letters sent by vassal Canaanite rulers, such as Biridiya, the king of Megiddo; Abdi-Heba, the king of Jerusalem; and Rib-Hadda, the king of Byblos.
The letters offer a glimpse into the vibrant diplomatic world of the Late Bronze Age, revealing royal marriages, elaborate negotiations, and exchanges of luxury gifts between the great kings, as well as political maneuvering and appeals from the vassal kings of Canaan, including Biridiya, who sent six letters to the Egyptian pharaohs. They also provide a window through which we can glimpse the competition among antiquities dealers and museums to acquire the tablets; the scholarly race between British and German teams to decipher them; and the colonial-era context in which they were unearthed.
Eric H. Cline is Professor of Classics and Anthropology and Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at George Washington University. A two-time Fulbright Scholar, National Geographic Explorer, NEH Public Scholar, and Getty Scholar, he has more than thirty seasons of excavation experience in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the United States, including ten seasons at Megiddo and ten at Tel Kabri where he currently serves as Co-Director. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, perhaps best known for 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (revised 2021) and After 1177 BC: The Survival of Civilizations (2024).
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