Petrographic Investigation of the Amarna Tablets
2002; American Schools of Oriental Research; Volume: 65; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/3210884
ISSN2325-5404
AutoresYuval Goren, Israel Finkelstein, Nadav Na’aman,
Tópico(s)Archaeology and Historical Studies
ResumoThe Amarna letters are a collection of 382 tablets from the fourteenth century BCE that represent international and vassal correspondence from local rulers in Canaan and Egyptian pharaohs, primarily Amenophis III and Akhenaten. Even though the Amarna tablets are written in (peripheral) Akkadian, the then current language of diplomacy, they reflect a distinct Northwest Semitic morphology and syntax (and occasionally vocabulary), which is attributed to their native Canaanite setting. Since 1997 the authors have carried out extensive petrographic analysis of the Amarna tablets kept in museums in Berlin, London, Oxford and Paris. Their research aims at pinpointing the geographic origin of the tablets and clarifying problems related to the geographical history of the ancient Near East. In particular, the authors look at the following case studies: the location of the kingdom of Alashiya, the expansion of the kingdom of Amurru which was located in western Syria, the system of Egyptian administration in Canaan and the territorial and political division of Canaan.
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