The Amarna Letters

Format: Paperback Language: English ISBN: 0801867150 ISBN13: 9780801867156 Release Date: January 2002 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Length: 448 Pages Weight: 1.40 lbs. Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.0" An ancient inscription identified some of the ruins at el Amarna as "The Place of the Letters of the Pharaoh." Discovered there, circa 1887, were nearly four hundred cuneiform tablets containing correspondence of the Egyptian court with rulers of neighboring states in the mid-fourteenth century B.C. Previous translations of these letters were both incomplete and reflected an imperfect understanding of the Babylonian dialects in which they were written. William Moran devoted a lifetime of study to the Amarna letters to prepare this authoritative English translation.The letters provide a vivid record of high-level diplomatic exchanges that, by modern standards, are often less than diplomatic. An Assyrian ruler complains that the Egyptian king's latest gift of