Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East: The Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze ...

254 Pages·2005·3.04 MB·English

by  Trevor Bryce

LETTERS OF THE GREAT
KINGS OF THE ANCIENT
NEAR EAST
The Royal Correspondence of the Late
Bronze Age
Trevor Bryce
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2003
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
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© 2003 Trevor Bryce
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
(Data to follow)
ISBN 0-203-50498-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-56985-7 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 041525857X (Print Edition)
CONTENTS
List of illustrations v
List of abbreviations vi
Comparative chronology of the Great Kings ix
Introduction 1
Part I Setting the scene 7
1 The main players: the five Great Kingdoms 8
2 The interaction of the players: imperial administration and 38
international relationships
Part II The letters and their themes 50
3 Letters and messengers 51
4 The club of royal brothers 70
5 Gift-exchanges 89
6 The marriage market 100
7 Sending for the doctor 113
Part III Historical episodes 121
8 The Syrian principalities 123
9 The warlords of Amurru 137
10 Hittite frontier correspondence 161
11 An extraordinary request 178
12 Letter to a Mycenaean king 190
13 The elusive Urhi-Teshub 204
14 Last days 214
iv
Appendix: the Amarna letters 223
Bibliography 228
Index 235
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Maps
1 The Near East in the Late Bronze Age viii
2 The Syrian principalities (fourteenth century) 122
3 Sites of the Hittite regional archives (fifteenth to early fourteenth century) 160
Figures
1 Chronology of the Great Kings ix
2 The ‘King’s’ Gate at Hattusa 25
3 Ay performing Tutahkhamun’s burial rites 187
4 The Lion Gate at Mycehae 193
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AA Archäologischer Anzeiger
AfO Archiv für Orientforschung
ÄHK Edel, E. (1994) Die Ägyptische-hethitische Korrespondenz aus
Boghazköi, vol. I, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag
ÄHK II Edel, E. (1994) Die Ägyptische-hethitische Korrespondenz aus
Boghazköi, vol. II, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
AoF Altorientalische Forschungen
AS Anatolian Studies
BiOr Bibliotheca Orientalis
CAH Cambridge Ancient History
CTH Laroche, E. (1971) Catalogue des textes hittites, Paris:
Klincksieck
DS Güterbock, H.G. (1956) ‘The deeds of Suppiluliuma as told by
his Son, Mursili II’, JCS 10:41–68, 75–98, 101–130
EA The El-Amarna Letters, most recently ed. W.Moran (1992)
HKM Alp, S. (1991b) Hethitische Keilschrifttafeln aus Maşat-
Höyük, Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi
JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies
JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
JEOL Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux
KBo Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi
KUB Keilschrift Urkunden aus Boghazköi
MDAIK Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Kairo
MDOG Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft
MIO Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientforschung
MsK Texts from Meskene (Emar)
vii
PRU IV Nougayrol, J. (1956) Le Palais royal d’Ugarit IV (Mission de
Ras Shamra Tome IX), Paris: Klincksieck
RAss Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale
RS Tablets from Ras Shamra
SMEA Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici
StBoT Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten
TUAT Text aus der Umwelt des Alten Testament
UF Ugarit-Forschungen
Urk Urkunden des ägyptischen Altertums, Leipzig and Berlin,
1906–58
WVDOG Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung der Deutscher Orient-
Gesellschaft
ZA Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie
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COMPARATIVE CHRONOLOGY OF
THE GREAT KINGS
‘Effective rule begins after Hatshepsut’s death in 1458. **Possible period of co-regency
with Amenhotep III.