Amarna letter- Royal Letter from Abi-milku of Tyre to the king of Egypt MET 24

Amarna letter EA 153, titled ''Ships on Hold,'' is a short-length

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...

letter from

Abimilku Abimilki ( ''Amorite'': , '' LÚa-bi-mil-ki'', ) around 1347 BC held the rank of Prince of Tyre (called "Surru" in the letters), during the period of the Amarna letters correspondence (1350–1335 BC). He is the author of ten letters to the Egypt ...

of the island (at

Amarna letters The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, for "El Amarna") are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between t ...

time) of

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...

Tyre. EA 153 is approximately tall x wide, (actually 3 1/16 x 2 1/16 inches), and has a missing flaked, lower right corner on its obverse affecting two lines of text. One line repeats ''"...King, Lord-mine...,"'' allowing for only one line of more difficult restoration. The letter shows a high-gloss surface on the

, and being a short letter, has only 5 to 8/9 cuneiform characters per line. It contains one special cuneiform sign for ''ship'', MÁ, MÁ (ship Sumerogram), a sign used in both the Amarna letters, and the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh ...

''. Also, the letter's

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

used mostly 'very-short' stroked, and 'fat-and-rounded' cuneiform strokes, instead of the more arrow-shaped, sharp, and linear strokes, . Since on EA 153, there are also distinct, medium-sized wedge strokes, (example ''" be"'' B113ellst

) as well as L-shaped strokes (angled stylus), the scribe may have used 2 or more styluses. The clay tablet letter is located in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, no. 24.2.12. The

, about 300, numbered up to EA 382, are mid 14th century BC, about

1350 BC Events and trends * c. 1356 BC – Amenhotep IV begins the worship of Aten in Ancient Egypt, changing his name to Akhenaten and moving the capital to Akhetaten, starting the Amarna Period. * c. 1352 BC – Amenhotep III ( Eighteenth ...

and 25? years later, correspondence. The initial corpus of letters were found at

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...

's city Akhetaten, in the floor of the

Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh The building known as the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh (also known as the Records Office) is located in the 'Central City' area of the ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten, known as Amarna in modern times. The city was the short-lived capit ...

; others were later found, adding to the body of letters.

EA 153, obverse, bottom, and last lines

Moran's non-linear letter

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

translation (translated from the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

): :(Lines 1-3)-- othe king, my lord: esage of

,¹ your servant. I fall at your feet 7 times and 7 times. ( ''"7

and or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar, and computing * Conjunction (grammar), connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a boolea ...

7 times"'' ) :(4-5)--I have carried out what the king, my lord, ordered. :(2 repeat sections, 3 lines each) ::(6-8)--The entire land-("country-side") is afraid of the troops of the king, my lord. ::(9-11)--I have had my men ''hold'' ships ''at the disposition of'' the troops of the king, my lord. :(12-16)--Whoever has disobeyed has no family, has nothing alive. Since I gua d the ciy of the king, ylo d :(obverse-bottom & reverse) :(17-20)--''m s fety' is the king's ''responsibility. ay he take cognizanceof'' his servant who is on his side.²--(obverse, bottom edge, and top of reverse, with lacunae restored, lines 1-20 complete)

EA 153, Akkadian text

The

Akkadian language Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218-280 is an extinct East Semitic language th ...

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EA 153, obverse, bottom, and last lines

EA 153, Akkadian text

See also

References

EA 153 photo gallery

External links