Amarna letter EA 286, titled: ''"A Throne Granted, Not Inherited,"'' Moran, William L. 1987, 1992. ''The Amarna Letters.'' EA 286, ''A Throne Granted, Not Inherited'', pp. 326-327. is a tall, finely-inscribed

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, approximately 8 in tall, and 3.5 in wide, from

Abdi-Heba Abdi-Heba (Abdi-Kheba, Abdi-Hepat, or Abdi-Hebat) was a local chieftain of Jerusalem during the Amarna period (mid-1330s BC). Abdi-Heba's name can be translated as "servant of Hebat", a Hurrian goddess. Whether Abdi-Heba was himself of Hurrian d ...

the mayor/ruler of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, of the mid 14th century BC

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 ...

. The scribe of his six letters to Egypt were penned by the "Jerusalem scribe"; EA 286 is a moderately long, and involved letter. Unlike similar length letters by the

Jerusalem scribe Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, namely EA 287, EA 288, and shorter EA 289, EA 286 is damaged over the entire surface by erosion, probably from moisture. Other small sections of the

letter are missing entirely, with text supplied by the story's context. The

, about 300, numbered up to EA 382, are a 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 20–25 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. Letter EA 286 (see here-(Obverse & Reverse)

, is numbered VAT 1642, from the

Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin The Vorderasiatisches Museum (, ''Near East Museum'') is an archaeological museum in Berlin. It is in the basement of the south wing of the Pergamon Museum and has one of the world's largest collections of Southwest Asian art. 14 halls distrib ...

The letter

EA 286: "A Throne Granted, Not Inherited"

EA 286, letter two of six. (Not a linear, line-by-line translation, and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

from French.) (Obverse & reverse): Obverse (see here

:# Say the king, my lord: :# Message of

, your servant. :# I fall at the feet of my lord, the king, :# 7 times and 7 times. :# What have I done to the king, my lord? :# They denounce me: ú-ša (cuneiform)">ša-a (cuneiform)">a-ru (cuneiform)">ru''">ú (cuneiform)">ú-ša (cuneiform)">ša-a (cuneiform)">a-ru (cuneiform)">ru''ref name=moran>Moran, EA 286, n. 1: "I am slandered" :# before the king, my lord, "Abdi-Heba :# has rebelled against the king, his lord." :# Seeing that, as far as I am concerned, neither my father :# nor my mother put me :# in this place, :# but the strong arm of the king :# brought me into my father's house, :# why should I of all people commit :# a crime against the king, my lord? :# As truly as the king, my lord, lives, :# I say to the commissioner of the king, [my] lord, "Why do you love the :# ''

'Apiru Habiru (sometimes written as Hapiru, and more accurately as ʿApiru, meaning "dusty, dirty"; Sumerian: 𒊓𒄤, ''sagaz''; Akkadian: 𒄩𒁉𒊒, ''ḫabiru'' or ''ʿaperu'') is a term used in 2nd-millennium BCE texts throughout the Fertile ...

'', but the mayors :# you hate?" Accordingly, :# I am slandered before the king, my lord. :# Because I say, "Lost are :# the lands of the king, my lord," accordingly :# I am slandered before the king, my lord. :# May the king, my lord, know that :# (though) the king, my lord stationed :# a garrison (here), :# Enhamu has taken i al away. ... Reverse, (see here

::32. ow O king, my lord, ::33. here is n garrison, ::34. nd somay the king provide for his land. ::35. May the king roide for his land! All the ads of ::36. the king, my lord, have deserted. Ili-Milku ::37. has caused the loss of all the land of the king, ::38. and so may the king, my lord, provide for his land. ::39. For my part, I say, "I would go ::40. in to the king, my lord, and visit ::41. the king, my lord," but the war ::42. against me is severe, and so I am not able ::43. to go in to the king, my lord. ::44. And may it seem good in the sight of the king, ::45. ndmay he send a garrison ::46. so I may go in and visit ::47. the king, my lord. In truth, the king, my lord, ::48. lives: whenever the commissioners have come out, ::49. I would say (to them), "Lost are the lands of the king," ::50. but they did not listen to me. ::51. Lost are all the mayors; ::52. there is not a mayor remaining to the king, my lord. ::53. May the king turn his attention to the archers ::54. so that archers ::55. of the king, my lord, come forth. The king has no lands. ::56. (The) ''

'' have plundered all the lands of the king. ::57. If there are archers ::58. this year, the lands of ::59. the king, my lord, will remain. But if there are no archers, ::60. lost are the lands of the king, my lord. ::61. the scribe of the king, my lord: Message of

, ::62. your erant. Present eloquent ::63. words to the king, my lord. Lost ::64. are all the lands of the king, my lord.

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 ...

text: (starting at line 1) Akkadian: :Obverse: :(Line 1)-- A ">a_(cuneiform).html" ;"title="a (cuneiform)">A [na (cuneiform)">na 1.^{diš (cuneiform)">diš

Diš is a cuneiform sign represented by 𒁹 or . It has many uses in cuneiform texts, including in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''.
Description
𒁹 is a cuneiform sign. In Unicode, it is represented by U+12079 (DISH)
Use of the vertical sign
In t ...}

The letter

EA 286: "A Throne Granted, Not Inherited"

Akkadian text

See also

External links

References