The Amarna letters, also called the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, are a collection of documents written on clay tablets. These letters mostly include messages exchanged between the Egyptian government and its officials in Canaan and Amurru, or between Egyptian leaders and rulers of nearby kingdoms, during the New Kingdom period. This time span covers no more than thirty years in the middle of the 14th century BC. The letters were discovered in Upper Egypt at a place called el-Amarna, which was the ancient name for Akhetaten, the capital city built by Pharaoh Akhenaten during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt.
These letters are unusual because they are not written in the language of ancient Egypt. Instead, they use cuneiform, a writing system used in ancient Mesopotamia. Most of the letters are written in a form of Akkadian, a language that mixes features of Akkadian and Canaanite. One very long letter, called EA 24, is written in a later dialect of Hurrian and is the longest known continuous text in that language.
A total of 382 tablets and fragments have been found, including 350 letters and other texts like school materials. Of these, 358 were published by a Norwegian scholar named Jørgen Alexander Knudtzon in his book Die El-Amarna-Tafeln, which was released in two volumes in 1907 and 1915. This work is still the main reference for these texts today. The remaining 24 tablets found after Knudtzon’s time have also been published. Only 26 of the known tablets and fragments were discovered in their original location, a building called Q42.21.
The Amarna letters are important for studying the Bible and Semitic languages because they provide information about the culture and language of the Canaanite people during this time. Although most letters are written in Akkadian, the language used in these letters shows strong influences from the native language of the writers, which was likely an early form of Proto-Canaanite. Proto-Canaanite later developed into the languages of Hebrew and Phoenician. These language features, called "Canaanisms," help scholars understand the early stages of these languages hundreds of years before they were first recorded.
Letters
The letters, which include cuneiform tablets written mainly in Akkadian—the main language used for communication between countries during that time—were first found around 1887 by local Egyptians who secretly dug most of them from the ruined city of Amarna and sold them in the antiquities market. These letters were originally stored in an ancient building that archaeologists later named the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh. Once the location where they were found was identified, the ruins were explored further. The first archaeologist to successfully recover more tablets was Flinders Petrie, who uncovered 21 fragments in 1891 and 1892. Émile Chassinat, then director of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, acquired two more tablets in 1903. Since Knudtzon's edition, about 24 additional tablets or fragments have been found, either in Egypt or in museum collections worldwide.
The first group of letters discovered by local Egyptians is now spread across museums in Germany, the United Kingdom, Egypt, France, Russia, and the United States. A few tablets are displayed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels.
The archive contains valuable information about cultures, kingdoms, events, and individuals from a time when few written records exist. It includes letters from the reign of Akhenaten (also known as Amenhotep IV) and his predecessor, Amenhotep III. The tablets include over 300 diplomatic letters, while the rest contain other types of writings, such as literary and educational texts. These tablets provide important details about Egypt’s relationships with Babylonia, Assyria, Syria, Canaan, Alashiya (Cyprus), the Mitanni, and the Hittites. The letters have helped historians understand the history and timeline of this period. Letters from the Babylonian king Kadashman-Enlil I helped place Akhenaten’s reign in the mid-14th century BC. The letters also mention a group called the Habiru, whose possible connection to the Hebrews remains debated. Other rulers mentioned in the letters include Tushratta of Mitanni, Lib'ayu of Shechem, Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem, and Rib-Hadda, the quarrelsome king of Byblos, who wrote over 58 letters asking for Egyptian military help. These letters describe requests for help in the north against Hittite invaders and in the south to fight the Habiru.
During an excavation in 1993, a small, damaged clay cylinder (originally thought to be a seal) was found. It was inscribed with "Amarna Cuneiform" and contained a letter that appears to be part of the Amarna correspondence. The letter begins: "To Lab'aya, my lord, speak. Message of Tagi: To the King (Pharaoh), my lord: 'I have listened carefully to your missive to me…' (illegible traces)"
The Amarna Letters are arranged in a rough counterclockwise pattern:
Letters from Syria, Lebanon, and Canaan are grouped together.
Early in his reign, Akhenaten, the pharaoh of Egypt, had conflicts with Tushratta, the king of Mitanni, who had previously gained favor with Akhenaten’s father, Amenhotep III, against the Hittites. Tushratta wrote many letters complaining that Akhenaten had sent him gold-plated statues instead of solid gold statues, which were part of the bride-price for his daughter Tadukhepa’s marriage to Amenhotep III and later to Akhenaten.
An Amarna letter includes Tushratta’s complaint to Akhenaten:
"I…asked your father Mimmureya [Amenhotep III] for statues of solid gold, … and your father said, 'Don't talk of giving statues just of solid gold. I will give you ones made also of lapis lazuli. I will give you too, along with the statues, much additional gold and [other] goods beyond measure.' Every one of my messengers that were staying in Egypt saw the gold for the statues with their own eyes. … But my brother [Akhenaten] has not sent the solid [gold] statues that your father was going to send. You have sent plated ones of wood. Nor have you sent me the goods that your father was going to send me, but you have reduced [them] greatly. Yet there is nothing I know of in which I have failed my brother. … May my brother send me much gold. … In my brother's country gold is as plentiful as dust. May my brother cause me no distress. May he send me much gold in order that my brother [with the gold and m]any [good]s may honour me."
A group of Amarna letters (EA 285–290) was written by Abdi-Heba, the Canaanite chieftain of Jerusalem (called Urusalim in the tablets). In his letters, Abdi-Heba repeatedly asked the pharaoh—likely Akhenaten—for military help, specifically requesting archers to defend against the Habiru, a group of nomadic or semi-nomadic marauders and mercenaries attacking Egyptian-controlled areas in Canaan.
Abdi-Heba expressed frustration with Egyptian officials he claimed were falsely reporting about him to the pharaoh. He warned that without help, all of the pharaoh’s lands in the region would be lost. In EA 287, he emphasized Jerusalem’s importance to Egypt, stating: "As the king has placed his name in Jerusalem forever, he cannot abandon it—the land of Jerusalem."
Amarna letters list
Note: Many assignments are tentative; spellings vary widely. This is just a guide.
William L. Moran summarizes the state of the chronology of these tablets as follows:
Despite a long history of study, the timeline of the Amarna letters, both relative and exact, has many challenges, some very complicated, that remain unsolved. Most people agree only on the obvious facts and established information, which provide a general outline for different interpretations of the events shown in the letters. The Amarna archive, it is now widely accepted, covers at most about thirty years, possibly only fifteen years.
Based on information within the letters, the earliest possible time for this correspondence is the final decade of the reign of Amenhotep III, who ruled from 1388 to 1351 BC (or 1391 to 1353 BC), possibly as early as the 30th year of his rule. The latest date any of these letters were written is the abandonment of the city of Amarna, commonly believed to have occurred in the second year of Tutankhamun’s reign later in the same century, around 1332 BC. Moran notes that some scholars suggest one tablet, EA 16, may have been addressed to Tutankhamun’s successor Ay or Smenkhkare. However, this idea seems unlikely because the Amarna archives were closed by the second year of Tutankhamun’s rule, when this king moved Egypt’s capital from Amarna to Thebes.
Quotations and phrases
A few of the Amarna letters are written in the style of poetry. One example is EA 153, titled "Ships on hold," written by Abimilku of Tyre. This letter has 20 lines. Lines 6–8 and 9–11 contain similar sentences, each ending with the phrase "…before the troops of the king, my lord." These sentences are the same, except for the subject mentioned in each.
The complete collection of Amarna letters includes many repeated phrases. Some phrases and quotes appear only once. A few are parables, such as in EA 252: "…when an ant is pinched or struck, does it not fight back and bite the hand of the person who struck it?"