BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Missives to the Egyptian Court

The Canaanite Amarna Letters and the scribes who wrote them

In the centuries before the rise of biblical Israel, a period known as the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 BCE), the land of Canaan boasted numerous small kingdoms centered on its major cities. In the middle of the 14th century, these kingdoms were under the rule of Egypt, one of the great empires of the day, and participated fully in diplomatic relations with their Egyptian overlords. A precious trove of documents discovered at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt includes not only letters sent to the pharaohs by the other great empires, but also those written on behalf of the rulers of the Canaanite polities. These Canaanite Amarna Letters provide invaluable glimpses into the social and political realities faced by the kings in Canaan during this period. In the Fall 2024 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Alice Mandell introduces us to this important collection in her article entitled “Letters to Pharaoh: The Canaanite Amarna Letters.”

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Written in cuneiform script, the Amarna Letters employ the Akkadian language, which was the primary language of diplomacy during this period. The collection spans a period of some three and a half decades (roughly 1360–1335 BCE), a period corresponding to the end of the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and extending through that of his son, Akhenaten. Discovered at Akhenaten’s capital city of Akhetaten (known today as Tell el-Amarna) in Middle Egypt, the nearly 400 tablets in the archive offer a window into relations between the Egyptian court and the kingdoms and empires of the Late Bronze Age world. In particular, the documents written on behalf of Canaanite kings and then sent to Egypt tell us a great deal about the political landscape of the Levant in the 14th century BCE. It is through these letters that we know the names and locations of many of the region’s rulers. They also provide crucial clues about trade routes, political alliances, and the inner workings of this northern extent of Egypt’s empire.

After a brief introduction, Mandell begins her article with a valuable reminder: The Canaanite kings themselves did not physically write the letters that were sent on their behalf, nor did the rulers to whom they were addressed read them directly. Rather, they were handled by a class of professional scribes who underwent extensive training to shape the clay tablets, impress on them with a reed stylus the cuneiform signs with which Akkadian was written, and read and interpret documents of this kind sent from elsewhere.

Learning to write in Akkadian involved extensive study and practice using tools like “lexical lists,” multilingual documents that provided Sumerian and Akkadian equivalents for Canaanite and even Egyptian words. Advanced training also incorporated the learning of complex literary texts such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, a fragment of which has even been found at Megiddo in northern Israel.

Even as they learned, however, the Canaanite scribes developed their own unique system to write cuneiform, which we call “Canaano-Akkadian.” Even as they used Akkadian words and linguistic elements, they nevertheless employed Canaanite grammatical principles, including marking verbal forms for gender, person, and number using Canaanite morphology. They sometimes even used Canaanite or Egyptian words, which they noted using special marks. Thus, while they were not native Akkadian speakers, these scribes were experts at using the cuneiform writing system to meet the demands of international diplomacy.

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To provide a sense of the content and inner workings of the Canaanite Amarna Letters, Mandell introduces us to a handful of documents from the collection. In one example, EA 252, she explores how the scribe added “depth and urgency” to the document by employing a dense cluster of Canaanite verbs. The result is an impassioned assertion of loyalty to the pharaoh on behalf of Labayu, king of Shechem—written, as it were, in the king’s own (Canaanite) voice. Labayu complains about an order from the pharaoh not to repel his attackers, but affirms his loyalty and obedience to Egyptian rule:

When an ant is smitten, does it not fight back and bite the hand of the person who struck it? So I am being attacked. This very day a second of my cities has been captured.

If you were to say: “Now fall under them and let them strike you…”

As for my enemy, I will indeed protect the men that captured the city.

I can expel my enemies, yet, I will protect them!

(EA 252, lines 16–31)

In another example, Mandell highlights how the Canaanite scribes were conscious of who would receive their letters, even using Egyptian themes and vocabulary to communicate their message. In EA 147, the scribe writing for Abimilki, king of Tyre, appears to be familiar with the religious reforms taking place under Pharaoh Akhenaten, who elevated the sun god Aten to the head of the Egyptian pantheon. The scribe uses a combination of Egyptian solar imagery and Canaanite traditions associated with the storm god Baal:

My lord is the sun god,
who has come out over the lands daily,
following the course of the sun god,
his beautiful father,
who gives life with his sweet breath,
and returns by means of the north wind,
of whom all the land is established in peace by the strength of (his) strong arm [using the Egyptian word hpš],
who spoke in the heavens like the storm god,
and all the land trembled from his cry.

(EA 147, lines 5–15)

Finally, Mandell notes how the Canaanite scribes anticipated the receipt of their letters by a counterpart in Egypt who would read the document to the pharaoh. In EA 286, for example, a scribe writing for Abdi-Heba, king of Jerusalem, includes a brief postscript asking the Egyptian recipient to do a good job conveying the message to the pharaoh:

To the scribe of the king, my lord, a message of Abdi-Heba, your servant:
Present the eloquent words to the king, my lord!

(EA 286, lines 61–63)

Ultimately, it is important to understand Canaano-Akkadian not as a language per se, but as “a scribal code that adapted cuneiform to the unique needs of Canaanite scribes.” This system was employed in various ways not by a single scribal community, but by individuals writing on behalf of rulers across Canaan. Thanks to the discovery of the Amarna Letters, we are able to study the writing practices of these scribes and learn about their vital role in Late Bronze Age diplomacy.

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For more on the Canaanite Amarna Letters and the window they provide onto writing practices and international relations in the Late Bronze Age, read the article by Alice Mandell entitled “Letters to Pharaoh: The Canaanite Amarna Letters,” published in the Fall 2024 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Subscribers: Read the full article, “Letters to Pharaoh: The Canaanite Amarna Letters,” by Alice Mandell, in the Fall 2024 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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