AMARNA (TELL EL-AMARNA). - A locality on the eastern bank of the Nile, in Middle Egypt, where the archive of Amenophis IV (v.) was discovered by chance in 1887. He had built his capital there, Ahet-Aton ("horizon of Aton [the solar disk]") or Il-n-Aton ("Aton is pleased"), which was abandoned immediately after the death of the religious reformer pharaoh.

The archive has yielded over 350 letters on tablets in cuneiform characters, in the Babylonian language (today over 200 are in the Berlin Museum, over 80 in the British Museum, besides Cairo, the Louvre, and Oxford). They contain the diplomatic correspondence exchanged between the pharaohs Amenophis III and IV and the rulers of Babylonia, Assyria, Mitanni, Arzawa, Alasiia and Hatti (between 1410 and 1358 B.C.). But most of the letters, as appears from the index that follows, are from the more or less allied and protected princes of Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine.

A large part of the writings are addressed to Egypt; of these, 35 come from independent kings ("brothers") to the king of Egypt (10 from Babylonia, 2 from Assyria, 13 from Mitanni, 1 from Arzawa [Cilicia], 7 from Alasiia [Cyprus], 2 from Hatti); 1 is sent by the rabisu (prefect?) of Alasiia to the prefect of Egypt, his "brother"; 1 from a prince of northern Syria, dependent on Egypt without being its subject; nearly 300 are letters from Syrians and Palestinians, subjects ("servants") of the king of Egypt; 5 are from women addressed to the king or to other women called "lady." The greatest part of the letters is addressed to the pharaoh himself.

Only seven letters are sent from Egypt to the regions of anterior Asia, all written by the pharaoh or in his name. These Egyptian letters are sent: 4 to independent kings, called "brothers" of the king of Egypt (three to the king of Babylonia, one to the king of Arzawa written in part in a language that is not Babylonian), 3 to subjects of anterior Asia.

The letters of the rulers are of great interest for information on political history; on the usages and customs of the period the letters of the subjects inform us copiously. Such data have been confirmed and completed by the texts of Boghaz-Köi (v.). They are of special importance for the history of the Old Testament, since they illustrate the political and social conditions of Palestine and the biblical East in a period that perhaps coincides with that of the Exodus (v.).

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Edition of the texts: J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tofele (with translation and commentary), 2 vols., Leipzig 1907 and 1915; F. Thureau-Dangin, Nouvelles lettres d'el-A., in Revue d'Assyriologie, 19 (1922), pp. 91-102; S. A. B. Mercer, The Tell el-Amarna Tofele, 2 vols., London 1939. - P. H. Schäfer, Die Religion und Kunst von El-Amarna, 1923; P. Dhorm, s. v. in DBs, I, coll. 207-25; id., in Revue Biblique, 33 (1924), pp. 5-32.

Giustino Boson

@incollection{ec1_amarna_tell_el_amarnah, author = {Boson, Giustino}, title = {Amarna (Tell El-Amarnah)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {973}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/amarna-tell-el-amarnah} }

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Amarna (Tell el-Amarna)

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