The Amarna letters
Diplomatic correspondence between great kings, written in Akkadian on clay.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 28 years
- Known to
- ± 20 years
- Era
- Bronze Age, Holocene
Some 380 tablets found at Akhenaten's capital preserve the correspondence of the Egyptian court with Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni, Hatti, Cyprus and dozens of Levantine vassals. The great kings address each other as brother and haggle over gold, marriage alliances and gift exchange; the vassals plead for troops. They are written in Akkadian, which functions as the diplomatic language of the entire Near East regardless of who is writing.