Amarna Archive The Tell-El-Amarna archive has been mentioned before.

To refreshen your memory, the Amarna archive was found in currentday El-Amarna. The entire archive consists of 382 clay tablets written in Akkadian, the lingua franca of the time. Most of the tablets are letters written by vassal kin s of E y!t, the small kin doms in the "evant, includin #yblos. A smaller number of letters are !art of a corres!ondence between the reat !owers of the time, namely Mitanni, $atti, Assyria and #abylonia. %e have decided to sin le out this !eriod in the history of #yblos because a sta erin amount of &' letters in the Amarna corres!ondence are written by the kin of #yblos, (ib-Addi, in a time of e)treme !olitical u!heaval, which makes the *onesidedcorres!ondence e)tremely interestin . +irst, let,s look at the !olitical situation of the time. The Amarna archive is a th -. century archive, and it only contains the international corres!ondence received by E y!t over the course of about 2' years, namely from -3/2 until -33/. At that time the ma! of the Ancient 0ear East is dominated by the followin territorial states1 E y!t, Mitanni, Assyria, #abylon and $atti. 2!eakin in terms of !ower, these states are e3uals and refer in their corres!ondence to each other as such, referrin to each other as brothers. The "evantine re ion is still dominated mostly by small kin doms, little more than city-states4 The reat !owers of the time do not allow either one of the others to directly incor!orate these smaller states into their em!ire. They are very much a buffer, mostly between E y!t and $atti. These smaller states are, however, vassals of either the E y!tian or $attian kin s. The !roblem is that even thou h these bi states aren,t stron enou h to take on one another in a direct confrontation, that won,t sto! them from tryin to e)tend their influence at the e)!ense of other states. They do so by stealin each others vassals. 5n the !eriod in which the Amarna archive was written the influence of E y!t on the "evantine states dwindles and $atti mana es to steal a lot of vassals from E y!t. A ainst this !olitical backdro! we will look at some of the letters written by (ib-Addi, kin of #yblos 5f you look at the ma!, you can see that #yblos initially is on the border of the E y!tian influence s!here. (ib-Addi is a vassal of E y!t, kin of #yblos. As 5,ve mentioned before, he has written some &' letters to !haraoh Akhenaten, mostly askin for military hel! and warnin the !haraoh of vassals bein disloyal. Rib-addi spoke to his lord, the King of Lands: May the Mistress of Gubla 6/7 grant power to my lord. t the feet of my lord, my sun, ! fall down se"en times and se"en times. Let the king, my lord, know that Gubla, your handmaid from ancient times 6-7, is well. The first thin that immediately becomes a!!arent in this letter introduction is the subservient tone (ib-Addi takes on. The letter introduction is a standard one, used in most letters from vassals of E y!t, when they address the !haraoh. (ib-Addi is establishin himself as a less !owerful lord, de!endent on his lord in his letter introduction. #owe"er, the war of the $ piru 6&7 against me is se"ere. %&ur' sons %and' daughters are gone, %as well as' the furnishings of the houses, because they ha"e been sold in (arimuta to keep us ali"e. My field is )a wife without a husband,) lacking in culti"ation. ! ha"e repeatedly written to the palace regarding the distress afflicting me,

. . but no one has paid attention to the words that keep arri"ing. Let the king heed the words of his ser"ant........... *hey . . . all the lands of the king, my lord. duna, the king of !r+ata 687, mercenaries ha"e killed, and there is no one who has said anything to bdi- shirta 687, although you knew about it. Miya, the ruler of rashni, has taken rdata, and behold now the people of mmiya ha"e killed their lord, so ! am frightened. Let the king, my lord, know that the king of #atti has o"ercome all the lands that belonged to the king of Mittani or the king of -ahma 6.7the land of the great kings. bdi- shirta, the sla"e, the dog, has gone with him. .end archers. *he hostility toward me is great. ................ and send a man to the city of . . . ! will . . . his words. $ere we et an inside lim!se into the !roblem we have !reviously addressed. Mitanni,s !ower is wanin , Assyria and $atti are takin advanta e of this situation by anne)in !arts of what !reviously was Mitanni,s territory. $atti at the same time is tryin to steal vassals from E y!t. $ere, (ib-Addi of 9ubla is warnin him about the threat $atti is !osin and that some of E y!ts vassals, namely AbdiAshirta of Amurru, has sided with $atti, formally however, Amurru remains a vassal of E y!t. 5f this is (ib-Addi tryin to dama e the re!utation of Abdi-Ashirta or that Amurru really did side with $atti, is unclear. Abdi-Ashirta and later his son A:iru, also a!!ear in the Amarna archive, so at least the !haraoh is under the im!ression these kin s are still his vassals. 2till, that doesn,t sto! the Amurrian kin s from tryin to e)!and their territory at the e)!ense of 9ubla. This conflict is central to the letters of (ib-Addi, most of his letters consist of com!laints about his on oin war with Amurru. ;n to another letter1 Rib- ddi says to his lord, the King of Lands, the Great King, the King of /attle: May the Lady of Gubla 6/7 grant power to the king, my lord. t the feet of my lord, my .un, ! fall down se"en times and se"en times. /e informed that since manappa$s 6<7 arri"al to me, all the $ piru 6&7 ha"e turned their face against me at the instigation of bdi- shirta 687. Let my lord listen to the words of his ser"ant, and let him send me a garrison to defend the city of the king, until the archers come out. nd if there are no archers, then all the lands will unite with the $ piru. Listen, since the con+uest of /it- rha in accordance with the demand of bdi- shirta, they seek in the same way to unite Gubla and /atruna, and thus all lands would be united with the $ piru. *wo cities remain with me, and they are also attempting to take them from the king$s hand. Let my lord send a garrison to his two cities until the arri"al of the archers, and gi"e me something to feed them. ! ha"e nothing. Like a bird that lies in a net, a kilubi 6--7, so ! am in Gubla. 0urthermore, if the king is not able to rescue me from the hand of his enemy, then all lands will unite with bdishirta. 1hat is he, the dog, that he takes the king$s lands for himself2 $ere we see the conflict becomin dire4 Amurru has alle edly claimed some cities !reviously in the territory of 9ubla for itself. The call for military assistance from the !haraoh is fre3uent in (ib-Addi,s letters. 5n later letters, (ib-Addi also asks for rain, seein as the Amurrians have cut off 9ubla,s food su!!lies. (ib-Addi is also, 3uite

directly, callin the !haraoh out on his ne lect of the city. 0o matter how many letters (ib-Addi writes, thou h, the !haraoh does not answer his !leas. 5n one of (ib-Addi,s letters he even 3uotes a re!ly he did receive from the !haraoh, basically sayin =why is this man botherin me with all these letters>? 5n the end (ib-Addi,s fate is a tra ic one. $e was de!osed and banished by his youn er brother 5llirabih, after (ib-Addi travelled to #eirut to conclude a treaty. @!on his return he found out that 5llirabih had sei:ed !ower. $e was killed by Abdi-Ashirta,s son, A:iru. This event is mentioned in letter -&2, when Akhenaten writes to A:iru, only then he deems it fit to res!ond. 2o, in short, what we see is that even thou h many of the "evantine kin doms are vassals of E y!t, there is still strive amon st these cities. %hat is interestin to see is that these "evantine states are allowed to have forei n !olitics with one another. The fact that (ib-Addi concludes a treaty with #eirut and that Amurru can actually e)!and its borders show that, to an e)tend, these vassals of E y!t are still free to en a e, to an e)tend, are !rime e)am!les of this matter. Akhenaten was not blind to forei n !olitics, as is seen in his letter to A:iru, when he scolds him for turnin (ib-Addi away and havin !eaceful relationshi!s with enemies of E y!t. Amurru will in the end switch sides to $atti, when the $attian forces enter the re ion. E y!t does mana e to hold on to its territories in the re ion of 5srael. Evidence in #yblos itself shows that its close ties with E y!t deteriorate, when E y!t starts to favour 2idon and Tyre over #yblos. 0ekro!olis Aurin the Aark A e that follows the colla!se of the reat #ron:e A e em!ires around -2'' #B, E y!t loses all of its forei n territories. The "evantine states are free to develo! themselves and !rove to be e)tremely ada!table to this new situation. The Choenician cities, as the 9reeks will call them, establish a trade network that encom!asses most of the Mediterranean world, foundin cities like Bartha e D which was founded by Tyre E. #yblos was also !art of this network. #ases on its role in this trade system, it was iven the name by which we know the city today1 #yblos. The 9reeks called the city #yblos, which literally means F!a!yrus,. Thou h !roduced in E y!t, #yblos !robably !osed as an intermediary in the trade in !a!yrus. Te)ts have been found attestin trade with E y!t in which #yblos ives cedar wood and ets Ca!yrus in return. Throu h #yblos, the !a!yrus made its way into the 9reek world. This trade network has reatly benefitted the s!read of a new ty!e of al!habet, a reat innovation in the field of writin . Crior to the invention of the Choenician al!habet, most systems used to render writin , were syllabic and !icto ra!hic. Assyrian, the Lingua 0ranca of the time, uses both syllabic and !icto ra!hic si ns. To have a workin knowled e of the lan ua e, you need to actively know about 8' si ns, there are, of course, many more. ;n to! of that, the si ns are very com!licated. Thus writin in these cultures was mostly done by s!ecially trained scribes. Then in the Choenician cities, an al!habet develo!s. This al!habet consists out of 22 si ns and only renders consonants. #ecause this al!habet contains so few si ns, it is much easier for re ular !eo!le to learn and use it actively. Thus, writin s!reads. This al!habet is the one the 9reek al!habet, and in turn the "atin al!habet is based on.

The earliest known inscri!tion in this al!habet was found in #yblos. 5t was found in the necro!olis of #yblos, which was e)cavated by Cierre Montet, who e)cavated in #yblos between -<2- and -<2.. #y sheer coincidence the 0ekro!olis, consistin of nine very rich raves, was discovered. A landslide occurred, which brou ht one of the raves to li ht. 2ome of the raves had been robbed, some durin anti3uity, others in more recent times, but some others, namely 5, 555 and 555 have been found in an undisturbed conte)t. The tombs are all of kin s from #yblos, this is based on the inscri!tion on the tombs themselves and the necro!olis was used for many centuries, the earliest tombs datin back to -<'' #BE, the most recent to DGE 2trictly s!eakin , the inscri!tion is written in one of the forerunners of what will evolve into the Choenician inscri!tion and has been dubbed the F!roto-2inaitic, scri!t. The tomb with the inscri!tion is the tomb of Hin Ahiram. 5t is tomb I and it has been violated in anti3uity. The tomb contained three sarco!ha i. The sarco!ha us of Ahiram is beautifully decorated with reliefs, but most strikin is the inscri!tion, which reads1 3*he coffin which !ttobaal, son of hiram, king of /yblos, made for his father as his abode in eternity. nd if any king or any go"ernor or any army commander attacks /yblos and e4pose this coffin, let his 5udicial sceptre be broken, let his royal throne be o"erthrown, and let peace flee from /yblos, and as for him, let a "agabond efface this inscription.6 There is some debate oin on about the actual datin of this tomb, but most scholars a ree on a datin around -2'' #B. There are some interestin thin s to say about the tomb in relationshi! to the earlier tombs on the chan in dynamics between #yblos and E y!t. 5nscri!tions made on sarco!ha i !rior to this one were written in hiero ly!hs and when titles are used, they are mostly E y!tian. The kin s of #yblos call themselves F overnors, after an E y!tian fashion. Also a lot of E y!tian artefacts were found in these earlier raves. 0o E y!tian artefacts have been found in rave I and the style of the sarco!ha us is described as FAssyrian,. %e have to be careful when sayin this, seein as the earlier raves 5, 55 and 555 were found undisturbed and the rave of Ahiram has been looted, but it a!!ears that the ties between #yblos and E y!t are dissolvin . The use of a native scri!t and, moreover, the use of the title FHin , instead of the E y!tian F overnor, seem to !oint in the direction of #yblos tryin to break away from E y!t. 5 have mentioned before that E y!t seems to become less interested in #yblos in this !eriod of time, #yblos losin favour to Tyre and 2idon. This find mi ht very well reflect on this !eriod in time and may show the reaction from the kin s of #yblos to this chan e in the forei n relationshi!s with E y!t. #yblos seems to become a bit more focused on forces outside of E y!t, !referrin Assyrian styles over E y!tian ones.