Category:Amarna tablets

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Amarna tablets - Among the Tell Amarna tablets (see EGYPT) are some very interesting letters from Adoni-zedec to the King of Egypt. These illustrate in a very remarkable manner the history recorded in Joshua 10, and indeed throw light on the wars of conquest generally, so that they may be read as a kind of commentary on the Book of Joshua. Here the conquering career of the Abiri (i.e., Hebrews) is graphically described: "Behold, I say that the land of the king my lord is ruined"," The wars are mighty against me", "The Hebrew chiefs plunder all the king's lands", "Behold, I the chief of the Amorites am breaking to pieces." Then he implores the king of Egypt to send soldiers to help him, directing that the army should come by sea to or Gaza, and thence march to Wru-sa-lin (Jerusalem) by the valley of Elah.

In Egyptian history, it is stated that one of the later kings of the dynasty, Amenophis IV., or Khu-n-Aten, endeavored to supplant the ancient state religion of Egypt by a new faith derived from Asia, which was a sort of pantheistic monotheism, the one supreme god being adored under the image of the solar disk. The attempt led to religious and civil war, and the Pharaoh retreated from Thebes to Central Egypt, where he built a new capital, on the site of the present Tell-el-Amarna. The cuneiform tablets that have been found there represent his foreign correspondence (about 1400 B.C.). He surrounded himself with officials and courtiers of Asiatic, and more especially Canaanitish, extraction; but the native party succeeded eventually in overthrowing the government, the capital of Khu-n-Aten was destroyed, and the foreigners were driven out of the country, those that remained being reduced to serfdom. (See Egypt).

Tel`-el-a*mar"na, n. [ar., hill of amarna.]

Defn: a station on the Nile, midway between Thebes and Memphis, forming the site of the capital of Amenophis iv., whose archive chamber was discovered there in 1887. A collection of tablets (called the tel-el-amarna, or the amarna, tablets) was found here, forming The Asiatic correspondence (tel-el-amarna letters) of Amenophis IV. and his father, Amenophis III., written in cuneiform characters. It is an important source of our knowledge of Asia from about 1400 to 1370 B. C..