The Amarna Letters
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The Amarna Letters Customer Reviews
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Excellent overview of the Amarna letters
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William Moran's book is the most comprehensive and thorough analysis of the Amarna letters. It is well organised, well-sourced and deals primarily with the 350+ clay tablets that Moran was able to personally inspect for himself in the 1970's and 1980's. There can be little surprise that Moran's study is today considered to be the standard translation of the archive of Amarna letters by most scholars. Contrary to a certain book review here, Moran never actually comes out in favour or in opposition of the theory of a co-regency between Akhenaten and his father Amenhotep III. He only outlines the implications of both scenarios on the chronology of the foreign letters in the introduction to his book. (see pp.xxxiv-p.xxxvix) As an Assyriologist, the author rightfully leaves such speculation to Egyptologists and is non-committal on the coregency issue. Moran merely writes: "Another and, depending on one's interpretation of the letter, a possibly even more serious crux concerns the reading of the hieratic docket on EA 27: "[yea]r 2" or "[yea]r 12"? It raises, on one reading of the letter, the vexing and still unsettled question of the co-regency of Amenophis IV (ie: Akhenaten) with his father. The letter is addressed to the former, and probably not long after the latter's death. If so, and if the first reading is correct, then a short co-regency remains a possibility, but it would have to be established, not from the Amarna letters, but from other evidence. But if the second is right, then a co-regency, and a long one of ten years or so, seems inescapable." (p.xxxvii-xxxviii)
Since the publication of Moran's work, most Egyptologists have now generally agreed that the hieratic docket on letter EA 27 from Tushratta to Akhenaten should be read as Year 2 rather than Year 12 of Akhenaten's reign. (see Nicholas Reeves' 2000 book "Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet", p.77) This virtually guarantees that there was either no coregency between Amenhotep III and Akhenaten or a short one lasting 1 year at the most. William Murnane himself rejected the idea of a co-regency between Akhenaten and his father in his seminal 1977 "Ancient Egyptian Coregencies" study although he was open to the idea of other possible royal coregencies between say Seti I and Ramesses II.
Finally, Moran's book is invaluable because he demonstrates that the conventional view that Pharaoh Amenhotep III requested Tushratta to forward him a statue of the healing god Ishtar to cure him of his ill-health is untenable based on a reading of the precise contents of Amarna letters EA 21 and EA 23 which deals with this matter. Instead, Moran shows that king Tushratta of Mitanni states he forwarded the statue to Amenhotep III in order to bless the marriage between Tadukhepa, Tushratta's daughter, and Amenhotep III in Year 36 of the latter's reign. Moran perceptively notes that Tushratta never once claims in the 2 letters that the statue's dispatch was meant to cure Amenhotep III of his various ailments. While Professor Moran died in 2000, his book provides a bright legacy to future students of Ancient History and has undoubtedly increased our understanding of the Amarna tablets and their complex translations and meanings. It has certainly found a place of honor and respect in the world's major academic libraries as it has in my own private collection. |
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