LOVE, WAR, AND DIPLOMACY

Letters on clay offer a portal to a lost world.

In 1887, nearly 400 cuneiform tablets, dating from the 14th century B.C.E., were discovered at Amarna, in Egypt, a find that set dealers, scholars, and museum curators astir. As classicist Cline reveals in his lucid and authoritative investigation, the letters afford a rare look into the late Bronze Age and testify to the interconnectedness of the eastern Mediterranean. Besides detailing the content of the tablets, Cline applies social network analysis to draw surprising patterns of connections and relationships among the 246 people named in the letters. Nearly 50 tablets contain letters among the region’s great kings concerning diplomatic negotiations, demands, royal marriages, and other alliances. Sending a daughter to marry the reigning Egyptian pharaoh created bonds between families that likely led to agreements of mutual defense. These liaisons also involved the exchange of precious gifts, such as chariots, horses, lapis lazuli—and much gold. In contrast to royal letters, the large number of exchanges among local rulers portrays an unstable world of petty rivalries, “alliances made and broken, caravans robbed, and even assassinations and rulers sent into exile.” Accessing the letters’ contents depended on translations: immediately after their discovery, British and German scholars raced to be first. All faced daunting challenges: neither the Egyptians nor the Canaanite petty kingdoms spoke the same language as standard Assyro-Babylonian, and not every tablet was written in the same language, leading translators to make egregious errors. Some, for example, found biblical references when in fact there were none. Now scattered among 14 museums in eight countries, the tablets portray a historical past that, Cline asserts, has parallels to the complexities of the region in our own time. Illustrations include photographs of the tablets and drawings by Glynnis Fawkes.

Impressive scholarship illuminates the Bronze Age.