Bowing and scraping in the ancient near east: An investigation into obsequiousness in the Amarna letters

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

Volumn 65, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 179-195

  Morris, Ellen F ^a  

^a Och Spine at New York Presbyterian Hospitals

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61049421788     PISSN: 00222968     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/508575     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. For background on the Amarna archive and a complete translation of the letters, see W. L, Moran, The Ainarna Letters (Baltimore, Maryland, 1992). All translations of individual Amarna letters found in this article are Moran's and are cited by the (EA El Amarna) number of the letter itself. In table 2, p. 182 below, GN is used as an abbreviation for "geographical name." Uncertain trmslations/restorations are in italics
2. Given the importance of geography to this study, only letters of localizable provenience have been analyzed
3. Despite its more southerly locale, the city of Hazor range due to the fact that it was by far the largest city was undoubtedly included in this same obsequiousness state in Late Bronze Age Canaan
4. R. Gonen. Burial Patterns and Cultural Diversity in Late Bronze Age Canaan (Winona Lake, indiana, 1992), pp. 34 38
5. For the Egyptian practice of raising heirs to vassal thrones at the Egyptian court, instituted by Thutmose iii, see K. Sethe, Urkunden der 18. Dynastic IV(1914; Leipzig, 1984), p. 690: 2 5
6. and E. Feucht, "Kinder fremder Völker in Ägypten," Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur 17 (1990): 177 204
7. W. Horowitz, "An Inscribed Clay Cylinder from Amarna Age Beth Shun," Israel Exploration Journal 46 (1996): 208 17
8. See M. Seera1, "Reconsidering the Egyptian Empire in Palestine during the Amarna Period," Palestine Expedition Quarterly 104 (1972): 126
9. Frequent evocations of Meritaten and Tyre as the city of Meritaten in EA 155 are at the crux of the matter. For references to the numerous authors who argue this point. see my The Architecture of Imperi alism: Military Bases, and the Evolution of Foreign Policy in Egypt's New Kingdom (Leiden and Boston, 2005), p. 246, n. 113
10. See 0. Tufnell. C. H. Inge. and G. Lankester Harding, Lachish II (Tell ed-Duweir): The Fosse Temple (New York, 1940)
11. See the discussion and literature cited in my Architecture of Imperialism, pp. 769-70
12. J. weinstein, "Egypt and the Levant in the Reign of Amenhotep 111." in D. O'Connor and E. Cline, eds., Amenhotep III: Perspective on His Reign (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1998), P. 233
13. W.G. Dever, "Gezer," in E. Meyers et al.. eds., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, vol. 2 (New York, 1997), p. 398
14. New Kingdom art is rife with depictions of foreigners in various attitudes of submission. For differing postures that appear linked specifically to status, see, for example, the rulers of Kush and Wawat in the tomb of Huy. in this case, the artist has also carefully differentiated the types of tribute offered by both and makes it clear that it is only the rulers of Wawat who bring their children to court; see N. de Garis Davies and A. H. Gardiner, The Tomb of Huy, Viceroy of Nubia in the Reign of Tutánkhamûn (no. 40), The Theban Tomb Series, 4th Memoir (London. 1926), p1. 27
15. Translation in G, Beckman, Hittite Diplomatic Texts (Atlanta, 1996), p. 15
16. For a discussion of status differentiation in Near Eastern vassal treaties, see D. J. McCarthy, Treaty and Covenant: A Study in Fonn in the Ancient Oriental Documents and in the Old Testament (Rome, 1963), pp. 22-23. CTH = E. Laroche, Catalogue des textes hittites (Paris, 1971)
17. For discussions of the "oath of the Lord" and the tryt oath. see especially J. Wilson, 'The Oath in Ancient Egypt," JNES 7 (1948): 129 56
18. and S. Morschauser, "The End of the Sdf(3)-Tr(yt) 'Oath'," Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 25 (1988): 93 103
19. Translation in Beckman, Hittite Diplomatic Texts, p. 59
20. Translation in T. Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittite (New York, 1999). p. 308
21. D. Redford. "The Hyksos Invasion in History and Tradition." Or., n.s., 39 (1970): 43, n. 1
22. see also D. Lorton. The Juridical Terminology of International Relations in Egyptian Tets through Dynasty XVIII (Baltimore, Maryland. 1974), p. 178
23. These nt- contracts are mentioned in the eighth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and seventeenth campaigns (Urk. IV, 700: 6 9; 719: 7 11; 723: 4 9: 732: 6 8) and also implicitly in the sesenth and ninth campaigns (Urk. IV, 694: 3 8; 707: 10 14)