Replying to Pharaoh's Order: Amarna Letters from the Levant with Completely Blank or Partially Inscribed Reverse Surfaces.
It is a curious fact that the reverse surface of many of the so-called Amarna letters sent by Levantine rulers to the Egyptian pharaoh are completely blank or only partially inscribed. In this article, I establish the absolute and relative frequency of the phenomenon within this subcorpus of the Ama...
| Publicado en: | Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 144; no. 1; pp. 127 - 162 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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American Society for Premodern Asia (ASPA)
Jan-Mar2024
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | It is a curious fact that the reverse surface of many of the so-called Amarna letters sent by Levantine rulers to the Egyptian pharaoh are completely blank or only partially inscribed. In this article, I establish the absolute and relative frequency of the phenomenon within this subcorpus of the Amarna letters. Next, I connect it to a particular type of letter sent by the Levantine rulers that I designate a "replies-to-an-order" letter and offer a suggestion as to why the Egyptian administration may have requested that these letters have blank space on the reverse surface. Finally, I consider one possible origin for the phenomenon in other cuneiform corpora and end the article with a few comments on directions for future research. |
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