Amarna Letters: Gold Statues Gone! (2024-05-04)

Created by: Englund, Robert K.

Fragment of a letter from Tušratta, the king of the land of Mittani, to Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), the Egyptian king.

Tablets El-Amarna 17 & 19-30 trace the correspondence between Mittani and Egypt. This letter, EA 27, is from Tušratta, the king of Mittani, to the Egyptian king. William L. Moran designated this letter “The missing gold statues again” after a passage in which Tušratta bitterly complains that he had not received the statues of solid gold promised him by Amenhotep III (the father of Akhenaten = Amenhotep IV). Lines 32-34 from the tablet (translation by Moran): But my brother has not sent the solid (gold) statues that your father was going to send. You have sent plated ones of wood. Nor have you sent me the goods that your father was going to send me, but you have reduced (them) greatly. Sources: Moran, William L., The Amarna Letters, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. Rainey, Anson F, Schniedewind, William M. & Cochavi-Rainey,Zipora, The El-Amarna Correspondence: A New Edition of the Cuneiform Letters from the Site of El-Amarna Based on Collations of All Extant Tablets, Leiden: Brill, 2014. CDLI reference: P271181

credit: Hilliker, Heidi