Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
Did Egypt lack interest in the Levant during the Amarna age?
Hanadah Tarawneh
This paper aims to explore the issue of possible negligence of the Levant on part of
the Egyptian administration during the Amarna age. The Amarna text shall be used in
this paper as the primary source to argue the possible lack of Egyptian interest in the
Levant during the Amarna Age. Such argument will be illustrated through the content
analsysis method. The first impression given by the content of the Amarna letters may
indicate that the Egyptian empire in Syria and Plaestine declined during this period.
The notion that there was a decline in the Egyptian empire in Syria and Palaestine is
supported by evidence in the letters themselves. This theory argues that disorder and
instability occured due to the Egyptian king's negligence to the messages received
from vassals as well as lack of military activities in Asia. The latter impression was
mainly supported by the correspondence of Rib-addi of Byblos who sent the largest
number of letters. Such letters were mainly pleas to the Pharaoh to respond and send
troops to help him.The paper will argue against this theory by use of the text itself.
The argument will be presented in two parts. Firstly, the possible lack of military
activities and Egyptian intervention in the Levant. Secondly, the lack of
communication and Egyptian response. Both parts will use refernces from the letters
themseves to argue against both possibilities.
The mythodology: the paper will record all references, mention pleas for troops
and soldiers on one side and on the other side the resreach will gather all indications
of any reference to any Egyptian activities presented in any of the vassals' letters. In
doing so, one may arrive to a certain conclusion as to the extent of severety or
seriousness of the situation in the levant as well as the extent of Egyptian activities
and intervention indicated in the letters. In the second part of the paper the researcher
shall apply the same method of gathering all references to Egyptian communication
and correspondence which are mentioned by the vassals in their letters. As the vassals
made many statements which implied that the king sent a previous message or a
command. This task is done by recording references from each vassal. The result
arrived at from both tasks will be a presentaion of all indication of Egyptian activities,
whether military or intervention, as well as the indication of all Egyptian messages
and commands sent to the Levant either by a messanger or a tablet.
The preceding presumption may lead to the conclusion that the flow of the tablets
and orders in any form of communication was intense and regular. Notwithstanding
the fact that there were few letters sent from Egypt which formed part of the
discovered Archive, it cannot be asserted that Egypt had no interest in the events that
occurred in the Levant. Lack of Egyptian letters cannot be construed as evidence of
disinterest in the Levant. In fact, the reason for the shortage of letters is simplier than
expected, that is, that not the whole correspondence is at hand, and the Egyptian
lettes may have been filled at their final distination. Any future discoveries might
change the picture of the period. The importance of this paper falls within boundaries
of the new appraoch in interpeting the data which was presented in the letters. As
texts, manily ancient texts derive their meaning from the interpetation that we give
them. Hence the variable in this equation is us and once we apply different appraoch
in reading an ancient text we arrive sometimes to different conclusions which are a
departure from the traditional ones.
In general the paper aims to lead to the conculsion that the Egyptian court and the
Egyptian king were in communication with almost all vassals. In addition, the paper
aims to establish that the Egyptian Court and the King did in fact intervene when they
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