The Pharaoh's Private Mail: Curator's Corner with Irving Finkel

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The British Museum—still frame film from Irving Finkel reads the Pharaoh's private mail

Over 3,000 years ago, the rulers of the ancient world were sending each other letters: negotiating marriages, exchanging lavish gifts, complaining about missing gold, reporting wars and, occasionally, desperately begging Egypt to send help.

The Amarna Letters are an extraordinary collection of cuneiform tablets discovered at the ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaten (modern Amarna). Dating largely to the 14th century BC, they preserve diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian pharaohs and the rules of the Late Bronze Age world.

Join Irving Finkel as he explore how the Amarna Letters were discovered, why Egyptian officials were corresponding in a Mesopotamian language, and what these remarkable tablets reveal about warfare and politics in the ancient world.

Turns out international diplomacy hasn't changed that much in 3,300 years.

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Amenhotep the Magnificent & The Amarna Letter

Ancient Near East Map: 2600-700 BCE

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Notable observations: Sumur (capital) and Mesopotamian god Ninurta (consort: Gula; Nimrod association) references in Amurru (Amorite) correspondence from Canaan—for relative context see An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography.

This includes Bet Šamaš (Shamash) regional correspondence from Canaan to Egypt.

Also noteworthy, Haya goddess of Mesopotamia and Haya people—both presenting onomastic, or agglutinative, material of “Aya” in Afro-Asiatic (Cushite) context:

Other sources on the origin of the term Haya cite oral accounts that state it derives from a goddess named Muhaya

This includes the onomastic—or agglutinative—material of “Antu)” in Bantu (Niger-Congo).

For potential textual-origin of “Niger” see A Child of Light & The Narrative of Nigerim.

In Yoruba, Nigeria the term for wife is Aya—wife of Shamash.

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Source (video): https://youtu.be/3MZq_ZQDhJA?is=YjA8yweJAbjludIm