THE Semitic Assyrians and the Semitic people of other portions of
Mesopotamia, had adopted the cuneiform script and the Turanian syllabary
as early as the days of Sargon. From this time onward, and until the
days of Assyrian and Babylonian supremacy, these signs were the common
medium of literary intercourse among the nations of western Asia and
expressed various languages and dialects.
The famous documents recently found in Egypt, known as the
“Tel-el-Amarna” letters, indicate the extensive use of cuneiform writing
in the fifteenth century before Christ, or about seven hundred and
twenty years after Abraham.
The story of the discovery of these documents is still another among the
many romances which archæology so constantly and so unexpectedly
presents.
The site of the modern Arab village, Tel-el-Amarna, is about one hundred
and ninety miles south of Cairo, on the eastern bank of the river Nile.
The mountain chain which here follows the course of the river, recedes
at this point in the form of a bay, and upon the sandy plain thus
partially enclosed, many interesting remains appear, indicating the site
of an ancient city.
The tombs on the hillside have long been of special interest to
Egyptologists.
This city was known to have been the royal residence, and for a time the
capital of Egypt, under Amenophis IV, the ninth king of the eighteenth
dynasty. This king, son of Amenophis III and Queen Teie, a princess of
Mitanni, was through several generations of maternal descent more
Asiatic than Egyptian.
The royal house of Mitanni—the Aram-Nahairam of the Hebrews—had given in
marriage several successive princesses to the kings of Egypt. Tothmes
III, during his wars of conquest in western Asia, had obtained a
princess of Mitanni in marriage, and this alliance was further cemented
by the Egyptian kings, his successors, to the period of Amenophis III,
the father of Khu n Aten, Amenophis IV.
These frequent alliances had brought about an inclination for the gods
of the Mesopotamian mothers, and after while this younger son of the
royal house of Egypt, openly professed his adoption of the worship of
Aten, the supreme Baal of the Semitic people of Asia, and attempted to
substitute this for the worship of Amon, the god of Thebes. He erased
the name of the Egyptian god from the monuments and temples wherever
found. This so aroused the indignation of the powerful priesthood
devoted to the worship of Amon, that Amenophis found it necessary to
leave for a time the capital of his kingdom at Thebes and to found
another elsewhere.
This was established on the site of the modern Tel-el-Armana. The king
took to himself a new title, Khu n Aten, “The Splendor of the Sun’s
Disc,” by which name also he designated his new city. His reign after
this seems to have been of short duration. After him, two or three
princes of his house succeeded him, but with him Egyptian supremacy in
western Asia was at an end and the subject provinces of Syria and
Palestine passed out of Egyptian hands and rule.
The mummy of this monarch has recently been found in a royal sepulcher
of the kings of Thebes with those of other kings of this ancient
dynasty.
The revolt against the heretical king was extensive and Egypt was
distracted with civil wars. The adherents of the ancient religions soon
brought the worship of the new heresy to an end, and Rameses, first king
of the nineteenth dynasty, restored the worship of Amon and the ancient
gods of Egypt, with all power and dignity and brought with him a return
of peace.
Such was the aversion of the Egyptian people for the capital of the
heretic king, that, although his city was built almost entirely of
sun-dried bricks, it has suffered less from the ravages of time than the
more solidly constructed cities of Thebes and Memphis.
Prisse D’Avennes, who gives a description of the site of Khu n Aten,
says that the principal streets of the city are distinct and the greater
buildings can in part be traced. And again, that some of the buildings
of sun-burnt brick are the best preserved and most ancient dwellings in
the valley of the Nile.
In 1887 some clay tablets of peculiar and foreign character were found
in these ruins in company with Egyptian relics. These tablets resembled
for the most part small pillows of clay and they were inscribed with
cuneiform characters. With them were found a few larger tablets, some
small cylinders also inscribed in cuneiform, and seals and other relics
with hieroglyphic inscriptions.
The ruins where they were found were at first supposed to have been the
remains of the royal residence, but further examination indicates this
structure as the depository of the royal archives, the abode of the
king’s scribe and custodian of documents. It was near the palace though
not of it. A portion of these documents were placed in the museum at
Cairo, some were obtained for the British Museum, and the remainder by
the Royal Museum of Berlin. They include in all three hundred letters
from kings of Babylonia, Assyria, Mesopotamia and northern Syria, and
from subject princes and governors in Palestine and throughout Canaan.
Although in cuneiform script, these characters varied with the locality
from whence they came. The indications are that this system of writing
had been long in use throughout western Asia.
The language chiefly used in these documents was the Semitic Babylonian,
in the syllabary of the older Turanian form. In one or two cases the
writer uses the Babylonian script to express his native language, the
speech of the locality from whence the letter was sent, but these
instances are rare.
In one letter from Tushratta, or Dusratta, king of Mitanni, the first
seven lines are in Assyrian, but after this the remaining five hundred
and five lines are in his native language, the speech of Mitanni, a
language as yet unknown, having never been translated.
The meanings of a few words have been determined by Dr. Sayce and other
scholars and the indications are that the language was a Mongol dialect,
akin to the Accadian. The similarity of some words to those used by the
Hittite prince, Tarkondara, who also writes about this time to Amenophis
III, indicates this to be of the same family of speech.
The writing of this document is syllabic; and in the older cuneiform,
with very few determinatives.
In some later explorations at Tel-el-Amarna Mr. Petrie came upon some
fragments of other tablets in cuneiform which proved to be dictionaries.
“In one case the dictionary expresses Semitic Babylonian and Sumerian,
and as the Sumerian words are written phonetically as well as
ideographically, it would appear that Sumerian must have been still a
living language.”
On one of these later found tablets, Babylonian words are given to
explain words of two other languages, one of which Mr. Boscawen thinks
to be old Egyptian. If this is the case it is the only instance in the
Tel-el-Amarna collections where this appears. In no other portion of
this correspondence is the language of Egypt used.
Throughout the vast region represented by these letters, including
various races and forms of speech, from the upper Euphrates to
Babylonia; from northern Syria to southern Palestine; everywhere, the
Babylonian language and Babylonian script were the common medium of
literary intercourse in this correspondence.
The fact that many of these letters seem to have been individual
productions and not the work of special schools of scribes indicates the
widespread influence of Babylonian culture, and the opportunities for
education existing throughout the Orient in the century before the
Exodus.
There are evidences that the schools and libraries of the ancient cities
of Mesopotamia had their counterparts in the cities of southern
Palestine; as for instance Kirgath-Seper, “The City of Books,” to which
we find later reference as Kirgath-Sanneh, “The City of Instruction.”
The glimpses afforded of social and political conditions in various
localities at the period of this correspondence are of historical
importance, furnishing data and verifying documents found elsewhere, of
the same persons and events.
We have in the Tel-el-Amarna collection, letters from Burraburyash and
his father, kings of Kardungyash or Babylon, to Amenophis III of Egypt,
in which reference is made to the Egyptian princess, sister of
Amenophis, wife of the king of Babylon.
Burraburyash also wants gold, “much gold” from the Egyptian king, for
the building of his temple, and complains that this does not come to him
in sufficient quantities.
There is one letter from the king of Assyria and many letters from
Tushratta, or Dusratta, king of Mitanni. These latter refer chiefly to
the princesses of Mitanni, wives of the Egyptian kings, Queen Teie,
mother of Amenophis IV, and the princess Kirghipa, whose magnificent
dowry occupies a great portion of some of the largest tablets in the
collection. The lists include horses and a chariot covered with gold,
ornaments of silver and gold of finest Babylonian workmanship, decorated
with precious stones and rich garments of variegated stuffs.
Upon the death of Amenophis III, this princess became the wife of
Amenophis IV, his son, who thus continued his alliance with the powerful
and wealthy Tushratta, king of Mitanni.
Some of the most interesting letters in the collection are from Syria
and Palestine, from the native princes and governors of cities, at this
time subject to the Egyptian kings.
The correspondence of Ebed-tob, priest king and governor of Jerusalem,
is of special interest. Jerusalem was at this time a city of the
Amorites, a Semitic people of Palestine and its name in these documents
is Uru-Salim, signifying “The City of the god Salim,” or the “God of
Peace.”
Ebed-tob impresses the fact upon his royal correspondent that though
subject to the Egyptian king, he is king of Uru-Salim by an oracle of
the god of Salim. He was thus priest king of the city by divine
appointment and not by heredity. This statement suggests that earlier
king of Jerusalem, Melchizedek, who, as king of Salem and priest of the
“Most High God,” comes forth with bread and wine and blessings for
Abraham, the Deliverer of the country from its foes; the Restorer of
Peace.
The Assyrian form, Sar Salim, “King of Salem,” is identical with the
Hebrew Sar Shalom, “Prince of Peace.” This again illustrates the
application by Isaiah of the title of “Prince of Peace” to that later
“Prince of the House of David,” who, in a higher spiritual sense than
his great prototype, Melchizedek, was yet to be to all nations and
people “King of Salem” and “Prince of Peace.”
The most remarkable event in the history of archæology has its
connections with the Tel-el-Amarna discovery.
Among the letters in this collection addressed to Amenophis IV, from the
governors of cities in southern Palestine, are those from the governor
of Lachish. This dignitary was named Zimrida and his dispatches to the
king of Egypt were chiefly upon the political conditions of his
province, its dangers from approaching foes and the necessity of relief
from Egypt.
It seems that Zimrida was in greater danger from foes within than
without, for in one of the later letters from Ebed-tob, he alludes to
the murder of Zimrida by servants of the Egyptian king.
The discovery of these cuneiform tablets from southern Palestine had
strengthened the growing convictions of Prof. Sayce that lying beneath
many of the _tels_ or mounds that marked the sites of ancient cities
throughout southern Palestine, other similar treasures were buried. The
name Kirgath Sepher, “Book Town,” was strongly suggestive, and acting
upon these impressions he urged the Palestine Exploration Fund to
undertake explorations in this region.
The Tel-el-Amarna letters were discovered in 1887. It was not, however,
until 1890 that the officers of the Palestine Exploration Fund were able
to obtain the necessary permission from the Turkish government, or to
secure the services of the distinguished explorer, Dr. Petrie, for the
work. This gentleman began excavations in the month of April of that
year.
After some days of examination of various _tels_ in this region for the
site of Lachish, he decided to commence work at the _tel_ or mound
Tel-el-Hesy, so called from the river Hesy which flows by the hill on
which the mound is located. It is about seventeen miles to the east of
Gaza. The natural eminence upon which it is situated rises to a height
of forty feet above the valley. Above this the mound consists of a
succession of town levels, the one above the other, sixty feet higher,
from which a commanding view of the region is obtained.
Fortunately for the explorer, the turbulent stream flowing over these
declivities has cut this _tel_ on the eastern side from top to bottom,
leaving the whole face exposed and revealing distinctly the various city
levels of the several periods of occupation. The commanding position of
the site, the fine springs of water, gushing from the hillsides, and the
rapid stream, affording an abundance of fresh, sweet water, the locality
agreeing in so many particulars with the site of ancient Lachish, the
evidences also in the hillside of the existence at various periods of
ancient important cities, justified his convictions which subsequent
discoveries verified.
After some months of excavation, Dr. Petrie was obliged to discontinue
his work here for engagements elsewhere, leaving further explorations in
the hands of Mr. Bliss.
[4]The result of Dr. Petrie’s labors had been to establish known facts
in the history of ancient Lachish. The lowest and earliest town must
have been of great strength and importance. The remains of the walls are
twenty-eight feet and eight inches in thickness, of bricks unburnt, with
two successive patchings of rebuilding occupying thirty-nine of the
sixty feet in the height of the mound. At this level the fragments of
pottery were distinct and peculiar, very different from the relics of
the cities above and which, from relics elsewhere obtained, give the
period of their use and manufacture at 1500 B. C.
The next level indicated a barbaric invasion when rude huts were piled
up, to fall soon after into ruin. After this comes successive strata of
Jewish cities until about 400 B. C., since which time Lachish passed out
of history and no later relics are found.
Of these things Dr. Petrie says: “The Amorite pottery extends from 1500
B. C., to 1000 B. C. Phœnician and Cypriote begins about 1000 and goes
to 700 B. C. Greek influence then begins and continues to the top of the
town.”
Upon leaving, he pointed out to Dr. Bliss the indications that the lower
portions of the _tel_ would bring to light the ruins of a city destroyed
by the invading Israelites.
Among the early relics found by Mr. Bliss, when the lower stratum of
cities was more thoroughly explored, were a number of Egyptian beads and
scarabs of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, on one of which the name of
Queen Teie, wife of Amenophis III and mother of Amenophis IV, appears.
There were also a number of seal cylinders, some of Egyptian and some of
Babylonian manufacture, of the same period or earlier.
The most wonderful discovery, however, was to come, verifying the
predictions of Prof. Sayce and the judgment of Dr. Petrie, but in a way
to astonish even these eminent scholars to whom all things seem
possible. This was the discovery of a clay tablet inscribed in cuneiform
characters similar in size, form and other peculiarities, to the letters
from Lachish in the Tel-el-Amarna documents.
It is written in the Babylonian language and with the Babylonian
syllabary, and what is still more astonishing, the name of Zimrida
appears upon it.
It proves to be a letter addressed to an Egyptian officer, received at
Lachish about the time Zimrida’s letter was sent to the king of Egypt.
In this the name of Zimrida, who, according to the Tel-el-Amarna
dispatches was governor of Lachish, is twice mentioned.
Here in Canaan, deep beneath the remains of many cities, and there upon
the banks of the Nile, these two fragments of a correspondence have lain
through many centuries, waiting the time when this long forgotten story
might be read and explained.
The Lachish letter was claimed at once by the Turkish government, and
those who have attempted its translation have been obliged to do this
from squeezes or impressions of the original document, which in some
cases are imperfect, as some of the characters are partly obliterated or
on the edges of the tablet. Quite enough, however, is apparent to
identify the date and significance of the documents.
The Tel-el-Amarna documents also indicate in a way the date of the
Exodus. They at least prove, of the periods sometimes assigned, when
this could not have happened, and to point to the probabilities when it
did.
In the letters from southern Canaan we have a distinct view of Palestine
before its occupation by the Children of Israel. They had not taken
possession of Lachish, nor had they entered Jerusalem. At this time
Palestine and all Syria were under Egyptian domination.
The governors of many of the cities were often times native Egyptians,
and Egyptian garrisons were stationed at all important points for their
protection.
From the time of Thotmes III, of the eighteenth dynasty, to the close of
the reign of Amenophis IV, this state of affairs had continued and
during this period no Egyptian king corresponds to the Pharaoh of the
Oppression.
At the time of the invasion of Canaan by the Israelites and their
occupation of its cities, the domination of Egypt had ceased. This did
not occur until the close of the eighteenth dynasty.
When the nineteenth dynasty came in, with Rameses I, a new order of
things arose. The reaction against the heresies of Amenophis extended to
all Asiatic influences, and the Semitic people throughout the realm
found in Rameses and his immediate successors the Pharaohs who “knew not
Joseph.”
Again, in certain of these letters from southern Palestine, there are
references to the “Khabiri” who were threatening these cities, and in
the Khabiri some scholars read the word Hebrews and their approaching
invasion of Palestine.
This would place these letters at the close of the “Wandering in the
Wilderness,” instead of earlier. Against this view is urged that the
political conditions of Canaan at the time of this correspondence do not
agree with those of the Israelitish invasion of Canaan.
The word Khabiri signifies “confederates.” They are probably the people
of Hebron, one of the old Amorite cities, and confederated against the
alien Egyptian authorities, with their stronghold at Hebron.
In the letters of Ebed-tob to the king of Egypt, he complains of certain
officials in the neighboring cities who are conspiring with the Khabiri,
the most dangerous foe to the constituted authorities in that part of
Palestine.
The preservation of these documents among the archives of the Egyptian
king show that these appeals were received. The evidences are that they
were sent to Amenophis IV near the close of his reign. Then civil war,
which continued for some time after his death, and during the reign of
his immediate successors, made it necessary to recall the Egyptian
troops abroad, and the strongholds of Egyptian rule in Asia soon
surrendered to native and foreign claimants of Syria and Canaan.
It is scarcely possible, in so brief a sketch, to give an estimate of
things indicated, or the historical importance of these documents. The
most striking of the things indicated is the large range presented of
Babylonian influence and culture.
This is not more noticeable in the countries bordering upon the
Euphrates valley than it is throughout the region lying along the
eastern coast of the Mediterranean and the western slopes of Amanus,
from northern Syria to the valley of the Nile.
From Tyre and Sidon, Beyrut and Joppa, Gaza and Askalon, Jerusalem,
Lachish and other ancient cities of Syria, Palestine and Canaan, letters
were addressed to the king of Egypt; not in the language of Egypt, nor
yet of Syria or Canaan, but in the language and script of Babylonia.
This is hardly what might have been expected. We might have expected,
for instance, the speech of the Semitic people of Syria or Canaan—this
older Hebrew—to have assumed Hebraic forms; that older Phœnician script
for which scholars are so earnestly searching. Or we might reasonably
have supposed that documents from this region and at this time would
have been expressed in the written forms of the hieroglyphic system of
Egypt; but this was not the case.
The problem of the use at this date of the script and language of
Babylonia by the Semitic people of Syria and Canaan, must be referred to
the extensive influence of Babylonian culture and power, which had been
more or less dominant in Canaan from the period of Sargon I.
Of this, Prof. Sayce says:
“So long had this system of writing been adopted in western Asia,
and so long had it had its home there, that each district and
nationality had time to form its peculiar hand. We can tell at a
glance by merely looking at the forms assumed, whether a particular
document came from the south of Palestine, from Phœnicia or from
northern Syria.”
Again, the prevalence of its use throughout the vast region represented
by these documents, from the Persian Gulf to the mountains of Armenia,
from beyond the Tigris to the Mediterranean Sea and from northern Syria
to Arabia, implies the centuries.
It indicates that what our alphabetic system is to modern civilizations
the Babylonian cuneiform was to the civilizations of western Asia in the
century preceding the Exodus.
Another influence for the persistency and spread of the cuneiform
writing, was due to the great libraries established in various cities,
to which the people had access. These had existed from the earliest
times in Babylonia, and undoubtedly spread with the spread of Babylonian
influence and culture.
Of legendary libraries in Chaldea, Berosus tells of the antediluvian
city Pantabibla, town of Books, and Sippara, also City of the Sun, where
Xisthurus, the Chaldean Noah, buried his books before the Deluge, and
from whence they were disentombed after the subsidence of the waters.
Of actual collections, literary remains from the library of Erech, the
most ancient of Chaldean cities, give evidence of the antiquity of these
institutions, as also others from Cutha, Larsa and various localities.
The library of Larsa, or Senkereh, was famous for its mathematical
works, and here students of that science came from all parts of the
country.
Some tablets from this library are now in the British Museum, among
which are tables of squares, and there are traces of a Chaldean Euclid,
with geometrical figures.
In Assyria, the great libraries established in various cities were at
the expense of the libraries of Babylonia. They were founded by the
kings of Assyria who became for the time masters of Babylonia.
For the enrichment of Assyria, the Babylonian libraries were despoiled
of many treasures of which such books were selected and removed as would
add to the glory of Assyria.
The books of the Assyrian libraries established in various cities
consisted either of works from the older libraries or were copies of
books left in their original homes.
The most ancient of the Assyrian libraries of which we have account,
after that of the great Sargon, of Agane, was that of Calah. This city
was founded by Shalmaneser, about 1300 B. C., but later on was laid
waste during some invasions of Assyria. It was afterwards rebuilt by
Assur-natsi-pal, king of Assyria, 885 B. C.
At this restoration of Calah, he founded the celebrated library in
which, with other literature, was deposited the great work on astronomy,
entitled the “Observations of Bel.” This work was first composed for the
library of Sargon at Agane, and throughout Assyrian and Babylonian
history had a wide reputation. It was translated in later times into
Greek by Berosus, the Chaldean historian, from many copies of the work
made for the great library of Assur-bani-pal, at Kouyunjik. Many
fragments of these copies are now in the British Museum, but the table
of contents which remains gives a good conception of the subjects
treated in the original work.
Assur-bani-pal says of the founding of his royal library, that inspired
by “Nebo, the prophet god of Literature,” and “his wife, Tasmit, the
Bearer,” he had regard to the engraved characters of which, as much as
was suitable on tablets, he had written and explained and placed in his
library for the inspection of his subjects.
To this library, strangers from all countries were also admitted, and
for their assistance in the study of literature and the translation of
these documents, syllabaries were prepared in which the cuneiform
characters were classified and arranged. With these were the phrase
books and dictionaries presenting the ancient Accadian form of the word
with its Assyrian equivalent.
By these means the modern student of cuneiform has been able to
translate this long forgotten language as readily as the student of the
period of Assur-bani-pal.
Like testimony from other localities is coming to light, of the
literary activity which prevailed for long centuries—we may say
milleniums—throughout the vast region affected by Babylonian
influence. There were books and libraries everywhere, and those who
could read and write them.
The imperishable nature of these baked clay records is yet to furnish
other and greater surprises. Beneath the mounds which dot the plains and
valleys of Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine, the treasures of many
ancient libraries undoubtedly still await the spade of the explorer.
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Footnote 4:
Palestine Explorations, 1890. Journals of Dr. Petrie.