EA 190

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EA 190
Text Ashmolean 1893. 1-41:411
Copy Sayce, Tell el Amarna 4
Photograph
Transl/ation/iteration Moran 1992:270
Translation
Find Provenance el Amarna

Contents
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Transliteration

  1. _ _ _ _ KUR LUGAL E[N]-[ka
  2. [uṣ-ṣur mP]u-ḫu-ri LÚ r[a-bi-i]
  3. [URU _ _ _]-ra-ša ù uṣ-ṣ[ur-mi]
  4. [URUQì-id]-šiKI ù uṣ-ṣu[r]
  5. [URUKu-mi]-diKI URU ma-ṣa-ar[-ti LUGAL] (line)
  6. _ _ ši-mu a-na a-wa-ti š[a ]
  7. [ta-aq-bu]-ma al-la-ka ku[
  8. _ _ _ GIŠ GIGIR.MEŠ-ia ù [
  9. _ _ _ LÚ ME ù qí-pa ù [
  10. [ _ _ _ _ _ Ḫ]UR.SAG-ši maš [
  11. [_ _ _]-te-M[E]Š-ši qa-du LÚ [
  12. [_ _ _ _ _]-MEŠ-ši qa-d[u
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Translation

  1. [ ... Guard] the land of the king, [your] lord,
  2. [and guard Pu]ḫuru [your] ...
  3. [ ... Be on your gu]ard, and gu[ard
  4. Qid]šu, and guar[d ...
  5. [Kumi]di, the garrison cit[y of the king] (line)
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Observations

  • lines 1-4: uṣ-ṣur, not uṣ-ṣur-mi, cf. Rainey, UF 6 (1974), p.306.
  • lines 3: [lu-ú na-ṣa]-ra-ta, cf. Naʾaman 1975:73*, n.63.
  • line 5: Naʾaman [1975:73*, n.63] restores [URUKu-mi]-diKI
  • lines 11-12: Moran [1990] suggests alternative readings - [ ... ]te-eš17-ši(?) and [ ... ]-eš17-ši(?) respectively
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Discussion

This highly fragmentary letter was recovered during Petrie's excavations of Building 19 at Amarna—the so-called "Records Office". The tablet is now held in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford.

Petrographic examination reveals that the tablet is written on Esna marl [Goren et alii 2004:27], confirming an Egyptian origin earlier strongly suspected on the basis of sign forms and formulaic expressions within the content of the tablet [Knudtzon 1915:17-19; Campbell 1964:126].

In the light of the command to "guard Qidšu", this letter has been reconstructed as being either a draft or a copy of a letter sent to Etakkama of Qidšu from the central Egyptian administration, the author being either a high official or possibly the king himself. The letter closely resembles other letters in which vassal rulers are enjoined to guard both their own cities and elements of Egyptian interest.

Nadav Naʾaman [1975:73*, n.63] has plausibly restored Kumidi as one of the positions to be guarded, the sentence further revealing the status of the settlement as a "garrison city" [of the (Egyptian) king].

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Bibliography

  • Campbell, E.F. [1964], The Chronology of the Amarna Letters, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1964.
  • Goren, Yuval, Finkelstein, Israel and Naʾaman, Nadav [2004], Inscribed in Clay: Provenance Study of the Amarna Tablets and Other Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Tel Aviv: Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, University of Tel Aviv, 2004. ISBN 9652660205
  • Moran, William L. [1992], The Amarna Letters, London and Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. ISBN 0801842514
  • Naʾaman, Nadav [1975], The Political Disposition and Historical Development of Eretz-Israel according to the Amarna Letters, PhD dissertation, Tel Aviv University (Hebrew, with English abstract), 1975.
  • Rainey, Anson F. [1974], "El-ʿAmarna Notes", UF 6 (1974), pp.295-312.
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