Friday, April 9, 2021

Before Amarna, Luxor

We have much of our knowledge of Canaani and (terminal-)Mitannian history from the Amarna archive. Amenhotep III, on his 28th year, had moved his capitol to that site; his correspondence, and that of his son Akhenaten the infamous, has/have been preserved there, which the latter renamed "Akhetaten".

As for before all that: Bronze Age correspondence tended to refer back to past events, the more recent the better recalled of course. First because it was easier to remember but more importantly because it was more difficult to lie about events someone else might remember. Here we learnt about Shuttarna II, the greatest Mitannian king. He'd married his daughter to Amenhotep on that one's tenth year.

It would be nice to have Amenhotep's correspondence from the earlier decades of his reign. Unfortunately for everyone, his palace - his whole city Nebmaatre - hadn't been found. It wasn't the Ramesside Memphis. It was somewhere around Thebes (now "Luxor"), but Thebes was a big place. Luxor generally was so legendary that it featured in freakin' Robert Howard novellas. And in Las Vegas casinos.

Looks like Zahi Hawass has just found it.

Might we learn more about the Mitanni? Might we get early references to the Peleset and the Sherden? Might we learn about the Hittites before Suppiluliuma, who'd attacked Mitanni and failed? Might we even hear from the Greeks...?

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