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Amarna letter EA 362 (Titled: A Commissioner Murdered) | |
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Material | Clay |
Writing | cuneiform (Akkadian language) |
Created | ~1350-1335 BC (Amarna Period) |
Period/culture | Middle Babylonian |
Place | Akhetaten |
Present location | Louvre (Antiquités orientales AO 7093) |
Amarna letter EA 362, titled: "A Commissioner Murdered,"[1] is a finely-inscribed clay tablet letter from Rib-Haddi, the mayor/'man' of the city of Byblos, (Gubla of the letters). Byblos, being a large coastal seaport Mediterranean city, was a city that was aligned with Egypt (Miṣri), and housed an Egyptian community. Rib-Haddi, as the city-state leader wrote the largest number of letters to the Pharaoh, in a sub-corpus of the 1350 BC Amarna letters (about 70 letters).
Near the end of his rule, Rib-Haddi penned two large diplomatic letters summarizing conditions of his hostilities with peoples like the Hapiru, but also other city-state rulers, vying for regional ascendency. Letter EA 362 relates the hostilities, but also talks of disease, upon his land. The letter ends addressing the fate of Egypt's commissioner Pawura.
The Amarna letters, about 300, numbered up to EA 382, are a mid 14th century BC, about 1350 BC and 20–25 years later, correspondence. The initial corpus of letters were found at Akhenaten's city Akhetaten, in the floor of the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh; others were later found, adding to the body of letters.
Letter EA 362 is numbered AO 7093, from the Louvre, in France.