Eric Cline Lecture

“Speak to the King, my lord and my Sun god”: Love, War, and Diplomacy in Canaan during the Amarna Age” In 1887, a cache of nearly 400 clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform was discovered at Tell El-Amarna, the capital city of the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten. Dating to the fourteenth century BCE, it is the only royal archive that has been discovered from New Kingdom Egypt so far. Within the archive are fifty letters exchanged with the other great powers of the day, including the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. However, there are also nearly three hundred letters sent by vassal Canaanite rulers, such as Baraiya, the king of Megiddo; Abdi-Heba, the king of Jerusalem; and Rib-Hada, the king of Byblos. The letters offer a glimpse into the vibrant diplomatic world of the Late Bronze Age, revealing royal marriages, elaborate negotiations, and exchanges of luxury gifts between the great kings, as well as political maneuvering and appeals from the vassal kings of Canaan, including Baraiya, wh