Syria and Egypt: From the Tell el Amarna Letters (Cambridge Library Collection - Egyptology)

A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. In the early 1890s, he carried out significant work at Tell el-Amarna, the site of the ancient capital of Akhetaten. The illustrated 1894 excavation report that he co-authored has also been reissued in this series, along with many of his other publications. Petrie played a notable part in the preservation of a number of cuneiform tablets that became known collectively as the Tell el-Amarna letters. In this 1898 work, he presents summaries of the most important documents. They offer insights into war, peace and diplomacy in the Near East during the reigns of Amenhotep III and Akhenaten in the fourteenth century BCE. Informative notes on individuals and places mentioned in the letters help set them in context, while the methods used to interpret them are also elucidated.