THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OF TEL EL-AMARNA. 17 
Among the Tel el-Amarna tablets now in Berlin and 
London are some from the Babylonian king Burna-buryas, 
the son of Kuri-galzu, who reigned about 1430 8.c. But the 
larger part of them are written by persons who were in no 
way connected with Babylonia, and to whom therefore Baby- 
lonian was a foreign language. A considerable number are 
despatches from Hgyptian officers in Palestine and Syria, 
many of whom bear Semitic names. They throw a curious 
and unexpected light on the inner history of the country in 
the age when “ the Canaanite was still in the land.” 
In the present paper, however, I intend to confine myself 
to the tablets belonging to M. Bouriant and to the Boulaq 
Museum which I have myself examined and copied. ‘'hey 
include some of the most important contained in the whole 
collection. 
Those relating to Palestine first claim our attention. They 
bear out the evidence of the Egyptian monuments, and indi- 
cate that the cities of Palestine acknowledged the suzerainty 
of the Egyptian sovereign. The affairs of Phoenicia were 
directed by an Egyptian governor, who bears the Semitic 
name of Rib-Addu or Rib-Hadad, and who was assisted by 
Yapa-Addu and Aziru.* Several of his despatches relate to 
the city of Tsumura or Simyra, the Zemar of Gen. x. 18, 
which he describes in one of them as “ very strongly situated, 
like a bird whose nest is built on a precipice.” At the end 
of the same despatch reference is made to “the King of 
Mitana,” or Aram Naharaim, “ the King of Tarkusi, and the 
King of the Hittites,” as well as to a certain ‘‘ Yankhan, the 
servant of the King of Yarimuta”’; but the tablet is too much 
injured to enable us to say whether the relations of the 
Egyptian official to these personages were friendly or other- 
wise. Another letter from the same official mentions that 
two ships belonged to him, and adds that certain animals had 
been brought to him by Yapa-Addu. In a third tablet the 
city of Sidon seems to be named, while the tablets at Berlin 
speak of Tyre, Acre, and Megiddo. 
The territory of the Philistines, commanding as it did the 
northern end of the road from Egypt into Palestine, naturally 
occupied the attention of the Egyptians a good deal. One of 
the tablets belonging to M. Bouriant, though broken at the 
end, is very interesting in this respect. It runs thus: ‘‘ To the 
king my lord, speak thus: Thy servant Aruki (or Arudi) 
* The name of Rib-Addu may also be read Rip-Dadu. Yapa-Addu, or 
Dadu, is probably ‘‘ Hadad is beautiful” (from 75") ; and Aziru seems to be 
the Biblical >yx. 
VOL, XXIV. C 
