Ugarit Letter

8/12/2019 Ugarit Letter

1/6

An Ugaritic Letter to Amenophis III concerning Trade with Alaiya

Author(s): E. LipiskiSource: Iraq, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Autumn, 1977), pp. 213-217Published by: British Institute for the Study of IraqStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4200068.

Accessed: 29/03/2014 21:54

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

British Institute for the Study of Iraqis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

Iraq.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 146.96.128.36 on Sat, 29 Mar 2014 21:54:19 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bisihttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4200068?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/4200068?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bisi


2/6

213

AN UGARITIC LETTER TO AMENOPHIS IIICONCERNING TRADE WITH ALASIYABy E. LIPI11SKI

Seven Amarna letters (EA 33-39) are addressedto Egypt by the king of Ala?iya,whose name is not given, and one by his chief minister to the minister of Egypt (EA40). The letters contain referencesto an exchange of gifts, which were delivered bysea (EA 39 and 40). This exchange amounted to the maintenance of commercialrelations 1 and one letter even mentions, in a broken context, Egyptian tradesmen(EA 34). This is what the king of Alagiyawrites to the king of Egypt:

38 [. .us-fi-ir] ki-maar-hi-is3 [a-na kurA-]1a-Ji-ia lutdm-kd-ri-ia 40 [a 2]o0 [u.meltm-]kd-ru-ka1i 41 [i m]e-i-it [X-X-]GA-GI it-ti-.u-nu,"[let go] quickly [to A]lagiya my tradesman[and] your [twen]ty [tra]desmen and[one h]undred 2...... with them ".All these Amarna letters date most likely from the reign of Amenophis IV

(1379-1362), alias Akhenaten.A somewhat earlier reference to Egyptian trade with Alagiya is to be found in anUgaritic letter uncoveredin room 77 of the main palace of Ugarit 3and addressedtoNimmuria, viz. Amenophis III Nebmare (14I 7-1379),4 by an official whose name isomitted.CharlesVirolleaud, who publishedthis letter in I965, describes t as a messagesentto the king of Ugarit by the chief of a town whose name is partly lost.5 However, theintroductorypart of the letter does not leave any doubt as to its being a draft, a copy,

1 C. Zaccagnini, Lo scambio dei doni nel VicinoOriente durante i secoli XV-XIII (Orientis AntiquiCollectio,XI; Roma, I973), I19, cf. 91.2The spelling me-i-it eems to testify to the use of anUgaritic form of the word " hundred ", spelt m'it inthe singular.' Ch. Virolleaud, LePalais royald'Ugarit V (Missionde Ras Shamra, XI; Paris, 1965), No. 8 (RS i8.i i 3A). The letter has previously been mentioned byCh. Virolleaud, " Les nouvelles tablettes alpha-b6tiques de Ras Shamra (XVIIIe campagne,automne 1954) ", in CRAIBL1955, 73-82. It hasnow been re-edited with an unpublished fragment(RS i8. 113B) by M. Dietrich and 0. Loretz, DieElfenbeininschriftenndS-Texte aus Ugarit (AOAT 13;Kevelaer-Neukirchen-Vluyn I976), 21-22 and P1.VII, S 33-34. See also M. Dietrich, 0. Loretz andJ. Sanmartfn, Die keilalphabetischenexte aus Ugarit,Teil I. Transkription(AOAT 24; Kevelaer-Neu-

kirchen-Vluyn, 1976), 156-157, No. 2.42-43.Neither of these publications contains a translationor an interpretation of this letter. Room 77 seemsto have yielded only one other fragment (PRU V,No. 7 - RS. 18.I13).4 The doubts about the identity of Nmry,expremedby M. Liverani, Storia di Ugarit (Studi Semitis 6;Roma, 1962), 28, note 6, are not founded.

6 Ch. Virolleaud has suggested the alternativerestorations m'i[dl], m'iLhd], or m'i(bdym]. Thesecond one is adopted by E. Linder, T7e MaritimeTextsof Ugarit: A Study n LateBronzeShipping Diss.Brandeis University, 1970), 41-42, who interprets rb.m'i[hd] in the sense of " harbour master " (cf. ibid.,208-2 Ii). However, one would expect to find thespelling m'a[Md] nstead of m'i[hd]. According toM. C. Astour, " Ma'badu, the Harbour of Ugarit ",inJESHO 13 (1970), I13-127, m'a4dwas the propername of the harbour of Ugarit.

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/6

214 E. LIPINSKI

or an archive translation of a message addressed from Ugarit to the pharaoh by anEgyptian official, whose title may be restored as rb.m'i[S'mn],jiterally " chief of theseal ", viz. " seal-bearer ". The Egyptian title imy-r3htm (or htmn.t), seal-bearer ",was borne in the period of the Eighteenth Dynasty by high administrators of royalestates rather than by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.7 The royal seals were in factduplicated and entrusted to several officials responsible for the administration.We may at present read the first part of the letter 8:Obverse

I. 1. mlk. b['ly] To the king, my lord,2. r[gm] say:3. thm. rb. m'i[Smn. ']bdk Message of the seal-bearer, thy servant.4. 1.p'n. b'ly [. mrhqtm] At the feet of my lord, from far away,5. b'd. w. Wb'd[. lt] seven times and seven times I fall.6. 'an kn. rgmt. 1. b'lyp['] Thus I spoke to the Rising Baal,7. 1. Ps. 'Im. 1. 'ttrt to the Eternal Sun-deity, to Astarte,8. 1. 'nt. 1. kl. 'il. 'alty to Anat, to all the gods of Ala?iya:9. nmry.mlk. 'lm Let Nimmuria be an eternal king

IO. mlkn.b'ly. hwt[h] Let our king, my lord, cause his realm 9I i. yS'izr. w. 'm. b'[ly] to be strengthened. And to my lordI 2. 'Ir'id. l'ikt[. lht] I have sent [messages] ten times13. w[.]b'ly. mn[h. lq4] and my lord [has received] a prese[nt].

There can be little doubt that the gods thus enumerated, the Rising Baal, theEternal Sun-deity, Astarte, and Anat, are no gods of Ugarit, but the main deities ofAlagiya, as appears from the closing expression " all the gods of Alasiya ". Themention of these Semitic deities seems to provide further evidence of the Semitic

B While Ch. Virolleaud supplied respectively twoor four letters, C. H. Gordon (Ugaritic Textbook,Roma, I965, No. 2008) suggested reading m'i[t] andthus supplied only one letter, admitting an unin-scribed space between this word and [']bdk. Thelatter's restoration is followed by M. Dietrich,0. Loretz, and J. Sanmartin (see note 3). Thereading m'i[fmn] seems to fit best in the lacunaindicated by Ch. Virolleaud who had examined thetablet when it was in better condition than now. Infact, the letters bdk have now disappeared.I According to H.-W. Helck, Der Einfluss derMiitdfirihrer in der *8. agyptischenDynastic (Unter-suchungen zur Geschichte und AltertumskundeAgyptens, XIV; Leipzig, 1939), 46, note 2, and48, note 5, this title is related to the administrationof royal estates and, more particularly, to thereporting on their annual economic balance. See

also J. Vergote, Joseph en F4gypte(Orientalia etBiblica Lovaniensia, III; Louvain, 1959), 117-I18.8 To simplify the transcription, the letters whichare damaged, but whose reading is fairly certain, arenot inclosed here in partial brackets. Ch. Virolleaud'sdecipherment of lines 1o-14 (obverse) has beenpartly completed by M. Dietrich and 0. Loretz (seenote 3)."The sense of the word lwt in this passage hasalready been recognized by A. Caquot and M.Sznycer, Textes ougaritiques,I, Mythes et lUgendes(LAPO 7; Paris, 1974), 197, note t. One can alsofind a discussion on the meanings of bewt n M.Dietrich, 0. Loretz and J. Sanmartin, " Zurugaritischen Lexicographie (XI) ", in Ugarit-Forschungen(I 974), 19-38 (see25--26). One of the

accepted meanings is " Gebiet ".



4/6

AN UGARITIC LETTER TO AMENOPHIS III CONCERNING TRADE WITH ALAMIYA 2I5character of the ruling class in Alagiya at that time. 0 This, however, is a differentproblem. We are here concerned with the fact that the seal-bearer has piouslyrecommended Amenophis III to these deities, which leads us to suppose that hewrote the letter on his return from Alagiya and that this letter was a report on abusiness ourney to that country.A dozen of lines in total are lost at the bottom of the obverse and at the beginningof the reverse of the tablet. A fragment with no direct join ought to be placed inthese lines of the obverse or of the reverse:FragmentI'. [ . ..]x[...]2'. [. ]mh [.. ]3' [... mk]r.tb....... I [... the merch]antdeparted ...... ]4'. [* .m]lk. 'm[ ] [....... the k]ingto [ ]5'* [ .]ykn[. **.....] [. .. .. .. .. ... ] will be [ . .. .. .. . .. ]We read the furtherpart of the letter," partly restoringthe text on the assumptionthat the king mentioned in line 4' of the reverse is the ruler of Alagiya:Reverse

I'. W[. W. mlk] And [ and let the king]2'. 'Jrm[.nlm. b. lbh. 'al] 12 [not] lay the twenty [men to heart.]3'. ySt. tb'[t. w. mit. 1] 13 [I] departed [and I arrived at]4'. qrt.mlk[.'alty.hnd] the city of [this] king [of Alasiya,]w. '1. 'ap.s['adt. mik] " and, face downwards, [I paid hommage to the king]6'. bhm.w. rgm.hw. 'al for their sake. And he said: I will notLower dge7'. 'atn.ksp. Ihm. d give them any silver until8'. 'il'ak. 'm. mlk I send to the king.9'. ht. I'ik[.'m.] mlk Now, he has sent [to] the king

10 Cf. M. S. Drower, in The CambridgeAncientHistory,II/i (3rd ed., Cambridge, 1973), 490. Onemay doubt whether the Ugaritic tablet RS 11.857(A. Herdner, Corpusdes tablettesen cuneformesalpha-bitiques (Paris, I963), No. 8o) is a muster of un-named AlaMiyanprisoners of war in the service ofUgaritic masters, as suggested by A. Alt, " Einphonikisches Staatswesen des friihen Altertums," inForschungen nd Fortschritte 8 (1942), 207-209; id.," Bemerkungen zu den Verwaltungs- und Rechtsur-kunden von Ugarit und Alalach ", in Die Welt desOrients2 (1954-59), 7-18, 234-243, 338-342 (see 15ff.); and 0. Eissfeldt, Kkine Schriften I (Tubingen,1963), 358; id., KleineSchriften I I (Tubingen, 1966),218-220, or rather a list of Alakiyan families atUgarit.11M. Dietrich and 0. Loretz have partly com-

pleted Ch. Virolleaud's decipherment of line 14'(reverse). The present writer suggests readingk. tmkrnnstead of w.mkrnat the beginning of line 1412The restoration of n.m is conjectural. For therest of the line, one may refer to b.lbk.'al.t1tn PRU II,No. 13, lines 23-24, and to b.lbh.'al.ylt n PRUV, No.59, line 27. In both cases, the subject and the directobject precede the expression which corresponds toOld HebrewJim al leb (I Sam.21,13; II Sam. 13,33[with 'I instead of 'I]; 19,20; Is. 42,25; 57, .1IJer. 12,11; Mal. 2,2; Cant. 8,6).

l3In the light of the expression b'u.tb'u in CTA,No. i6 (II K), col. VI, 3, one might restore b'u.b'at,"I went indeed to ", as well.14 The use of 'l.'ap (cf. II Sam. 14,4.33; I Kings

1,23) suggests restoring s['adt. mlk].



5/6

2I6 E. LIPINSKILeft edgeI0'. w.mlk.yWt'al..hn. [.... ] and let the king persuade himself15 about these

(things) [and ....... ]I I'. hmt.w. 'anyt.hm.t'r[bn.I] them and let their ships pass [on to]I 2'. mkr. ntd.w.rgm.'ank[.1]6 this merchant. And I have said [to]13'. mlkt17.ybqS.'anyt.w.'at[w] the Queen: " He is in search of ships and cam[e]14'. k.t mkrn.w. mlk.I'ak. 'm[y] because they will be sold 18." And, 0 king, sendto [me]

A great many personalities are involved in this quite short passagc of the letter:the Egyptian official and the twenty Egyptian shipbuilders or shipowners, kingAmenophis III and his wife Tiy, the king of Alagiya and the merchant who was insearch of ships. The understanding of the letter depends on the determination of therole played by all these persons.There is obviously a close relationship between the king of Alasiya, who is supposedto pay for the ships, and the merchant who came to Ugarit or, more likely, to Egypt inorder to take the ships in charge. We know that the tradesmen of the Amarna lettersand, in particular, those coming from Alagiya, were royal messengers.19 In fact, theking of Alafiya speaks of " his messengers " or " his tradesmen " as if these terms wereequivalent (EA 39). We may thus assume that the merchant mentioned in thisletter and in the letter previously addressed to Queen Tiy was the messenger sent bythe king of Alagiya and acting on his behalf. Therefore, it is understandable that theking had to pay for these ships.Although these ships are referred to as " their ships" and apparently did notbelong to the pharaoh, inasmuch as ownership and control over all the institutionsand activities rested ultimately with the king, Amenophis III had to authorize theirselling and he is requestedto do so. What seemsclear, is that the king of Alasiya wasinterested in buying these ships on the condition that the pharaoh would authorizethis transaction. We do not know where the Egyptian shipbuilders or shipownerswere at the moment when the letter was written. If they were not in Alagiya proper,

16 The formylt'al seems to be a Gt-imperfect; cf.J. Hoftijzer, " A Note on G 10833: 'ilt'ir and RelatedMatters ", in Ugarit-Forschungen (1971), 361-364(see 364). It is explained in the following way byA. F. Rainey, " Observations on Ugaritic Grammar,"in Ugarit-Forschungen (1971), 151-172 (see 167,? 9.33): " the sentence w. mlk.yit'al ... might betaken as a very polite way of presenting a petition tothe monarch (cf. the obsequious style of the epistle asa whole), ' and may the king (permit himself to) beasked ' . . ."

16The expressionw. rgm. 'ank, in which theinfinitive is used instead of a finite verb just as inw. rgm. hw of line 6', is also attested in PRU II, No. 2,lines 38, 5o, and probably in several broken passagesof this text, in which also [w.] rgm.hyoccurs (line 41) .17 This reading of Ch. Virolleaud is corroborated

by the photograph. M. Dietrich and 0. Loretz readmlkn.Is The basic meaning of mkr s " to deliver " goods,but the verb can often be translated by " to sell ".The form tmkm s the third person feminine plural ofniphal or N-imperfect, with the n assimilated to m asin tmkrn 2nd pers. masc. plur.) of PRU V, No. i 6,line z6. (For this text see P. D. Miller, in TheClaremontRas Shamra Tablets (Roma, 1971), 4x).Instead, the simple stem is used in PRU V, No. 126,if the following restoration is correct: 3[w]. hm.ly[s4']. mwrm nmkr[h]," and if he does not pay, weshall sell him in Egypt ".

19y. L. Holmes, "The Messengers of the AmarnaLetters ", in IAOS 95 (1975), 376-381 (see 379-380,where the author refers to EA 39, lines io-i6).



6/6

AN UGARITIC LETTER TO AMENOPHIS III CONCERNING TRADE WITH ALA?IYA 217they were certainly not far from there and the Egyptian official was obviously tryingto convince the pharaoh and the Queen to authorize their selling of the ships.

The commercial and diplomatic relations between Egypt and Alasiya under thereign of Amenophis III are best attested by this letter.As for the buying of ships from Egypt, one must recall to mind the intensive ship-building activity carriedon at the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty at Peru-nefer,onthe Nile near Memphis.20 In the light of this evidence, one may be hesitant beforesubscribing to the thesis which has been recently upheld by Alexandra Nibbi.21According to this author, there would be no concrete evidence for sea-faring by theancient Egyptiansin the pharaonicperiod.22 One may wonder whether the ships ofthe Egyptian subjects of Amenophis III were also manned with Asiatic crews.Successfulstudy of this questionwould however require more material than we haveat present, as well as interdisciplinary co-operation between Assyriologists,Egyptologistsand Semitists.

20 S. R. K. Glanville, "Records of a RoyalDockyard of the Time of Tuthmosis III: PapyrusBritish Museum 10056 ", in ZAS66 ( 930), I05-121 ;68 (I932), 7-4I; W. C. Hayes, in The CambridgeAncientHistory, II/i (3rd ed.), 369.21 A. Nibbi, TheSea PeoplesandEgypt (Park Ridge

(New Jersey), 1975), 124-138.

22 In the Amarna period, she contends, there isabundant evidence for sailing along the westernAsiatic coast, but so far none at all for Egyptiansea-faring (ibid., 133, cf. 127-128).


Ugarit Letter

Documents

Transcript of Ugarit Letter