These pharaohs' private letters expose how politics worked 3,300 years ago

The trove that transformed Egyptology is undoubtedly that of the Amarna Letters, 382 clay tablets considered the oldest documents of diplomacy ever found.Written in the 14th century B.C., they consist of correspondence between the pharaohs and their rival kings, the Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, and Mitanni, as well as letters from puppet kings under Egyptian rule. Beginning in the reign of Amenhotep III (1390-1353 B.C.), Egypt’s great builder king, the archive also tracks the reign of his son, Akhenaten (1353-1336 B.C.), whose religious revolution convulsed ancient Egypt for a generation. One is letters to the pharaoh from the leaders of states controlled by Egypt, and the other is letters to the pharaoh written by his equals (or as he would have seen them, his near equals), the rulers of the other great, independent regional powers.The former category, dispatches from puppet kings, are from Canaan, located in modern-day Israel and Lebanon. An Amarna dispatch from the ruler of Tyre to Akhenaten (Letter 148) complains that the Habiru have laid waste to the region, but that another local ruler, that of Hazor (modern-day northern Israel) supposedly loyal to Egypt, “has aligned himself with the Habiru . I fall at the feet of the king, my lord, my god, my Sun, seven times and seven times.”In contrast, the letters written by the pharaoh’s equals, rulers of the great regional powers, are careful how and when they demonstrate that they are on more equal footing. (The Hittites' swift war chariots kept Egypt on edge.)A few of the letters date back to the reign of Amenhotep III and his great royal wife, Tiye, who was also Akhenaten’s mother. If you wanted to give me your daughter in marriage who could say you nay?” His frustration is shared by other kings in the archive, and lays bare the reality of regional power: Egypt could call the shots.Some of the most revealing letters about kingship and power are those sent from Tushratta, king of Mitanni, whose expanding empire had a southern border with Egypt’s northernmost holdings in Lebanon.