DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11365#0044
34
THE CUNEIFORM TABLETS.
appears to be supplied by a gardener, like the
wine.
" [Shed]h of eating, good good" is on one (65).
Honey dates from the years 14 and 15. A fragment
shews a curious symbol of a man tying a bundle (62).
Fat (year 3) was "prepared in the Akhit " like the
meat (72-3).
Bak " olive oil " (year 8) is specified as " sweet" and
"best" (67-8).
Seremt (no date) is found several times (69) ; on
(97) it is qualified as " good seremt of the queen."
The equivalent word in Coptic means " wine lees."
" Nehimaa twice excellent " is found once (80).
The "white house" (81), and "white house of
Pharaoh" (82), "the scribe Rui" (84), "the scribe
Besi" (86), are the legends on several single specimens-
One longer inscription (77), unfortunately not decipher-
able, mentions the country of Airsa, the Alashiya of
the cuneiform despatches, and terminates with " 12 ?
henu " or " pints " as the amount of the contents.
Several fragments of blue painted ware, of a dif-
ferent class from the rest, had portions of a legend
referring to the "eye-ball," and may possibly have
been connected with eye-salve (74-5).
The last four specimens on Pl. XXIV, marked 87
to 90, are selected from a small series obtained from
the Arabs in 1892 by Mr. Percy Newberry, and kindly
lent by him for comparison. They are of value
especially as helping to complete the legends on some
of the others. In 1893 Mr. Howard Carter purchased a
larger number, resulting in the addition of PL. XXV,
and of several to the table of dates.
CHAPTER VI.
THE CUNEIFORM TABLETS.
By Prof. A. H. Sayce, D.D.
78. The cuneiform tablets found by Prof. Petrie at
Tel el-Amarna have an importance far beyond what
their fragmentary condition might lead us to expect.
On the one hand they have determined the exact
spot in which the foreign correspondence of Khu-n-
Aten was carried on, and have shewn that the fellahin
gave me correct information when they shewed me,
four years ago, the place where the tablets had been
discovered ; on the other hand they have proved that
the Babylonian scribe, or scribes, of the Egyptian
Pharaohs worked with the help of dictionaries and
lists of characters, and that lexicons had been com-
piled for their use. The beginnings of a comparative
study of languages can thus be traced back to the
age of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Only one of the fragments was found in a room of
what we may call the Egyptian Foreign Office. It is
that which is numbered XI in the accompanying
Plate XXXII, and, characteristically enough, is a
portion of a dictionary of Semitic Babylonian and
Accado-Sumerian. All the other fragments were
lying in rubbish-holes above which the Foreign Office
was built. As there are among them letters from
Rib-Hadad the governor of Gebal and other Egyptian
officials, it is clear that the Office in question must
have been built after the foreign correspondence of the
Pharaohs had been removed from Thebes to the new
capital of Khu-n-Aten, and probably also after the
receipt of a certain amount of correspondence in the
new capital itself. The fragments therefore must all be
earlier than the closing years of Khu-n-Aten's reign.
79. The largest of the fragments (No. 1 of the
Plate XXXI) is shewn by the forms of the characters
employed in it to have probably been sent from the
land of the Amurra or Amorites. This was the
country which lay immediately to the north of the
later Palestine, and in which was situated Kadesh
on the Orontes, the southern capital of the Hittites
in the following century. Reference is twice made in
the fragment (lines 2 and 5) to a certain El-ebed
(written Il-abta in line 5), who is otherwise unknown.
The name may also be read Il-ardata, like that of
Suyardata one of the Palestinian governors. Arda in
Babylonian corresponded to Abdu (Heb. ebed) in
Canaanitish. The formation of the name is very
strange, since it ought to be Ebed-el "servant of
God," instead of the converse El-ebed. Perhaps it is
a literal translation of a construction of the Amorite
language, which may have placed the governing noun
before the governed, contrary to the usage of the
Semitic tongues. In the first paragraph of the letter
it is said that " he has taken him in (the city ?)," but
the captive cannot have been El-ebed, since imme-
diately afterwards we read of " El-ebed along with
him." The last line of the paragraph states that " [he
lifted up] the hands before the gods."
The next paragraph begins with the assertion that
" thou knowest that his father did " (ippus) something
the account of which is lost. Then the writer goes
on to declare that " I defend them," and that " the
officer possesses" something derived from " his
father." There is nothing in any of the Tel el-
Amarna correspondence otherwise known which
throws any light on all this.
THE CUNEIFORM TABLETS.
appears to be supplied by a gardener, like the
wine.
" [Shed]h of eating, good good" is on one (65).
Honey dates from the years 14 and 15. A fragment
shews a curious symbol of a man tying a bundle (62).
Fat (year 3) was "prepared in the Akhit " like the
meat (72-3).
Bak " olive oil " (year 8) is specified as " sweet" and
"best" (67-8).
Seremt (no date) is found several times (69) ; on
(97) it is qualified as " good seremt of the queen."
The equivalent word in Coptic means " wine lees."
" Nehimaa twice excellent " is found once (80).
The "white house" (81), and "white house of
Pharaoh" (82), "the scribe Rui" (84), "the scribe
Besi" (86), are the legends on several single specimens-
One longer inscription (77), unfortunately not decipher-
able, mentions the country of Airsa, the Alashiya of
the cuneiform despatches, and terminates with " 12 ?
henu " or " pints " as the amount of the contents.
Several fragments of blue painted ware, of a dif-
ferent class from the rest, had portions of a legend
referring to the "eye-ball," and may possibly have
been connected with eye-salve (74-5).
The last four specimens on Pl. XXIV, marked 87
to 90, are selected from a small series obtained from
the Arabs in 1892 by Mr. Percy Newberry, and kindly
lent by him for comparison. They are of value
especially as helping to complete the legends on some
of the others. In 1893 Mr. Howard Carter purchased a
larger number, resulting in the addition of PL. XXV,
and of several to the table of dates.
CHAPTER VI.
THE CUNEIFORM TABLETS.
By Prof. A. H. Sayce, D.D.
78. The cuneiform tablets found by Prof. Petrie at
Tel el-Amarna have an importance far beyond what
their fragmentary condition might lead us to expect.
On the one hand they have determined the exact
spot in which the foreign correspondence of Khu-n-
Aten was carried on, and have shewn that the fellahin
gave me correct information when they shewed me,
four years ago, the place where the tablets had been
discovered ; on the other hand they have proved that
the Babylonian scribe, or scribes, of the Egyptian
Pharaohs worked with the help of dictionaries and
lists of characters, and that lexicons had been com-
piled for their use. The beginnings of a comparative
study of languages can thus be traced back to the
age of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Only one of the fragments was found in a room of
what we may call the Egyptian Foreign Office. It is
that which is numbered XI in the accompanying
Plate XXXII, and, characteristically enough, is a
portion of a dictionary of Semitic Babylonian and
Accado-Sumerian. All the other fragments were
lying in rubbish-holes above which the Foreign Office
was built. As there are among them letters from
Rib-Hadad the governor of Gebal and other Egyptian
officials, it is clear that the Office in question must
have been built after the foreign correspondence of the
Pharaohs had been removed from Thebes to the new
capital of Khu-n-Aten, and probably also after the
receipt of a certain amount of correspondence in the
new capital itself. The fragments therefore must all be
earlier than the closing years of Khu-n-Aten's reign.
79. The largest of the fragments (No. 1 of the
Plate XXXI) is shewn by the forms of the characters
employed in it to have probably been sent from the
land of the Amurra or Amorites. This was the
country which lay immediately to the north of the
later Palestine, and in which was situated Kadesh
on the Orontes, the southern capital of the Hittites
in the following century. Reference is twice made in
the fragment (lines 2 and 5) to a certain El-ebed
(written Il-abta in line 5), who is otherwise unknown.
The name may also be read Il-ardata, like that of
Suyardata one of the Palestinian governors. Arda in
Babylonian corresponded to Abdu (Heb. ebed) in
Canaanitish. The formation of the name is very
strange, since it ought to be Ebed-el "servant of
God," instead of the converse El-ebed. Perhaps it is
a literal translation of a construction of the Amorite
language, which may have placed the governing noun
before the governed, contrary to the usage of the
Semitic tongues. In the first paragraph of the letter
it is said that " he has taken him in (the city ?)," but
the captive cannot have been El-ebed, since imme-
diately afterwards we read of " El-ebed along with
him." The last line of the paragraph states that " [he
lifted up] the hands before the gods."
The next paragraph begins with the assertion that
" thou knowest that his father did " (ippus) something
the account of which is lost. Then the writer goes
on to declare that " I defend them," and that " the
officer possesses" something derived from " his
father." There is nothing in any of the Tel el-
Amarna correspondence otherwise known which
throws any light on all this.