The Kings of Canaan in the Amarna Age

THE KINGS OF CANAAN IN THE AMARNA AGE, FOURTEENTH CENTURY BCE

Pharaoh Thutmose IV has left a few fragmentary monuments in Canaan that seem to testify to his presence there. A list of sacrifices from Karnak attests to prisoners from Gezer. Mitanni finally made peace with Egypt because she feared the reviving Hittite state in Anatolia. Throughout most of the long reign of the Amenhotep III (1386–1349) there was no need to campaign in the Levant. His son, Amenhotep IV (1350–1334), built a new capital called Akhetaton, “Horizon of the Sun,” at Amarna. A cuneiform archive discovered there contained international correspondence between Amenhotep III and IV and the other “great powers” of the day. The letters from Mitanni had been sent to the older pharaoh while the capital was at No-Amon, as were some of the epistles from Canaan. The bulk of the letters come from city rulers in Canaan and central Syria addressed to Amenhotep IV.

Article abstract from The Sacred Bridge