On one of these later found tablets, Babylonian words are given to explain words of two other languages, one of which Mr. Boscawen thinks to be old Egyptian. If this is the case it is the only instance in the Tel-el-Amarna collections where this appears. In no other portion of this correspondence is the language of Egypt used.
Throughout the vast region represented by these letters, including various races and forms of speech, from the upper Euphrates to Babylonia; from northern Syria to southern Palestine; everywhere, the Babylonian language and Babylonian script were the common medium of literary intercourse in this correspondence.
The fact that many of these letters seem to have been individual productions and not the work of special schools of scribes indicates the widespread influence of Babylonian culture, and the opportunities for education existing throughout the Orient in the century before the Exodus.
There are evidences that the schools and libraries of the ancient cities of Mesopotamia had their counterparts in the cities of southern Palestine; as for instance Kirgath-Seper, “The City of Books,” to which we find later reference as Kirgath-Sanneh, “The City of Instruction.”
The glimpses afforded of social and political conditions in various localities at the period of this correspondence are of historical importance, furnishing data and verifying documents found elsewhere, of the same persons and events.
We have in the Tel-el-Amarna collection, letters from Burraburyash and his father, kings of Kardungyash or Babylon, to Amenophis III of Egypt, in which reference is made to the Egyptian princess, sister of Amenophis, wife of the king of Babylon.
Burraburyash also wants gold, “much gold” from the Egyptian king, for the building of his temple, and complains that this does not come to him in sufficient quantities.
There is one letter from the king of Assyria and many letters from Tushratta, or Dusratta, king of Mitanni. These latter refer chiefly to the princesses of Mitanni, wives of the Egyptian kings, Queen Teie, mother of Amenophis IV, and the princess Kirghipa, whose magnificent dowry occupies a great portion of some of the largest tablets in the collection. The lists include horses and a chariot covered with gold, ornaments of silver and gold of finest Babylonian workmanship, decorated with precious stones and rich garments of variegated stuffs.
Upon the death of Amenophis III, this princess became the wife of Amenophis IV, his son, who thus continued his alliance with the powerful and wealthy Tushratta, king of Mitanni.
Some of the most interesting letters in the collection are from Syria and Palestine, from the native princes and governors of cities, at this time subject to the Egyptian kings.