“And lo! my brother: the treasures of gold to be remitted you shall not send; and there (shall be) respite of gifts which your father spoke of sending. It is desired that my brother shall not send them.
“Lo! my brother, the treasures of gold which I asked of your father I may say that half of them will be carried off (or stolen) ... The lands are at strife[404] ...”
The rest of this letter, including all the back, is too much broken to be read. It appears to go on to speak of “destruction” and to refer to a state of disturbance. It mentions the envoy Khamassi, and says, “Of what he has brought the fourth part has been robbed.” On the back Gilia is mentioned with gold, and relations between the writer and Amenophis III. He refers again to the message from Amenophis IV and to Teie his mother; and invokes Rimmon and Amanu. The words “unless they are conquered” seem also to occur. This letter contained altogether 113 lines of writing.
26 B.—A list of presents. On the back, at the bottom of the left hand column, is the statement, “These are the things carried by the female slaves, all those things which Dusratta King of Mitani gave to Amenophis III his brother, his kinsman, when he sent his daughter Tadukhipa to the land of Egypt, to Amenophis III for marriage, he gave all these that day.”
The list is a very long and difficult one. It begins with two horses, and a chariot plated with gold and silver, and adorned with precious stones. The harness of the horses was adorned in like manner. Two camel litters appear to be next noticed, and apparently variegated garments worked with gold, and embroidered zones and shawls. These are followed by lists of precious stones, and a horse's saddle adorned with gold eagles.[405] A necklace of solid gold and gems, a bracelet of iron gilt,[406] an anklet of solid gold, and other gold objects follow; and apparently cloths, and silver objects, and vases of copper or bronze. An object of jade or jasper (Yaspu), and leaves of gold, are noticed (both jade and leaves of gold have actually been found in the oldest ruins at Troy), the former being perhaps noticed as coming from Elam, by trade with central Asia, where jade was found. Five gems of “stone of the great light” (perhaps diamonds) follow, with ornaments for the head and feet, and a number of bronze objects, and harness for chariots. Boxes of strong wood to contain treasures follow next, and apparently a collar with disks and carved lions, objects of silver and gold and strong wood, bronze ornaments [pg 295] for horses. The last noticed objects may be written tablets, including some on the ritual of the gods.
25 B.—A list similar to the last, perhaps part of the same inventory, as it includes women's ornaments. The tablet is much injured. The objects noticed include an earring with gems, and others of gold, with a large number of precious stones, a necklace with 122 gems set in gold, including “green stones”; bracelets and anklets of solid gold with jewels: an umbrella adorned with gold: boxes to hold treasures, and numerous objects of silver: horns of the wild bull, and wooden objects adorned with gold: cups of gold adorned with gems: other bracelets and anklets of gold with pendants and stars of jewels: a pair of gold earrings with pendants and stars of precious stones: silver anklets for women, and earrings with gold pendants. In each case the weight of gold and the numbers of the gems are stated.
These inventories of Tadukhipa's marriage outfit show how far advanced was the civilization of western Asia in the fourteenth century b.c., and indicate not only the native wealth of gold, silver, copper, and bronze, from Asia Minor and the Caucasus, but also a trade which brought jade from central Asia. The art of the age is similar to that of the objects found at Troy and Mycenæ, and represented on the Egyptian bas-reliefs, which give pictures of the tribute from Phœnicia. From other tablets in the collection we obtain similar information, including the use of ivory, as also from the records of tribute to Thothmes III in 1600 b.c.
11 B. M.—“To ... Princess of the Land of Egypt[407] thus Dusratta King of Mitani. I am at peace: Peace be to thee.... Peace be to thy son; peace be to Tadukhipa thy daughter-in-law. To thy land and to all that is thine be much, much peace.
“Thou hast known of me how I loved Amenophis III thy husband, and Amenophis III because he was thy husband how he loved me. As for Amenophis III thy husband he heard what I said; and Amenophis III because he was thy husband, sent messages to me; and what he said to thee my ... both Mani has known, and thou ... hast known all of [pg 296] these things—the messages we zealously uttered. There was nothing thus that he has not known of them.
“Now you said to Gilia, ‘Say to your Lord, Amenophis III was friends with your father, and why should his favor be less than to your father? Nay, indeed, what he shall send to our place shall not ... will not you hasten to ... your friendship with Amenophis III ... making it greater; and assure him ... that you will gladly send ...’