Ancient Letter to Akhenaten found in Palestine

A one square inch fragment of a clay tablet believed to be a letter written by Abdi-Heba, the Canaanite ruler of Jerusalem to pharaoh Akhenaten has been found outside the old walls of the ancient city.

Thought to date back some 3,400 years, this would make it the most ancient written document ever found in the Holy City.

The fragment is believed to be a contemporary of the 380 tablets discovered in the 19th century at Amarna in Egypt, containing letters sent to Akhenaten by vassal rulers in Canaan and Syria.

Among these tablets are six that are addressed from Abdi-Heba.

Source: Discovery News

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Tags: Abdi-Heba, akhenaten, Amarna, Canaan, Jerusalem

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Egyptology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.