Amarna
Akhenaten's desert capital, whose cuneiform archive held diplomatic letters and, unexpectedly, the main copy of the Adapa myth.
- Ancient name
- Akhetaten, 'Horizon of the Aten'
- Location
- East bank of the Nile, Minya Governorate, Middle Egypt
- Modern country
- Egypt
- Founded
- c. 1348 BCE by Akhenaten; abandoned soon after his death
- Archive
- Amarna letters, found 1887; about 380 cuneiform tablets
- Includes
- A copy of the Adapa myth
What is Amarna known for?
Amarna, or Tell el-Amarna, is the modern name for Akhetaten, the city the pharaoh Akhenaten built in Middle Egypt around 1348 BCE for his god, the sun disc Aten. It was occupied for only about two decades before being abandoned after his death, which makes it an unusually clear snapshot of an Egyptian city.
In 1887 local villagers found a cache of clay tablets there. These Amarna letters are diplomatic correspondence in Akkadian cuneiform between Egypt and the rulers of Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni, the Hittites and the city-states of Canaan, including the ruler of Jerusalem.
Among them were literary texts apparently used to train Egyptian scribes in Akkadian, including the main surviving copy of the myth of Adapa, the sage who refused the food of immortality. Finding a Mesopotamian myth in an Egyptian royal archive shows how widely these stories traveled.
The main copy of the Adapa myth was found here among the diplomatic archives of Akhenaten.
Mentioned on these pages
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Tell el-Amarna'Reference
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Amarna Letters'Reference
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