You might try Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Bible edited by Pritchard. He has the Amarna letters in his edition. Unfortunatley, not many English translations of the Amarna letters written in Akkadian exist. The only very recent edition is The Amarna Letters by William L. Moran. Akkadian was the linga-franca of the Near-East during this period.

The Amarna letters tell us much about many of Egypt's vassals in the Near East. Regions like Caanan and Byblos were being attacked by people called Hapiru that were like bands of thieves. One must note that the correspndences of the Amarna letters occurs over a duration of the New Kingdom from Amenhotep III to Akenaten. Other important factors is foreign kings giving their daughters for marriage to the pharaoh but Egyptians would never allow their royal women for marriage to foreigners.

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what about the charge that Ahkenaten ran a 'soft' foreign policy because of his obsession with religion. read last night about an invasion of Nubia that he may have led, what do we know about this?

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Most likely this was a rebellion. When Egyptians incorporated territories into their empire they usually allowed the local population to run their own administration. In the case of parts of Nubia a offical called the King's Sun of Kush was put into place. The King's Sun of Kush was usually an Egyptian,but the rest of the officals were Nubians.

As long as the Near-Eastern provinces and Nubian provinces paid tribute to Egypt then there was no difficulty. Many times Nubians and sometimes people from Near-Eastern provinces rebelled. This might be the case with Akenaten's invasion.

Like for example, there was a plague in the land, and Akhenaton lost a daughter or more children and there was a famine or something or other...

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Originally posted by Serpent Wizdom:
I'm still trying to figure out why you all would even post on a subject started by Horemheb, the culture bandit. Come on man!! Let's start our own "Amarna Letters" thread and close this one.

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Hmm, if you don't like the thread don't post.

You would think that the Egyptians would have severed relationship with Asiatics considering they had just beat back the Hyksos. Perhaps with pushing out the Hyksos the Egyptians created a buffer that extended well into Palestine and perhaps as far up as Jordan. Did perhaps the Egytpians use their relationship with the Babylonians, Hittites and others to help expel the Hyksos?

During the New Kingdom much of Caanan/Palestine was under their control. They had a empire extending from parts of Mesopotamia to the fourth cataract around modern day Northern Sudan.

Egyptians would often put garison units[usually filled with Nubians] in regions like Caanan and Jordan. All these regions were under Egyptian hegemony.

The Amarna tablets were written in Akkadian not Babylon. This was the linga-franca trade language of the ancient Near-East.

The Amarna tablets were not all written around the Amarna era but span along time from Amenhotep III to Akenaten[Amenhotep IV]

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Interesting, I thought the Nubians and Hyksos were allies. Did it not take a long time for the relationship between Nubians and the New Kingdom of Egypt to develop or was the relationship one of conquest and subjugation?

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When dealing with Nubians one must consider which particular Nubian group you mean. Many groups like the Medijay and some Nhsi were actually allies with the Egyptians and foguht in their armies to expel the Hykos.

The Lower Nubians that lived just below the first cataract were rather frinedly with the Egyptians. Around the Middle Kingdom the Egyptians started to build fortress to conduct trade with a strong Kushite kingdom of Kerma. Kerma was basically in Upper Nubia around modern day Dongola. Going as far back as the 6th dyansty there were donkey caravans that traded with the Nubians from Elephantine[Aswan] area. After all this nome was called Ta-seti.

What happened is that Kamose found one day a letter from the Hykos and Nubians of a plan to destoy Egypt. Kamose read the letter and then marched against the Kushites after he realized. So it took the Egyptians a long time to incorporate parts of Upper Nubia into their empire. Even then many parts of Upper Nubia remained free.

After incorporation they installed a person called the King's Sun of Kush,normally a Egyptian, but most of the officals were Nubians themselves. As long as Nubian paid in tribute there was no problems between them.This was definately not what we would picture as colonization in the modern era.

A good overview of the Nubians and Egyptians around this period can be found in Robert Morkot's The Black Pharaohs and David O'Connor's Ancient Nubia:Egypt's Rival in Africa. These are the best and most unbiased books I have read on the issue. Scholars like W.Y Adams provide good information but are overwhelmny Egyptocentric.