The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-07
FOUND IN ANCIENT EGYPT.
Strange Relics of Forgotten King
Brought to Light.

Brought to Light.
Early in the spring some fallaheen work
ing at Tel ell Amarna-a village in upper
Egypt. on the right bank of the Nile, and
occupying the site of an ancient Egyptian
city-came across a considerable number of
small clay tablets covered with writing in
the peculiar cuneiform character The
announcement, naturally -caussd no little
comment in scholarly circles, says writer
in Harper's Weekly, aud as result of
rather protracted negotiation, the Berlin
museum has been fortunate enough to Sc
cure 100 of these tablets. The mere exis-
tence of cuneiform inscriptions in Egypt of
undoubted authenticity, and whose anti
guilty is attested by their having been found
IN the remains of a city begun to be built,
as we know from otner sources, by King
Amenophis w.. and abandoned soon after
his death, about l 500 years before our era
this in itself is a fact of the very highest
significance but interest in the discovery is
greatly enhanced by the contents OF these
tablets, which, upon examination, turn out
to be of supreme historical value
They form part of the official cores
pondence in the days of Amenophis
w., being letters addressed to the
king from Burnaburiash, the King of
Babylonia, from Dushratta, the King of
Mitanni IA district to the northeast of Mes
opotamiaJ, and from various other persons
who are PROBABLY vassals or high digni-
taries in the service of the Pharaoh.
From the Egyptian annals, as well as
from the cylinders deposited by the Assyrian
kings in their palaces, we already knew
that the empires that once iourished in the
land of the Nile and the land ''of the two
rivers" had at an early period come in t.
hostile conflict with one another. Thus,
Thotmes l., who preceded the above men
TONED. Amenophis by fully 100 years, speaks
of having penetrated to the land of "Naha-
rina,n and OF having imposed a tribute,
among others, upon the king of Assyria.
The tables are turned in the twelfth CEN
fury, when Tiglethpileser l., one of the
greatest of the Assyrian kings, undertakes
a military campaign against Egypt. which
he describes at great detail. From this
time on there are frequent collisions, which
continue, though interrupted by long inter
walls of peace, till the final destruction of
the Assyrian kingdom by her old rival and
neighbor to the south, Babylonia. 1t is To
lie regarded as a particularly fortunate
circumstance that the tablets recently dis
covered supplement our knowledge of an
cient international polity by telling us
something of the relations which existed
between Egypt and this very Babylonia.
Contemporaneous with the Assyrian dy-
nasty in the north Of Mesopotamia, to which
Thotmes l., has reference, there ruled in
the south set of kings commonly known
as Cossaeans, who had invaded the land
from the east, and had wrested the scepter
from the hands of the native Babylonian
chieftains 1t is from one Of these Cossa-
can kings. Burnaburiash, that, among the
tablets, five letters have been found adj
dressed TO Amenophis ~. The picture
here is quite different one to that unfolded
by the relations between Egypt and Assy-
ria. Conformably TO the general character
of the Babylonians and of Babylonian ru-
lers, who were far less warhke than the
Assyrians, we find the two monarchs ON the
most friendly terms with each other.
In these letters Burnaburiash sends cor
dial greetings to his royal brother, refers to
the presents which he has forwarded, in
return for which Ainenophis confirms the
old agreements between the two countries
and by way of confirming their friendship
it appears that Pharaoh--much like the
heads of royal houses in our days-has Of
fered Burnaburiash an Egyptian princess
for a wife. 1t is not difficult 30 find the
political reason for this demonstrative dis
play Of friendship. Babylonia at this time
was bard pressed by the Assyrian monarchs,
and IL was natural for the Cossaens TO look
to Egypt as a support in the coming con-