Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1891-02-21

His Fathers Birth Dug Up In Egypt
The Smithsonian Institution has j tst -
ceivel information, not yet printed II
cent discovery at Iell-el- Amaria, in uj-
rer Egypt. of number of ttbletS r..
latng to the history of Jerusalem and
dating back 600 years earlier than any
records hitherto known. When it is
understood that these tablets of stone
are letters p ,ssnd between the King Of
Jerusalem and the Pharaoh of e sypt 400
years cforc the birth of David, viii,
was the father of S,lom IN, some MOTTO
will be formed of their extreme interest.
These letters We're written, so DIR. Cyrus
Adler says, about the year 1870 B. C .,
and cast great light upon the relations
of Egypt at that ancient epoch. Tbs
of course, was long before Jerusalem
was captured by the Jews.
AT that time Palestine was fedora
ton of independent cities, each of " hic,,,
like JernalPm, WAS governed by a "pre
feet t"-thiI word meaning literally kim
paid tri ute to the Pharaoh, and it wa
in relation to this tribute that several OF
the letters found were addressed to til.
ruler of Egypt by the King of Jerusa
lem, Abdl- Taba. In them he tries t.
explain, with due respect that he occu
pies a more Independent position thar
the otler projects and ought to be treated
accordingly. For example, in one ms
sive he says:
Behold. this city of Jerusalem neither
my father nor my mother has given
unto me, hut the call of might,
King.
This refers to the ancient custom IL
Palestine by which the rulers wcr
sometimes chosen in consequence Of
supposed Divine call and without any
reference to hereditary law. Having
been summoned to his throne by the
Deity, Abdi Taba argued that he shou ,
be treated more lcniently with regdrl t,
tribute. In another of the letters ht
says:
Behold, neither my father nor II ,
mother has appointed me in thh
place, but the call of the mighty King
has made me enter into the house of m,
fathers"
That the "mightv King" spoken OF
was the Deity is proven by the fact thai
to him a authority is referred an ora
Gle inscribed upon another tablet, which
says that: "As long as a ship sails upn,
the sea, so long will Mesopotamia and
Babylonia conquer.
The chief aim of the three other let
ters written by Abdi-Taba is to ask til,
Pharaoh fer military aid ag inst for
eign conquerors invading Palestine. and
especially the dist ct of Jerusalem
These warlile strangers he calls eople
of Habiri--in other words, they were
Hebrews 1t seems hardly probable that
the Hebrews as a nation should have in
vaded Palestine at SO early Il date, and S,
it is likely that these were some ad
vanced tribes of Israel which setlleG
down west Of the Jordan and made in
cursions from time to time. In one o.
the letters on the subject Abdi-Tab
says:
"The Habiri people are conquerin:
the cities of the king II. e., the cite.
tributary to the Pharaoh" therefore
the king may turn his face to his sub
jects, ard send troops If the troops
arrive this year. the countries of TIL"
king. my lord, m y be saved, but if no
troops arrive the countries of the king,
my lord, will exist no longer.
This tremendous find at Tell-el
Amara includes 200 tablets, largely o.
Babylonian cuneiform script, Which il
thus discovered for the first time to
have been used in Egypt and Pal stine
Many Of the other tablets are dis.
patches of about the same da1e from
projects of other cities o. Palestine to
the Pharaoh. Some of the inscriptions
are i'll an unknown language, which no
one has been able to translate. 1t is
funny to think that Solomon himself
would have looked npol these tablets
as remote antiquities.