The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1891-04-02
LETTERS OLDER THAN SOLOMON.
Missives Exchanged 400 Years Before
His Eather,s Birth nno, LIN


His Fathers Birth Dug Up.
The Smithsonian institution has re-
ceived information of the discovery at
Tell-el-Amaria, in upper Egypt, of
number of tablets relating 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 passed between the
king of Jerusalem and the Pharaoh of
Egypt 400 years before the birth of Da-
vid. who was the father of Solomon,
some notion will be formed of their ex-'
treme interest. These letters were writ
ten, so DIR. Cyrus Adler told Washing
ton reporter, about the year 1900 B. G.
and cast great light upon the relations
of Egypt at that ancient epoch. This, of
course, was long before Jerusalem was
captured by the Jews.
At that time Palestine was fedora
ton of independent cities, each of which,
like Jerusalem, was governed by 'pre-
fect"-this word meaning literally "king
OF city" Nevertheless. these towns
paid tribute to Pharaoh, and it was in
relation to- this tribute that several of
the letters found were addressed to the
ruler of Egypt by the king of Jerusalem,
Abdi-Taba. In them he tries to explain,
with due respect, that he occupies a
more independent position than the
other projects, and ought to be treated
accordingly. For example, in one mis-
sive he says:
Behold, this city of Jerusalem neither
my father nor my mother has given
unto me, but the call of mighty king"
This refers to the ancient custom in
Palestine, by which rulers were some
times chosen in consequence of sup
posed divine call and without any refer
ence to hereditary law. Having been
summoned to his throne by the Deity,
Abdi-Taba argued that he should be
treated more leniently with regard to
tribute. In another of the letters he
says =
Behold, neither my father nor my
mother has appointed me in this place,
but the call of the mighty king has made
me enter into the house of my fathers
That the mighty king" spoken of was
the Deity is proven by the fact that to
him as authority is referred an oracle in
sa,ibed upon another tablet, which says
that ''as long as a ship sails upon the
sea so long will Mesopotamia and Baby
!onia conquer"
The chief aimof the three other letters
written by Abdi-Taba is to ask the Pha-
:aoh for military aid against foreign con-
auerors invading Palestine, and especial
" the district of Jerusalem. These war
like strangers he calls people of Habiri
in other words, they were Hebrews.
1t seems hardly probable that the He
brews as a nation should have invaded
Palestine at SO early date, and so it is
likely that these were some advanced
tribes of Israel which settled down west
of the Jordan and made incursions from
time to time. In one of the letters on
this subject Abdi-Taba says:
THE Habiri people are conquering the
cities of the king. e.. the cities tribu-
tary to the h-stherefore the king
may turn his face to his subjects and
se&d troops. If the troops arrive this
year the countries Of the king, my lord,
may be saved, but if no troops arrive the
countries Of the king, my lord. will exist
no longer"
This tremendous find" at Tell-el-
.,Amaria includes 200 tablets, largely of
Babylonian cuneiform script, which is
thus discovered for the first time to have
been in use at so early period in Egypt
and Palestine. Many of the other tab
lets are dispatches of about the same
date from projects of other cities of Pal
estine to the Pharaoh. Some of the in
scriptions are in an unknown language,
which no one has so far been able to
translate. It is funny to think that Solo
mon himself would have looked upon
these tablets as remote antiquities
Washington Star.