jan 1, 1350 BC - "Jerusalem" in Amarna Letter

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Jerusalem’s Stepped-Stone Structure
Jerusalem in David and Solomon’s Time
By Jane Cahill West
2011 Biblical Archaeology Society
Ten Top Biblical Archaeology Discoveries

Another kind of evidence demonstrates that Jerusalem was an important urban center in yet another period for which there is little archaeological evidence. I am speaking here about the so-called Amarna Age—the Late Bronze Age II period, the 14th century B.C.E., which ended with the collapse of the Egyptian empire. It is often called the Amarna Age because the political situation in the Late Bronze Age II is illuminated by a hoard of diplomatic correspondence, found at Tell el-Amarna, in Egypt, between two Egyptian pharaohs and a host of subservient rulers in Egyptian-dominated Canaan. Six of the letters from a pharaoh are addressed to Abdi-Heba, the ruler of Jerusalem (called Urusalim in the cuneiform text of the tablets). These letters refer to the “Land of Jerusalem” and to its “towns.” The consensus of scholarly opinion is that during the Late Bronze Age, Jerusalem served as capital of an Egyptian vassal city-state the size and strength of which was comparable to other political entities in the region.

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