“Now I have sent you 500 (talents) of copper”: the Amarna Letter EA 35 from the King of Alašiya to the King of Egypt

Abstract

The Amarna letters are often used as an information source regarding the trade of goods and raw materials in Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East during the Late Bronze Age. The Amarna archive includes a number of letters, which were exchanged between the king of Egypt and the king of Alašiya (i.e. Cyprus), one of the main copper suppliers during that period. Alašiya’s relationship with Egypt was not only diplomatic, but commercial as well, and in letter EA 35 the king of Alašiya apologises to the king of Egypt for the amount of copper he delivered. The traditional translation of the passage gave rise to much discussion and continuous debates. In this paper, it will be demonstrated that, based on the unique relationship existing between the two kingdoms, on other Egyptian and non Egyptian texts, and on philology, a different weight unit was used in this letter. This translation leads to a re-examination of letter EA 35 and  the whole Alašiyan-Egyptian correspondence.