Biridiya was the ruler of Megiddo, northern part of the southern Levant, in the 14th century BC. At the time Megiddo was a city-state submitting to the Egyptian Empire. He is part of the intrigues surrounding the rebel Labaya of Shechem.
Biridiya was the ruler of Magidda (Megiddo). At the time, Labaya of Shechem tried to expand his territory and power. Labaya attacked Megiddo (EA 244) forcing the people to flee inside the city walls and making it impossible to harvest fields. Both Biridiya and Yashdata (EA 248/EA 245) attacked Labaya, apparently with the support of Suruata of Akko. At one point Suruata took Labaya away from Megiddo to send him by boat to the Pharaoh, but he received a randsom and released Labaya (EA 245).
In Egypt, the Amarna Archive (c. 1350 BC) contained letters authored by Biridya. The archive covers diplimatic correspondence from the time of Amenhotep III, Akhenaten and Tutankhamen, referred to as "the Pharaoh". He is also mentioned in other letters. Turmoil emerge in Canaan in the late part of the reign of Akhenaten and into the reign of Tutankhamen who was to young to rule himself and was represented by commissioners.
At Kumudi (modern Kamid al lawz) the name Biridiya is mentioned in a Letter KL 72:600. [1] However, the origin of the letter has not been identified, and the content of the letter (request for return of personal property) makes it unlikely it was sent by the King of Megiddo. [2]
The Amarna letters are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru, or neighboring kingdom leaders, during the New Kingdom, spanning a period of no more than thirty years between c. 1360–1332 BC. The letters were found in Upper Egypt at el-Amarna, the modern name for the ancient Egyptian capital of Akhetaten, founded by pharaoh Akhenaten (1350s–1330s BC) during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt.
Labaya was the ruler of Shechem and warlord in the central hill country of southern Canaan during the Amarna Period. He lived contemporaneously with Pharaoh Akhenaten. Labaya is mentioned in several of the Amarna Letters. He is the author of letters EA 252–54.
The Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian history during the later half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten in what is now Amarna. It was marked by the reign of Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten in order to reflect the dramatic change of Egypt's polytheistic religion into one where the sun disc Aten was worshipped over all other gods. The Egyptian pantheon was restored under Akhenaten's successor, Tutankhamun.
Rib-Hadda was king of Byblos during the mid fourteenth century BCE. He is the author of some sixty of the Amarna letters all to Akhenaten. His name is Akkadian in form and may invoke the Northwest Semitic god Hadad, though his letters invoke only Ba'alat Gubla, the "Lady of Byblos".
Biryawaza was a powerful ruler in the area of Egyptian controlled Syria in the middle fourteenth century BC. He is often mentioned in the Amarna letters, although his title is never given clearly. Some scholars describe him as the king of Damascus, and others think he was a high Egyptian official.
Aziru was the Canaanite ruler of Amurru, modern Lebanon, in the 14th century BC. He was the son of Abdi-Ashirta, the previous Egyptian vassal of Amurru and a direct contemporary of Akhenaten.
Burna-Buriaš II, rendered in cuneiform as Bur-na- or Bur-ra-Bu-ri-ia-aš in royal inscriptions and letters, and meaning servant or protégé of the Lord of the lands in the Kassite language, where Buriaš is a Kassite storm god possibly corresponding to the Greek Boreas, was a king in the Kassite dynasty of Babylon, in a kingdom contemporarily called Karduniaš, ruling ca. 1359–1333 BC, where the Short and Middle chronologies have converged. Recorded as the 19th King to ascend the Kassite throne, he succeeded Kadašman-Enlil I, who was likely his father, and ruled for 27 years. He was a contemporary of the Egyptian Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Akhenaten. The proverb "the time of checking the books is the shepherds' ordeal" was attributed to him in a letter to the later king Esarhaddon from his agent Mar-Issar.
Milkilu, and more properly Milk-ilu, or Milku-ilu, with an alternate version of Ili-Milku, was the mayor/ruler of Gazru (Gezer) of the 1350–1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence. Adda-danu, and Yapahu were also mayors of Gazru.
Addaya was an Egyptian commissioner during the period of the Amarna letters correspondence. The majority of the Amarna letters were written to the pharaoh of Egypt during a 15-20 year(?) time period.
Nuribta, also Nuribda, was a city, or city-state, located in the vicinity of Magiddo in Israel, in historical Canaan during the time of the Amarna letter correspondence, a 15 to 20 year period from about 1350 to 1335 BC.
In the 1350 BC correspondence of 382 letters, called the Amarna letters, the prostration formula is usually the opening subservient remarks to the addressee, the Egyptian pharaoh. The formula is based on prostration, namely reverence and submissiveness. Often the letters are from vassal rulers or vassal city-states, especially in Canaan but also in other localities.
Hannathon, and of the 1350-1335 BC Amarna letters, Hinnatuna, or Hinnatuni/Hinnatunu, is the Biblical city/city-state of Hannathon, ; in the Amarna letters correspondence as Hinnatuna, it is a site in southern Canaan, site uncertain. Ancient settlement of Tel Hanaton in Lower Galilee has been suggested as a candidate.
Tel Hanaton is an archaeological tell situated at the western edge of the Beit Netofa Valley, in the western Lower Galilee region of Israel, 2 km south of the Town of Kfar Manda and 1 km northeast of the kibbutz which took its name, Hanaton.
Amarna letter EA 365, titled Furnishing Corvée Workers, is a squarish, mostly flat clay tablet, but thick enough (pillow-shaped), to contain text that continues toward the right margin, the right side of the obverse side, and also to the right side of the reverse side of the tablet.
Amarna letter EA 289, titled: "A Reckoning Demanded," is a moderately tall, finely-inscribed clay tablet letter, approximately 6.5 in tall, from Abdi-Heba the mayor/ruler of Jerusalem, of the mid 14th century BC Amarna letters. The scribe of his six letters to Egypt were penned by the "Jerusalem scribe"; EA 289 is a moderately long, and involved letter, mentioning ten named individuals, some more than three times. A total of nine locations are referenced, as well as men of the "Hapiru"-("LÚ-MEŠ-Hapiru-ki"), and men of "Qilyi-ki".
Amarna letter EA 245, titled: "Assignment of Guilt," is a medium length clay tablet Amarna letter from Biridiya the governor-'mayor' of Magidda. It is letter number four of five from Biridiya.
Amarna letter EA 254, titled: "Neither Rebel nor Delinquent (2)", is a moderate length, tall, and mostly flat rectangular clay tablet Amarna letter,. The letter is from Labaya of city-state Šakmu . It is an undamaged letter, in pristine condition, with cuneiform script on almost all surfaces: Obverse, Bottom, Reverse, and Left Side. Letter EA 254 is numbered VAT 335, from the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin.
Amarna letter EA 290, titled: "Three Against One", is one of the two shorter letters, of six, from Abdi-Heba the governing man of Jerusalem. In the Jerusalem letters, Jerusalem is "Uru-Salem" ("City-Peace").
Amarna letter EA 158, titled: "Father and Son", is a moderate length letter from Aziru, the leader of the region of Amurru. The letter is written to the Egyptian official, Tutu/ (Dudu). EA 158 is the third letter in a series of 16 letters regarding Aziru.
In Ancient Egypt, the Amarna Period saw diplomatic correspondence sent to the city of Akhetaten (Amarna), providing valuable insights into the political situations at the time.