Canaan was a Semitic-speaking civilization and region of the Southern Levant in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna Period as the area where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, Mitanni and Assyrian Empires converged or overlapped. Much of present-day knowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo, En Esur, and Gezer.
Mitanni, c. 1550–1260 BC, earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, c. 1600 BC; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat in Assyrian records, or Naharin in Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia. Since no histories or royal annals/chronicles have yet been found in its excavated sites, knowledge about Mitanni is sparse compared to the other powers in the area, and dependent on what its neighbours commented in their texts.
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. The Amarna letters are unusual in Egyptological research, because they are written not in the language of ancient Egypt, but in cuneiform, the writing system of ancient Mesopotamia. Most are in a variety of Akkadian sometimes characterised as a mixed language, Canaanite-Akkadian; one especially long letter—abbreviated EA 24—was written in a late dialect of Hurrian, and is the longest contiguous text known to survive in that language.
Labaya was a 14th-century BCE ruler or warlord in the central hill country of southern Canaan. He lived contemporaneously with Pharaoh Akhenaten. Labaya is mentioned in several of the Amarna Letters. He is the author of letters EA 252–54.
Gina, mentioned in the Amarna Letters, was a town in ancient Canaan. The citizens of Gina were responsible for the death of Labaya. The town was later known as Beth-Hagan and was probably located roughly on the spot of the modern town of Jenin.
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 and eventually declared the only God. 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".
Mutbaal was a Canaanite king of the Amarna Period. He is identified in the Amarna letters as a son of Labaya, the ruler of the hill country north of Jerusalem, including the territory in the vicinity of the city of Shachmu.
Abdi-Ashirta (Akkadian: 𒀵𒀀𒅆𒅕𒋫 Warad-Ašîrta [ARAD2-A-ši-ir-ta]; fl. 14th century BC) was the ruler of Amurru who was in conflict with King Rib-Hadda of Byblos.
Upu or Apu, also rendered as Aba/Apa/Apina/Ubi/Upi, was the region surrounding Damascus of the 1350 BC Amarna letters. Damascus was named Dimašqu / Dimasqu / etc. (for example, "Dimaški"-, in the letter correspondence.
Ayyab was a ruler of Aštartu south of Damascus. According to the Amarna letters, cities/city-states and their kings in the region — just like countries to the north, such as Hatti of the Hittites, fell prey to a wave of attacks by Habiru raiders. The Amarna correspondence corpus covers a period from 1350–1335 BC.
The Suteans were a Semitic people who lived throughout the Levant, Canaan and Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian period. Unlike Amorites, they were not governed by a king. They were famous in Semitic epic poetry for being fierce nomadic warriors. During the reign of Zimri-Lim, they inhabited the vicinity of Terqa. They are mentioned in eight of the 382 Amarna letters. Like the Habiru, they traditionally worked as mercenaries, and were sometimes called Ahlamu. They are listed in documents from the Middle Assyrian Empire as being extant in the Amorite city of Emar, in what is now northeast Syria. Together with other Semitic peoples; the Chaldeans and Arameans, they overran swaths of Babylonia c. 1100 BC. They were eventually conquered by Assyria, along with the rest of Babylonia.
Biridašwa was a mayor of Aštartu, (Tell-Ashtara), south of Damascus,, during the time of the Amarna letters correspondence, about 1350–1335 BC. A second mayor of Aštartu, Ayyab, existed in this short 15–20 year time period.
Etakkama, as a common name, but also, Aitukama, Atak(k)ama, Etak(k)ama, and Itak(k)ama is the name for the 'mayor' (king) of Qidšu, (Kadesh) of the 1350–1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence.. Etakkama is referenced in 11 of the 382 EA letters,, and especially, a series of 4 identical letters concerning: Amqu, the region of the Beqaa in Lebanon. Those 4 letters concern the intrigues of city/city-state takeovers, along with troops from Hatti, and the claim of: Etakkama's troops from 'Kinsa' -(Qidšu-Kissa)-Kadesh) and are titled: "A joint report on Amqu (1-4)".
Niya, Niye, and also Niy of Thutmose I's Ancient Egypt, also Nii of the Amarna letters, and Nihe, etc. was a kingdom in Syria, or northern Syria.
Tunip was a city-state in western Syria in 1350–1335 BC, the period of the Amarna letters. The name "Syria" did not yet exist, though this was already the time of ancient Assyria. The regions were: Amurru, Nuhašše, the Amqu, Nii, etc.
Abimilki around 1347 BC held the rank of Prince of Tyre, during the period of the Amarna letters correspondence. He is the author of ten letters to the Egyptian pharaoh, EA 146–155. In letter EA 147, Pharaoh Akhenaten confirmed him as ruler of Tyre upon the death of his father, and in EA 149, referred to him with the rank of rabisu (general).
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.
Šuta, ("Shuta"), was an Egyptian commissioner of the 1350–1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence. The name Šuta is a hypocoristicon-(nickname/petname) for the Ancient Egyptian god Seth,.
Satatna, or Sitatna, and also Šutatna/Shutatna-(of a Babylonian letter of Burna-Buriash), was a 'Mayor'/Ruler of Akka, or Acco, modern Acre, Israel, during the 1350–1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence.
