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Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations

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This book is a collection of essays that began as contributions to a conference about the relationships between rulers in the Middle East during the 14th Century BCE, as drawn from the Amarna Letters. The Amarna Letters are a group of documents inscribed on clay tablets that were found in 1897 in the ruins of Akhetaten, the capital city of Pharaoh Akhenaten, at a site now called El-Amarna. These were letters between various rulers of Great Powers and governors of lesser powers around the Middle East, and the Pharaoh of Egypt. Some of them appear to date to the reign of Akhenaten, some to the reign of his father, Amenhotep III, and others appear to date somewhat later. Most are written in the Akkadian language in cuneiform script, which was the "lingua franca" of its day. They provide a remarkable "up close and personal" picture of the most important people of their day and their interactions.
From these letters, this group of scholars have drawn fascinating inferences about the nature of international law, relations, policy, and even spying and political intrigue among the great and little powers of the world as it was 3300 years ago. It is interesting to see how far we have come, how different international relations are today - and yet, how some things have not changed all that much.
This is a scholarly work, not light reading, but very interesting to anyone with an interest in history or international law and diplomacy.