The King's Household, Royal Gifts and International Trade in the Amarna Age

Abstract

The Amarna Letters seem quite puzzling to the modern reader, because they refer mostly to private affairs of the kings, while matters of diplomacy and trade are discussed only very briefly or not at ail, as if the kings were not interested in the foreign policy of their states. In this paper it is argued that this was just a façade, designed to keep up the pretext that the countries of the Great Kings were self-suffkient from the military and economic point of view ; economic and diplomatie requests needed to be made in a way that none of the involved parties would '' loose face''. The discussion of state affairs is brief and well hidden within the part of the letters concerning the '' household'' of the king, in order to keep up appearances. The trade of raw material was never discussed in these letters, because the commercial activity was managed by lower administrators.