Amarna Letters, End Date

In 1887 a local woman accidentally discovered the official archive of the kings Amenhotep III and Ikhnaton. It contained more than 350 letters written on clay tablets in Babylonian cuneiform script comprising the correspondence between the Egyptian court and the kings of Babylonia, Assyria,Mittani, Arzawa, Cyprus, and the Hittites, and of many vassal princes of Syria and Palestine.

These documents, usually referred to as the Amarna Letters, are first—rate sources for the political and cultural history of Western Asia and Egypt during the 14thcentury BC. Among others things are reports of attacks from the 'Apiru who,according to one of the Canaanite kings, had taken large parts of Canaan. These'Apiru could be the Hebrews under Joshua and the Judges.