Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty

The Egyptian- Hittite peace treaty after the Battle of Kadesh and years of bloody border dispute on the 21st day of the first month of the season Peret in the year 21 of the reign of Ramses II ( 21 Novemberjul. / Greg November 10. 1259 BC) between the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II and the Hittite king Hattusili III. closed. He is regarded as the oldest known written peace treaty. Excerpts hanging in the UN building in New York.

  • 4.1 rediscovery of the peace treaty

Prehistory

In the 14th and 13th centuries BC, the Egyptian empire was in a economic and cultural heyday. His sphere of influence was spread to the Near East in the Levant. At the same time tried from the north the Hittites, whose empire rapidly expanded to the south, the Egyptians to wrest the supremacy there. First contacts were the two peoples in the days of Thutmose III. and Akhenaten. Here began the heyday of the diplomatic relations of Egypt with other nations, the so-called Amarna letters, have, among other things directed to the Hittite king Shuppiluliuma I., a special historical significance. Despite this correspondence, it was also used for the subsequent pharaohs, especially at the beginning of the 19th Dynasty, over and over again to serious border disputes.

After Ramses II and the Hittite king Muwatalli II is one of the best documented battles of the ancient world, the Battle of Kadesh, 1274 BC traditional, out of which, none of the participants as the winner, went in subsequent years, the disputes continue in this area.

Peace agreement

After about fifteen years, the Hittites saw, however, by a new enemy, the Assyrians, threatened, so that the king Hattusili III. Ramses a peace agreement, and even offered a pact of alliance.

After months of negotiations, during which the two rulers never met, as the contract versions each of messengers, accompanied by senior diplomats, were brought to the main cities of the kingdom, he finally succeeded on 21 Novemberjul. / November 10 Greg. 1259 BC, the peace treaty between Ramses II and III Hattusili. sign. In this contract, they excluded from their mutual interests in Syria, which was shared. It is interesting that there were two different versions of this peace treaty, a Hittite in Akkadian and Egyptian in hieroglyphic writing. So both sides could stand as a winner in front of her people and preserve their honor.

Hattusili III. could write his version of the Treaty on a large silver plaque that was provided with the royal seal and the name of him and his wife. This proof of the peace treaty is missing today, but there are inscriptions in the temple of Karnak and the Ramesseum, and a Hittite version many fragments.

Content

In 18 articles, after an extensive introduction, which identify the two rulers with their titles, greet each other with many words and eternal friend and assure brotherhood, regulated the contractual. The contract includes:

  • Peace between Ramses II and III Hattusili. and thus also between Egypt and the Hittites,
  • A non-aggression pact
  • An alliance against internal and external enemies with a pledge of mutual support,
  • Guarantee the recognition of the Son Hattusilis III. , Tuthallias IV, when lawfully subsequent king of the Hittite Empire and
  • Amnesty and delivery for Hittite and Egyptian prisoners and refugees.

The period after the contract

1246 BC suggested Hattusili III. in addition, the marriage of Ramesses with one of his daughters, Maathorneferure, in order to deepen the alliance between the two countries yet. Two more weddings should follow.

During the peace treaty had been executed even on a purely diplomatic way, it came years later, but for a personal meeting between the two rulers. The Hittite prince and heir to the throne Tuthallia visited the Egyptian empire, after Ramses II whose father Hattusili III. invited to pick up his son in Egypt itself. In the land of Canaan Ramses II met the Hittite king in person and escorted him to his capital Pi -Ramesses. There came then probably one of the first summit between two statesmen in the ancient history.

Even in the later years after the peace agreement, there was a lively correspondence between the two kings, one not to be underestimated were the letters between the queens, Nefertari and Puduhepa. Also Ramses mother Tuya, and his vizier Paser had epistolary contact with the Hittites.

Just the Hittites were able to benefit from the contract, as the alliance for defense of third parties deterred the Assyrians to attack the Hittite Empire in its entirety. Only minor local border disputes occurred. The Hittite vassal not charged against their supreme lord in Hattusa.

As the Hittite empire of a famine, delivered Ramses II 's son and successor to the throne Pharaohs Merneptah grain to the Hittite king Suppiluliuma II But against Hittite enemies drew Merneptah not campaigned as the peace treaty actually foresaw. Shortly after the Hittite empire went under.

The Egyptians also benefited. Not only a long period of peace was granted them. Even the threat from the Libyan room lost its terrors, since here the alliance deterred the enemy from attack. During the reign of Ramses II, only the Egyptian southern boundary was contested, but had without succor the Hittites.

Cultural History

There are preserved written evidence of the contract. Ramses II had the treaty text to the walls of the temple of Karnak and the Ramesseum chiselling. These exist fragments of inscribed tablets in the Hittite cuneiform ( but partly illegible) that document the contract. Of course you are different in each view, vote in basic trait but in complete agreement. Excerpts hanging in the UN building in New York. In the Archaeological Museum (Turkish Arkeoloji Muzesi) in Istanbul are Hittite cuneiform tablets from Boğazkale ( Hattusa ), including one of the three surviving copies of the peace treaty after the Battle of Kadesh between Hattusili III. ( Hittite Empire) and Ramses II (Egypt).

Many of the data exchanged between the royal houses of correspondence letters have been preserved and, together with the older el-Amarna letters a unique insight into the former practice of diplomacy.

Rediscovery of the peace treaty

The Egyptian version of the peace treaty has been preserved on a stele in the temple at Karnak Amus as well as with other copies in temples at Luxor and Abydos. The Frenchman Jean -François Champollion copied in 1828 a part of the text and published his discovery in 1844. Hittite version of the contract was discovered in 1906-1908 by the German Hugo Winckler in the excavations of the Hittite capital Hattusa.

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