Abdi-Hepa

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Abdi-Hepa (also Abdi-Heba or Abdi-Hepat ) was a city ​​prince in Urusalim (later name: Jerusalem), who lived around 1350 BC. Ruled and is known from the Amarna letters .

etymology

The personal name Abdi-ḫepa is written ÌR-ḫe-pa in the Amarna letters . The character ÌR is a logogram meaning "slave / servant". Because of the geographical location, it makes sense to read this symbol as ' abdi ( Canaanite for "servant / slave"). But purame (from Hurrian ), arta (from Hittite ) or ardu (from Akkadian ) could also be read. In Chepa is a theophores element of the main goddess of Hurrian and later the Hittite pantheon. Thus, the name of the carrier can be a mitannisch -hurritischen upper class assign. The name means "servant of Chepas".

The small principality of Abdi-Hepa

During the Amarna period, Urusalim was the residence of Abdi-Hepa and was the size of a small village. Archaeological studies only show a few graves and pottery shards . Urusalim presumably had only a modest palace, a small temple and a few upper class houses, which were mainly inhabited by the family of the city prince, compared to the surrounding towns.

His area of ​​government extended north-south from Bethel to the valley of Be'er Scheva and east from the Judah desert to western Shefela . Abdi-Hepa thus ruled over an area that roughly coincided with the heartland of the later Judah . The region mainly consisted of small villages that were regularly plundered by the nomadic Shasu and Hapiru , who were resident in the poorly populated mountain area in the immediate vicinity of Urusalim.

The Amarna letters

The Amarna letters are the correspondence of the Egyptian court ( Akhenaten or Amenophis III. ) With vassals and royal courts of the Near East , which was found in Amarna . Six letters from Abdi-Hepa to the Egyptian king who had installed Abdi-Hepa in his office have been preserved. Before that, Abdi-Hepa's father had already ruled over the small principality: " See, neither my father nor my mother installed me in this place, the mighty arm of the king introduced me to my father's ruling house ". Whether Abdi-Hepa's father was deposed as city prince by the Egyptian king cannot be deduced from the Amarna letters.

In letter EA 290, the ruler asks for military help from Egypt, in view of the threat of Urusalim from other cities ( Gezer , Ashkelon , Gaza and Lachish ). Abdi-Hepa also feared that deserting soldiers and mercenaries wanted to kill him. The reaction of the Egyptian king is unknown.

From the letters EA 279 and EA 280 of his opponent Suwardatta it emerges that he fought with him for the city of Kelte ( Khirbet Qila ).

List of the letters of Abdi-Hepa

  1. EA 285 The Egyptian king is to send ambassadors
  2. EA 286 riot report
  3. EA 287
  4. EA 288
  5. EA 289 Report on attacks by the Hapiru in the surrounding areas
  6. EA 290 Three cities attacked Urusalim after the Hapiru had previously brought the three cities under their control.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfried Dietrich , Oswald Loretz : Letter from Abdi-Hepa (EA 286) from Jerusalem. Gütersloh 1982, p. 513.
  2. ^ Wolfgang Helck : Lexicon of Egyptology. Wiesbaden 1975, pp. 2-3.
  3. ↑ Moran: The Amarna Letters. Baltimore 1992, pp. 325-334.
personal data
SURNAME Abdi-Hepa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient city lord of Jerusalem
DATE OF BIRTH 14th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 14th century BC Chr.