INSCRIBED IN CLAY: Provenance Study of the Amarna Tablets and Other Ancient Near Eastern Texts [Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology Monograph Series 23]

xviii, 386pp. Color photo illustrations, map endpapers. sewn binding in simulated blue cloth, gilt spine lettering. Ex-library with external labels removed; exceedingly clean and sharp with sound binding and no evidence of use. Quite scarce in trade. 'This publication is a synthesis of the results of a study which approaches the problem of locating the provenance of the Amarna Tablets from a new angle. Through mineralogical and chemical analyses of samples from over 300 tablets housed in museums in Berlin, London, Oxford, and Paris, the project aims at pin-pointing their geographic origin and clarifying the geographic history of the Ancient Near East. It launches a new analytical tool for resolving historical problems that have haunted research for decades. In the case of the Amarna archive, the introduction of this scientific technique helps to clear up the controversy over the location of Alashiya and Tunip, opens the way to track the territorial expansion of the kingdom of Amurru, enables reconstruction of the territorial disposition of the Canaanite city-states of the Late Bronze Age and sheds light on the Egyptian administration system in Canaan.' (Publisher's blurb from the DJ.). …