Eric Cline

Yes.

But one thing that we've got in Canaan during the Bronze Age, which would probably be similar to the Mycenaeans, there is no one great king of Canaan.

There are a series of city-states, each with their own ruler, who the actual name for him in Canaan

In Akkadian, it's either mayor or ruler or governor or king, whatever.

But they're vassals.

They're vassals to the Egyptians.

They each have control of their city and the area around it.

So a city-state.

And we know...

in part from the Amarna letters, that some of them are places that are still today, right?

I'm actually doing an upper-level seminar on the Amarna archives this semester because I have, wait for it, another new book out, Love, War, and Diplomacy on the Amarna archives.

And

We have city-states at Megiddo, at Hazor, at Akko, at Jerusalem, at Gaza, at Gezer, at Damascus, Byblos, Beirut, Tyre, Sidon, right?

These names still resonate today.

They're still in the news today.

They are in the news back then, and they are each writing letters to the Egyptian pharaoh, complaining about each other, right?

There are

just under 400 letters in the Amarna archive written to or from Amenhotep III and Akhenaten.

About 50 are letters from the great kings that we've mentioned, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites, and so on.

But there are about 300 that are from these Canaanite vassal kings, including one guy, one of my favorites, the king of Byblos,