Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty (1259 BCE)
About the Author
The parallel treaty documents were composed by unnamed court scribes in Egypt and Hatti, but credit is given only to their royal masters, Ramses II and Hattusilis III. The scribes, who were trained in the Akkadian language and cuneiform script, the language of diplomacy at that time, were probably also the diplomats who negotiated the deal. The three Egyptian and four Hittite diplomats who delivered the Hittite silver tablet to Ramses II are named in the introduction to the hieroglyphic version, though the names of the second and third Egyptian ambassadors have been destroyed. The first was “the royal messenger and chariot officer Netcherwymes,” whose tomb has been discovered at Saqqara, near modern-day Cairo. A “royal messenger” was a kind of Egyptian diplomat. The Hittite ambassadors are identified as Nerkil, Tili-Teshub, Yapusili, and a man labeled the “the second-ranked messenger of Hatti Ramose.” While the other three names are Hittite, Ramose is an...
