Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty

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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 Egyptian name, and he must have been an Egyptian expatriate. Why he served the Hittite emperor is unknown. Perhaps he was a former prisoner of war who had gained his freedom through service to the Hittites in diplomatic relations with his homeland. His colleague Tili-Teshub is known from Hittite diplomatic archives.

Ramses II was the third king of Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty and one of the greatest pharaohs. He ruled for sixty-seven years and left grand monuments throughout the Egyptian Empire. Ramses fought several military campaigns in Syria-Palestine during the first two decades of his reign, chiefly against Hittite territory in Syria.

Hattusilis III was the brother of the Hittite emperor Muwatallis II. Muwatallis was succeeded by his son Urhi-Teshub, whom Hattusilis overthrew in a coup d'état several years later. As emperor, Hattusilis III's domestic and foreign policy concentrated on his gaining political acceptance. The treaty with Ramses gave him a degree of diplomatic recognition.