the
tomb
of
meryra
ii.
43
cative.
The
Tell
el
Amarna
letters
may
not
give
us
a
high
idea
of
the
skill
or
spirit
with
which
this
policy
was
carried
out
by
Akhenaten
;
yet
it
seems
to
have
been
fairly
successful
till
towards
the
end
of
the
reign.
The
nations
may
have
"
saved
their
face
"
by
paying
tribute
in
the
form
of
gifts
for
which
they
pretended
to
expect
a
full
exchange,
and
their
rulers
adopted
an
attitude
which
to
us
seems
intolerable
in
vassals.
Nevertheless,
so
long
as
the
gifts
were
sent,
Egypt
prudently
took
her
revenge
in
the
same
cheap
form,
and
with
an
exaggerated
assumption
of
overlordship,
spared
her
depend¬
ent
States
no
humiliation
in
her
chronicles.
We
should
probably
then
be
equally
wrong
in
taking
this
pictorial
record
as
a
faithful
mirror
of
Egypt's
foreign
relations
at
this
date,
or
as
an
elaborate
falsehood
without
any
real
basis
in
fact.
There
is
no
sufficient
ground
for
refusing
to
believe
that
at
this
time
the
nations
here
represented
made
a
formal
acknowledgment
of
Egypt's
suzerainty
by
valuable
gifts,1
or
even
that
the
Kheta,
who
were
already
feeling
their
strength,
veiled
their
hostile
intentions
under
a
guise
of
humility.
We
may
be
even
more
sure,
however,
that
the
most
has
been
made
of
it
here,
and
should
be
chary
of
accepting
to
the
full
the
construction
put
upon
it.
Although
it
is
given
the
aspect
of
a
payment
of
tribute
in
due
course,
the
depiction
of
the
scene
in
these
tombs
alone
shows
that
it
was
extraordinary,
and
that
its
presence
here
is
1
Dr.
Budge's
assertion
in
his
History
iv.
p.
204,
that
the
embassy
from
Dushratta,
King
of
Mitani,
arrived
with
presents
"
in
the
first
month
of
winter
in
the
twelfth
year
of
the
reign,"
would
be
of
great
interest
in
this
connection,
were
it
authoritative.
But
the
date
on
the
tablet
in
question
is
broken.
The
fractured
number,
the
statement
that
"
the
court
was
in
the
Southern
Capital
"
(Thebes),
and
the
contents
of
the
letter,
all
speak
for
the
year
2,
not
12.
This
early
date
in
Akhenaten's
reign
is
itself
important.
I
am
obliged
to
Dr.
Schaefer,
of
the
Berlin
Museum,
for
a
copy
of
the
fragment.
much
less
due
to
any
part
Meryra
or
Huya
had
in
it
than
to
the
stir
which
it
caused.
It
may
have
been
that
missions
from
such
widely
separated
regions
as
Coele-Syria,
Ethiopia
and
Punt
met
by
chance
in
Egypt,
and
that
the
opportunity
was
taken
for
a
parade
of
Egypt's
greatness.
Or,
late
as
it
was,
it
may
have
been
the
first
time
that
Akhenaten
was
able
to
con¬
vince
the
nations
that
he
was
firmly
seated
on
the
throne
of
his
fathers,
and
to
arrange
an
exhibition
of
loyalty.
Or,
not
unlikely,
it
was
the
result
of
timely
military
demonstrations
on
the
N.
and
S.
frontiers.
The
promptitude
and
the
liberality
with
which
the
tribute
was
paid
by
many
tribes
probably
always
depended
on
such
significant
hints.
Even
if
we
regard
the
prisoners
in
these
scenes
as
slaves,
not
captives
of
war,
the
military
sports
suggest
that
there
had
been
some
such
expedition
on
the
S.
frontier
at
least.
But
whether
the
inducement
to
bring
tribute
was
more
warlike
or
diplo¬
matic,
Meryra
seems
to
have
taken
a
leading
part
in
it.
Some
unnamed
official
at
any
rate
is
being
rewarded,
and
we
may
hope
that
Akhenaten
had
this
excuse
for
making
a
political
event
so
prominent
in
the
eternal
house
of
his
servant.
5.
Meryra
rewarded
by
King
Se-aa-ka-ra.
North
Wall:
East
side.
Plate
xli.
Previous
copies
are
:—
Hay,
MSS.
29847,
foil.
63,
64.
L'Hote,
Papiers,
xi.
14
(partial).
LErsius,
D.
iii.
99,
a
(partial).
Prisse,
Monuments
Pgyptiens,
p.
3
(cartouches).
The
unfinished
picture
on
this
wall
seems
to
reflect
the
troubles
which
gathered
round
the
new
capital
in
the
later
years
of
the
reign
or
upon
the
death
of
Akhenaten.
Hastily
executed,
or
left
in
the
rough
ink-sketch,
the
figures
of
the
King
and
Queen,
with
the
familiar
cartouches
of
Akhenaten
and
Nefertiti
replaced
by
those
of
Merytaten
their
daughter
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