To whom was Baalat Neše writing?



 

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

 

The fact that a woman could write in those days, and at this high level,

would be quite unusual in itself.

 

 

 

Previously, I had boldly identified Queen Nefertiti with the biblical Queen Jezebel, but this - though it turned out to be quite a popular thesis - ran into chronological (among other) problems. At the same time, I was identifying Jezebel with the only female El Amarna [EA] correspondent, Baalat Neše. That I still hold to this particular identification is apparent from my recent article:

 

Queen Jezebel makes guest appearances in El Amarna

https://www.academia.edu/37756175/Queen_Jezebel_makes_guest_appearances_in_El_Amarna

 

The literate Queen Jezebel is geographically, chronologically (revised), religiously, and status-wise appropriate to have been the literate Baalat Neše, “The Mistress of Lions”.  

 

According to Joyce Tyldesley, in Nefertiti: Egypt’s Sun Queen (2006), only about 2% of Egyptian women were literate at the time of Queen Nefertiti.

And Queen Jezebel, who I think was probably an older contemporary of Nefertiti, but a contemporary of Queen Tiy, was amongst the very few literate women of the day.

 

The same comment applies to Baalat Neše.

 

Obviously, then, this Baalat Neše must have been a woman of quite some political substance to have been empowered to write at least two of the EA letters (273 and 274).

Her alter ego, Queen Jezebel, had likewise (and in Jezebel’s case, with murderous intent) written letters (Kings 21:8): “So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal …”.

Jezebel’s husband, king Ahab, I have identified with EA’s Lab’ayu:

 

King Ahab in El Amarna

 

https://www.academia.edu/34875766/King_Ahab_in_El_Amarna

 

Now, just as I have previously pointed out that - probably contrary to expectation - Lab’ayu’s three EA letters do not even mention any pharaoh, or Egypt:

 

It is presumed that all three of the EA letters of Lab’ayu (252-254) were addressed to a pharaoh, either Amenhotep III or IV (Akhnaton). But these letters contain neither any specific reference to a pharaoh, nor do they include (as do other EA letters) the pharaonic throne names, respectively, Nimmuria (for III) and Naphuria (for IV) [,]

 

so likewise does one find that, in the case of the two letters of she who I think was Lab’ayu’s EA wife, Baalat Neše, there is once again no specific reference whatsoever to Egypt.

 

It is not uncommon, however, for commentators to include e.g. “pharaoh” in square brackets, presuming that a pharaoh must have been the recipient of these letters. We find this to be the case in the first example below of this Wiki presentation of the two letters of Baalat Neše (http://wikivisually.com/wiki/Amarna_letter_EA_273):

 

EA 273: "From a queen mother"[edit]

"Say to the king-(i.e. pharaoh), my lord, my god, my Sun: Message of ^fNIN-UR.MAH.MEŠ, your handmaid. I fall at the feet of the king, my lord, 7 times and 7 times. May the king, my lord, know that war has been waged in the land, and gone is the land of the king, my lord, by desertion to the 'Apiru. May the king, my lord, take cognizance of his land, and may the [k]ing, my lord, kn[ow] tha[t] the 'Apiru wrote to Ayyaluna and to Sarha, and the two sons of Milkilu barely escaped being killed. May the king, my lord, know of this deed." -EA 273, lines 1-26 (complete)


 

EA 274: "Another city lost"[edit]

"Say to the king, my lord, my god, my Sun: Message of ^fNIN-UR.MAH.MEŠ, your handmaid, the dirt at your feet. I fall at the feet of the king, my lord, 7 times and 7 times. May the king, my lord, save his land from the power of the 'Apiru..–lest it be lost. Sapuma has been take[n]. For the information of the king, my lord." -EA 274, lines 1-19 (complete)

 

 

Whilst these letters may have been addressed to a pharaoh, as “the king, my lord, my god, my Sun”, they may just as well have been addressed to any other of the Great Kings of the EA era.