Reconsidering International Relations in Southwest Asia during the Late Bronze Age

EMANUEL PFOH

Text and Image. Proceedings of the 61e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Geneva and Bern, 22-26 June 2015 (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis. Series Archaeologica, 40)

Peeters Publishers

Lugar: Leuven; Año: 2018; p. 489 - 496

This paper addresses the question of 'international relations' or also 'diplomacy' in ancient Near Eastern studies, focussing on the Late Bronze Age period (ca. 1550-1200 BCE). The Egyptian point of view, on one hand, and the general Asiatic point of view, on the other, are reviewed and discussed in a comparative manner in order to understand the means for expressing and conducting inter-polity relations during this period. We should not confuse, however, ancient ways of understanding what we currently call 'diplomacy' and 'international relations' with modern ways of explaining such phenomena. The main point advanced in this paper is the need to attempt to capture or recover the ancient meaning these 'international relations' had for the peoples of ancient Southwest Asia.