Reconsidering International Relations in the Levant during the Late Bronze Age [presentado in absentia]

EMANUEL PFOH

Congreso; International Relations in the Ancient Near East Workshop, en el marco de la 61st Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale «Text & Image»; 2015

International Association of Assyriology

The present paper aims at addressing what is usually referred to in ancient Near Eastern studies as ´international relations´ or also ´diplomacy´, and I focus on the Late Bronze Age period (ca. 1550-1200 BCE), especially in the Levant region. 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, much in agreement with Mario Liverani´s work on the subject, in order to understand the means for expressing and conducting inter-polity relations or for proceeding with ´international relations´ during this period. However, I stress the necessity of not confusing ancient ways of understanding what we currently call ´diplomacy´ and ´international relations´ with modern ways of explaining such phenomena. I draw this criticism from some anthropological or ethnographic studies and insights, used in a comparative manner, mostly for epistemological argument but also as a tester of historical methodological procedures. 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.