Commensality and Political Nurture in the El Amarna Letters

EMANUEL PFOH

Wuppertal

Congreso; European Association of Biblical Studies - Annual Meeting, Wuppertal, 2-5 August 2021; 2021

European Association of Biblical Studies

The El Amarna Letters (second half of the 14th century BCE) convey a plethora of information about ideologies and politics active in the Levant during the Late Bronze Age. The El Amarna intellectual universe?at least for Syria-Palestine?shares many features with the later biblical imagination and symbolism of politics and sociability. In particular, two clear aspects involving food (or the idea of food) can be identified at first glance: (1) on an earthly realm, eating and drinking, as part of the political sociability of two contacting parties (i.e., a ´diplomatic´ performance); and (2) on a cosmological realm, the nurture provided by the breath of the Egyptian king for the Syro-Palestinian petty kings, which involves political expressions and expectations as well. This paper explores, from a socio-anthropological perspective, some textual examples concerning both aspects, in order to illustrate the different articulations of the sociability and symbolism of food and drink.