A collection of clay tablets containing diplomatic correspondence of the Amarna period, found at Tell el-Amarna. Local info: Literature. Links: Amarna Letters.

The designation Amarna letters (sometimes "Amarna correspondence") denotes an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru. The letters were found in Upper Egypt at Amarna, the modern name for the capital of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom, primarily from the reign of pharaoh Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaten (1350s - 1330s BC). The Amarna letters are unusual in Egyptological research, being mostly written in Akkadian cuneiform, the language not of Ancient Egypt, but of ancient Mesopotamia.