1.   _nuk      neb          aamt_     I  am     a  lord      excellent 2.  _uah      mert      heka_     very     beloved    ruler 3.   _mer       tamaf             arna       kar_     loving     his  country      passed I    for 4.  _rēnpau      em        heka        em_     years        as     the  ruler      of 5.  _Sah        baku     neb      en_     Sah      the  work   all      of 6.   _sutna           kheper       em         tuta_.     the  palace    was  done     by       my  hand. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IX. THE Semitic Assyrians and the Semitic people of other portions of Mesopotamia, had adopted the cuneiform script and the Turanian syllabary as early as the days of Sargon. From this time onward, and until the days of Assyrian and Babylonian supremacy, these signs were the common medium of literary intercourse among the nations of western Asia and expressed various languages and dialects. The famous documents recently found in Egypt, known as the “Tel-el-Amarna” letters, indicate the extensive use of cuneiform writing in the fifteenth century before Christ, or about seven hundred and twenty years after Abraham. The story of the discovery of these documents is still another among the many romances which archæology so constantly and so unexpectedly presents. The site of the modern Arab village, Tel-el-Amarna, is about one hundred and ninety miles south of Cairo, on the eastern bank of the river Nile. The mountain chain which here follows the course of the river, recedes at this point in the form of a bay, and upon the sandy plain thus partially enclosed, many interesting remains appear, indicating the site of an ancient city. The tombs on the hillside have long been of special interest to Egyptologists. This city was known to have been the royal residence, and for a time the capital of Egypt, under Amenophis IV, the ninth king of the eighteenth dynasty. This king, son of Amenophis III and Queen Teie, a princess of Mitanni, was through several generations of maternal descent more Asiatic than Egyptian. The royal house of Mitanni—the Aram-Nahairam of the Hebrews—had given in marriage several successive princesses to the kings of Egypt. Tothmes III, during his wars of conquest in western Asia, had obtained a princess of Mitanni in marriage, and this alliance was further cemented by the Egyptian kings, his successors, to the period of Amenophis III, the father of Khu n Aten, Amenophis IV.