Image Details

British Museum

Bearing gold and silver vessels, Asiatic envoys pay tribute to the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose IV (1400‒1390 B.C.E.) in this wall painting from the Theban tomb of the “mayor of the Southern Lake.” (The upper register of this painting appears in the next photo, with envoys escorting a young girl.) During Thutmose IV’s reign, Egypt forged peaceful relations with the northern Mittani kingdom after a century of fighting. To seal the alliance, the Mittani king sent his daughter to marry the pharaoh. Through most of the 14th century the two powers made lavish gift exchanges and arranged interdynastic marriages.