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Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussicher Kulturbesitz Vorderasiatisches Museum

Among the hoard of cuneiform tablets known as the Amarna Letters—correspondence from the royal archives of pharaohs Amenophis III and his son Akhenaten, who reigned during the 14th century B.C.E.—is this tablet, sent by Abdi-Heba, ruler of Jerusalem. That a ruler of Jerusalem was writing an official letter to an Egyptian pharaoh suggests that in the 14th century B.C.E. there was indeed a city at Jerusalem—referred to here as “Urusalim”, although archaeologists have found almost nothing from this period, thus demonstrating the dangers of arguing from negative evidence.