The Earliest Peace Treaty

June 1994 / SHABBAT SHALOM 19

Documents: Ancient Peace Treaties with Israel

Two professional archaeologists dig out Peace Treaties with Israel from

the dust of the ancient Near East. This antique testimony powerfully

pleads for the present effort: if it was possible then, why not today?

rchaeologists of-

ten seem to be ob-

sessed with an-

cient wars and

destruction. We can often be

found eagerly sifting through the

debris of ancient conflicts at

long-forgotten sites looking for

hints of what happened “back

then.” This is not so much be-

cause we are sadistic in nature,

but rather because it is often

within the debris of these ancient

conflicts that we find the best-

preserved material remains

which, in turn, can provide us

with special windows into the

past—destruction layers are al-

most like moments frozen in

time.

However, even though archae-

ology turns up abundant evi-

dence for ancient wars and de-

struction, occasionally it also

turns up heartening evidence for

peace. In the spirit of the present

hope for peace that so many of

us long for, let us examine some

of this ancient evidence.

Earliest Recorded

Peace Treaty

We know about this early

peace treaty because, thanks to

archaeology, several copies of it

have been found. The Hittite

version was originally found by

archaeologists Theodore Makridi

Bey and Dr. Hugo Winckler

while excavating the ancient ru-

ins of a village in Anatolia pres-

ently known as Bogazköy. After

translating the text of the ancient

tablet, Winckler, who was a cu-

neiform specialist from the Ber-

lin University, realized that al-

though written in Akkadian (the

lingua franca of the time) it was

the Hittite version of the peace

treaty between Ramesses II of

Egypt and Hattusilis III of the

The Earliest Peace Treaty

Randall W. Younker, Assistant Professor of Old Testament

and Biblical Archaeology, Director of the Tell Jalul Excavations

20 SHABBAT SHALOM / June 1994

ever, as archaeologist Abraham

Malamat noted at the time, this

was apparently not the first time

these two nations had made

peace. Rather, it is likely that the

original peace treaty between

these two powers was made

around 960 B.C.E. during the

early part of the reign of King

Solomon.

Unfortunately, there is no ex-

plicit mention of this treaty in

either biblical or Egyptian

sources. However, as Malamat

shows, the existence of such a

treaty can be readily inferred

from certain references in the

Bible, as well as from knowledge

of certain ancient Egyptian cus-

toms.

The key text is 1 Kings 9:16

(RSV), which reads,

Pharaoh king of Egypt

had gone up and captured

Gezer and burnt it with fire

and had slain the

Canaanites who dwelt in

the city, and had given it as

dowry to his daughter,

Solomon’s wife.

There are two unusual occur-

rences in this story. Why would

the pharaoh conquer a city and

give it to Solomon—ancient

kings were not usually so gener-

ous; and why would he allow a

foreign king like Solomon to

marry an Egyptian princess?

While kings of other nations

commonly gave their daughters

in marriage in order to form key

political alliances, this was not

the typical Egyptian practice. In-

deed, Malamat points out that

for the period between 1400

B.C.E. and the 5th century

B.C.E. there is explicit evidence

that no daughter of a pharaoh

was ever married to a foreigner.

There is even an amusing story

in which a Mesopotamian king

asked the pharaoh for an Egyp-

tian princess to marry, only to be

turned down cold. Not to be

deterred, the Mesopotamian king

asks the pharaoh to send any

Egyptian girl, since his people

won’t know the difference any-

way! This Mesopotamian king’s

eagerness illustrates how rare it

was that a foreign monarch

would be permitted to marry an

Egyptian princess.

Returning to Solomon,

Malamat has offered the plau-

sible reconstruction of the back-

ground to these biblical pas-

sages. The reason the pharaoh

attacked Gezer in the first place

was probably an attempt by the

Egyptian monarch to test the

mettle of the new, young king

of Israel who had just recently

succeeded his father David.

Could he be intimidated?

Would he ignore this encroach-

ment upon the very borders of

Israel? Malamat argues that

somehow or other Solomon

flexed his youthful muscle, and

the Egyptian pharaoh, rather

than entering into conflict with

Israel’s king, decided to enter

into a peace treaty. In fact, the

pharaoh was so impressed with

Solomon (whether from fear or

admiration, we do not know, but

Malamat suspects fear) that the

pharaoh took the unusual step

of insuring the treaty through a

marriage, and thus offered his

own daughter to Solomon to

unite the two houses. The po-

tential political provocation

caused by taking a city on

Solomon’s border was alleviated

by the pharaoh offering the con-

quered city as a dowry for his

daughter.

While we can’t be sure of the

details of this reconstruction, the

Bible does record the fact of the

marriage between the house of

Israel and the house of Egypt

which is, in itself, adequate testi-

mony for the existence of a peace

treaty between the two countries.

Once again, just when people

were on the brink of going to war,

cooler, wiser heads were able to

redirect the passions into a peace

that would benefit all.

Hittite Empire! The Egyptian

version, written in hieroglyphics

on the walls of the Karnak temple

(modern Luxor) in Egypt, had al-

ready been known to scholars for

some time. Now Winckler held

in his hands the Hittite version

of this same treaty.

The text, itself, reads,

The Great Prince of

Hatti shall not trespass

against the land of Egypt

forever…and User-Ma’at-

Re-Setep-En Re, the great

ruler of Egypt shall not tres-

pass against the land [of

Hatti, to take] from it for-

ever …If another enemy

come against the lands of

User-Ma’at-Re…and he

send to the great prince of

Hatti, saying: “Come with

me as reinforcement against

him,” the great prince of

Hatti shall [come to him].

This peace treaty between

Egypt and Hatti is known among

scholars as the Silver Peace be-

cause the formal version of the

treaty which the Hittites pre-

sented to the Egyptians was en-

graved on a silver tablet. It is

also, at present, one of the earli-

est peace treaties known from

history (c. 1284 B.C.E.). How-

ever, it was not the only such

treaty the ancients made.

The First Peace Treaty

Between Egypt and

Israel

Most of the world was sur-

prised and thrilled recently to see

the Palestine Liberation

Organization’s Yasir Arafat and

Israel’s Prime Minister Rabin

standing on the same platform to

sign a peace agreement. It

brought back memories of a simi-

lar astonishing event of just a few

years earlier when, during the ad-

ministration of President Carter,

Menachem Begin and Anwar

Sadat signed a peace treaty be-

tween Israel and Egypt. How-