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Letters from the Hittite Kingdom. By HARRY A. HOFFNER JR. Writings from the Ancient World, vol. 15. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009. Pp. xviii + 450, map. $45.95 (paper).
The work under review has two components: "Written Correspondence in the Ancient Near East" (pp. 1-34) and "Written Correspondence in the Hittite Kingdom" (pp. 35-374). In the first chapter we find a discussion of the "Primary Function of Written Correspondence in the Ancient Near East." Of particular interest here are Mesopotamian letters to a god, also known as "letterprayers." The responses from the gods to these letters, the "return mail" as it were, are also considered in detail. In "History and Linguistic Media" the various languages of this correspondence are described, while the cases in which messages were conveyed orally are treated in "Oral Versus Written Correspondence." This section explains why someone might prefer to convey his message orally. One of the techniques used to verify the authenticity of such oral messages was a letter of accreditation from the sender; another strategy was for...