Amarna letter EA 161, titled: An Absence Explained, is a tall clay tablet letter of 8 paragraphs, with single paragraphing lines. The surface is somewhat degraded, but most cuneiformsigns that remain, allow for a relative complete translation context for the letter, and the eight paragraphs. The clay tablet is no. BM 29818 at the British Museum; the number is visible at the top of the tablet, above Para I-. The letter is about 3.2 in wide x 4.7 in tall, and probably slightly less than 1.0 inch thick. The text of the letter does not end at the right margin of the letter; instead the text appears to use the side of the clay tablet. The Amarna letters, about 300, numbered up to EA 382, are mid14th century BC, about 1350 BC and 25? years later, correspondence. The initial corpus of letters were found at Akhenaten's city Akhetaten, in the floor of the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh; others were later found, adding to the body of letters.
Text
Paragraph I is a very short introductory, salutory paragraph, with sections of the prostration formula, notably: 7 times and 7 times, God-mine, Sun-mine, I bow. The appellation "My Lord" is used here in Para I, and throughout the letter's paragraphs; my Lord is Lord-mine, and in EA 161 uses the sumerogramEN, for "Lord", with the possessive first personmine, ia. Many other Amarna letters use "be-li", or equivalent for 'lord', Akkadian language, bēlu. Cuneiform "ia"- is still used today in world languages in Asia/Southeast Asia as -iya, as for example "TownXYZ-iya", "TownXYZ-mine". -Ia, or ia, is extremely common throughout the Amarna letters with one of the most common phrases being: King, Lord, mine, often at the very beginning of a letter, but will then be repeated throughout the letter. Para II begins the story of the letter, and the context of persons and places involved. Para III introduces Tunip, one of two "locations", city townfolk who authored an Amarna letter to the pharaoh; EA 59, From the Citizens of Tunip, and EA 100, The City of Irqata to the King. Notably, Para III ends with a list of 6 supply items needed for the arrival of messenger Han'i, a list similar to items needed for the arrival of archers, part of Pharaoh's foreign army. The list ends with a cuneiform sign for "plural" for each listed item; though many signs are degraded in lines 21, 22, every alternate sign in lines 21, 22, is for the plural: "MEŠ ".
