Ägyptische Ärzte und Ägyptische Medizin am Hethitischen Königshof by Elmar EdelReview by: J. J. M. RobertsJournal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 14 (1977), p. 111Published by: American Research Center in EgyptStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40000372 .

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AGYPTISCHE ARZTE UND AGYPTISCHE MEDIZIN AM HETHITISCHEN KONIGS- HOF. Neue Funde von Keilschriftbriefen Ram- ses' II. aus Bogazkoy, by Elmar Edel (- Rhei- nisch-Westfalische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vortrage G205). Pp. 140 -f- 4 plates. Westdeut- scher Verlag, Opladen 1976. DM 38, - .

Book Reviews

Among the tablets excavated at Boghazkoy were numerous fragments that pointed to the significant volume of correspondence that passed between Ram- ses II. and the Hittite court of Hattusili III. Unfor- tunately, due to the very fragmentary state of most of these letters, no comprehensive treatment of them had appeared until this present work by Professor Edel. Drawing from as yet unpublished as well as published material, the distinguished Egyptologist gives an overview of the senders, addressees, and themes of this correspondence. Then, because of the prominence in the correspondence of Hittite requests for an Egyptian physician, Professor Edel treats in detail the group of letters in which this request figures. The content and significance of these letters are discussed in the main part of the text, and the more technical details, including transliteration, trans- lation, and textual commentary, are given in an Anhang which actually takes up slightly more than half the book.

In the cross-disciplinary treatment of Egyptian- Hittite contacts Professor Edel has no peer, and this work maintains the standard of excellence one has grown to expect of him. Its value for the Hittitologist, the Egyptologist, and the ancient historian is obvious, and the medical historian cannot afford to overlook its evidence for the comparative evaluation of Egyp- tian and Babylonian medicine at the end of the second millennium B.C. Moreover, Edel's revelation of the profound knowledge the Egyptian court possessed of internal affairs within the Hittite realm, including even the age of important individuals in remote vassal states, should prove interesting to Old Testa- ment scholars, particularly those who see some relationship between the Mosaic covenant and Hittite vassal treaties.

J. J. M. Roberts The Johns Hopkins University

TRADE AND TRANSCENDENCE IN THE BRONZE AGE LEVANT (= Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, 39), by R. S. Mer~ rillees. Pp. 79 + 61 figs. + 2 maps. Paul Astrom, Goteborg, 1974. 9° Crs-

This volume contains three separate essays whose common focus is trade in the Eastern Mediterranean world in the second millennium B.C. Two of the three papers were previously presented orally: the first paper at the 1971 annual meeting of the American Historical Association, the second at the Brooklyn Museum in 1972. I. "Cypriote Relations with the Bronze Age Aegean:'* Pp. 5-12.

In this first essay Merrillees surveys the evidence for Cypriote Bronze Age pottery in the Aegean world.1 Although Cypriote pottery may occur in the Aegean as early as Middle Minoan III, the provenience or stratigraphic context of every piece cited by Mer- rillees for this early date is questionable. From Late Cypriote I times several White Slip I sherds are known from Late Minoan I and Late Helladic I contexts. Two Late Cypriote I Base-Ring I vessels from the island of Rhodes are of dubious significance, however. The first piece, a juglet from Ialysos Tomb LXXVI, had no associated burial goods and so its arrival on Rhodes cannot be dated precisely; the second vessel, also a juglet, comes from Ialysos Tomb LXXXVI, whose mixed contents (including a Base-Ring II bull vase) indicate a date for this tomb not earlier than the fourteenth century b.c. Two Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware spindle bottles, of either Cypriote or (more probably) Syrian manufac- ture occur in the Aegean, one in Ialysos Trianda Stratum IIB (datable to Late Minoan II), the other at Gournia (in a Late Minoan I context). The remaining Late Cypriote pottery from datable con- texts in the Aegean area consists of two White Slip I bowl sherds from the settlement at Katsamba, whose occupation was limited to Middle Minoan II-Late Minoan I, and a Base-Ring II bull vase from Ialysos Tomb XXXI (= Mycenaean IIIB).

In order to explain the anomaly of so little Cypriote pottery in the Aegean world in the Middle and Late Bronze Age as compared to the large amounts of

in

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