Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed

by Eric H. Cline, John Chancer (Narrator)

This audiobook narrated by John Chancer gives a spellbinding account of the archaeological find that opened a window onto the vibrant diplomatic world of the ancient Near East

In 1887, an Egyptian woman made an astonishing discovery among the ruins of the heretic king Akhenaten's capital city, a site now known as Amarna. She found a cache of cuneiform tablets, nearly four hundred in all, that included correspondence between the pharaohs and the mightiest powers of the day, such as the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. Love, War, and Diplomacy tells the story of the Amarna Letters and the dramatic world of the Bronze Age they revealed.

Blending scholarly expertise with painstaking detective work, Eric Cline describes the spectacular discovery, the fierce competition among dealers and museums to acquire the tablets, and the race by British and German scholars to translate them. Dating to the middle of the fourteenth century BCE and the time of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors, Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, the Amarna Letters are the only royal archive from New Kingdom Egypt known to exist. In them, we learn of royal marriages, diplomatic negotiations, gift-giving, intrigue, and declarations of brotherly love between powerful rulers as well as demands made by the petty kings in Canaan who owed allegiance to Egypt's pharaohs.

A monumental achievement, Love, War, and Diplomacy transports listeners to the glorious age of the Amarna Letters and the colonial era that brought them to light and reveals how the politics, posturing, and international intrigues of the ancient Near East are not so unlike today's.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

9 pages, Audible Audio

First published November 11, 2025

About the author

DR. ERIC H. CLINE is the former Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and current Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at The George Washington University. A National Geographic Explorer, NEH Public Scholar, and Fulbright scholar with degrees from Dartmouth, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, he is an active field archaeologist with 30 seasons of excavation and survey experience in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the United States, including ten seasons at the site of Megiddo (biblical Armageddon) in Israel from 1994-2014, and seven seasons at Tel Kabri, where he currently serves as Co-Director. A three-time winner of the Biblical Archaeology Society's "Best Popular Book on Archaeology" Award (2001, 2009, and 2011) and two-time winner of the American School of Archaeology's "Nancy Lapp Award for Best Popular Archaeology Book" (2014 and 2018), he is a popular lecturer who has appeared frequently on television documentaries and has also won national and local awards for both his research and his teaching. He is the author or editor of 20 books, almost 100 articles, and three recorded 14-lecture courses. His previous books written specifically for the general public include "The Battles of Armageddon: Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Age" (2000), "Jerusalem Besieged: From Ancient Canaan to Modern Israel" (2004), "From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible" (2007), "Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction" (2009), "The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction" (2013), "1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed" (2014), “Three Stones Make a Wall: The Story of Archaeology" (2017), and “Digging Up Armageddon” (2020). He has also co-authored a children's book on Troy, entitled "Digging for Troy" (2011). For a video of his "Last Lecture" talk, go to http://vimeo.com/7091059.

Reviews

[Nic Calvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

*4.5 Stars
Professor Cline's newest book is a true delight and one that opened my eyes to the wonderful world of the Late Bronze Age. His book is part history of the Amarna Letters and part history of the translation of the texts. He does a great job of switching back and forth between the two accounts, and I believe this allows for the story to stay fresh, even if it takes more of an effort on the reader's account to keep up with the characters. For anyone who does get lost, there is a detailed list of the main ancient and modern (1800s) players at the end.

I would recommend this book for people who are interested in the translation of the Amarna Letters, albeit I would have preferred more information on the linguistical journey that the main translators took rather than the continuous insight into how they got it wrong. I preferred "The Mesopotamian Riddle" by Joshua Hammer and "The Writing of the Gods" by Edward Dolnick in their method of explanation.

Nevertheless, he does an admirable job of explaining how the texts became translated and the impact they had on our understanding of the era. This is a great prequel to his previous works, and I would recommend listening to his recent podcast interview on Tides of History for anyone who wants a summarized explanation. This is not for the average reader though, as while short (barely 200 pages in small print), it is dense and requires focus to not get lost in the foray of the ancient Bronze Age.

[Jennifer Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I was expecting a book with dual timelines, the bulk of this book is about the discovery, translation, and academic life of the Amarna letters. I was personally hoping for more narrative on the ancient history/context for the letters. If you’re interested in academic drama, this book is for you.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A two-tiered book, as it should be. With his usual talent for easy-flowing prose, Cline tells the story of the archaeologists (occasionally not much more high-minded than the grave-robbers and antiquities merchants they were ostensibly trying not to reward) who raced to get their hands on the Amarna Letters and house them at museums back in London, Berlin, Paris, and likewise. Once "secure," then the letters became a rich new source of information about the inter-connected worlds of SW Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean littoral. As much as tells us, though, Cline's book is just a gateway. He makes me wish - not for the first time - that I could add on several more languages and another couple of degrees (and 8 more hours/day) so as to be able to plunge into this world.

[Matthew Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of the discovery and publishing of the Amarna letters is an interesting one as is the picture of late Bronze Age Egypt and its neighbors that their contents provide. I think I would have preferred more biographical details of the major players and their polities rather than the social network analysis presented in the final section of the book.

[Ken Abel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately very boring