Fragment of oldest known peace treaty found in Turkey

38 points by gmays 7 hours ago on hackernews | 6 comments

> The country of Egypt and the country of Hatti [Hittite Empire] will be forever in a state of peace.

Wonder how long it lasted?

Edit: turns out it lasted until the Hittite empire collapsed 80 years later, so in a sense indeed "forever".

FWIW, the longest peace treaty lasted approximately 700 years, from the 7th to 14th centuries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baqt

: domh | 2 hours ago
The longest alliance still in force is the Anglo-Portuguese alliance which was signed in 1386!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Portuguese_Alliance

pfdietz | 3 hours ago

Egypt and the Hittites were now concerned with the rise of Assyria.

All would suffer in the late Bronze Age (LBA) collapse, with the Hittite empire collapsing soon after a string of three drought years about half a century after the treaty. Egypt and Assyria, at least, would persist in truncated form, with the latter rising to new heights of power in the Iron Age.

JoeAltmaier | 2 hours ago

Note the Treaty of Ebla and Abarsal, from about 2350 BCE, exists in scores of clauses on a tablet.

Razengan | 45 minutes ago

Similar: Irving Finkel reads the Pharaoh's private mail (from the -14th century) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MZq_ZQDhJA