Šuwardata


Šuwardata, also Šuardatu, is understood by most scholars to be the king of the Canaanite city of Gath, although some have suggested that he was the 'mayor' of Qiltu, during the 1350-1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence. Šuwardata was the author of 8 letters to the Egyptian pharaoh.

Sample of Šuwardata's letters

Besides letters EA 283, and EA 366,, only letter 280 tells of intrigues: See Labaya, or Abdi-Heba, as EA 280 claims: "Moreover, Lab'ayu who used to take our town, is dead, but now other Lab'ayu is 'Abdi-Heba, and he seizes our town."
The other 5 letters do refer to the following: Qeltu-; silver ; the Sun, ; the archer-forces; and the only reference to Rahmanu, an Egyptian official,.

EA 283: "Oh to see the king"--(no. 6 of 8)

All Šuwardata's letters are addressed to the pharaoh.
Šuwardata must have been an important regional individual, since he claims 30 cities, sub-cities, or city-states have been warring with his city.

EA 366: "A rescue operation"--(no. 8 of 8)

List of letters

and from the later corpus: