In the
1350 BC Amarna letters, the army sumerogram ERIM is used in the formulaic introduction to the
pharaoh of
ancient Egypt-(mostly
Amenhotep IV-
Akhenaten, or his father
Amenhotep III). The addressing is towards the 'good health'-
Shalom-(Akkadian language
šālāmu-"to be safe") of the list of pharaoh's charges, and near the end of the list his "troops", or armies are addressed: as ERIM-mesh; (mesh is the plural as "s", in the Akkadian language). The more notable kings used this formal introduction to the pharaoh, for example
Tushratta of
Mitanni, the "King of
Alashiya"-(now known as the island
Cyprus); also the king of
Babylon,
Burna-Buriash; also
Kadashman-Enlil I of Babylon. A more distinctive use of the army cuneiform character in the Amarna letters, is in the
cuneiform-compound for the word 'battle', as a determinative in
Amarna letter no. 245, concerning a story about Yašdata, with the subject being the
Habiru man,
Labaya. ==References==