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Today. I'm John Batchew with Professor Eric Klein, his new book Love War and Diplomacy, is a time machine.

We're going to leave the 21st century with our troubles and go to

the 15th to the 12th century BC, and in particular, because of the Amarna letters, we can now talk

about a period in the 14th century BCE that was dominated by Egypt and the Hittites of central Anatolia, which is now called Turkey.

Between them was something that I learned as a 20th century student called the Fertile Crescent.

Today we regarded as Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and then down towards Gaza into the

Sinai, the fertile crescent. That was the transportation route and the communications route

between the empires of Mesopotamia. That would be Assyria and Babylon and the Empire of the Hittites in Central Anatolia.

All of this, however, is unknown that it's in these Amarna tablets until they're translated.

But the Indiana Jones part of this, I want to include Eric, this is a, suddenly, a race between the Berlin Museum, the British Museum, and there's a Cairo Museum.

And Budge was quick, maybe so quick that we marveled at what he did.

He offered top dollar.

And also, did he have the ability to translate those tablets?

Because he was asked to make, were they genuine or were they artifacts? Did he have the skill?

Good question. Good question. I think yes and no. So if we go back now to 1887, the year after SAES had come through, 1887 by November, rumors were circulating, and Budge had heard these.

And the rumors that were circulating said that a woman looking for fertilizer in the ruins of Amarna had stumbled upon these tablets.

Now, that woman could never be located afterward, and I don't think she ever existed.

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