NIN-UR.MAH.MEŠ, or the "Lady" of the Lions, was the author of two letters to the
pharaoh, the King of
Ancient Egypt, in the 1350–1335 BC
Amarna letterscorrespondence.[1][2] Her name is a representation of the original written script characters of
Babylonian '
Sumerograms' , "
NIN- +
UR.MAH + (plural:
MEŠ)", and means, "woman–lion–plural", namely: "Lady (of the) Lions". (See:
NIN for "lady"). The Amarna letters are mostly written in
Akkadiancuneiform, with local words/phrases/etc due to various
city-states or countries.
The name or location of her city/city-state are not stated in her letter.[3] Generally, she is theorized to have been a ruler of
Beit Shemesh.[4]
Also called "Mistress of the Lionesses", she was a female "king" who ruled
Beit Shemesh around 1350 BCE.[5]
The two Amarna letters
The two letters by the 'Queen Mother', (of her unnamed location), are both minimally short and concise EA letters (26 lines and 19 lines) and are topically about the takeover of regional cities, by the attacking bands of people: the
Hapiru, (
EA for 'el
Amarna').
EA 273: "From a queen mother"
Say to the king-(i.e.
pharaoh), my lord, my god, my Sun: Message of fNIN-UR.MAH.MEŠ, your handmaid. I
fall at the feet of the king, my lord, 7 times and 7 times. May the king, my lord, know that war has been waged in the land, and gone is the land of the king, my lord, by desertiontothe
'Apiru. May the king, my lord, take cognizance of his land, and may the [k]ing, my lord, kn[ow] tha[t] the 'Apiru wrote to
Ayyaluna and to
Sarha, and the two sons of
Milkilu barely escaped being killed. May the king, my lord, know of this deed. —EA 273, lines 1–26 (complete)
EA 274: "Another city lost"
Say to the king, my lord, my god, my Sun: Message of fNIN-UR.MAH.MEŠ, your handmaid, the
dirt at your feet. I fall at the feet of the king, my lord, 7 times and 7 times. May the king, my lord, save his land from the power of the
'Apiru..–lest it be lost.
Sapuma has been take[n]. For the information of the king, my lord. —EA 274, lines 1–19 (complete)
EA 273, Obverse, lines 1–9 (Akkadian language and English)