entity · people_habiru_apiru
Ḫabiru / ʿApiru
Also known as: Habiru, Apiru, ʿpr.w in Egyptian sources
A mobile or socially marginal designation in second-millennium Near Eastern texts, not an established synonym for Hebrews or Israelites.
Review and provenance
Specialist reviewer: not recorded. Review date: not recorded.
Dataset workflow: proposed. This is separate from specialist review.
Confidence describes the stated assessment; it does not certify expert approval. How review works.
Chronology
Dating intervals may describe uncertainty or phases; their width alone does not establish event duration.
1500 BCE–1100 BCE
Precision: approximate
- informs · provides primary evidence
The El-Amarna Correspondence: A New Edition of the Cuneiform Letters from the Site of El-Amarna Based on Collations of All Extant Tablets — Anson F. Rainey (2015)Attests the label in local political accusations and conflict narratives.
Locator: EA letters using ḫapiru/SA.GAZ designations - informs · contextualizes
The Amarna Letters — William L. Moran (1992)Shows contextual variation in the label.
Locator: index and translations of Ḫabiru/SA.GAZ passages
Research description
A mobile or socially marginal designation in second-millennium Near Eastern texts, not an established synonym for Hebrews or Israelites. The record preserves the distinction between source label, archaeological pattern, political formation, and later identity.
Properties and assignments
A label’s definition and the evidence for assigning it here are separate.
Ancient external designation
A name applied by an outside ancient source to a group, place, or polity.
Why does this record have this property?
Ḫabiru/ʿApiru is used in external administrative and diplomatic texts as a context-dependent social label.
- The El-Amarna Correspondence: A New Edition of the Cuneiform Letters from the Site of El-Amarna Based on Collations of All Extant Tablets
provides primary evidence · Ḫabiru/SA.GAZ passages
Evidence and sources
- informs · provides primary evidence
The El-Amarna Correspondence: A New Edition of the Cuneiform Letters from the Site of El-Amarna Based on Collations of All Extant Tablets — Anson F. Rainey (2015)Attests the label in local political accusations and conflict narratives.
Locator: EA letters using ḫapiru/SA.GAZ designations - informs · contextualizes
The Amarna Letters — William L. Moran (1992)Shows contextual variation in the label.
Locator: index and translations of Ḫabiru/SA.GAZ passages
Referenced records
- Southern Levant · entity