Pharaoh Amenhotep III of Egypt marries Tiy,…

Shuttarna, a descendant and probably a son of the great Mitannian king Artatama I, is an ally of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III; the diplomatic dealings of the kings are briefly recorded in the Amarna letters.

Shuttarna's daughter Kilu-Hepa (sometimes spelled Gilukhepa) is given to Amenhotep III in marriage to seal the alliance between the two royal houses in the Pharaoh's tenth regnal year, taking with her a great dowry.

The kingdom of Mitanni reaches its height of power and prosperity during the reign of Shuttarna.

From Alalakh in the west, Mitanni shares its border with Egypt in northern Syria approximately by the river Orontes.

The heart of the kingdom is in the Khabur River basin where the capital Washshukanni is situated.

Assyria as well as Arrapha in the east are vassal kingdoms of Mitanni.

The Hittites attempt to invade the northern border lands of Mitanni but Shuttarna defeats them.

Temple construction continues at Karnak, Deir el-Bahri and Thebes.

Construction begins at Luxor on the second great Theban temple complex, built, like the temple at Karnak, on the east side of the Nile.

Amenhotep III builds, near Thebes, the temple of Amun and the so-called Colossus of Memnon (the name given to the statue by the Greeks, because it emitted strange musical tones that were thought to be the greeting of the legendary immortal Ethiopian king and Trojan War hero Memnon to his mother Eos, goddess of the dawn).

The Mycenaean Greeks have established control of their peninsula, and spread through the Aegean to Ionia, taking the Cretan kingdom of Minos along the way.

Tablets on Crete are written by 1375 BCE not in Linear A but in Linear B, evincing a dynastic shift from Minoans to Mycenaeans.

Tablets from this era forward record both Mycenaean and non-Hellenic names, suggesting intermarriage between the two cultures.

Arnuwanda I, who succeeds Tudhaliya I, proves unable to defend even the core of the revived Hittite kingdom against continuing attack from all sides. (His successors—Hattusili II, Tudhaliya II, and Arnuwanda II—will be no more successful.)

Suppiluliuma I (Shuppiluliuma), king of the Hittites from around 1358 BCE, had begun his career as advisor and general to Tudhaliya III, then based at Samuha.

In this capacity he had defeated the Hittites' enemies among the Hayasa and the Kaskas.

Both enemies then united around charismatic leaders to counter him; of these Karanni founded a semblance of a royal court in Hayasa, and Piyapili failed to do likewise for the Kaska.

Suppiluliuma and Tudhaliya defeated these threats in turn, to the extent that the Hittite court could settle in Hattusa again.

At some point, Suppiluliuma deposed and probably murdered his liege.

Some of the priests would later report this to Suppiluliumas's son, successor, and biographer Mursili II, holding it as an outstanding crime of the whole dynasty.

Saushtatar, a king of Hanilgalbat (Hurrians of Mitanni) in the fifteenth century BCE, had sacked Ashur and made Assyria a vassal.

Assyria continues to pay tribute to Hanilgalbat until Mitanni power collapses from Hittite pressure from the northwest and Assyrian pressure from the east, enabling Ashur-uballit I (1365 BCE–1330 BCE) to again make Assyria an independent and conquering power at the expense of Babylonia.

Suppiluliuma began his career as advisor and general to Tudhaliya III, then based at Samuha.

In this capacity he has defeated the Hittites' enemies among the Hayasa and the Kaskas.

Both enemies then united around charismatic leaders to counter him; of these Karanni founded a semblance of a royal court in Hayasa, and Piyapili failed to do likewise for the Kaska.

Suppiluliuma and Tudhaliya defeated these threats in turn, to the extent that the Hittite court could settle in Hattusa again.

At some point, Suppiluliuma deposes and probably murders his liege, ascending the imperial Hittite throne around 1358.

The Hittites retaliate against the Egypt-Mitanni entente by occupying Syria, around 1365, thus separating the allies so that Egypt is unable to aid Mitanni when the Hittites invade it from the west.