3200-Year-Old Picture of Israelites Found in Egypt

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historical value, especially because Merenptah took the title “Subduer of Gezer.” He would be unlikely to adopt this title, obviously intended to reflect his achievements, if it were not soundly based on fact. † The connections we are about to make strongly buttress the conclusion that the description of Merenptah’s campaign in Canaan was actually based on solid fact. The first thing I noticed when I began to consider whether there is any connection between the battle reliefs in the Karnak temple and the campaign in Canaan described on the Merenptah Stele was that one of the four battle scenes (the one to the bottom right of the Peace Treaty, which I number scene 1) contains a hieroglyphic identification of the site of the battle: Ashkelon. Ashkelon is also mentioned in the Merenptah Stele: “Ashkelon has been overcome”! Was the appearance of a battle at Ashkelon on the wall of the Karnak temple and a reference to a battle at Ashkelon in the Merenptah Stele merely a coincidence? I searched the other three battle scenes for identification of the sites, but there is none—or at least none has been preserved. Courtesy of Lawrence Stager Ashkelon under siege. The first city to fall to Merenptah’s onslaught, according to the Merenptah Stele, was Canaanite Ashkelon, which appears in scene 1 on the lower right side of the Peace Treaty, on the Karnak wall. For details of this scene, see drawing. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968) pp. 198–200; and Montet, Egypt and the Bible , transl. Leslie R. Keylock (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968), pp. 25–26. † Kitchen, KRI , vol. 4, p. I, line 9 w‘f K3d3r . Scholars supporting the historicity of the texts include W.F. Flinders Petrie, A History of Egypt (London: Methuen, 1905), vol. 3, p. 114; Eduard Meyer, Geschichte der Altertums (Stuttgart and Berlin: J.G. Cotta’sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, 1928), vol. 2, pp. 577–578; James Henry Breasted, A History of Egypt (New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1912), pp. 465–466, and Sir Alan H. Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1961) p. 273.
From Atlas zur Altagyptischen Kulturgeschichte by W. Wreszinski Drawing of scene 1 on the lower right side of the Peace Treaty, on the Karnak wall, depicting the seige of Ashkelon. Men and women on top of the fortified city’s crenelated walls—seen on the first complete block from the left on the second course from the top—seem to be appealing to heaven. Meanwhile, children are being lowered (or perhaps dropped as a sacrifice) from the tower on each side. Below them, an Egyptian soldier climbs the wall on a ladder as the battle rages before the city gate. Pharaoh and his chariot team, drawn on a larger scale to reflect pharaoh’s importance, appear on the right side of the scene; this balance between the besieged city on the left and the large pharaoh on the right is an artistic convention that is also used in scenes 2 and 3. The hieroglyphic text, to the right of the ramparts, identifies the city in this scene as Ashkelon. The two intact rectangular blocks in the top course bear the lower portion of the scene with the Israelites. But this brought to my attention another “coincidence.” On the wall of the Karnak temple, Merenptah had four battle scenes carved (two on each side of the Peace Treaty); one of the battle scenes could be identified as Ashkelon. In the Merenptah Stele, four names appear to identify his victories in Canaan. One of them is identified as Ashkelon. The other three victories mentioned in Merenptah’s Stele are Gezer, Yano‘am and Israel. Might it be possible to identify the other three battle scenes with these three designations? Notice that I have not referred to the four designations in the Merenptah Stele as sites, or places or even geographical locations. Although I could characterize Ashkelon, Gezer and Yano‘am in this way, that is not true in the same sense with respect to Israel. Moreover, this difference is emphasized in the hieroglyphic text of Merenptah’s Stele. Hieroglyphic writing consists not only of signs that have phonetic value—that is, are to be pronounced or vocalized—but it also includes other signs that have no phonetic value and are not intended to be vocalized. Their sole function is to indicate the category or kind of word to which they are attached. This kind of hieroglyphic sign is called a determinative. The determinative used in the Merenptah Stele with the names of the three Canaanite city-states—Ashkelon, Gezer and Yano‘am—is the familiar determinative regularly used for city-states that formed the Egyptian empire in Syria-Palestine during the New
Page 1 and 2: Editor, H. S. (2002;2002). BAR 16:0
Page 3 and 4: Frank J. Yurco Peace in their time.
Page 5 and 6: expected Ramesses II (1279-1212 B.C
Page 7 and 8: started the decoration of this wall
Page 9: The stele in the Cairo Museum, whic
Page 13 and 14: From Atlas zur Altagyptischen Kultu
Page 15 and 16: provide an important clue to Israel
Page 17 and 18: in the forested and wild hill-count
Page 19 and 20: were in the highlands and that they
Page 21 and 22: of Merenptah dated year two or earl
Page 23 and 24: In addition, a papyrus ( Papyrus An
Page 25 and 26: Understanding the Wall of Reliefs N
Page 27 and 28: Usurped Cartouches Key to Discovery
Page 29: his nomen. From Merenptah’s preno

3200-Year-Old Picture of Israelites Found in Egypt

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