3200-Year-Old Picture of Israelites Found in Egypt

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In my spare time, I would work collecting whatever data I could find that might elucidate the late XIXth Dynasty (1293–1185 B.C.E. * ), on which I was then writing my doctoral dissertation. It was in this connection that I found myself regularly studying a set of battle reliefs accompanied by extensive hieroglyphic inscriptions located in the famous Karnak temple. This particular scene is on the outer western wall of the Cour de la Cachette. † The wall itself was originally about 158 feet long and 30 feet high and is composed of blocks about 50 to 63 inches long and 40 inches high. Time, unfortunately, has not been kind to the sculptors who created this monument. Except at the extreme left (north) end, the top of the wall is missing. Three scenes at the right (as one faces the wall) are no longer in place. The Romans took down the blocks forming these scenes, in order to widen the gateway to the right when they removed from Karnak the obelisk now in the Lateran Square in Rome. Sometime after the advent of Christianity, Egyptian Copts built their own structures against the wall and pulled out stones so that the holes thereby created in the wall would support sections of their buildings. Stones from the destroyed scenes of the wall are still strewn about in a field nearby. Fortunately, some of these blocks can be identified with particular locations in the wall. † Courtesy of Lawrence E. Stager The western wall of the Cour de la Cachette. Near the left side of the wall, between two short engaged pillars that extend several inches from the wall, is a long hieroglyphic text—the text of the Peace Treaty that followed the great battle of Kadesh, on the Orontes in northern Syria in 1275 B.C.E., between Ramesses II and the Hittite army led by Muwatallis. * B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) are the scholarly alternate designations corresponding to B.C. and A.D. † The reliefs I will be discussing are located on the transverse northsouth axis of the Karnak temple on the outer western face of the court between the Hypostyle Hali and the Seventh Pylon, known as the Cour de la Cachette. † Francoise Le Saout, “Reconstitution des Murs de la Cour de la Cachette,” Cahiers de Karnak 7 (1978– 1981), pp. 228–232, and pl. IV on p. 262.
Frank J. Yurco Peace in their time. Filling the space between two engaged pillars—the slightly projecting blocks at left and upper right—this long hieroglyphic text established peace between Ramesses II and the Hittite king Hattusilis III after some two decades of hostilities that included the famous battle at Kadesh, in northern Syria, in 1275 B.C.E. Concluded in the 21st year of Ramesses II’s reign (1258 B.C.E.), the Treaty misled earlier scholars into thinking that the four battle scenes, two on each side of the treaty, related to Ramesses II. Although reliefs depicting the battle of Kadesh once stood to the left of the Treaty, they were largely, though imperfectly, erased at some time before Merenptah’s battle reliefs were carved. Who erased the Kadesh reliefs is not known, but it is possible that Ramesses II felt that the commemoration of the battle was inappropriate beside the Peace Treaty and therefore ordered his own relief erased. To the left of the Peace Treaty text are two battle scenes; to the right, two more. Then, farther to the right are—or were—six more scenes (two of the scenes at the far right are completely gone and must be entirely reconstructed, in part from blocks in the nearby field). The four battle scenes seem to frame the Peace Treaty, two on each side. To the right of these four battle scenes are other scenes that progress from left to right—the binding of prisoners, the collecting of prisoners, marching prisoners off to Egypt, presenting the prisoners to the god Amun, Amun presenting the sword of victory to the king (moving right to left) and finally a large-scale triumphal scene. The scenes stand in two registers, or rows, one above the other, except for the large triumphal scene at the right, which extended all the way from the top to the bottom of the wall. Each of the scenes also contains hieroglyphic inscriptions. One of the things that especially interested me in the inscriptions was the cartouches— those oblong rings tied at the bottom that enclose the fourth and fifth names of the pharaoh. Both in the reliefs on the wall and on the loose blocks from these reliefs scattered about, all of the names in the cartouches had been usurped—that is, they had been partially erased and recarved with the names of a later king. The names of the pharaoh that now appear in the cartouches belong to Sety II (1199– 1193 B.C.E.). I wanted to look for the names of the earlier pharaoh under the names of Sety II. I should perhaps add that Egyptian pharaohs had five different royal names: The first four were given to him at his coronation: (1) The Horus name (so-called because it begins with a hieroglyph of the Horus falcon); (2) the Two-Ladies name (because it begins with a vulture and a cobra, both representing female goddesses); (3) the Golden- Horus name (because the Horus falcon stands on a symbol for gold); and (4) the prenomen (usually it is compounded with the name of the sun god). The fifth name is the king’s personal name given to him at birth. All five names together are called his titulary. Only the fourth and fifth names are enclosed in cartouches. And it was these I especially wanted to examine.
Page 1: Editor, H. S. (2002;2002). BAR 16:0
Page 5 and 6: expected Ramesses II (1279-1212 B.C
Page 7 and 8: started the decoration of this wall
Page 9 and 10: The stele in the Cairo Museum, whic
Page 11 and 12: From Atlas zur Altagyptischen Kultu
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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