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Utah Trip 2012! ~ Part Three

Monday morning came early. A chill wind gusted outside my tent, and I sunk a little deeper into my s

Ephesus

‘There is a danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshipped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.’ When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’ Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s travelling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theatre together. Acts 19 Half an hour away from the tourist hotels, beaches, cafes and pleasure parks of Kusadasi are the ruins of ancient Ephesus. One of the seven wonders of the world, it’s a vast archeological site where the remains of the once great city of Ephesus stood. Ephesus was a key city for the Asian region – a harbour, trading port, and the centre for worship of the goddess Artemis, whose devotees were numerous. It’s because of its strategic importance, Paul, the first Christian missionary, spent several years there, passing on the teachings of Jesus and his message of freedom for all. The Bible records in Acts of the Apostles that the influence of the city was such, that by preaching there, Paul’s message was spread throughout the entire region. It was this message that, when it reached a tipping point, began to have an impact on the every day running of the city, in particular all the trades that were dependent on worship of Artemis for their profit. Demetrius the silversmith raised this as an issue, and a riot ensued, where the people got caught up in a mob mentality and piled down the hill towards the harbour where an epic amphitheatre stood. And it still stands there today, one of the most complete examples of a Roman amphitheatre left intact after almost 2000 years. The ruins are so complete, it took very little imagination to set yourself in the scene of the riot, to hear the shouting of the crowd in your head, to visualise the mob piling out and creating chaos in the streets. These ruins are a far cry from the odd blocks of stone that we find in the UK that once made up great buildings with underfloor heating. On a summer holiday in Northumberland near Hadrian’s Wall, we visited lots of Roman forts where the only part that seemed to have survived general looting unscathed were the loos! In Ephesus there is a gate named for Hadrian, and it seemed incredible to me that one man could have power that stretched over such a vast distance. And even more telling that there is so little trace left to speak up for him. Only the line of a wall, and the ruins of a gate. Which of course made me think of Shelley’s famous poem, Ozymandias. Turns out he and his friend Henry Smith both wrote poems on the same theme, to be published at the same time. I quite like the sentiment of Smith’s poem too, so I’ve included them both here. No matter how important the issues of the day are, one day they will all be forgotten. But there are some things that last forever. Artemis will no longer be worshipped, and ships will no longer dock in the harbour. The things that preoccupy us today will be of little value in the grand scheme of things. Life and the world will move on, and all that will be left will be scant traces of what once seemed so critical, observed with curiosity as a tourist attraction at best. And no matter how magnificent the ruin, it remains a ruin nevertheless. I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley IN Egypt’s sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desert knows: ”I am great OZYMANDIAS,” saith the stone, ”The King of Kings; this mighty City shows ”The wonders of my hand.” The City’s gone, Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon. We wonder,and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro’ the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place. Ozymandias or On A Stupendous Leg of Granite, Discovered Standing by Itself in the Deserts of Egypt, with the Inscription Inserted Below, Horace Smith

Dead Sea Scrolls In Philadelphia

The Franklin Institutes Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times exhibit presents one of the most comprehensive collections of ancient artifacts from Israel ever organized, featuring twenty scrolls including the oldest known copies of the Hebrew Bible and four never-before-seen scrolls. With more than 600 items on display, visitors will experience firsthand the traditions, beliefs and iconic objects from everyday life, more than 2000 years ago. These fascinating artifacts, such as an actual three-ton stone from Jerusalems Western Wall, highlight the millennia-old traditions that continue to impact modern religions and society today. Included among the collections artifacts are the limestone capitals used in the architecture of the administrative centers during the first temple period (1006-586 BCE). Visitors will see artifacts from Jerusalem’s City of David, limestone Ossuaries from the early Roman period, and an ancient signature preserved for millennia on the Archer Seal. Together these artifacts reveal precious details about the culture, rituals, and beliefs of ancient Israel, spanning thousands of years.

Babylonian Talmud Translated into Arabic

After a controversial six-year-long translation project, a Jordanian think tank based in Amman published an Arabic translation of the Babylonian Talmud. After gaining enthusiastic responses to the project from the Arab League, 96 scholars began work on the translation. The editors are happy with the project, stating that the lack of an Arabic Talmud “has always been an obstacle to understanding Judaism.” Despite some polarized and politicized responses, most have adopted a positive impression of the massive scholarly work. Dr. Raquel Ukeles of the Israeli National Library states that the project stemmed from scientific curiosity, and the introduction discusses the Talmud in light of religious law along with the development of ancient politics and morality. Three years ago, Professor Mustafa Mansour of Cairo University translated the Mishnah into Arabic, reflecting an increasing interest in Jewish texts. After a controversial 6 year long translation project, a Jordanian think tank based in Amman published an Arabic translation of the Babylonian Talmud. Read more about the Arabic Talmud.

The Nile and Orion Starmap

http://www.thehiddenrecords.com/orion.htm

4,000 Year Old Texts Survive the Attacks of Time and 9/11

4,000 years ago, an official named Aradmu kept economic and social records of agrarian life and the economy near Nippur in southern Iraq. After having been looted from Iraq, smuggled to the United States and stored in the Customs House at 6 World Trade Center when the building was destroyed in the September 11th attacks, Aradmus clay tablets defied all odds and survived to be translated. The 302 tablets145 of which were written by Aradmuwere retrieved, restored, and given to Harvard Professor Benjamin Studevent-Hickman for translation before returning them to Iraq. Aradmus writings include receipts, loan records and descriptions of his brothers and his father Lugal-me-a. The records provide a window into ordinary life and the economic conditions of the time (grain loans included whopping 33% interest rates), but the story of the tablets recovery and translation is anything but ordinary. Harvard Assyriologist Benjamin Studevent-Hickman translated the recovered cuneiform tablets. Read more about the tablets history and translation.

The Ruins of Gerasa

In northern Jordan there is a place where old and new have melded in perfect harmony. Ruins of antiquity rest beside a thriving city – ancient Gerasa and modern Jerash. The city of Jerash was the final stop of my trip to Jordan, just before we crossed the border into Israel. Second only to Petra in terms of tourist interest, the ruins of Gerasa are some of the most extensive ruins of a Roman city that can be found outside of Italy. I remember walking up to the entrance, the same entrance used by thousands before me, dating back to the second century A.D. - Hadrian’s Arch – the original gate to Gerasa. We were on a time crunch with only a few hours to explore the ruins and I felt a sense of urgency to discover it all as I looked out over the city. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia - because I could find my picture of it. Passing the hippodrome, we learned that mock “games” are performed daily for the tourists. I could almost imagine a little Arabian stallion charging around the ring, nostrils flaring, head held high. Our guide pointed out some short steps down to a little doorway and mentioned something about catacombs. Oh, the temptation! Never before have I so desperately longed for a torch. My inner-adventurer fought my better judgement – and lost. We wandered across the worn cobblestones of the colonnaded Oval Forum first. This place seemed to have the heartbeat of the old city pounding within it. And then we spotted a huge Roman theatre. I made my way toward the stage in hope of photographing my compatriots looking below from the stone seats when a sound stopped me short. It couldn’t be, but I knew that sound well! Bagpipes? And sure enough two men stood at the front of the stage – one with his lips to a set of bagpipes and the other keeping time with a drum. Their heads were covered with the traditional keffiyeh and they were clearly Jordanian. The mix of it all was amazing to me: Arabic men with bagpipes in a Roman theatre. I wasn’t familiar with the song they played but found myself lingering to hear it, until the ruins started calling to me again. Then I was off again, stepping lightly and quickly along the colonnaded streets to reach the ruins of the temple of Artemis and another of Zeus, to glimpse the remnants of Roman bath houses. The hot sun beat down overhead and sweat pooled at my lower back. Gerasa has been wonderfully preserved, with the newer city of Jerash being built around the old city instead of over top of it so as not to disturb the ruins. A little bridge connected the two and it really gave a sense of worlds colliding, old and new. And just like that it was time to go. We had to double-time it back to our designated meeting place. Back on the bus and on our way to the Israeli border, I smiled the whole way. The excitement of exploring Gerasa will remain with me.

Run Dahlia Run

I recently ran in the Split Rock 10k in Onondaga, New York. It’s an annual event that raises money for the Oswego River Society, a 250 year old organization devoted to the cultivation and preservation of Ciquwata Indian culture. My father was two thirds Ciquwata (with a splattering of Estonian, Armenian, Jewish and Scot) and it is in his honor that I devote myself to this cause. Post run: Happy and exhausted The Ciquwata caverns are some of the oldest known ventilated caves in North America. The remarkably well-preserved wall drawings of bison, buffalo, turtles and deer date back to the Ice Age. The Ciquwata are also known for their rich oral tradition including the epic poem Ywxa, usually translated as Pity. I could go on and on, for the culture is truly rich. I could also lament its marginalization but that seems beside the point. I’m sure that my own decision to become an artist is predicated on my affinity for my roots. That is why, each year, no matter how busy I am, I make the pilgrimage to Onondaga to take part in the run.

Oldest Lion statue

Found in Germany in 1939, the Löwenfrau of the Hohlenstein Stadel, an anthropomorphic lion figure made of mammoth ivory has been carbon-dated as 32 000 years old. taken from the excellent blog - http://ingoodfaith.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/worlds-oldest-art-music-and-religious-artifacts/

The Mystery of the Sphinx [Hosted by Charlton Heston]

201204188167 | Archaeologists Excavate Major Ancient Urban Center in Macedonia

Topic ancient city life I wonder just what they will find here regarding the diet of these people? I would also be interested in who they traded with. 201204188167 | Archaeologists Excavate Major Ancient Urban Center in Macedonia.

Readers Response

As Bible History Daily readers, you are part of a community of people who have an imperishable enthusiasm for Biblical studies and the archaeology of the Biblical lands. We at BAS aim to keep you informed and entertained by providing the latest Biblical archaeology news along with information about the scholarship presented in the pages of Biblical Archaeology Review. We report on the latest insights, debates and discoveries while maintaining balances between Hebrew Bible and New Testament topics and those of Biblical and neighboring cultures. Certain subjects, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or the recent forgery trial, have ignited wonderful debates, and we aim to keep our readers up-to-date and involved in the discussions. Most importantly, this is a community, and we encourage your involvement. So please, if you have favorite topics or posts, comment on them, ask questions and let us know what youd like to see. Often Bible History Daily posts are discussions and summaries of content from Biblical Archaeology Review. If you want to read over 35 years of original scholarship in BAR, Bible Review and Archaeology Odyssey, it is all waiting for you in the BAS Library. We are lucky to have such a great depth of scholarly content to draw from, and even more lucky to have such an interesting and interested readership. We would love to hear more from you. If you would be generous enough to go back to your favorite BHD articles and provide comments, questions and subjects that you’d like to explore, we will do our best to provide you with the resources that you need. Thank you for reading and sharing my enthusiasm for archaeology, Biblical scholarship and the ancient world. Noah Wiener BAS Web Editor

Book of Nehemiah Found Among the Scrolls

A gaunt Nehemiah guards the portal on the west facade of the Church of St. Lazare, in Avallon, central France. In a recent study, scroll scholars Torleif Elgvin and Esther Eshel identified the first known copy of the Book of Nehemiah among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Photo: Foto Marburg/Art Resource, NY. Anyone familiar with the Dead Sea Scrolls can tell you that portions of nearly every book in the Hebrew Bible are represented in these ancient texts discovered in caves near the Dead Sea. The only exceptions were the Book of Esther and the Book of Nehemiah;* scholars assumed the latter had been written on the same scroll as the Book of Ezra (as was common) but simply hadnt surviveduntil now. In a recent blog post,** Norwegian scroll scholar Torleif Elgvin of Evangelical Lutheran University College in Oslo, Norway, announced that he and colleague Esther Eshel of Bar-Ilan University will be publishing a collection of more than two dozen previously unknown scroll fragments, including the first known fragment of Nehemiah. The scrolls in the new book come from Qumran Cave 4, Bar-Kokhba caves and Wadi ed-Daliyeh. The publication, Gleanings from the Caves (forthcoming from T&T Clark) will feature enhanced photographs of the scrolls by Bruce Zuckerman and his team,*** as well as artifacts from the Judean Desert such as a scroll jar, a palm fiber pen, a bronze altar and inkwell. Interested in the history and meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls? In this free eBook, learn what the Dead Sea Scrolls are and why they are important. Find out what they tell us about the Bible, Christianity and Judaism when you download our FREE Dead Sea Scrolls eBook. * See Sidnie White Crawford, Has Every Book of the Bible Been Found Among the Dead Sea Scrolls?,Bible Review, October 1996. ** Torleif Elgvin NEWS FROM THE SCHØYEN COLLECTION *** See Bruce Zuckerman, Archaeological Views: New Eyeballs on Ancient Texts, Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2011.

Peru 5: Machu Picchu

Cusco 2: Machu Picchu Now photos added Today was the long awaited journey to Machu Picchu. Would it be as good as its fame suggests? Would the great tourist numbers spoil the experience? Was the paperwork I had correct or had I missed something? The Journey The train leaves from Poroy (from “por hoy nos quedamos” – for “now/today we’ll stay here”) a 25 minute taxi drive from the hotel. The taxi driver was informative about the reason for this – until 5 years ago the trains came to San Pedro station just round the corner from here but there have been problems on the line (I think demonstrations by the locals from time to time) so tourist trains now go from Poroy – subsidised trains only available to Peruvians do go from Cusco. On the way back our conversation went from the local term for a traffic jam (atasco in Spain, embotellado in Mexico and disappointingly congestión here) swiftly to the problems of the Euro zone, poverty in Peru, the NHS and government policies of free markets – he was a former teacher of maths and physics who working for the state couldn’t earn enough and also had to work away from home too much – but I’m getting ahead. Once on the train (Peru Rail, owned by Orient Express) my allocated seat was with three Brazilian women from Rio – two of them slept for much of the journey missing the best bits – they were pleasant enough and insisted on taking my picture for me when I bumped into them later. The train first went through the back street of a small town honking its horn and all the people from 2 to 82 put their fingers in their ears. Then through the same country I’d been to yesterday before descending by means of a zig zag (reversing and going forward twice) into a canyon. It was spectacular in places – nearly as good as Glasgow to Oban. We crossed the Inca Trail and watched the trekkers crossing a suspension bridge. As we descended towards Aguas Calientes the vergetation became more and more lush with epiphytes and creepers on the trees – Mach Picchu is on the edge of the rainforest and is some 15,000m lower than Cusco and accordingly warmer. Along the way, at the top of the mountains above the gorge I saw two raptors hovering and gliding – maybe they were condors? Too far away to tell (but it did justify bringing binoculars). So after nearly 4 hours we arrive at Aguas Calientes or Pueblo de Machu Picchu as it is officially called. A tourist hell really – every building is a bar, restaurant (mostly pizza) or craft shop – the latter crowd the 200 yards from the station to the bus shuttle so you can’t see the way. But in its way it is quite nice. And then onto the shuttle service – a fleet of minibuses go back and forth to the entrance to the ‘sanctuary’ as MP is described – 400m (i.e. more than a UK mountain) up and down a zigzag road from where you can look down to the gorge below. Machu Picchu On arrival at the site I’m a bit concerned that everyone is showing their passports and their MP passes – I’ve only got a copy as I tend not to take it everywhere with me. But there was no problem and my internet reservation is converted into a ticket. The reason for the passes is that the number of visitors is limited to reduce damage to the site – but it was still pretty crowded, though most of the time it can absorb the numbers – it is after all a city. But why build a city on top of a mountain? Partly for defence and partly for ceremonial reasons – the Incas worshipped sacred mountains ‘Apus’ as well as the sun, moon and earth (Pachamama). You’ll have seen pictures but seeing the site itself is different as you experience it in three dimensions. Indeed seen from the entrance side the whole resembles some of the representations of Pachamama which you can also see in the church paintings and sculptures of Mary (with stepped edges to her skirts), done by indigenous artists in the colonial period – co-optation or syncretism? Luckily the up-down dimension is easier than in Cusco (where I’ve had moments of shortness of breath) due to the lower altitude, while the horizontal dimensions allow the site to be seen from unfamiliar angles, in context, and of course for all of it to be entered. It is divided into an agricultural and urban sector, comprising the two sides of Pachamana’s skirt – both terraced (or from the mountain it is acondor, also sacred). The terraces have a structural function, supporting the buildings and the whole thing was built to last for ever, withstanding everything the weather and earth(quakes) can offer. It took over three hours to do my hybrid of the long and medium circuits – I didn’t have time to ascend the peak Huayana Picchu. Bits of it are impressive, but it is the whole thing that really impresses – although that includes the huge blocks that aren’t local – however did they get them up there? as my friend in the Plaza Mayor in Villa de Leyva asked too. There are different grades of construction, from the huge and finely hewn stones assembled without mortar in the ceremonial part to the rougher and mortared construction of the agricultural sector. The tour started in fine sunshine, the rain started but not enough to spoil it (the few Britons had proper equipment I noted, me included), and then sun with a bit of rain. As I left a rainbow appeared as if as reward for trecking around the site. The Beard and the Achocha I have a book ‘Lost Crops of the Incas’ – the kind of thing that really interests me – it includes some of the crops I’ve mentioned already, Other kinds of potato, oca, quinoa and what the book calls Achocha. Achocha is a relative of the curcubits (gourds, pumpkins, melons, cucumbers – and if I remember rightly red briony). I got some seed from the Heritage Seed library and grow it up the hedge that divides us from our neighbour. It produces a plethora of little soft ‘slipper gourds’. They are said to be used for stuffing but mine are too small – here are some in a market in Colombia, achocha, caiwa, caihua, caigua, slipper gourd you could stuff them. I use them a bit like green peppers, and like them mostly because they are so prolific – not that tasty, but plesant. Well there in a crack in the rocks in the Machu Picchu urban sector was my Achocha (OK the Incas’ Achocha). Nobody had planted it – so was it a survivor of those the Incas grew there, or is it just a wild form growing locally? More on this a bit later. Here in the Peruvian Andes my beard provokes comment. It is unusual, men here often have little facial hair, and even if they can grow one it isn’t part of the custom. In Cusco I was asked if Iwas Christ (!), in Aguas Calientes the very friendly waiter (the only one who’s ever given me a high five as I left) asked if it was real, and I’ve been asked how long it took to grow. As I neared the end of my tour of MP one of the guides who was with a very small English speaking group said I looked like Pizarro – I said (in Spanish) – “Thanks very much – that murderer”, but made it clear that I wasn’t offended and noting the interest it was clearly causing here. As I boarded the bus the same guide moved her bag from the seat next to her and invited me to join her. She was actually interested in my Spanish speaking, wondering how I’d learnt – it’s quite flattering when people whose English is clearly at a professional level are happy to converse in Spanish.. Anyway she also wanted to know some words, funnily enough what is ‘calabaza’ called – cue my lecture on theimprecission of labelling the pumpkin, squash and marrow tribe (well not really a lecture – I was without powerpoint at that moment). So I told Haydee as she was called about my discovery, and of course about my strnge habit of growing Inca crops (actually Aztec ones too – Mexican husk tomatoes, ordinary tomatoes, amaranthus, chillies – but that’s another story) in Manchester. Once I’d tried and failed to describe it I remembered I’d taken photos – digital cameras eh. She recognised it but said they diddn’t call it Achocha. After a lot of thinking she remembered the local name, caiwa (or in Sanish orthography, caihua). But she dismissed my lineage theory, pointing out that there are wild potatoes in Peru. But I prefer my version. She also told me about the practice of freeze drying potatoes to turn them into a kind of flower – I had to say we don’t have an English word for the toxin that disappears on cooking. Wikipedia interestingly redirects from Achocha to Caigua – giving Caihua as a variant. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achocha Moral, if you want to get into interesting conversations, grow a beard – well there must be an equivalent for women. The return (added 24/4/12) The return was mostly after sunset. I swapped my allocated seat which was in a block of USA high schoolboys -aaaargh and ended up with a pleasant Canadian and German couple. Just before it went dark, the trai stopped at a passing place to let another train pass. Flower sellers apeared, a little bent od woman with the trademark truncated cone hat and a young woman with her toddler on her back. They had little chance of asae, given the way the trains windows are designed, although someone could buy from the doorway at the end of the coach. They had bunches including those white trumpets so prominent in Diego de Rivera’s work. I can’t really describe their expressions of patient pleading, while the little one waved, but they’ll stay with me for a long time.

Did the Exodus happen ?

Almost 4 month ago, at the time of Hanuka, I wrote an article about archeology, religion and ideology and promised to write soon a follow up about the events of the Exodus. Time has passed and I did not find the time to write it as it demands some real work and research. But since we celebrated Pessah (“Passover”) recently, I will try and wrap this up. This post won’t be as long, academic, sourced and developed as I intended, but I guess I will never find the time to do it properly. As I explained very basically, Biblical archeologists divide themselves between Minimalists that believe that the Bible is mostly myth and not a primary source and Maximalists who believe the contrary. One of the main issues they split over about is the reality of the Exodus. Everybody knows the story of the Exodus as told in the Bible – how Moshe, following God’s orders, freed the Children of Israel from Egypt and how they wandered 40 years in the desert before reaching the Land of Israel. This story is the core of the Bible, Judaism, and Jewish identity and world vision. Everything is based on it. Until a few decades ago, nobody would have challenged its basic reality – no matter what really happened, the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt and did leave to reach the land of Israel. Of course, historians and rationalists always had a problem with the 10 plagues or the crossing of the Red Sea. It seems also difficult to imagine a group of over 2 million people wandering 40 years in the desert – it’s even difficult today so a few thousand years ago, when all of Egypt population was apparently around 3 million and technology was very basic. But the fact that the exodus itself happened seemed evident. First, because if it did not happen, where does the story come from ? How would the Israelites have accepted this story if it was not based on a long and real tradition passed from fathers to sons ? Furthermore, there is no example in history of a people crafting an origin myth describing its ancestors as weak slaves. The founders are always kings and princes and heroes. Nobody could have invented such a story and force a whole people to believe it. And of course there is, as already stated, the simple centrality of the story in the Bible and Jewish tradition. Everything points to the fact that indeed a profound and traumatic event did occur. The problem is, the minimalists explain, that we did not find any archeological evidence about it. As I explained, the minimalists tend to see the absence of proof as a proof of absence. Of course after over 3,000 years, nobody expects to find a lot of evidences, but indeed nothing was found supporting the story at the time that it was supposed to happen. But when was it supposed to happen ? Here we touch maybe the core issue. The traditional rabbinical dating of the Exodus is 1311 BCE, but as I explained in my Purim post, using rabbinical dating in the context of historical dating is problematic because of the “100 years gap” issue. If we use the rabbinical dating we have to also use it for all the other dates and it is impossible to do. The dating of the Exodus by older generations of historians and some Christian traditions used to be around 1450 BCE (which in fact is consistent with the rabbinical dating when you take the “100 years gap” into account). The problem, among others, is that at this time, Canaan was firmly in the hand of Egypt and there is no possibility that a group of slaves could have left Egypt and establish itself there. But later, in the 13th century BCE, the power of Egypt recessed and Canaan was autonomous. Furthermore, the Egyptian Merneptah Stele of 1213 BCE speaks about victories in Canaan and strikingly states that “Israel is laid waste, its seed is no more”. This is the oldest archeological testimony about Israel and in the context it speaks about a people in Canaan and not a place. It means that the Israelites were in Canaan already in 1213 BCE and the Exodus had to happen before. In consequence, most historians started dating the Exodus around 1250 BCE. Here is the problem: archeologists did not find anything of the period supporting the existence of the Exodus. But they did find signs of the appearance of an Israelite civilization in the upper hills of Canaan at the same time and so started to imagine that in fact the Israelites were a Canaanite sub-culture that started to evolve differently. And the story of the Exodus was invented a few centuries later. Some are less extreme and think maybe the Israelites were a composite of different group including one that did indeed leave Egypt (for example, some Egyptian priest and his followers after the fall of Akhenaton’s religious reform). I must admit I always thought that the Merneptah story was weird. The Stele claims that Israel was wiped out, but 3225 years later, here we are. Of course, these official steles and victory monuments were not perfectly objective depictions of the truth and the kings and leaders had a tendency to overblow their real achievements, sometimes even claiming victory in battle that never happened. But this campaign in Canaan cannot be a complete invention, and something happened with the Israelites there. The strange thing is: the Bible does not say a word about it. You should expect that such a traumatic event would have be imprinted in the collective memory of Israel. So what can we make of all that ? First we must remind that archeology is a very very limited science. Few things remain of the past and the more we go back in time, the less we know for sure what happened. Most facts and dates used by historians about over 2500 years ago and more are no more than guesses based on very few elements. The dates and facts we read in history books are not scientific truths but the latest consensus reached according to the evidence we have. We must never forget that historians and archeologists know much less than what they claim. How many times did we see that the discovery of a new artifact changed many things we thought we knew about old history. If the Exodus did not happen in 1250 BCE but earlier, indeed, archeologists will never find any proof of its existence looking at this time frame. It can be that the entire dating system is wrong. I already wrote about the rabbinical dates that contradict the historical ones and you can make a good case (but not yet 100% solid) that the rabbis are right and the historians wrong – I once read such a very convincing essay. But some academics do also contest the validity of the mainstream dating and propose some alternatives like David Rohl and his new chronology – a very academic, serious and radical revision of the mainstream chronology that, of course, has been respectfully rejected by most historians. Its minority status is not in itself a proof of being wrong, just that it proposes such a paradigm shift that it can’t be accepted, even if it was 100% true. Anyway this new Chronology would solve most of the problems between the Bible and archeology, one of them Exodus and the conquest by Joshua. Because, if you indeed look farther in the past and move the Exodus to the 15th or 16th century, many findings do correspond to the biblical narrative. For example, there are indeed signs of violent conquest in Canaan in the 15th century BCE. And of course there are two famous historical events that have a very strong Biblical feeling about them and cannot not be linked to the Biblical story. One I already alluded to: the Akhenaten religious reform in the 14th century BCE. Pharaoh Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten and introduced a new monotheistic-like religion to Egypt. Freud and some historians (and even more pseudo-historians) imagined that Moses was a priest of this new religion that fled Egypt with some followers after the old religion was reinstated by the new rulers. Some people think that, on the contrary, Akhenaten was influenced by the events of the Exodus that led him to believe in the Hebrew One God – even if his religion was not the strict Hebrew monotheism. Another famous historical fact that seems connected to the Bible narrative is the Hyksos occupation of Egypt. This is not exactly a new idea as it has been expressed since Antiquity. The Hyksos were a coalition of Middle-East people, mainly Canaanites it seems, that conquered and ruled Lower Egypt during the 17th and 16th centuries BCE. They were finally expelled in the 16th century BCE by Higher Egypt kings that reunified Egypt. Some have proposed that the Hyksos were in fact the Hebrews. Others that the Hebrews were a group inside the Hyksos. More commonly the idea was that the Hebrew came in Egypt when the culturally close Hyksos ruled – and that may explain the story of the Pharaoh that did not know Josef – he was the Egyptian King that had expelled the Hyksos and in consequence saw the Hebrews as dangerous allies of the former ruling class. So did the Exodus happened ? I believe that it did, that’s the most logical and fitting possibility, but we can’t prove it yet scientifically. Does it really matter ? Some will say that the Exodus story is not to be understood as history but as a spiritual journey and its importance lies in the religious messages it gave the world. Maybe. But let’s be serious, if we had 100% proof that it never happened, I guess that it will change the way we perceive the story, Bible itself and ourselves. But that’s another discussion.

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