The Egyptian Nineteenth Dynasty (about 1292 – 1185 BCE)
Horemheb died without heir and was succeeded by his vizier Ramesses I (Menpehtyre / 1292-1290 BCE), who begins Dynasty 19. It is not without significance that the 19th Dynasty pharaohs hailed from the north and honored northern gods with their throne names. The prominence of the element Ra in their names may have been an attempt to limit the power of the priests of Amun. But there is a curious connection of the Ramesseside family with the old Hyksos stronghold in the eastern Delta. Ramesses was the son of a certain Seti from the Delta region, near the “Land of Goshen.” The name Seti, borne by Ramesses father, son, and a later pharaoh of the dynasty, means “man of Seth.” Seth was the god of Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos, who identified him with the Canaanite Baal. Perhaps it was the influence of Ramesses I as vizier that caused his predecessor Horemheb to add to the temple of Seth in Avaris. This is known from the so-called 400 Year Stele, erected by Ramesses II some time later, noting that Ramesses I’s son Seti celebrated the 400th year of Seth’s rule there and, by implication, the quadricentennial of the city’s ascendancy to power[1] .
After the short reign of Ramesses I, the throne passed to his son Seti I (Menmaatre / 1290-1279 BCE). An energetic ruler, Seti campaigned in Palestine and Syria to restore the empire there. Though Seti returned Canaan to the Egyptian fold, dominance of Syria was contested vigorously by the renewed Hittite Empire. Reliefs at the Karnak temple and two stelae of Seti I discovered at Beth Shean provide details of Seti’s campaigns[2] . The Karnak reliefs also detail the Egyptian military road leading across the northern Sinai into southern Palestine. A pictorial representation, approximating a map, shows over twenty way-stations on this “Way of Horus,” almost certainly the “Way of the Land of the Philistines” avoided by the Israelites at the beginning of the Exodus (Exod 13:17). Surveys have revealed a string of sites along this route, two of which have been excavated (Haruvit and Deir el-Balah)[3] . Seti embarked on a number of building projects, including an addition to the Karnak temple to Amun and temples at Abydos. Most importantly for biblical interests, he built a summer palace at Avaris, an ideal site for a center of communications with Canaan.
Seti I was succeeded by his son, Ramesses II (Usermaatresetepenre / 1279 – 1213 BCE), a historical figure of great significance. We can do no more here than mention some his most significant accomplishments. Militarily, the Hittites remained Egypt’s major opponent in Syria. In one of the best documented battles of antiquity[4] , Ramesses II fought the Hittites under Muwatallis at the Battle of Qadesh on the Orontes River. Nearly a complete disaster for Egypt, the battle was turned by Ramesses’ bravery and claimed by the pharaoh as a great victory. In reality, both sides suffered from what can best be described as a stalemate. A few years later, Ramesses concluded a peace treaty with Hittites (then under Hattusilis III)—the earliest of which copies from both parties are known[5] .
A number of text sources from the late 19th Dynasty indicate additional activity by Ramesses II in Canaan and give geographical details about the land. Of interest is a satirical letter from a scribe to a rival, preserved in the so called papyrus Anastasi I, refers to the “chief of Asher” in discussing the hazards of the Aruna Pass[6] .
Ramesses was the major builder of the New Kingdom. His most important works include the famous temple at Abu Simbel and impressive additions to the Karnak and Luxor temples. Across the river from Thebes was the Ramesseseum, his mortuary temple, and his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. He finished the temple of Seti I and added his own at Abydos. The Precinct of Ptah was rebuilt on a fabulous scale at Memphis, complete with colossal statues of the king. One of Ramesses II’s first projects, however, was to proclaim the expansion of his father’s palace in the eastern Delta into a new capital city to be called Pi- Ramesses (“domain of Ramesses”). In the massive construction work cApiru are specifically named as laborers. For this and other reasons outlined below, it seems plausible that Seti I was the pharaoh of the oppression of Israel and Ramesses II was the pharaoh of the Exodus.
It is worth noting that Ramesses’ first son, Amen-hir-khopshef, was apparently dead by the king’s 20th year (cf. Exodus 12:29). A huge tomb in the Valley of the Kings, quite recently identified as that of the sons of Ramesses, has sparked considerable interest but has yet to produce any royal remains[7] . In the end, Ramesses outlived many of his approximately 90 offspring and was succeeded by his 13th. son, Merneptah (Baenrehotephirmaat / 1213 – 1203 BCE).
At one time it was popular to assume that Merneptah was the pharaoh of the Exodus, because his mummy was conspicuously unaccounted for. This is no longer the case, as the remains of Merneptah are identified along with most of the New Kingdom rulers and kept in the Cairo Museum. Nevertheless, Merneptah does provide us with information relevant to the Exodus
In 1895, Petrie discovered a stele in the mortuary temple of Merneptah at Thebes. Originally a stele (now Cairo Museum 34025) of Amenhotep III, the stone was usurped by Merneptah who inscribed its back side with an account of a victory over the Libyans in the spring of his fifth year (about 1220 BCE). This account includes the earliest reference to mercenary peoples that later comprised part of the “Sea Peoples”. Added to the end of the text is a hymn relating a separate triumph over peoples in Canaan:
The princes are prostrate, saying: “Mercy!”
Not one raises his head among the Nine Bows.
Desolation is for Tehenu; Hatti is pacified;
Plundered is the Canaan with every evil;
Carried off is Ashkelon; seized upon is Gezer;
Yanoam is made as that which does not exist;
Israel is laid waste, his seed is not;
Hurru is become a widow for Egypt! [8]
This is the earliest known mention of Israel in non-biblical sources, and the only one in Egyptian literature. Clearly, our search has arrived at the point where we find a definable Israel. We now turn to the question of placing the Exodus against the proper historical background.
The Merenptah stelae in the Cairo Museum, bears the oldest known written reference to Israel. Engraved with its current text in 1207 BCE, the 7.5-foot-high, black granite monolith was discovered in the ruins of Merenptah’s funerary temple in western Thebes in 1896. Most of its hieroglyphic text celebrates Merenptah’s defeat of the Libyans and their Sea Peoples allies in his fifth regnal year. The text’s last two lines, however, briefly mention an earlier, successful campaign into Canaan, including four victories that seem to be depicted on the Karnak wall: “Ashkelon has been overcome. Gezer has been captured. Yano‘am was made non-existent. Israel is laid waste, (and) his seed is not.” The mention of Israel (see detail) appears slightly to the left of center in the second line from the bottom. The glyphs include determinatives—signs indicating a word’s category—that classify Ashkelon, Gezer and Yano‘am as city-states; but the determinative attached to Israel identifies it as a people, apparently not yet possessing a distinct city. This classification corresponds to Merenptah’s four battle scenes on the Karnak wall, the first three of which show besieged cities, while the fourth shows a people fighting in open country. Moreover, the first battle relief depicts Ashkelon, the first victory named in the stele. Further support for this correspondence comes from the location of a fragmentary duplicate of the stele text, including the description of the Canaanite campaign, discovered inside the Cour de la Cachette, near the battle relief.
NOTES
[1] ANET, 252-53.
[2] Amihai Mazar, “Beth Shean: Tel Beth-Shean and the Northern Cemetery,” NEAEHL, 1:217-19; ANET, 253-55; MBA, maps 37-38.
[3] Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 279-85; for a good popular article on Deir el-Bahari, see Trude Dothan, “Lost Outpost of Ancient Egypt,” National Geographic 162.6 (Dec. 1982): 739-69.
[4] Kenneth A. Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1982), 52-64; ANET, 255-56; MBA, maps 39-40.
[5] ANET, 199-203.
[6] ANET, 477-78.
[7] Salima Ikram and Dennis Forbes, “KV5: Retrospects and Prospects,” and Kenneth A. Kitchen, “‘As Arrows in His Quiver’: The Sons of Ramesses II,” KMT 7 (Spring 1996): 38-51.
[8] ANET, 376-78; see also the translation by Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 3 Vols. (Berkeley: University of California, 1976), 2: 73-77.