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  • From: peter_kirk AT sil.org
  • To: <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>, <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
  • Subject: Re[4]: Rohl (Peter)
  • Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 12:00:58 -0400





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Subject: Re[3]: Rohl (Peter)
Author: <mc2499 AT mclink.it> at Internet
Date: 26/09/1999 18:30


Dear Peter,

Thanks for your post.

<snip>

>I do want to defend Rohl against the charge that he has ignored the
>account of Sheshonq I's campaign in Palestine. He looks in detail at a
>list of cities attacked which is on "the Bubastite Portal" on "the
>southern outer wall of the hypostyle hall at Karnak".

There are very few of the 60 odd that are still clear enough to read!

PK: Rohl (p.126) reads 35 out of 55 (excluding the introduction) and
points out that most of the unreadable names are in the context of
groups of names in Galilee and Gilead. Of course he can't be sure.

<snip>

I have given a fair amount of raw data on the subject in previous posts
already, Peter. I was hoping to get some shreds of raw data from Dave, and
I hope to get some from you.

PK: Sorry, but I don't have my own raw data. I can tell you where you
can find a lot of it, but then you'll complain that I'm saying "read
the book" again!

Cheers,


Ian

I'll leave you with a few more bits of raw data.

There was a letter amongst the Amarna cache from a king of Assyria called
Ashur-uballit I. This king was four generations before the Assyian king,
Shamaneser I, who was responsible for bringing an end to the Mitannian
kingdom, Khanigalbat, thus bringing Assyria into direct contact with Egypt.
This was the reason why the Hittites (Hattusilis III) and the Egyptians
(Ramses II) entered into a treaty (a copy of which was found in both Egypt
and Hatti). Now this Shalmaneser I is *25 generations* before Shalmaneser
III, the king who fought in the battle of Qarqar in 853 BCE. Give 20 years
per generation and we go back 500 years, but as we have some
correspondences between the rulers of various kingdoms it allows us to see
that in certain periods there were more Assyrian kings than would normally
follow, so it's not hard to accept the 420 year figure provided in the
status quo. If Shalmaneser I is 420 years before Shamaneser I then it
follows that Ramses II is also of that period, ie circa 1270 BCE. (You can
probably find all information in any university level foundation text for
Assyrian history.)

PK: This is not raw data. In the Amarna letter Ashur-uballit sertainly
did not give himself the regnal number I! But he did name his father,
Ashur-nadin-ahhe, whereas the Assyrian king list gives Ashur-uballit
I's father's name as Eriba-Adad. So, very likely a different person.
Reference: you know where, p.396. Read the whole of Appendix E for
Rohl's view on Assyrian chronology. But he doesn't seem to mention the
Battle of Qarqar. It would be interesting to hear what he has to say
about that one.

By the way, your argument above is circular. The reason why you chose
420 years rather than 500 can only be to fit into the accepted period
of Rameses II. So it is hardly surprising that you come up with the
answer Rameses II. I'm not really trying to fit your 25 generations
into about 100 years (though the conventional chronology apparently
fits 36 pharaohs of the 13th dynasty into 138 years), but it does show
how easy it is to slip into precisely those methods of fixing
correspondences for which Rohl can easily be criticised.

Peter Kirk





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