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  • From: Banyai AT t-online.de (Michael Banyai)
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ark of the Covenant
  • Date: 18 Aug 2004 15:23 GMT

Hallo Marianne Luban,

there is of course a great confusion between Tutimaeos / Dedumose and
Tethmosis, the one pharaoh having to deal first with the Hyksos and the one
falsely attributed by Manetho and al with their ousting. The bigger the name
the more stories are attributed to one, even if one has nothing to do with.
You must admit that the end of the Hyksos, and the term is clearly defined
for Manetho by his Hyksos dynasty, came with Ahmose, and the rest is only
projection onto Tuthmosis (similar name like Dedumose/Tutimaeos, etc).

Who the Hyksos have been is also quite clear in the mean-while: known from
Assyro-Babylonian sources Meluhha, and from biblical one´s Amalek.

By chance I have got a notice completing my argumentation concerning the
position of Meluhha from an astronomical diary published in JAOS(BCE
(Sachs-Hunger Diaries, 2: 470 A 14-15, A = BM 41581) as rendered by Gera and
Horowitz in JAOS 117.2 (1997)concerning the campaign of Antiochos IV into
Egypt 169 BC, saying:

"That month I (the astronomer) heard as follows: King Antiochus marched
victoriously through the cities of Meluhha and [...] the citizens,
processions (pompe) and rituals akin to the style of the Greeks . [...]"

We know that Antiochos IV conquered that year but the Delta except
Alexandria. He should have destroyed all Egyptian temples in his way (the
later temple of Onias was constructed over the ruins of such a destroyed
Egyptian temple)- this makes jubilating Egyptian crowds rather improbable.
This besides the rather improbable equation Meluhha=Lower Egypt (which
contradicts most other sources) makes this reference apply to an Antiochos
still underway to Egypt. The coastal towns of Amalek stretching till Sile
would fit this description.

Just to quote a few other examples concerning Meluhha during the LBA and
later:

the geography of Sargon of Akkade (a late neo-assyrian fake from the time of
Sargon II of Assur) : From…] the bridge of Baza on the edge of the road to
the land Meluhha to the mountain of cedar: the Hanean land, nine kings". Bazu
is identified on the Stela of Sfire I as being a town on the Euphrates,
probably Zeugma. The stretch of the land of Meluhha is of 120 Beru (since
Asarhaddon walks along in the Negeb) thus north-south, through the desert
from Zeugma till Negeb.

Assurbanipal counts Meluhha among the insurgent countries against his reign.
In other inscriptions does take Arabia its place.

According to the bible does the territory controlled by the Amalekites
stretch between Hawila and Sile. Hawila is demonstrably nothing else as
Guzana (mentioned in the inscription of the early Hurrian king Atalšen
roughly contemporary with the dynasty of Akkad. It mentions an offering to
“Nergal, Lord of Hawilum” by Atalšen the good shepherd, king of Urkiš and
Nawar. While Bar-Bahlul (10th century) mentioning the toponym HWYL´ (Hwila,
Huwayla, and in one exemplar of his lexicon H/Kwila or H/Kuwayla); which he
associates with the city of GWZN (vocalised Gawzan; Lexicon Syriacum ed.
R.Duval [1888-1896] col. 426 and n .25). Thus does the territory attributed
by the biblical sources to the Amalekites parallel the one of Meluhha in
Assyrian ones.

This set against the name of the aloes in roman times, called "Ammos
Hiksoitike", which was brought from Arabia. The name of the last king of the
Amalekites according to the arabian lore is much the same as that of the last
Hyksos after the fall of Awaris, in Sharuchen: H3mwdj, that was es-Someida.
The syllabic writing H3mwdj renders H-m-d-, thus with three open syllables.
Manetho usually renders „h“ as „s“. The Amalekites ought according to the
same arabic tradition have once controlled Egypt.

Insofar there are not so many posibilities concerning neither the date of the
Exodus nor the nature of the Hyksos.

Best regards,

Bányai Michael
Stuttgart




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