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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Qestion on 18th Dynasty Egypt (Marianne Luban)

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "Walter R. Mattfeld" <mattfeld12 AT charter.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Qestion on 18th Dynasty Egypt (Marianne Luban)
  • Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 23:44:26 +0000

On 19/11/2004 23:12, Walter R. Mattfeld wrote:

...

I am "surprised" by your argument, that there is no evidence for a large
number of people coming into and leaving Egypt in the archaeological record.
Had you read the archaeological reports on what has been found in Egypt and
the Sinai, would know that such an argument is untenable. Trade goods from
the Negev appear in Egypt in the Early Bronze Age and Egyptian items appear
in the Negev in the same period. Along the "way of Horus" the biblical "way
of the Philistines" archaeologists have found pottery and campsites
witnessing these goods moving into and out of Egypt and the Negev. They have
even found "overnight" campsites along this route.


OK, the overnight campsites of traders were found. These people were not nomads. Some of them were dealers in pottery. Not surprisingly pottery remains were found. This does not imply that there were not other nomads who, as Marianne suggested, did not use pottery.
...


If ANYONE has knowledge of archaeological debris of the "BCE period" from
the vicinity of the plain er Raha and Gebels Musa, 'Arribeh, Ras Safsfa and
Katharina, I would be _most appreciative_ of recieving said data to update
my files on the Exodus and the archaeological evidence for it.


Yet again, Walter, you are arguing from silence. The lack of evidence for BCE encampment near to Mount Sinai is not evidence that there was no such encampment - although it might be evidence that the Israelites used skins rather than pottery. And there is also the possibility that you are looking quite in the wrong place (even that Sinai was in what is now Saudi Arabia), or that the entire campsite has been washed out by flash floods or covered with thick layers of silt or sand. Do you know what the terrain around Sinai is like? I have been there. The flat-bottomed valley just west of St. Catherine's monastery is clearly covered with a flat layer of deposits from flash floods, which very likely turn it into a temporary lake. If that was where the Israelites camped, any remains they left behind could be covered by metres of sand and silt.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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