Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] Question on 18th Dynasty Egypt (Peter Kirk)

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Walter R. Mattfeld" <mattfeld12 AT charter.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Question on 18th Dynasty Egypt (Peter Kirk)
  • Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 19:19:41 -0500

Dear Peter,

I was countering Marianne's blanket statement that nomads do NOT use pottery. I showed that they DID, from Stone Age through Middle Bronze times. And pottery exists in the Negev and Arabah for Nomads in the Ramesside era, the 13th-12th centuries BCE.

Is it possible that some nomads did not use pottery ? Yes. They could have used wooden bowls and cups, but how does one _cook_ in a "wooden" bowl ?

If scholars are correct that the Iron IA settlement of Transjordan and the Hill Country of Canaan as well as the Negev (Tel Masos and Nahal Yattir) is Israel under Joshua, and these sites possess pottery, including clay cooking pots, then where's the Iron IA pottery debris in the Sinai (it exists ONLY for the Negev and Arabah, Edom and Transjordan and Midian/Madyan) ?

Yes, it is possible that the Late Bronze-Iron IA sites have "all" been missed in the Sinai, hidden under flash flood deposits, but would people used to flashfloods and the wilderness, which can sweep away tents and people, be so "stupid" as to camp in places prone to flooding ? This would negate your argument the Israelite campsites are under flashflood deposits of silt. If they had any intelligence or wits about them they would camp at elevations employed by nomads in earlier ages, the Stone Age- Middle Bronze to avoid such perils as flash flooding. Yet the Late Bronze-Iron IA debris is not present as sherd scatters atop the earth's surface, like Stone Age sherd scatters.

Did Israel leave ALL pottery behind in Egypt and take ONLY wooden bowls and metal cooking pots ? Its possible, but improbable. They were getting the "bum's rush" in the exit from Egypt when dawn rose after the Passover night. Where would they have the time to round up tents, wooden vessels and metal pots, and flee Egypt ?

Where are the Late Bronze Age (1560-1200 BCE) burial tumuli of the thousands struck down in the wilderness ? Perhaps one might argue their carcasses were left to rot where they fell, but this seems unlikely as Israel did take the time to bury the king of Ai before the sun set. And Achan and family were buried under a _cairn_ of stones near Jericho. If they were content to let Israel rot on the earth's surface in the Sinai why not let Achan and family rot in full view of all at Jericho as a lesson ? Burial Cairns exist all over the Sinai, Negev and Arabah, places Israel wandered in according to the biblical narratives, but none are of an Exodus ca. 1446 BCE. If Rothenberg is right about the Negebite pottery being 13th-12th century BCE instead of 10th century BCE, then cairns associated with this pottery _would support_ those arguing for a Ramesside Exodus.

Regards,
Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, M.A. Ed.
mattfeld12 AT charter.net




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page