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  • From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
  • To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] theories and standards
  • Date: Sat, 23 May 2009 13:04:43 -0700

Yitzhak:
For once your famed ability to find sources has failed. And for me, again
the pitfalls of going from memory—I got it largely right, but slightly
wrong. I said no mention, while the article says only a bit player, not
major.

On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 11:12 AM, Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>wrote:

> On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 12:30 PM, K Randolph wrote:
>
> > A recent BAR article about the EA Letters mentions that there seems to be
> a
> > contradiction between the findings of archaeology and claims in the
> letters.
> > Strangely, the only major city found in Canaan was Hazor, which was never
> > mentioned in any of the letters. Ever heard of Judges 4? I, as well as
> > others, find the synthesis proposed by BAR to be less than satisfactory.
>
> Karl, I have other issues with your letter, but I must ask: Where did you
> get
> that "A recent BAR article about the EA Letters mentions .... the only
> major
> city found in Canaan was Hazor, which was never mentioned in any of the
> letters"? Is that from BAR? If so, could you please provide a full
> citation of
> the relevant BAR article? If not, could you provide a citation of the
> relevant
> source that tells you this? (I never realized Hazor was not mentioned in
> the
> EA letters, and I'm all for learning new things).


Biblical Archaeological Review, January-February 2009, p. 56. After
documenting that several sites mentioned as major cities in the EA Letters
were found by archaeologists either to be uninhabited, unwalled villages or
at best minor cities, the article states,

“The last site we will look at is Hazor—where the situation is somewhat
reversed. Excavations at Hazor have revealed a city of some 210 acres,
encompassing an upper city and a large lower city, most of which was
inhabited during the Late Bronze
Age. It is vastly bigger than any other site in Canaan … Hazor is a minor
player at best, however, in the Amarna letters. Only two letters from the
rulers of Hazor were found in the Amarna archive, and they shed no light on
the status of the city. … But if we had to deduce Hazor’s status from the
Amarna documents (and Egyptian royal inscriptions), we would have assumed it
was just one of numerous, relatively small Canaanite city-states. …”

The thesis of the whole article is that the EA letters provide a corrective
to the contradictory archaeological data, But the archaeological data far
better fits with the book of Judges—after the invasion of Canaan by Israel,
in the process destroying the wealthy Canaanite culture that existed prior
to the invasion, was in the Late Bronze Age repeatedly invaded in turn by
other nations and repeatedly stripped of wealth. One of those invaders was
wealthy and prosperous Hazor itself. The EA Letters describe an Egyptian
ruled Canaan through vassal kingdoms, best fitting post Solomon times.

>
> Yitzhak Sapir
>
> P.S. Jim (Stinehart), while I appreciate your interest in the EA letters,
> I
> would appreciate hearing Karl's take on this particular issue.


I don’t think Jim Stinehart is interested in this aspect of the EA Letters,
as it contradicts his conspiracy theories.

Karl W. Randolph.




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