The Israelites in Egypt By David Rohl When explorers and archaeologists first set sail for Egypt at the beginning of the 19th century they were not just on a quest to uncover the exotic civilisation of the pharaohs. With trowel in one hand and Bible in the other, they were also hoping to find proof of holy scripture. Biblical Archaeology was born in Egypt with the search for Joseph and the Seven-year Famine, the Ten Plagues, Moses and the Exodus. However, the unfortunate reality is that, after more than 150 years of excavations, not one scrap of archaeological evidence for the Israelite Sojourn in Egypt has come to light. So, is Biblical Archaeology now in crisis? In recent years all the talk in academic circles has been gloomy – the Bible contains limited genuine history. No substantial Israelite population in Egypt; no military conquest of the Promised Land by Joshua and the twelve tribes; no wealthy kingdom of Solomon. In other words the Bible is now seen as little more than a collection of fairy tales. As Old Testament specialist Professor Thomas L. Thompson of Copenhagen University puts it: to believe in a Bible based on real historical events is 'not only dubious but wholly ludicrous'. He is supported in his views, to a lesser or greater extent, by scholars throughout academia – even in Israel. A conference was held in Israel at the end of 1999 to discuss an article published in the Jerusalem Report by Professor Zvi Herzog which took a similar stance to Thompson. That article caused uproar in Israel which resonated around the world via the press. The irony of all this is that scholars have reluctantly concluded that both professors are absolutely right – there really is no unambiguous evidence for any of the biblical characters and events prior to the 9th century BC (the time of Kings Omri and Ahab). But I believe there is a simple reason for this which is so blindingly obvious that everyone has overlooked it. Archaeologists have been looking in the right places for the Israelites but in entirely the wrong time! What do I mean by this? Imagine an ancient settlement mound (known in the Middle East as a 'tell' or 'tel') sliced down the middle to expose its construction levels. You would see something resembling a giant layer cake with the oldest strata at the bottom and the latest at the top. Scholars have always believed that (a) Solomon's palaces and chariot stables should be found in the upper Iron Age levels, (b) that evidence for the earlier destructions of the Israelite Conquest of Canaan should be located at the archaeological horizon between the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, and (c) that the Israelites were in Egypt during the Late Bronze Age. When archaeologists then dig down to look for evidence to confirm this view they find nothing – no Solomon, no burnt and destroyed cities, no Israelites. Small wonder they come to the conclusion that the Bible is myth. But if we simply adjust the stratigraphical time-line everything suddenly slots into place. The greatest period of prosperity in the land of Israel was in the Late Bronze Age when cities such as Megiddo, Hazor and Gezer  – all famously connected with Solomon – were at their zeniths. Only this era fits the biblical picture of Solomon as a powerful and wealthy merchant prince. The period of destruction marking the Conquest of the Promised Land by Joshua is also there for all to see – not in the Late Bronze Age but in the last period of the Middle Bronze Age when Jericho and Hazor were destroyed by fire and 'sown with salt' (but more on that in my next blog). Most spectacularly, the only time when we see a huge population of 'Asiatics' (people from Syro-Palestine) in Egypt is during the Middle Bronze Age – just prior to the destructions in Canaan. Everything fits perfectly in this revised historical model. A comparative study between the 'Asiatics' of the Middle Bronze Age and the Israelite slaves of Exodus reveals some remarkable 'coincidences'. Archaeology has shown that semitic-speaking foreigners from the north first began to appear in the Nile delta towards the end of the 12th Dynasty (in the period known as Middle Bronze IIA, conventionally dated to c. 1830 BC). Their largest population centre has been located at Avaris in the eastern delta – the region the Bible calls the Land of Goshen. There, since the mid-sixties, a team of Austrian archaeologists, under the direction of Professor Manfred Bietak, has been unearthing a fascinating historical picture. At first the Asiatic population is seen to prosper and multiply at a dramatic rate. Then, around the middle of the 13th Dynasty, Avaris show signs of sudden impoverishment. Seventy-five percent of the graves contain infants. The remaining burial population reveals that considerably more females reached adulthood than males. Analysis of the bones demonstrates that the people were malnourished and suffered from anaemia. A little further down the archaeological time-line there is a terrible plague – evidenced by numerous shallow death pits into which bodies have been thrown without grave goods. Then, suddenly, the Asiatic quarter of Avaris is abandoned – the foreigners simply pick up their belongings and leave. Some time later the major cities of Canaan are attacked and burnt to the ground. Does all this ring a bell? The Israelite tribes arrive in Goshen; they multiply; Pharaoh orders the culling of the Israelite male infants; Joseph's descendants are enslaved; the Tenth Plague; the Exodus from Egypt; the Conquest of the Promised Land? Is this the biblical evidence we have all been looking for, simply located earlier in time than we had envisaged? The possibility becomes even more likely when we study the story surrounding Joseph and the Famine in detail and compare it to what Egyptologists have uncovered in the archaeological remains left by the greatest pharaoh of the late 12th Dynasty. Amenemhat III reigned for over forty years and was famous in antiquity as the builder of the Egyptian Labyrinth constructed beside his pyramid. In his reign a massive earth moving operation was instigated to channel water from the Nile into the Faiyum basin. At the outflow of this diversionary channel two colossal statues of the king were erected, staring out into Lake Moeris – the huge inland sea which formed as a result of all that movement of water from the Nile valley. The pyramid and Labyrinth of Amenemhat III were constructed at Hawara beside the water channel, indicating its importance to the king. But why did Pharaoh Amenemhat go to all this effort in the first place? The biblical narrative surrounding the life of Joseph provides the answer. We all know the story of the young Hebrew slave who rose to power as Pharaoh's right-hand man and then went on to save Egypt from a terrible famine. Joseph had interpreted Pharaoh's dream in which seven fat cows rose from the Nile, to be followed by seven lean cows which then set about devouring the first. The interpretation of this puzzling dream was that Egypt would enjoy seven years of plenty before suffering seven years of famine. Joseph, now vizier, set about preparing for the lean years by reorganising the state's storage of grain supplies during the years of plenty. What we know of Amenemhat's reign appears to fit this episode rather well. The agricultural system was indeed reformed; a Department of the Peoples' Giving was established to organise the agricultural labour force and store grain on a national scale. The Hawara Labyrinth was made up of courts representing each district of Egypt – a sort of administrative centre built on a monumental scale. But the most significant aspect of the Faiyum operations was the water system itself which, put into the Joseph context, now gives us a completely fresh understanding of these unusual times. During Amenemhat's reign Nile level markers located on Egypt's southern border show that the annual Nile flood levels began to rise dramatically. At their peak the floods reached twenty-one metres above the normal river level, representing four times the quantity of water typically associated with the annual inundation. This quantity of water must have devastated the Nile valley, drowning livestock and washing away the mudbrick villages. But worst of all, the waters would have taken far longer than normal to retreat – way beyond the season for sowing and planting. So the seeding of crops could not have taken place at the correct time of year and the harvest must have failed, leaving Egypt without its precious annual supply of grain. The result? A devastating famine. This was what happened in the era of Amenemhat. The strange element of Pharaoh's dream in which the cattle rise from the River Nile can now be explained – both the years of plenty and the years of want were caused by the erratic behaviour of the Nile inundation which rose up from the river every summer. The Apis bull - a personification of kingship amongst grazing animals (i.e. cattle) – was also the animal deity associated with the Nile flood. Amenemhat's statues show him with worry lines, downcast mouth and melancholy eyes. As representations of pharaohs go this is quite exceptional. It is clear that the artists of the day had been ordered to portray their sovereign as weighed down by the responsibilities of state – showing that he too was suffering along with his people. Egypt's solution to the high inundations was to construct a channel which diverted fifty percent of the surplus water into the Faiyum basin, thus preventing the rest of the Nile valley and delta from the worst excesses of the floods. This was the brilliant solution which the vizier Joseph came up with. No wonder then that the traditional name for this channel, going back beyond memory, is Bahr Yussef – 'the Waterway of Joseph'. Amenemhat rewarded Joseph with a fine pyramid tomb, built for him within the garden of his palatial residence at Avaris in Goshen. There the Austrian archaeologists unearthed the shattered remains of a magnificent statue of an Asiatic official that once stood before his tomb. The head of the statue shows a man with flame red hair and pale skin. He holds an Asiatic throw-stick in his left hand – his sceptre of office. All these clues tell us that this high-ranking servant of Pharaoh was of semitic origins. The fact that he had his own palace and pyramid (unheard of for a non-royal) and that the king had given permission for him to have a colossal funerary statue (again unheard of) suggests that this individual was very special. When the tomb was opened by Professor Bietak it was found to be empty – no grave goods, no coffin and no body. This was extremely unusual. Plundered tombs are never emptied of bones which have no intrinsic value. However, the Bible once again comes to archaeology's rescue to solve the mystery. Joseph's body was carefully removed from his Egyptian tomb by Moses, at the time of the Israelite Exodus, and taken to the Promised Land. Oh, by the way, I neglected to mention that the colossal cult statue of the Asiatic official from Avaris showed remnants of pigment in several hues on its rear shoulder. This statue was decorated with a coat of many colours.

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