The Merneptah Stele was discovered in Thebes and is currently housed in Cairo, Egypt
The Merneptah Stele, also known as the Israel Stele or the Victory Stele of Merneptah, is an inscription by Merneptah, a pharaoh in ancient Egypt who reigned from 1213 to 1203 BCE. Discovered by Flinders Petrie at Thebes in 1896, it is now housed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.[1][2]
The text is largely an account of Merneptah's victory over the ancient Libyans and their allies, but the last three of the 28 lines deal with a separate campaign in Canaan, then part of Egypt's imperial possessions. It is sometimes referred to as the "Israel Stele" because a majority of scholars translate a set of hieroglyphs in line 27 as "Israel". Alternative translations have been advanced but are not widely accepted.[3]
The stele represents the earliest textual reference to Israel and the only reference from ancient Egypt.[4] It is one of four known inscriptions from the Iron Age that date to the time of and mention ancient Israel by name, with the others being the Mesha Stele, the Tel Dan Stele, and the Kurkh Monoliths.[5][6][7] Consequently, some consider the Merneptah Stele to be Petrie's most famous discovery,[8] an opinion with which Petrie himself concurred.[1]
^ abDrower 1995, p. 221.
^Redmount 2001, pp. 71–72, 97.
^Sparks 1998, pp. 96–.
^Hasel 1998, p. 194.
^Lemche 1998, pp. 46, 62: "No other inscription from Palestine, or from Transjordan in the Iron Age, has so far provided any specific reference to Israel... The name of Israel was found in only a very limited number of inscriptions, one from Egypt, another separated by at least 250 years from the first, in Transjordan. A third reference is found in the stele from Tel Dan – if it is genuine, a question not yet settled. The Assyrian and Mesopotamian sources only once mentioned a king of Israel, Ahab, in a spurious rendering of the name."
^Maeir, Aren. Maeir, A. M. 2013. Israel and Judah. pp. 3523–27, The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. New York: Blackwell. The earliest certain mention of the ethnonym Israel occurs in a victory inscription of the Egyptian king Merenptah, his well-known "Israel Stela" (c. 1210 BCE); recently, a possible earlier reference has been identified in a text from the reign of Rameses II (see Rameses I–XI). Thereafter, no reference to either Judah or Israel appears until the ninth century. The pharaoh Sheshonq I (biblical Shishak; see Sheshonq I–VI) mentions neither entity by name in the inscription recording his campaign in the southern Levant during the late tenth century. In the ninth century, Israelite kings, and possibly a Judaean king, are mentioned in several sources: the Aramaean stele from Tel Dan, inscriptions of Shalmaneser III of Assyria, and the stela of Mesha of Moab. From the early eighth century onward, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah are both mentioned somewhat regularly in Assyrian and subsequently Babylonian sources, and from this point on there is relatively good agreement between the biblical accounts on the one hand and the archaeological evidence and extra-biblical texts on the other.
^Fleming, Daniel E. (1998-01-01). "Mari and the Possibilities of Biblical Memory". Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie Orientale. 92 (1): 41–78. JSTOR 23282083. The Assyrian royal annals, along with the Mesha and Dan inscriptions, show a thriving northern state called Israël in the mid—9th century, and the continuity of settlement back to the early Iron Age suggests that the establishment of a sedentary identity should be associated with this population, whatever their origin. In the mid—14th century, the Amarna letters mention no Israël, nor any of the biblical tribes, while the Merneptah stele places someone called Israël in hill-country Palestine toward the end of the Late Bronze Age. The language and material culture of emergent Israël show strong local continuity, in contrast to the distinctly foreign character of early Philistine material culture.
^The Biblical Archaeologist, American Schools of Oriental Research, 1997, p. 35.
The MerneptahStele, also known as the Israel Stele or the Victory Stele of Merneptah, is an inscription by Merneptah, a pharaoh in ancient Egypt who...
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detailing the religious reforms enacted after the Amarna period; and the MerneptahStele, which features the first known historical mention of the Israelites...
inscriptions containing the name of Israel, the others being the MerneptahStele, the Tel Dan Stele, and one of the Kurkh Monoliths. Its authenticity has been...
Hilda Urlin. Some consider his most famous discovery to be that of the MerneptahStele, an opinion with which Petrie himself concurred. Undoubtedly at least...
region to continue dwindling. During the reign of his successor Merneptah, the MerneptahStele was issued which claimed to have destroyed various sites in...
archaeological artefact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the MerneptahStele of ancient Egypt (dated to the late 13th century BCE). Early expansions...
(1200–800 BCE) containing the name "Israel", the others being the MerneptahStele, the Mesha Stele, and the Kurkh Monoliths. The Tel Dan inscription generated...
increased in the Southern Levant. The king Merneptah faced a series of uprisings, as told in the MerneptahStele. The Pharaoh notes putting down a rebellion...
Israelites as well as legendary depictions of Israelite combatants. The MerneptahStele was discovered in 1896 and is dated to c. 1208 BCE. The last 3 of the...
earliest documented mention of "Israel" as a people appears on the MerneptahStele, an ancient Egyptian inscription dating back to around 1208 BCE. Archaeological...
column, was first published by Maspero two years later in 1883. The MerneptahStele from Thebes describes the reign of peace resulting from the victory...
Iron Age. Although the earliest mention of Israel is inscribed on the MerneptahStele around 1213–1203 BCE, religious literature tells the story of Israelites...
inhabited a part of Canaan. The name of Israel first appears in the MerneptahStele of ancient Egypt, dated to about 1200 BCE. Modern scholarship considers...
Israelites, semi-nomadic highlanders in central Canaan mentioned on the MerneptahStele at the end of the 13th century BCE, are to be identified as a Shasu...
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the first mention of Israel in the southern Levant recorded on the MerneptahStele. Cultural memories of the disaster told of a "lost golden age".[citation...
such source is a stela of Seti I found in Beit She'an. Another is the MerneptahStele. The location of Yenoam is a matter of speculation. Suggested sites...
enters historical records in the 13th century BCE with the Egyptian MerneptahStele, and, while the worship of Yahweh is circumstantially attested to as...
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to Canaan. This word spelled as Hurru or Kharru is also used on the MerneptahStele. In this inscription, Hatti and Hurru stand for the whole region of...
was defeated. Libu appears as an ethnic name on the MerneptahStele, also known as the Israel Stele. Ramesses III defeated the Libyans in the 5th year...
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containing the name of Israel, the others being the MerneptahStele, the Tel Dan Stele, and the Mesha Stele. This description is also the oldest document that...
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