The establishment of the Israelites as a nation in the Land of Canaan commences with the biblical account of the Exodus from Egypt. The time frame for the Exodus (Finkelstein &
Silberman 2001:57; Dever 2003:8-9) has now been confirmed as the mid - to late - 13th century BCE and the biblical ‘Pharaoh’ (if historical) was, presumably, Ramesses II of the 19th Dynasty (ca 1279-1212 BCE, on the low chronology). The pharaoh of the Exodus, who succeeded the pharaoh of the oppression (Ex 2:23) and who apparently drowns during the Exodus (Ex 14:6-8,10,27-30), would then have been Merneptah, Ramesses’ son. The Hebrew Bible locates the Hebrews in Egypt’s northeastern delta: the ‘land of Rameses [sic]’ (Gn 47:11) and the ‘land of Goshen’ (Gn 45:10; 47:4,6; Ex 8:22; 9:26). However, no definitive archaeological evidence for the Exodus has ever been found, nor is there any Egyptian text
from this period containing a reference to either ‘Hebrews’ or ‘Israelites,’ other than the mention of ‘Israel’ on Merneptah’s ‘Victory Stele’ (see 2.4.1). It is, of course, quite likely that the Egyptians would not have admitted, much less advertised, a defeat. In addition, the hundreds of archaeological sites on the delta have received comparatively little attention, when compared to the sites from Cairo down to Aswan; the high water tables make excavating to early levels both difficult and expensive (Hoffmeier 2007:32).
According to Exodus 1:11, the Hebrews (who by that time had been resident aliens in Egypt for a considerable period of time) were enslaved in order to construct the Pharaoh’s ‘store cities, Pithom and Raamses.’ The best candidates for ‘Pithom,’ however, do not fit the required historical circumstances in the mid - 13th century and its location remains a matter of controversy (Dever 2003:14). ‘Raamses’ has been conclusively identified with Avaris,3 the old Hyksos capital (at Tell ed-Dab‘a) and, although the site shows evidence of an Egyptian destruction (ca 1530 BCE) followed by a long period of abandonment before its re-founding as the royal city of ‘Raamses’ (or ‘Pi-Ramesses;’ ‘the house of Ramesses’), no actual remains of slave camps from the time of Ramesses II have been found (Dever 2003:15). The site could, nevertheless, have been used by the Israelite ancestors for making mud-bricks for his construction projects (Ex 5:5-21). Although most of the biblical ten plagues are typical
‘natural disasters’ common in the Middle East, Dever (2003:16,20) feels that the final plague (the death of all Egyptian firstborn males; Ex 12:29-32) and the crossing of the ‘Red’ (Reed) Sea and then the Sinai are deliberately miraculous; archaeological data can illuminate the historical context of the biblical narratives, not prove or disprove miracles.
In a parallel to the biblical immigration of Canaanites to Egypt and their violent return to Canaan, Avaris was sacked by Pharaoh Ahmose (18th Dynasty), according to an Egyptian source (16th century BCE), and he pursued the remnants of the Hyksos to their main southern Canaanite citadel, Sharuhen, near Gaza, which he then besieged and later stormed
(Finkelstein & Silberman 2001:55-56). Egyptian control over the movement of immigrants from Canaan into the delta was then tightened by the construction of a line of forts along its eastern border
3 Edgar Pusch and his colleagues, who have been excavating at Qantir since 1980, now believe it (and not its nearby sister site, Avaris) to be the ‘Pi-Ramesses’ built by Israelite slaves (Hoffmeier 2007:32-33).
and the entire length of the Ways of Horus (the international road from Egypt to Canaan;
Finkelstein & Silberman 2001:60), complete with granaries and wells, spaced at a day’s march from each other. A common name for these forts in the New Kingdom, was Migdol (cf Ex 14:2). No doubt, should a large group of Israelites fleeing from the delta have passed through this closely-controlled line of forts, then somewhere in the abundant Egyptian sources from the New Kingdom there should have been some reference to Israelites (Finkelstein & Silberman 2001:59-60). These forts and wells are depicted as a relief in the form of an early map on a wall in the temple of Amun at Karnak, dating to the era of Ramesses II’s father, Pharaoh Seti I (ca 1300 BCE). Remains of these forts in the northern Sinai, in areas closely corresponding to those in the Karnak relief, were excavated by Eliezer Oren (in the 1970s; cited by Finkelstein & Silberman 2001:60-61). Each comprised a strong, Egyptian military-type, brick fort, with storage facilities and a water reservoir.
2.2.3 ‘Wandering in the wilderness’
Of the dozens of sites listed in the various ‘stages’ of the ‘wandering in the wilderness’ (Nm 33), only a few have ever been persuasively identified: Migdol (Nm 33:7), where an Egyptian fortress which was only occupied in the 7th - 6th centuries BCE was found; Kadesh-barnea (Nm 33:36-37; Dt 1:9-46), where a small Egyptian fortress with several phases dating to the 10th - 7th centuries BCE was discovered; and Ezion-geber (Nm 33:35), which has impressive Late Iron Age remains - there are, however, no Late Bronze remains at any of these sites.
There is also doubt as to whether so many sites ever existed in the Sinai (Finkelstein &
Silberman 2001:63; Dever 2003:19). Even if the number of wandering Israelites according to the Hebrew Bible (‘about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children;’
Ex 12:37) is wildly exaggerated, Finkelstein and Silberman (2001:62-63) are of the opinion that some traces of material remains should be apparent. After all, using modern
archaeological techniques, the Sinai has revealed evidence of pastoral activity as early as the 3rd millennium BCE and as late as the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods; there is as yet, however, no evidence - not even a sherd nor a trace of an ancient encampment - from the 13th century BCE.