EGYPTIAN TRAVELLERS IN CANAAN
Palestine has been a land of pilgrims and tourists from the very
beginning of its history. It was the goal of the migration of Abraham
and his family, and it was equally the object of the oldest book of
travels with which we are acquainted. Allusion has already been made
more than once to the Egyptian papyrus, usually known as _The Travels of
a Mohar_, and in which a satirical account is given of a tour in
Palestine and Syria. The writer was a professor, apparently of
literature, in the court of Ramses II., and he published a series of
letters to his friend, Nekht-sotep, which were long admired as models of
style. Nekht-sotep was one of the secretaries attached to the military
staff, and among the letters is a sort of parody of an account given by
Nekht-sotep of his adventures in Canaan, which was intended partly to
show how an account of the kind ought to have been written by an
accomplished penman, partly to prove the superiority of the scribe's
life to that of the soldier, partly also, it may be, for the sake of
teasing the writer's correspondent. Nekht-sotep had evidently assumed
airs of superiority on the strength of his foreign travels, and his
stay-at-home friend undertook to demonstrate that he had himself enjoyed
the more comfortable life of the two. Nekht-sotep is playfully dubbed
with the foreign title of Mohar--or more correctly Muhir--a word
borrowed from Assyrian, where it primarily signified a military
commander and then the governor of a province.
Long before the days of the nineteenth dynasty, however, there had been
Egyptian travellers in Palestine, or at least in the adjoining
countries. One of the Egyptian books which have come down to us contains
the story of a certain Sinuhit who had to fly from Egypt in consequence
of some political troubles in which he was involved after the death of
Amon-m-hat I. of the twelfth dynasty. Crossing the Nile near Kher-ahu,
the Old Cairo of to-day, he gained the eastern bank of the river and
made his way to the line of forts which protected Egypt from its Asiatic
enemies. Here he crouched among the desert bushes till night-fall, lest
"the watchmen of the tower" should see him, and then pursued his journey
under the cover of darkness. At daybreak he reached the land of Peten
and the wadi of Qem-uer on the line of the modern Suez Canal. There
thirst seized upon him; his throat rattled, and he said to
himself--"This is the taste of death." A Bedawi, however, perceived him
and had compassion on the fugitive: he gave him water and boiled milk,
and Sinuhit for a while joined the nomad tribe. Then he passed on to the
country of Qedem, the Kadmonites of the Old Testament (Gen. xv. 19;
Judges vi. 3), whence came the wise men of the East (1 Kings iv. 30).
After spending a year and a half there, 'Ammu-anshi, the prince of the
Upper land of Tenu, asked the Egyptian stranger to come to him, telling
him that he would hear the language of Egypt. He added that he had
already heard about Sinuhit from "the Egyptians who were in the
country." It is clear from this that there had been intercourse for some
time between Egypt and "the Upper Tenu."
It is probable that Dr. W. Max Müller is right in seeing in Tenu an
abbreviated form of Lutennu (or Rutenu), the name by which Syria was
known to the Egyptians. There was an Upper Lutennu and a Lower Lutennu,
the Upper Lutennu corresponding with Palestine and the adjoining
country, and thus including the Edomite district of which 'Ammu-anshi or
Ammi-anshi was king. In the name of 'Ammu-anshi, it may be observed, we
have the name of the deity who appears as Ammi or Ammon in the kingdom
of the Ammonites, and perhaps forms the second element in the name of
Balaam. The same divine name enters into the composition of those of
early kings of Ma'in in Southern Arabia, as well as of Babylonia in the
far East. (See above, p. 64.)
'Ammu-anshi married Sinuhit to his eldest daughter, and bestowed upon
him the government of a district called Aia which lay on the frontier of
a neighbouring country. Aia is described as rich in vines, figs, and
olives, in wheat and barley, in milk and cattle. "Its wine was more
plentiful than water," and Sinuhit had "daily rations of bread and wine,
cooked meat and roast fowl," as well as abundance of game. He lived
there for many years. The children born to him by his Asiatic wife grew
up and became heads of tribes. "I gave water to the thirsty," he says;
"I set on his journey the traveller who had been hindered from passing
by; I chastised the brigand. I commanded the Beduin who departed afar to
strike and repel the princes of foreign lands, and they marched (under
me), for the prince of Tenu allowed that I should be during long years
the general of his soldiers."
Sinuhit, in fact, had given proof of his personal prowess at an early
period in his career. The champion of Tenu had come to him in his tent
and challenged him to single combat. The Egyptian was armed with bow,
arrows, and dagger; his adversary with battle-axe, javelins, and
buckler. The contest was short, and ended in the decisive victory of
Sinuhit, who wounded his rival and despoiled him of his goods.
A time came, however, when Sinuhit grew old, and began to long to see
once more the land of his fathers before he died. Accordingly he sent a
petition to the Pharaoh praying him to forgive the offences of his youth
and allow him to return again to Egypt. The petition was granted, and a
letter was despatched to the refugee, permitting him to return. Sinuhit
accordingly quitted the land where he had lived so long. First of all he
held a festival, and handed over his property to his children, making
his eldest son the chief of the tribe. Then he travelled southward to
Egypt, and was graciously received at court. The coarse garments of the
Beduin were exchanged for fine linen; his body was bathed with water and
scented essences; he lay once more on a couch and enjoyed the luxurious
cookery of the Egyptians. A house and pyramid were built for him; a
garden was laid out for him with a lake and a kiosk, and a golden statue
with a robe of electrum was set up in it. Sinuhit ceased to be an
Asiatic "barbarian," and became once more a civilized Egyptian.
The travels of Sinuhit were involuntary, but a time came when a tour in
Palestine was almost as much the fashion as it is to-day. The conquests
of Thothmes III. had made Syria an Egyptian province, and had introduced
Syrians into the Egyptian bureaucracy. Good roads were made throughout
the newly-acquired territory, furnished with post-houses where food and
lodging could be procured, and communication between Egypt and Canaan
thus became easy and frequent. The fall of the eighteenth dynasty caused
only a momentary break in the intercourse between the two countries;
with the establishment of the nineteenth dynasty it was again resumed.
Messengers passed backward and forward between Syria and the court of
the Pharaoh; Asiatics once more thronged into the valley of the Nile,
and the Egyptian civil servant and traveller followed in the wake of the
victorious armies of Seti and Ramses. _The Travels of a Mohar_ is the
result of this renewed acquaintance with the cities and roads of
Palestine.
The writer is anxious to display his knowledge of Syrian geography.
Though he had not himself ventured to brave the discomforts of foreign
travel, he wished to show that he knew as much about Canaan as those who
had actually been there. A tour there was after all not much to boast
of; it had become so common that the geography of Canaan was as well
known as that of Egypt itself, and the stay-at-home scribe had
consequently no difficulty in compiling a guide-book to it.
The following is the translation given by Dr. Brugsch of the papyrus,
with such alterations as have been necessitated by further study and
research. "I will portray for thee the likeness of a Mohar, I will let
thee know what he does. Hast thou not gone to the land of the Hittites,
and hast thou not seen the land of Aupa? Dost thou not know what Khaduma
is like; the land of Igad'i also how it is formed? The Zar (or Plain) of
king Sesetsu (Sesostris)--on which side of it lies the town of Aleppo,
and how is its ford? Hast thou not taken thy road to Kadesh (on the
Orontes) and Tubikhi? Hast thou not gone to the Shasu (Beduin) with
numerous mercenaries, and hast thou not trodden the way to the
Maghar[at] (the caves of the Magoras near Beyrout) where the heaven is
dark in the daytime? The place is planted with maple-trees, oaks, and
acacias, which reach up to heaven, full of beasts, bears (?), and lions,
and surrounded by Shasu in all directions. Hast thou not ascended the
mountain of Shaua, and hast thou not trodden it? There thy hands hold
fast to the [rein] of thy chariot; a jerk has shaken thy horses in
drawing it. I pray thee, let us go to the city of Beeroth (Beyrout).
Hast thou not hastened to its ascent after passing over the ford in
front of it?
"Do thou explain this relish for [the life of] a Mohar! Thy chariot lies
there [before] thee; thy [feet] have fallen lame; thou treadest the
backward path at eventide. All thy limbs are ground small. Thy [bones]
are broken to pieces, and thou dost fall asleep. Thou awakest: it is the
time of gloomy night, and thou art alone. Has not a thief come to rob
thee? Some grooms have entered the stable; the horse kicks out; the
thief has made off in the night, thy clothes are stolen. Thy groom wakes
up in the night; he sees what has happened to him; he takes what is
left, he goes off to bad company, he joins the Beduin. He transforms
himself into an Asiatic. The police (?) come, they [feel about] for the
robber; he is discovered, and is immovable from terror. Thou wakest,
thou findest no trace of them, for they have carried off thy property.
"Become [again] a Mohar who is fully accoutred. Let thy ear be filled
with that which I relate to thee besides.
"The town 'Hidden'--such is the meaning of its name Gebal--what is its
condition? Its goddess [we will speak of] at another time. Hast thou not
visited it? Be good enough to look out for Beyrout, Sidon, and Sarepta.
Where are the fords of the land of Nazana? The country of Authu (Usu),
what is its condition? They are situated above another city in the sea,
Tyre the port is its name. Drinking-water is brought to it in boats. It
is richer in fishes than in sand. I will tell thee of something else. It
is dangerous to enter Zair'aun. Thou wilt say it is burning with a very
painful sting (?). Come, Mohar. Go forward on the way to the land of
Pa-'Aina. Where is the road to Achshaph (Ekdippa)? Towards which town?
Pray look at the mountain of User. How is its crest? Where is the
mountain of Sakama (Shechem)? Who can surmount it? Mohar, whither must
you take a journey to the land of Hazor? How is its ford? Show me how
one goes to Hamath, Dagara, [and] Dagar-el, to the place where all
Mohars meet? Be good enough to spy out its road; cast a look on Yâ....
When one goes to the land of Adamim, to what is one opposite? Do not
draw back, but instruct us. Guide us, that we may know, O leader!
"I will name to thee other cities besides these. Hast thou not gone to
the land of Takhis, to Kafir-Marona, Tamnah, Kadesh, Dapul, Azai,
Harnammata, and hast thou not seen Kirjath-Anab, near Beth-Sopher? and
dost thou not know Adullam [and] Zidiputa? Or dost thou not know any
better the name of Khalza in the land of Aupa, [like] a bull upon its
frontiers? Here is the place where all the mighty warriors are seen. Be
good enough to look and see the chapel of the land of Qina, and tell me
about Rehob. Describe Beth-sha-el (Beth-el) along with Tarqa-el. The
ford of the land of Jordan, how is it crossed? Teach me to know the
passage that leads to the land of Megiddo, which lies in front of it.
Verily thou art a Mohar, well skilled in the work of the strong hand.
Pray, is there found a Mohar like thee, to place at the head of the
army, or a _seigneur_ who can beat thee in shooting?
"Beware of the gorge of the precipice, 2000 cubits deep, which is full
of rocks and boulders. Thou turnest back in a zigzag, thou bearest thy
bow, thou takest the iron in thy left hand. Thou lettest the old men
see, if their eyes are good, how, worn out with fatigue, thou supportest
thyself with thy hand. _Ebed gamal Mohar n'amu_ ('A camel's slave is the
Mohar! they say'); so they say, and thou gainest a name among the Mohars
and the knights of the land of Egypt. Thy name becomes like that of
Qazairnai, the lord of Asel, when the lions found him in the thicket, in
the defile which is rendered dangerous by the Shasu who lie in ambush
among the trees. They measured four cubits from the nose to the heel,
they had a grim look, without softness; they cared not for caresses.
"Thou art alone, no strong one is with thee, no _armée_ is behind thee,
no _Ariel_ who prepares the way for thee, and gives thee information of
the road before thee. Thou knowest not the road. The hair on thy head
stands on end; it bristles up. Thy soul is given into thy hands. Thy
path is full of rocks and boulders, there is no outlet near, it is
overgrown with creepers and wolf's-bane. The precipice is on one side of
thee, the mountain and the wall of rock on the other. Thou drivest in
against it. The chariot jumps on which thou art. Thou art troubled to
hold up thy horses. If it falls down the precipice, the pole drags thee
down too. Thy _ceintures_ are pulled away. They fall down. Thou
shacklest the horse, because the pole is broken on the path of the
defile. Not knowing how to tie it up, thou understandest not how it is
to be repaired. The _essieu_ is left on the spot, as the load is too
heavy for the horses. Thy courage has evaporated. Thou beginnest to run.
The heaven is cloudless. Thou art thirsty; the enemy is behind thee; a
trembling seizes thee; a twig of thorny acacia worries thee; thou
thrustest it aside; the horse is scratched till at length thou findest
rest.
"Explain to me thy liking for [the life of] a Mohar!
"Thou comest into Joppa; thou findest the date-palm in full bloom in its
time. Thou openest wide thy mouth in order to eat. Thou findest that the
maid who keeps the garden is fair. She does whatever thou wantest of
her.... Thou art recognized, thou art brought to trial, and owest thy
preservation to being a Mohar. Thy girdle of the finest stuff thou
payest as the price of a worthless rag. Thou sleepest every evening with
a rug of fur over thee. Thou sleepest a deep sleep, for thou art weary.
A thief steals thy bow and thy sword from thy side; thy quiver and thy
armour are cut to pieces in the darkness; thy pair of horses run away.
The groom takes his course over a slippery path which rises before him.
He breaks thy chariot in pieces; he follows thy foot-steps. [He finds]
thy equipments which had fallen on the ground and had sunk into the
sand, leaving only an empty space.
"Prayer does not avail thee, even when thy mouth says, 'Give food in
addition to water, that I may reach my goal in safety,' they are deaf
and will not hear. They say not yes to thy words. The iron-workers enter
into the smithy; they rummage in the workshops of the carpenters; the
handicraftsmen and saddlers are at hand; they do whatever thou
requirest. They put together thy chariot; they put aside the parts of it
that are made useless; thy spokes are _façonné_ quite new; thy wheels
are put on; they put the _courroies_ on the axles and on the hinder
part; they splice thy yoke, they put on the box of thy chariot; the
[workmen] in iron forge the ...; they put the ring that is wanting on
thy whip, they replace the _lanières_ upon it.
"Thou goest quickly onward to fight on the battle-field, to do the deeds
of a strong hand and of firm courage.
"Before I wrote I sought me out a Mohar who knows his power and leads
the _jeunesse_, a chief in the _armée_, [who travels] even to the end of
the world.
"Answer me not 'This is good; this is bad;' repeat not to me your
opinion. Come, I will tell thee all that lies before thee at the end of
thy journey.
"I begin for thee with the palace of Sesetsu (Sesostris). Hast thou not
set foot in it by force? Hast thou not eaten the fish in the brook ...?
Hast thou not washed thyself in it? With thy permission I will remind
thee of Huzana; where is its fortress? Come, I pray thee, to the palace
of the land of Uazit, even of Osymandyas (Ramses II.) in his victories,
[to] Saez-el, together with Absaqbu. I will inform thee of the land of
'Ainin (the two Springs), the customs of which thou knowest not. The
land of the lake of Nakhai, and the land of Rehoburta thou hast not seen
since thou wast born, O Mohar. Rapih is widely extended. What is its
wall like? It extends for a mile in the direction of Gaza."
The French words introduced from time to time by Dr. Brugsch into the
translation represent the Semitic words which the Egyptian writer has
employed. They illustrate the fashionable tendency of his day to fill
the Egyptian vocabulary with the words and phrases of Canaan. It was the
revenge taken by Palestine for its invasion and conquest by the armies
of Seti and Ramses. Thus _armée_ corresponds to the Semitic _tsaba_,
"army," _jeunesse_ to _na'aruna_, "young men." The Egyptian scribe,
however, sometimes made mistakes similar to those which modern novelists
are apt to commit in their French quotations. Instead of writing, as he
intended, _'ebed gamal Mohar na'amu_ ("a camel's slave is the Mohar!
they say"), he has assigned the Canaanite vowel _ayin_ to the wrong
word, and mis-spelt the name of the "camel," so that the phrase is
transformed into _abad kamal Mohar n'amu_ ("the camel of the Mohar has
perished, they are pleasant"). (It is curious that a similar mistake in
regard to the spelling of _'ebed_, "_slave_" or "_servant_" has been
made in an Aramaic inscription which I have discovered on the rocks near
Silsileh in Upper Egypt, where the name of Ebed-Nebo is written
Abed-Nebo.)
Most of the geographical names mentioned in the papyrus can be
identified. Aupa, the Ubi of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, was on the
borders of the land of the Hittites, and not far from Aleppo. The Zar or
"Plain" of Sesostris makes its appearance in the lists of conquered
towns and countries which were drawn up by Thothmes III., Seti I.,
Ramses II., and Ramses III., in order to commemorate their victories in
Syria. The word probably migrated from Babylonia, where the _zeru_
denoted the alluvial plain which lay between the Tigris and the
Euphrates. Kadesh, the southern capital of the Hittites, "in the land of
the Amorites," lay on the Orontes, close to the lake of Horns, and has
been identified by Major Conder with the modern Tel em-Mindeh. Tubikhi,
of which we have already heard in the Tel el-Amarna letters, is also
mentioned in the geographical lists inscribed by Thothmes III. on the
walls of his temple at Karnak (No. 6); it there precedes the name of
Kamta or Qamdu, the Kumidi of Tel el-Amarna. It is the Tibhath of the
Old Testament, out of which David took "very much brass" (1 Chron.
xviii. 8). The Maghar(at) or "Caves" gave their name to the Magoras, the
river of Beyrout, as well as to the Mearah of the Book of Joshua (xiii.
4). As for the mountain of Shaua, it is described by the Assyrian king
Tiglath-pileser III. as in the neighbourhood of the northern Lebanon,
while the city of the Beeroth or "Cisterns" is probably Beyrout.
The Mohar is now carried to Phoenicia. Gebal, Beyrout, Sidon, and
Sarepta, are named one after the other, as the traveller is supposed to
be journeying from north to south. The "goddess" of Gebal was Baaltis,
so often referred to in the letters of Rib-Hadad, who calls her "the
mistress of Gebal." In saying, however, that the name of the city meant
"Hidden," the writer has been misled by the Egyptian mispronunciation of
it. It became Kapuna in the mouths of his countrymen, and since _kapu_
in Egyptian signified "hidden mystery," he jumped to the conclusion that
such was also the etymology of the Phoenician word. In the "fords of the
land of Nazana" we must recognize the river Litâny, which flows into the
sea between Sarepta and Tyre. At all events, Authu or Usu, the next city
mentioned, is associated with Tyre both in the tablets of Tel el-Amarna
and in the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings. It seems to have been the
Palætyros or "Older Tyre" of classical tradition, which stood on the
mainland opposite the more famous insular Tyre. Phoenician tradition
ascribes its foundation to Usôos, the offspring of the mountains of
Kasios and Lebanon, and brother of Memrumus, "the exalted," and
Hypsouranios, "the lord of heaven," who was the first to invent a
clothing of skins, and to sail upon the water in boats, and who had
taught mankind to adore the fire and the winds, and to set up two
pillars of stone in honour of the deity. From Usu the Mohar is naturally
taken to the island rock of Tyre.
Next comes a name which it is difficult to identify. All that is clear
is that between Zar or Tyre and Zair'aun there is some connection both
of name and of locality. Perhaps Dr. Brugsch is right in thinking that
in the next sentence there is a play upon the Hebrew word _zir'âh_,
"hornet," which seems to have the same root as Zair'aun. It may be that
Zair'aun is the ancient city south of Tyre whose ruins are now called
Umm el-'Amûd, and whose older name is said to have been Turân.
Unfortunately the name of the next place referred to in the Mohar's
travels is doubtful; if it is Pa-'A(y)ina, "the Spring," we could
identify it with the modern Râs el-'Ain, "the Head of the Spring." This
is on the road to Zib, the ancient Achshaph or Ekdippa.
"The mountain of User" reminds us curiously of the tribe of Asher, whose
territory included the mountain-range which rose up behind the
Phoenician coast. But it may denote Mount Carmel, whose "crest" faces
the traveller as he makes his way southward from Tyre and Zib. In any
case the allusion to it brings to the writer's mind another mountain in
the same neighbourhood, the summit of which similarly towers into the
sky. This is "the mountain of Shechem," either Ebal or Gerizim, each of
which is nearly 3000 feet above the level of the sea. It is the first
mention that we have of Shechem outside the pages of the Old Testament.
Shechem, however, did not lie in the path of the Mohar, and the
reference to its mountain is made parenthetically only. We are therefore
carried on to Hazor, which afterwards became a city of Naphtali, and of
which we hear in the letters of Tel el-Amarna. From Hazor the road ran
northwards to Hamath, the Hamah of to-day. Hazor lay not far to the
westward of Adamim, which the geographical lists of Thothmes III. place
between the Sea of Galilee and the Kishon, and which is doubtless the
Adami of Naphtali (Josh. xix. 33). Here the tour of the Mohar comes to
an abrupt close. After this the writer contents himself with naming a
number of Syrian cities without regard to their geographical position.
He is anxious merely to show off his knowledge of Canaanitish geography;
perhaps also to insinuate doubts as to the extent of his correspondent's
travels.
Takhis, the Thahash of Gen. xxii. 24, was, as we have seen, in the land
of the Amorites, not very far distant from Kadesh on the Orontes.
Kafir-Marona, "the village of Marona," may have been in the same
direction. The second element in the name is met with elsewhere in
Palestine. Thus one of Joshua's antagonists was the king of
Shim-ron-meron (Josh. xii. 20), and the Assyrian inscriptions tell us of
a town called Samsi-muruna. Tamnah was not an uncommon name. We hear of
a Tamnah or Timnah in Judah (Josh. xv. 57), and of another in Mount
Ephraim (Josh. xix. 50). Dapul may be the Tubuliya of the letters of
Rib-Hadad, Azai, "the outlet," seems to have been near a pass, while
Har-nammata, "the mountain of Nammata," is called Har-nam by Ramses
III., who associates it with Lebanoth and Hebron. The two next names,
Kirjath-Anab and Beth-Sopher, are of peculiar interest, since they
contain the first mention that was come down to us of Kitjath-Sepher,
the literary centre of the Canaanites in the south of Palestine, which
was captured and destroyed by Othniel the Kenizzite. In the Old
Testament (Josh. xv. 49, 50) Kirjath-Sannah or Kirjath-Sepher and Anab
are coupled together just as Kirjath-Anab and Beth-Sopher are by the
Egyptian scribe, and it is therefore evident that he has interchanged
the place of the equivalent terms Kirjath, "city," and Beth, "house."
But his spelling of the second name shows us how it ought to be
punctuated and read in the Old Testament. It was not Kirjath-Sepher,
"the city of book(s)," but Kirjath-Sopher, "the city of scribe(s)," and
Dr. W. Max Müller has pointed out that the determinative of "writing"
has been attached to the word _Sopher_, showing that the writer was
fully acquainted with its meaning. Kirjath-Sannah, "the city of
instruction," as it was also called, was but another way of emphasizing
the fact that here was the site of a library and school such as existed
in the towns of Babylonia and Assyria. Both names, however,
Kirjath-Sopher and Kirjath-Sannah, were descriptive rather than
original; its proper designation seems to have been Debir, "the
sanctuary," the temple wherein its library was established, and which
has caused the Egyptian author to call it a "Beth," or "temple," instead
of a "Kirjath," or "city."
Like Anab and Kirjath-Sopher, Adullam and Zidiputa were also in southern
Canaan. It was in the cave of Adullam that David took refuge from the
pursuit of Saul, and we learn from Shishak that Zidiputa--or
Zadiputh-el, as he calls it--was in the south of Judah. From hence we
are suddenly transported to the northern part of Syria, and the Mohar is
asked if he knows anything about Khalza in the land of Aupa. Khalza is
an Assyrian word signifying "Fortress," and Aupa, the Ubi of the Tel
el-Amarna tablets, was not far from Aleppo. The allusion to the "bull"
is obscure.
Then once more we are summoned back to Palestine. In the annals of
Thothmes III. we are told that "the brook of Qina" was to the south of
Megiddo, so that the name of the district has probably survived in that
of "Cana of Galilee." Rehob may be Rehob in Asher (Josh. xix. 28), which
was near Kanah, though the name is so common in Syria as to make any
identification uncertain. Beth-sha-el, on the contrary, is Beth-el. We
first meet with the name in the geographical lists of Thothmes III., and
the fact that it is Babylonian in form, Bit-sa-ili being the Babylonian
equivalent of the Hebrew Beth-el, is one of many proofs that the lists
were compiled from a cuneiform original. The name of Beth-sha-el or
Beth-el calls up that of Tarqa-el, which contains the name of the
Hittite god Tarqu. But where Tarqa-el was situated it is impossible to
say.
Towards the end of the book reference is made to certain places which
lay on the road between Egypt and Canaan. Rapih is the Raphia of
classical geography, the Rapikh of the Assyrian inscriptions, where two
broken columns now mark the boundary between Egypt and Turkey. Rehoburta
is probably the Rehoboth where the herdsmen of Isaac dug a well before
the patriarch moved to Beer-sheba (Gen. xxvi. 22), while in the lake of
Nakhai we may have the Sirbonian lake of classical celebrity.
There still remain two allusions in the papyrus which must not be passed
over in silence. One is the allusion to "Qazairnai, the lord of Asel,"
the famous slayer of lions. We know nothing further about this Nimrod of
Syria, but Professor Maspero is doubtless right in believing that Asel
ought to be written Alsa, and that the country meant was the kingdom of
Alasiya, which lay in the northern portion of Coele-Syria. Several
letters from the king of Alasiya are preserved in the Tel el-Amarna
collection, and we gather from them that his possessions extended across
the Orontes from the desert to the Mediterranean Sea. Egyptian papyri
tell us that mares were imported into Egypt from Alasiya as well as two
different kinds of liquor. In the age of Samuel and Saul Alasiya was
governed by a queen.
The second allusion is to the ironsmith in Canaan. It is clear that
there were many of them, and that it was to the worker in iron and not
to the worker in bronze that the traveller naturally turned when his
chariot needed mending. Even the word that is employed to denote the
metal is the Canaanitish _barzel_, which has been adopted under the form
of _parzal_. Nothing could show more plainly how characteristic of
Canaan the trade of the ironsmith must have been, and how largely the
use of iron must have there superseded the use of bronze. The fact is in
accordance with the references in the annals of Thothmes III. to the
iron that was received by him from Syria; it is also in accordance with
the statements of the Bible, where we read of the "chariots of iron" in
which the Canaanites rode to war. Indeed there seems to have been a
special class of wandering ironsmiths in Palestine, like the wandering
ironsmiths of mediæval Europe, who jealously guarded the secrets of
their trade, and formed not only a peculiar caste, but even a peculiar
race. The word Kain means "a smith," and the nomad Kenites of whom we
read in the Old Testament were simply the nomad race of "smiths," whose
home was the tent or cavern. Hence it was that while they were not
Israelites, they were just as little Canaanites, and hence it was too
that the Philistines were able to deprive the Israelites of the services
of a smith (1 Sam. xiii. 19). All that was necessary was to prevent the
Kenites from settling within Israelitish territory. There was no
Israelite who knew the secrets of the profession and could take their
place, and the Canaanites who lived under Israelitish protection were
equally ignorant of the ironsmith's art. Though the ironsmith had made
himself a home in Canaan he never identified himself with its
inhabitants. The Kenites remained a separate people, and could
consequently be classed as such by the side of the Hivites, or
"villagers," and the Perizzites, or "fellahin."
If the _Travels of a Mohar_ are a guide-book to the geography of
Palestine in the age of the nineteenth Egyptian dynasty, the lists of
places conquered by Thothmes III., and engraved by his orders on the
walls of his temple at Karnak, are a sort of atlas of Canaanite
geography in the age of the eighteenth dynasty. The name of each
locality is enclosed in a cartouche and surmounted by the head and
shoulders of a Canaanitish captive. The hair and eyes of the figures are
painted black or rather dark purple, while the skin is alternately red
and yellow. The yellow represents the olive tint of the Mediterranean
population, the red denotes the effects of sunburn. An examination of
the names contained in the cartouches makes it clear that they have been
derived from the memoranda made by the scribes who accompanied the army
of the Pharaoh in its campaigns. Sometimes the same name is repeated
twice, and not always in the same form. We may conclude, therefore, that
the memoranda had not always been made by the same reporter, and that
the compiler of the lists drew his materials from different sources. It
is further clear that the memoranda had been noted down in the cuneiform
characters of Babylonia and not in the hieroglyphs of Egypt. Thus, as we
have seen, the name of Beth-el is transcribed from its Babylonian form
of Bit-sa-ili, the Assyrian equivalent of the Hebrew Beth-el.
The names have been copied from the memoranda of the scribes in the
order in which they occurred, and without any regard to their relative
importance. While, therefore, insignificant villages are often noted,
the names of important cities are sometimes passed over. Descriptive
epithets, moreover, like _abel_ "meadow," _arets_ "land," _har_
"mountains," _'emeq_ "valley," _'ên_ "spring," are frequently treated as
if they were local names, and occupy separate cartouches. We must not,
consequently, expect to find in the lists any exhaustive catalogue of
Palestinian towns or even of the leading cities. They mark only the
lines of march taken by the army of Thothmes or by his scouts and
messengers.
Besides the Canaanitish lists there are also long lists of localities
conquered by the Pharaoh in Northern Syria. With these, however, we have
nothing to do. It is to the places in Canaan that our attention must at
present be confined. They are said to be situated in the country of the
Upper Lotan, or, as another list gives it, in the country of the Fenkhu.
In the time of Thothmes III. accordingly the land of the Upper Lotan and
the land of the Fenkhu were synonymous terms, and alike denoted what we
now call Palestine. In the word Fenkhu it is difficult not to see the
origin of the Greek Phoenix or "Phoenician."
The lists begin with Kadesh on the Orontes, the head of the confederacy,
the defeat of which laid Canaan at the feet of the Pharaoh. Then comes
Megiddo, where the decisive battle took place, and the forces of the
king of Kadesh were overthrown. Next we have Khazi, mentioned also in
the Tel el-Amarna tablets, from which we learn that it was in the
hill-country south of Megiddo. It may be the Gaza of 1 Chron. vii. 28
which was supplanted by Shechem in Israelitish days. Kitsuna, the
Kuddasuna of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, follows: where it stood we do
not know. The next name, "the Spring of Shiu," is equally impossible to
identify. The sixth name, however, is Tubikhu, about which the cuneiform
tablets of Tel el-Amarna have told us a good deal, and which seems to be
the Tibhath of 1 Chron. xviii. 8. It was in Coele-Syria like Kamta, the
Kumidi of the tablets, which follows in one list, though its place is
taken by the unknown Bami in another. After this we have the names of
Tuthina (perhaps Dothan), Lebana, and Kirjath-niznau, followed by Marum
or Merom the modern Meirôm, by Tamasqu or Damascus, by the Abel of Atar,
and by Hamath. Aqidu, the seventeenth name, is unknown, but Mr. Tomkins
is probably right in thinking that the next name, that of Shemnau, must
be identified with the Shimron of Josh. xix. 15, where the Septuagint
reads Symeon. That this reading is correct is shown by the fact that in
the days of Josephus and the Talmud the place was called Simonias, while
the modern name is Semûnieh. The tablets of Tel el-Amarna make it
Samkhuna.
Six unknown names come next, the first of which is a Beeroth, or
"Wells." Then we have Mesekh, "the place of unction," called Musikhuna
in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence, Qana and 'Arna. Both Qana and 'Arna
appear in the account of the battle before Megiddo, and must have been
in the immediate neighbourhood of that city. One of the affluents of the
Kishon flowed past Qana, while 'Arna was hidden in a defile. It was
there that the tent of Thothmes was pitched two days before the great
battle. The brook of Qana seems to have been the river Qanah of to-day,
and 'Arna may be read 'Aluna.
We are now transported to the eastern bank of the Jordan, to 'Astartu in
the land of Bashan, the Ashtaroth-Karnaim of Genesis, the Tel 'Ashtarah
of modern geography. With 'Astartu is coupled Anau-repa, explained by
Mr. Tomkins to be "On of the Rephaim" (Gen. xiv. 5). At any rate it is
clearly the Raphon or Raphana of classical writers, the Er-Rafeh of
to-day. Next we have Maqata, called Makhed in the First Book of
Maccabees, and now known as Mukatta; Lus or Lius, the Biblical Laish,
which under its later name of Dan became the northern limit of the
Israelitish kingdom; and Hazor, the stronghold of Jabin, whose king we
hear of in the Tel el-Amarna tablets. Then come Pahil or Pella, east of
the Jordan, famous in the annals of early Christianity; Kennartu, the
Chinneroth of the Old Testament (Josh. xi. 2, 1 Kings xv. 20), from
which the Sea of Galilee took one of its names; Shemna, the site of
which is uncertain; and Atmam, the Adami of Josh. xix. 33. These are
followed by Qasuna, in which we find the Kishion of Issachar (Josh. xix.
20); Shanam or Shunem, now Sôlam, north of Jezreel; Mash-al, the Misheal
of Scripture; and Aksap or Ekdippa on the Phoenician coast. Then after a
name which cannot be identified we read those of Ta'anak, the Ta'anach
of the Bible, the Ta'anuk of to-day; Ible'am, near which Ahaziah of
Jadah was slain by the servants of Jehu; Gantu-Asna, "the garden of
Asnah"; Lot-melech, "Lot of the king"; 'Aina, "the Spring"; and 'Aak or
Acre. From Acre we are taken along the coast southward to Rosh Kadesh,
"the sacred headland" of Carmel, whose name follows immediately under
the form of Karimna. Next we have Beer, "the Well," Shemesh-Atum, and
Anakhertu. Anakhertu is the Anaharath of Josh. xix. 19, which belonged
to the tribe of Issachar.
Of Shemesh-Atum we hear again in one of the inscriptions of Amenophis
III. A revolt had broken out in the district of the Lebanon, and the
king accordingly marched into Canaan to suppress it. Shemesh-Atum was
the first city to feel the effects of his anger, and he carried away
from it eighteen prisoners and thirteen oxen. The name of the town shows
that it was dedicated to the Sun-god. In Hebrew it would appear as
Shemesh-Edom, and an Egyptian papyrus, now at Leyden, informs us that
Atum or Edom was the wife of Resheph the Canaanitish god of fire and
lightning. In Shemesh-Atum or Shemesh-Edom we therefore have a compound
name signifying that the Shemesh or Sun-god denoted by it was not the
male divinity of the customary worship, but the Sun-goddess Edom. In
Israelitish times the second element in the compound seems to have been
dropped; at all events it is probable that Shemesh-Atum was the
Beth-Shemesh of the Old Testament (Josh. xix. 22), which is mentioned
along with Anaharath as in the borders of Issachar.
After Anaharath come two unknown Ophrahs; then Khasbu and Tasult, called
Khasabu and Tusulti in the Tel el-Amarna letters; then Negebu, perhaps
the Nekeb of Galilee (Josh. xix. 33), Ashushkhen, Anam, and Yurza. Yurza
is now represented by the ruins of Yerza, south-eastward of Ta'anach,
and there are letters from its governor in the Tel el-Amarna collection.
Its name is followed by those of Makhsa, Yapu or Joppa, and "the country
of Gantu" or Gath. Next we have Luthen or Ruthen, which is possibly
Lydda, Ono, Apuqen, Suka or Socho, and Yahem. Among the cartouches that
follow we read the names of a Migdol, of Shebtuna, the modern Shebtîn,
of Naun which reminds us of the name of Joshua's father, and of Haditha,
now Hadîtheh, five miles to the west of Shebtîn.
The list has thus led us to the foot of Mount Ephraim, and it is not
surprising that the next name should be that of the Har or "Mountain"
itself. This is followed by a name which is full of interest, for it
reads Joseph-el or "Joseph-god." How the name of Joseph came to be
attached in the time of Thothmes to the mountainous region in which "the
House of Joseph" afterwards established itself is hard to explain; we
must remember, however, as has been stated in a former chapter, that
according to the Chronicler (1 Chron. vii. 21, 22), already in the
lifetime of Ephraim his sons were slain by the men of Gath, "because
they came down to take away their cattle." (Mr. Pinches tells me that in
early Babylonian contracts of the age of Chedor-laomer he has found the
name of Yasupu-ilu or Joseph-el, as well as that of Yakub-ilu or
Jacob-el. The discovery is of high importance when we remember that
Abraham migrated from Ur of the Chaldees, and adds another to the many
debts of gratitude due to Mr. Pinches from Biblical students. See
Preface for further details.)
Three names further on we find another compound with _el_, Har-el, "the
mount of God." In Ezek. xliii. 15 Har-el is used to denote the "altar"
which should stand in the temple on Mount Moriah, and Mount Moriah is
itself called "the Mount of the Lord" in the Book of Genesis (xxii. 14).
It may be, therefore, that in the Har-el of the Egyptian list we have
the name of the mountain whereon the temple of Solomon was afterwards to
be built. However this may be, the names which follow it show that we
are in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. One after the other come Lebau,
Na'mana or Na'amah (Josh. xv. 41), Meromim "the heights," 'Ani "the two
springs," Rehob, Ekron, Hekalim "the palaces," the Abel or "meadow" of
Autar'a, the Abel, the Gantau or "gardens," the Maqerput or "tilled
ground," and the 'Aina or "Spring" of Carmel, which corresponds with the
Gath-Carmel of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, the Carmel of Judah of the Old
Testament. Then we have Beth-Ya, a name which reminds us of that of
"Bithia, the daughter of Pharaoh," whom Mered, the descendant of Caleb,
took to wife, and whose stepson was Yered, "the father of Gedor" (1
Chron. iv. 18). Beth-Ya is followed by Tapun, which was fortified by the
Greeks after the death of Judas Maccabaeus (1 Macc. ix. 50), by the Abel
of Yertu or Yered, perhaps the district of the Jordan, by Halkal, and by
Jacob-el, a name formed in the same way as that of Joseph-el. We may see
in it an evidence that the memory of the patriarch was kept alive in the
south of Palestine. The next two names are unknown, but they are
followed by Rabatu or Rabbah of Judah, Magharatu, the Ma'arath of Josh,
xv. 59, 'Emequ, "the valley" of Hebron, Sirta and Bârtu, the _Bar
has-Sirak_, or "Well of Sirah" of 2 Sam. iii. 26. Then come Beth-sa-el
or Beth-el in its Babylonian dress; Beth-Anta or Beth-Anath (Josh. xv.
59), where the Babylonian goddess Anatu was worshipped; Helkath (2 Sam.
ii. 16); the Spring of Qan'am; Gibeah of Judah (2 Sam. vi. 3, 4; see
Josh. xviii. 28); Zelah (Josh. xviii. 28), called Zilu by Ebed-Tob of
Jerusalem; and Zafta, the Biblical Zephath (Judges i. 17). The last
three names in the catalogue--Barqna, Hum, and Aktomes--have left no
traces in Scriptural or classical geography.
The geographical lists of Thothmes III. served as a model for the
Pharaohs who came after him. They also adorned the walls of their
temples with the names of the places they had captured in Palestine, in
Northern Syria, and in the Soudan, and when a large space had to be
filled the sculptor was not careful to insert in it only the names of
such foreign towns as had been actually conquered. The older lists were
drawn upon, and the names which had appeared in them were appropriated
by the later king, sometimes in grotesquely misspelt forms. The climax
of such empty claims to conquests which had never been made was reached
at Kom Ombo, where Ptolemy Lathyrus, a prince who, instead of gaining
fresh territory, lost what he had inherited, is credited with the
subjugation of numerous nations and races, many of whom, like the
Hittites, had long before vanished from the page of history. The last of
the Pharaohs whose geographical list really represents his successes in
Palestine was Shishak, the opponent of Rehoboam and the founder of the
twenty-second dynasty. The catalogue of places engraved on the wall of
the shrine he built at Karnak is a genuine and authentic record.
So too are the lists given by the kings who immediately followed
Thothmes III., Amenophis III. of the eighteenth dynasty, Seti I. and
Ramses II. of the nineteenth, and Ramses III. of the twentieth. It is
true that in some cases the list of one Pharaoh has been slavishly
copied by another, but it is also true that these Pharaohs actually
overran and subjugated the countries to which the lists belong. Of this
we have independent testimony.
At one time it was the fashion to throw doubt on the alleged conquests
of Ramses II. in Western Asia. This was the natural reaction from the
older belief, inherited from the Greek writers of antiquity, that Ramses
II. was a universal conqueror who had carried his arms into Europe, and
even to the confines of the Caucasus. With the overthrow of this belief
came a disbelief in his having been a conqueror at all. The disbelief
was encouraged by the boastful vanity of his inscriptions, as well as by
the absence in them of any details as to his later Syrian wars.
But we now know that such scepticism was over-hasty. It was like the
scepticism which refused to admit that Canaan had been made an Egyptian
province by Thothmes III., and which needed the testimony of the Tel
el-Amarna tablets before it could be removed. As a matter of fact,
Egyptian authority was re-established throughout Palestine and even on
the eastern bank of the Jordan during the reign of Ramses II., and the
conquests of the Pharaoh in Northern Syria were real and not imaginary.
Such has been the result of the discoveries of the last three or four
years.
We have no reason to doubt that the campaigns of Ramses III. in Asia
were equally historical. The great confederacy of northern barbarians
and Asiatic invaders which had poured down upon Egypt had been utterly
annihilated; the Egyptian army was flushed with victory, and Syria,
overrun as it had been by the invaders from the north, was in no
position to resist a fresh attack. Moreover, the safety of Egypt
required that Ramses should follow up the destruction of his assailants
by carrying the war into Asia. But it is noticeable that the places he
claims to have conquered, whether in Canaan or further north, lay along
the lines of two high-roads, and that the names of the great towns even
on these high-roads are for the most part conspicuously absent. The
names, however, are practically those already enumerated by Ramses II.,
and they occur in the same order. But the list given by Ramses III.
could not have been copied from the older list of Ramses II. for a very
sufficient reason. In some instances the names as given by the earlier
monarch are mis-spelt, letters having been omitted in them or wrong
letters having been written in place of the right ones, while in the
list of Ramses III. the same names are correctly written.
Seti I., the father of Ramses II., seems to have been too fully engaged
in his wars in Northern Syria, and in securing the road along the coast
of the Mediterranean, to attempt the re-conquest of Palestine. At
Qurnah, however, we find the names of 'Aka or Acre, Zamith, Pella,
Beth-el (Beth-sha-il), Inuam, Kimham (Jer. xli. 17), Kamdu, Tyre, Usu,
Beth-Anath, and Carmel among those of the cities he had vanquished, but
there is no trace of any occupation of Southern Canaan. That seems to
have come later with the beginning of his son's reign.
On the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes there are pictures of the
storming and capture of the Palestinian cities. Most of them are now
destroyed, but we can still read the names of Ashkelon, of Salem or
Jerusalem, of Beth-Anath and Qarbu[tu], of Dapul in the land of the
Amorites, of Merom, of Damascus, and of Inuam. Elsewhere we have mention
of Yurza and Socho, while at Karnak there are two geographical lists
which mark two of the lines of march taken by the troops of Ramses II.
The first list contains the following names: (1) the district of Salem;
(2) the district of Rethpana; (3) the country of the Jordan; (4) Khilz;
(5) Karhu; (6) Uru; (7) Abel; (8) Carmel; (9) the upper district of
Tabara or Debir; (10) Shimshon; and (n) Erez Hadashta, "the new land."
In the second list we read: (1) Rosh Kadesh, or Mount Carmel; (2) Inzat;
(3) Maghar; (4) Rehuza; (5) Saabata; (6) Gaza; (7) the district of
Sala'; (8) the district of Zasr; (9) Jacob-el; and (10) the land of
Akrith, the Ugarit of the Tel el-Amarna tablets.
We have already seen that long before the time of Ramses II. Jerusalem
was an important city and fortress, the capital of a territory of some
size, known by the name of Uru-Salim, "the city of the god of peace."
"The city of Salem" could easily be abbreviated into "Salem" only; and
it is accordingly Salem which alone is used in the fourteenth chapter of
Genesis as well as in the inscriptions of Ramses II. and Ramses III. The
name of Rethpana, which follows that of Salem, is faultily written in
the list of Ramses II., and it is from that of Ramses III. that we have
to recover its true form. Ramses III., moreover, tells us that Rethpana
was a lake, and since its name comes between those of Jerusalem and the
Jordan it must represent the Dead Sea. The Canaanite form of Rethpana
would be Reshpon, a derivative from the name of Resheph, the god of fire
and lightning, whose name is preserved in that of the town Arsuf, and
whose "children" were the sparks (Job v. 7). The name was appropriate to
a region which was believed to have been smitten with a tempest of
flames, and of which we are told that "the Lord rained upon Sodom and
upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire."
Khilz, the fourth name in the list, is probably the Babylonian _Khalzu_,
or "fortress." At all events it was the first town on the eastern side
of the Jordan, and it may well therefore have guarded the ford across
the river. Karhu is the Korkha of the Moabite Stone, perhaps the modern
Kerak, which was the capital of Moab in the age of Ahab, and Uru is the
Babylonian form of the Moabite Ar, or "city," of which we read in the
Book of Numbers (xxi. 28). The land of "Moab" itself is one of the
countries which Ramses claims to have subdued. The Carmel mentioned in
the list is Carmel of Judah, not the more famous Carmel on the coast. As
for Tabara or Debir, it will be that ancient seat of Canaanite learning
and literature, called Kirjath-Sepher and Debir in the Old Testament,
the site of which is unfortunately still unknown. It must have lain,
however, between Carmel and Shimshon, "the city of the Sun-god," with
which it is probable that the Biblical Ir-Shemesh should be identified
(Josh. xix. 41). Erez Hadashta, "the New Land," is called Hadashah in
the Book of Joshua (xv. 37), where it is included among the possessions
of Judah.
The second list, instead of taking us through Judah and Moab, leads us
southward along the coast from Mount Carmel. Maghar is termed by Ramses
III. "the spring of the Maghar," and is the Magoras or river of Beyrout
of classical geography. The river took its name from the _maghdrat_ or
"caves" past which it runs, and of which we have already heard in the
_Travels of a Mohar_. The two next names which represent places on the
coast to the north of Gaza are quite unknown, but Sala', which is
written Selakh by Ramses III. (from a cuneiform original), is possibly
the rock-city Sela (2 Kings xiv. 7), better known to us as Petra. Of
Jacob-el we have already had occasion to speak.
It is in the ruined temple of Medinet Habu that Ramses III. has recorded
his victories and inscribed the names of the peoples and cities he had
overcome. We gather from the latter that his armies had followed the
roads already traversed by Ramses II., had marched through the south of
Palestine into Moab, and had made their way along the sea-coast into
Northern Syria. One after the other we read the names of Hir-nam or
Har-nam, called Har-Nammata in the _Mohar's Travels_, of Lebanoth, of
Beth-Anath and Qarbutu (Josh. xv. 59), of Carmim, "the vineyards," and
Shabuduna or Shebtîn, of Mashabir (?), of Hebron and its 'Èn or
"Spring," of the "district of Libnah," of 'Aphekah and 'Abakhi (Josh.
xv. 53), of Migdal--doubtless the Migdal-Gad of Josh. xv. 53--and
Qarzak, of Carmel of Judah and the Upper District of Debir, of Shimshon
and Erez Hadasth, of the district of Salem or Jerusalem and the "Lake of
Rethpana," of the Jordan, of Khilz the fortress, of Korkha and of Uru. A
second list gives us the line of march along the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea. First we have 'Akata, perhaps Joktheel in Judah
(Josh. xv. 38), then Karka and [Zidi]puth, Abel and the district of
Sela', the district of Zasr and Jacob-el, Rehuza, Saaba and Gaza,
Rosh-Kadesh, Inzath and the "Spring," Lui-el, which we might also read
Levi-el, Bur, "the Cistern," Kamdu, "Qubur the great," Iha, Tur, and
finally Sannur, the Saniru of the Assyrian texts, the Shenir of the Old
Testament (Deut. iii. 9). This brings us to Mount Hermon and the land of
the Amorites, so that it is not surprising to find after two more names
that of Hamath.
One point about this list is very noticeable. None of the great
Phoenician cities of the coast are mentioned in it. Acre, Ekdippa, Tyre,
Sidon, and Beyrout are all conspicuous by their absence. Even Joppa is
unnamed. After Gaza we have only descriptive epithets like "the Spring"
and "the Cistern," or the names of otherwise unknown villages. With
Kamdu in Coele-Syria the catalogue of cities begins afresh.
It is plain that the northern campaign of the Pharaoh was little better
than a raid. No attempt was made to capture the cities of the coast, and
re-establish in them the Egyptian power. The Egyptian army passed them
by without any effort to reduce them. Possibly the Philistines had
already settled on the coast, and had shown themselves too strong to be
meddled with; possibly the Egyptian fleet was acting in concert with the
troops on land, and Ramses cared only to lead his forces to some spot on
the north Syrian coast, from whence, if necessary, the ships could
convey them home. Whatever may have been the reason, the fact remains
that Gaza alone of the cities of the Canaanitish coast fell into the
hands of the Pharaoh. It was only in the extreme south, in what was so
soon afterwards to become the territory of Judah, that he overran the
country and occupied the large towns.
With the lists of Ramses III. our knowledge of the geography of
Patriarchal Palestine is brought to a close. Henceforward we have to do
with the Canaan of Israelitish conquest and settlement. The records of
the Old Testament contain a far richer store of geographical names than
we can ever hope to glean from the monuments of Egypt. But the latter
show how little change after all was effected by the Israelitish
conquest in the local nomenclature of the country. A few cities
disappeared like Kirjath-Sepher, but on the whole not only the cities,
but even the villages of pre-Israelitish Canaan survived under their old
names. When we compare the names of the towns and villages of Judah
enumerated in the Book of Joshua with the geographical lists of a
Thothmes or a Ramses, we cannot but be struck by the coincidences
between them. The occurrence of a name like Hadashah, "the New (Land),"
in both cannot be the result of chance. It adds one more to the many
arguments in favour of the antiquity of the Book of Joshua, or at all
events of the materials of which it consists. Geography, at all events,
gives no countenance to the theory which sees in the book a fabrication
of later date. Even the leading cities of the Israelitish period are for
the most part already the leading cities of the earlier Palestine. The
future capital of David, for example, was already called Jerusalem long
before the birth of Moses, and already occupied a foremost place among
the kingdoms of Canaan.