So, just yesterday, I made a calculation of when the Exodus occurred based on a clarification that Israel was only in Egypt 215 years, and dating from when pollen data showed a period of significantly greater growth followed by a period when crops would have been devastated. My calculation put the Exodus at or around 1413 BC. This made me give up my theory that the Exodus happened about the same time as the Late Bronze Age Collapse (and maybe even caused it), but matched up with the early chronology of when Israel entered the Holy Land. It also matches fairly closely to when Jericho was believed to have been destroyed: generally thought to be around 1400 BC (with one Carbon-14 sample dated to 1347 BC (+/- 85 years)). Interestingly, excavations of Jericho prior to its destruction found scarabs with the names of Pharaohs Hatshepsut (ca. 1503-1483 BC), Thutmose III (ca. 1504-1450 BC), and Amenhotep III (ca. 1386 BC-1349 BC), according to the foregoing article, but none later. This would also match up with my theorized 1413 BC date (remembering that Israel was in the desert for approximately 40 years prior to entering Palestine and beginning the conquests under Jacob).
I've now come across another video (see below) where the author takes into account the 215 year period in Egypt, but counts backward from the building of the Temple of Solomon, to arrive at an Exodus date of 1174 BC--putting it squarely back into the period of the Bronze Age Collapse (he also has some interesting theories as to who Joseph was in the Egyptian records, including that Joseph may have been Pharaoh for a few years). I have to admit that one of the reasons that linking the Exodus to the Late Bronze Age Collapse appeals to me is that I figure if Egypt suddenly lost hundreds of thousands of slaves, it would crash the economy--perhaps even the economies of the surrounding nations since we know that there was extensive trade between the Mediterranean nations of the Late Bronze Age, including basic food stuffs such as grain.
For the Israelites to encounter the Philistines, they had to have reentered the area sometime after Egypt defeated the attempted invasion by the Sea Peoples, circa 1175 BC. This was during the reign of Rameses III. Egyptian references to the Philistines begin circa 1150 BC.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Delta
For reference, Ramses II "The Great" ruled 1279-1213 BC. His last campaign against the Hittites was in 1250.
The Bronze Age collapse occurred due to... climate change. A decades long period of cold destroyed harvests. This hunger caused various peoples to move about, seeking food, and slaughtering the locals to get it. This disrupted the "global" economy, destroying a rather fragile system based on bronze. (Most bronze production required copper from Cyprus [the origin of the name copper] and tin from Afghanistan.) Egypt was the sole empire to survive the collapse, albeit in a weakened state.
ReplyDeleteThe Philistine issue and the drought has led to a third theory I've seen which is that Joseph entered Egypt around the time of the Bronze Age Collapse, although this requires one to ignore much of the dating given in the Bible. Interestingly, I came across this theory being advanced by Rabbis.
DeleteWhile I find the Bronze Age Collapse Exodus more satisfying, the earlier dating is based on evidence of two specific 7 year periods--one of plenty and, years later, a period of intense drought. Otherwise, you can point to many different periods after 2,000 B.C. as periods with severe droughts in the Near East.
It is an interesting puzzle, and one I will be exploring in more detail. I want to see if I can track down more information on the pollen data that supports the earlier dating, for instance.