Keep in mind that all (with the exception of an unlocated little city named Ai)of the Conquet cities in Joshua were destroyed in 1550 BCE according to archaeology plus some others like Shiloh and Shechem.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (Donald Redford ed) says this under entry "Hyksos"
(in progress)
"The attack by Ahmose on Sharuhen in southern Palestine was then a logical move or the stabilization of his reign.According to the bibliography of his namesake Ahmose,son of, Abu, it took 3 years to take Sharuhen.The assaults on the other towns in southern Palestine, ere , perhaps, not less difficult.The Middle Bronze Age city-states in inland Palestine were not attacked until the ime of Thutmose III."
Seems that there is no clear evidence ,textual or archaeological for attacks on Palestine by Egypt at the end of the Middle Bronze Age (1550) beyond the extreme south west corner.The Jericho entry in the Anchor Bible Dictionary says that the city was destryoed at the end of the MBA (1550) but says nothing about who could have done it.Because there sint any real evidence.
Yet, under the entry for Tell El Qedah (Hazor)in the Anchor Bible Dictionay
"Stratum XVI ended in a major destruction,as did most sites in palestine at the end of the MB.These destructions were in connection with Egyptian punitive raids following the expulsion of the Asiatic (or "Hyksos")princes at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th dynasties (ca1540-1500 B.C.).A ephemeral post-destruction stratum, "post-XVI", consists mostly of burials and some transitional MB III/LB1 pottery.It is probably to this horizon that we should attribute the reference to Hazor on the walls of the temple at Karnak, which lists the sites conquered to Thutmose III."
Now,with the Tell el Qedah article we get assumptions that many take for granted as fact. That the MB (1550)destruction was Egyptian destructions.Though there is no evidence (for the mind blowing 1550 destructions).And even the 1460 "destructions" of Thutmose III are not at all proven. I dont even know if the claim was even made for destuctions by Thutmose III.Egyptians drew cities up in many campaigns, but we dont even know if they were just passing through, collecting tribute, fighting, or destroying. Plus foreign nations in the Ancient Near East(aside from Israel IMO)often claimed to have destroyed places that others actually did (see the famous Tel Dan claim by Haziel), whether it was other nations or previous leaders of one own nation.In addition to flat out making up statements.One would think that if the Egyptians were responsible for such massive destructions of city after city in 1550, then their leaders would braodcast it everywhere.Even if the wins were minor, then the bombastic Pharoahs would blow them all out of proportion.So, why dont we have any real refernces at the beginning of the 18th Dynasty (Ahmose or Amenhoteph I)to these major destructions? Because Egyptians didnt defeat the Hyksos till some 25-30 years after the MBA.Hence the destructions weret theirs.
The Middle Bronze Age ended in 1550 BCE.Baruch Halpern explains that nobody would dare start the Iron Age II any later than 1400 and gave alot of good reasons and references in Noverber/December 1987 Biblical Archaeology Review.Remember that.Iron 1 also had to be 150 years and Halpern explains why.I will later but first lets also know that the 18th dynasty started with Ahmose ascension when he was a child.About 14-18 years after he became Pharoh, he drove the Hyksos out of Egypt.
David Rohl says most Egyptologists feel the 18th dynasty started in 1539 BCE and the Hyksos dynasty ended in 1525.Kenneth Kitchen said that the 18th dynasty started either in c1540 or c1550 depending on whether Thutmose II reigned for 3 or 13 years.
Oxford History Of Anceint Egypt (Ian Shaw ed)
"Archaological discoveries in the 1980s and 1990s, combined with the re-examination of older inscriptional evidence, suggest that the reunification of Egypt took place only in the last decade of the 25 year reign of Ahmose (1550-1525).Thus the dynasty may be said to have begun officially around 1530 B.C......"
That puts the Hyksos expulsion at around 1530-1535 BCE.
These are the dates Egyptian historians have come to and it is clearly after the Middle Bronze Age ended.
David Rohl mentions that Kenyon in Jericho based her dating on a certain "Tell- el Yahudiya Ware".It was a dictinctive juglet that was manufactured during the Middle Bronze Age in Tell ed-Daba (Avaris). The small back pots show a general type of development from priform to cylindrical..By analysing the proportion of priform to cylindrical juglets at Jericho, Kenyon was able to place Jericho periods into 5 general categories.Israeli archaeologist Aharon Kempinski reduced them to 3 but the order was the same.
The Middle Bronze Age pottery and pots were all that was found in Jericho (according to mainstream archaeologists) and the rest of Palestine duing the massive MBA destructions while Late Bronze Age Bichrome Ware was found in Hyksos occupation levels in Tell Ed-Daba.The usual excuse by people like Bryant Wood and others is tht Jericho was a backwater, which wouldnt have imported Cypriot pottery.
John Bartlett notes
"..the important point for our purpose is tht jericho along with other sites of southern and central Palestine (Tell Beit Mirsim, Tell Gezer , Shiloh, Bethel, and Gibeon) , does not show any sign of having used the bichrome ware and imported Cypriot pottery.The explanation is not simply that Jericho was a backater in the Jordan valley which bichrome ware , spreading inland from the coast, failed oto reach, for that leaves places like Tell Beit Mirsam unexplained, and in any case it is not just bichrome ware but a whole range of pottery of the period that is missing from jericho. The obvious explanation is that there was a break in the ocupation of the tell after the destruction of the MB2 city"
Notice Bimson PDF journal,where he is excited by Bietak's idea of an overlaping MB/LB1 age.See page 35.
ISIS - Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum
Bietak (the lead archaeologist at Tell ed-Daba) notices that there isnt evidence for Egyptian campaigns at the end of MBA, so he would like to move the MBA destructions down to c1460 during the reign of Thutmose III. But Egyptologist James Hoffmeier notices that Thutmose III did not cause widespread destructions contrary to popular opinion.
Bietak wants to move the c1550 destructions down to c1460 based on a near 100 year so-called pottery lag in Palestine.
Bimson and Wood want the trickle in pottery from Egypt to Palestine to take 150 years.
One wants Thutmose from c1460 to be responsible for the 1550 destructions.Another wants a "1410 Joshua" to be responsible for 1550 destructions.
The problem for the former (Bietak) is that there is no Egyptian records in the early part of the heavily documented 18th Dynasty which is the only part of the 18th Dynasty anywhere near the MBA though it post dates it PERIOD.Especially after the Hyksos expulsion.Plus the archaeology dent allow such a lag.Plus even if it did, then Thutmose didnt destroy all those cities nor did any othe rEgyptian.Not ever.But especially not ina single campaign.
The problem for the latter is that the archaeology wont allow a 140 year MBA lag in Palestine.
There is a much bigger problem.Many expert historians like Baruch Halpern say that you cant bugde the start of Late Bronze 2 beyond 1400 BCE.Not only does Bitak do just that (lowering it to c1360) but he shortens the entire Late Bronze 1 period to just 70 years from 1430 to 1360.
There is a big problem.Megiddo was detroyed in both 1550 and 1460 according to Halpern.
Megiddo has a stratum 8 which is Late Bronze 2A , a post 1400BCE level or c1360 acoing to the revision Bimson has show there.So, even if you allow the LB2A to start in 1360 then you have a 1430-1360 Iron Age 1 period in Palestine.Megiddo stratum 9 , below it "exhibits all the characteristics of an LB1 city,in particular a plethora of so-called bi-chrome ware, the hallmark of LB1."
Halpern goes on to explain that"In any significant quantity, it is diagnostic of the LB1 period in Canaan".It vanishes by the end of LB1.
The LB1 city at Megiddo ended in destruction."universally attributed" to Pharoah Thutmose III.c1460.That is already outside of the c1430-1360 date for a city that is learly LB1 city based on pottery evidence.
But it gets worse.The city was built in "2 major architectural phases" which halpern feels should be 37.5 years per phase which takes the building right back close to c1550 at the end o the MBA where is was destroyed there too.
So, who was responsible for the Middle Bronze Age destructions then? The man who is perhaps the finest Egyptian archaeologist doesnt seem to place much confidence in Egyptians at the start of the 18th dynasty (which is as close as they can come to the MBA and a path to Palestine) as having done hardly any of it,if any.
The textual records of Egyptians dont record much of anything,related to a sweep of Palestine.They certainly recorded eveything else they did.Why wouldnt they mention the totally unprecedented and massive destruction of dozens of Palestinian cities in a single 1550 campaign?
There is no excuse, based on their mentality, for not telling about it in the most bombastic terms (they wouldnt need to exagerate it, the destructions are so severe)imaginable on every monument under the sun.This was a destruction that caused 90% of sites in the hill country of Palestine to vanish, and all the few remaining sites to see a reduced population.It was cuch a powerful hit that the "Canaanite" population (which became "invisible" to archaeological discoveries) went from sedentary to pastoralist which was never before seen in history.
What textual records that cover this time period (1500 BCE) in Palestine can explain an advanced and settled population with walled cities stretching up to the sky suddenly being reduced in numbers over 90% and being replaced by a pastoralist population? We "know" Israel wasnt there because Egyptian records dont mention them being there at that time.We just "know" that if Egypt doesnt mention "Israel" then they couldnt possibly be there, in 1500 or any other time in history.Even though the Bible names almost all the cities destroyed and fits every other description , we just cant accept anything unless Egyptian records mentions it.That... is .. unless Egyptians forget to mention the most devestation destruction ever.We will go ahead and assume they forgot to mention their own battles.Afterall, the Egyptians are so shy and bashful about recording their victorys.Plus we should assume that Egypt all the sudden cared about the highlands and the nomads present.Just for the 1550 destructions.Nevermind that Egyptians were walled off in 1550 by the Hyksos.We will overlook that and pretend like we "know" it was they who destroyed the walled cities of Canaan and reduced the population 90%+.
It couldn be the Israelites anyway because the southern trans Jordan lands has no settlements or powerful tribes there.
Acually, Bimson footnotes scholars who correct this 9Bimson page 30 and footnotes)
Glueck did surface surveys and found no occupation between the 19th and 13th centuries.
Bimson states
"However, as a result of further surveys and full scale excavations conducted during the last 30 years, Gluecks theory of an occupational gap has died the death of a thouand qualifications.A great many Middle and Late Bronze Age sites have come to light requiring Gleuck's theory to be modified beyond recognition...there appears to have been some reduction in the population during th periods in question, but certainly not an absence of settlement.Infact glueck himself revised his views shortly before he dies."
Bimson goes on to describe how some scholars have lagged so far behind in scholarship that it is just unreal.I would say it is as big of a lag as he want the MBA pottery in Egypt to reach Palestine.
Ill make another short post on the Amarna letters and the situation sometime later.
Ill also cover the reasons why people felt that a 1200BCE Exodus was required.And why they were wrong.
Kenneth Kitchen has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the pre-Exodus (such as Joseph being sold into slavery from 1700-2000)and post-Exodus scholarship demands everything in the Bible being accepted.
Decades ago archaeological discoveries werent where they are now, and what was discovered didnt filter in.
Post-Exodsus mistakes like a c1200 Exodus theory 9and 1400) and pre-Exodus mstakes (Hurrian "parallels") causes ven worse problems.
The patriarchal age fits 100% only within 1700-2000 BCE, no time else. the Israelite monarchy has such an abundance of obvious data, that nobody can deny it and be credible for too long.
The Judges and Conquest fit the evidence so much that it is just unreal.Same with the evidence for NorthWest Semites in Egypt BEFORE the 2nd Intermediate Period.And during.
All objetions to the Bibles historical record must simply fall flat an wither away based on the evidence.We can quibble about where little old Ai was , but the fact is that ALL cities fell in a single campaign.The walls fell like the Bible said, and the food wasnt eaten (never before seen!) in the conquered cities.The evidence shows that the semi-nomadic Israelites displaced the much more numerous and advanced sedentary Canaanite population.
Egyptian records show that Israel was a tent dwelling semi-nomaic tribal group during the Judges period but seemingly powerful enough to be mentioned.
Battles in Judges fit the Bibles description to the last detail.Exact time period and same leader names.
The major wave of Philistines arrived in c1177 BCE an it is 1170 when they give the Israelite tribes for 40 years till 1130.
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