Egypt & the Exodus — biblical archaeology discoveries

The sojourn, slavery, the Exodus and the wilderness. 60 archaeological finds from this period that run alongside the biblical story: what was found, who found it, why it matters, the Hebrew word to know, and the Scripture passages each discovery touches.

• Merneptah Stele
  Earliest secure mention of 'Israel' outside the Bible · found 1896
• כְּנַעַן
  Berlin Statue Pedestal ÄM 21687
  Disputed reading of 'Israel' on a broken name-ring, possibly a century before Merneptah · found 1913
• Avaris (Tell el-Dab'a)
  A Semitic city in the eastern Delta, in the land the Bible calls Goshen · found 1966
• כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים
  Avaris 'Asiatic Official' Statue and Tomb
  A smashed statue of a Semitic dignitary in a striped coat, beside a twelve-pillared house · found 1986
• עֶבֶד
  Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446
  A household list of servants in Egypt, many with Northwest Semitic names · found 1881
• Ipuwer Papyrus (Leiden I 344)
  An Egyptian lament of chaos, often compared with the plagues, but from the wrong century · found 1828
• 'Shasu of YHW' at Soleb and Amarah West
  The oldest known writing of the divine name, on a Nubian temple of Amenhotep III · found 1957
• Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions, Serabit el-Khadim
  Semitic workers in Sinai writing the world's first alphabet · found 1905
• Wadi el-Hol Inscriptions
  The earliest alphabetic writing, left by Semites on a desert road in Egypt itself · found 1994
• Serabit Sphinx with Semitic Inscription
  A small sphinx labeled in both Egyptian and the first alphabet: 'beloved of Baalat' · found 1905
• Hathor Temple, Serabit el-Khadim
  An Egyptian mining temple in Sinai where Semitic workers served alongside Egyptians · found 1762
• עִבְרִי
  Amarna Letters and the Habiru
  Canaanite kings beg Pharaoh for help against roving 'Apiru' bands · found 1887
• Abdi-Heba's Jerusalem Letters (EA 285–290)
  The earliest letters from a ruler of Jerusalem, pleading for Egyptian archers · found 1887
• Timna Valley Copper Mines
  Egyptian-run mines in the Aravah, later worked by Edomite and Midianite smelters · found 1959
• Timna Hathor Shrine and Midianite Tent Sanctuary
  An Egyptian temple turned into a tent shrine with a copper serpent · found 1969
• מִדְיָנִי
  Midianite (Qurayyah) Painted Ware
  Colorful pottery of the Midianites, found from Arabia to Timna · found 1968
• Kadesh-Barnea (Tell el-Qudeirat)
  The oasis where Israel camped for a generation; fortresses found, but from later kings · found 1914
• Pi-Ramesses (Qantir)
  The Delta capital of Ramesses II, the 'Rameses' of Exodus 1:11 · found 1928
• Tell el-Retaba (Pithom candidate)
  A Ramesside fortress-town in the Wadi Tumilat with Egyptian and Semitic residents · found 1905
• Tell el-Maskhuta
  Naville's 'Pithom' of 1883, now dated mainly to the 7th century and later · found 1883
• אֱדוֹם
  Papyrus Anastasi VI
  A border official lets Shasu of Edom through the fort to the pools of Pithom · found 1839
• סִבְלֹת
  Papyrus Leiden I 348 (Apiru hauling stone)
  'Apiru who drag stone for the great pylon of Ramesses' · found 1828
• Tjaru (Tell Hebua) and the Way of Horus Forts
  Egypt's fortified coastal road, the 'way of the land of the Philistines' Israel avoided · found 1981
• יַם־סוּף
  Ballah Lakes and the Sea of Reeds
  Geological work on the ancient lakes east of the Delta and the 'Yam Suph' · found 1998
• מֵיטַב הָאָרֶץ
  Wadi Tumilat
  The green valley from the Delta to the Bitter Lakes, the heart of Goshen · found 1883
• Jebel Musa (traditional Mount Sinai)
  The mountain Christian tradition has honored as Sinai since the 4th century · found 330
• Jebel al-Lawz (Arabian 'Mount Sinai' claim)
  A popular candidate in Saudi Arabia that specialists do not support · found 1984
• Har Karkom
  A Negev mountain covered in rock art, proposed as Sinai by Emmanuel Anati · found 1980
• Ramesses II's Military Camp at Qadesh (Abu Simbel reliefs)
  A pharaoh's war tent laid out like the Tabernacle: 2:1 enclosure, tent in the rear, throne at the west · found 1813
• Brick-making Scene, Tomb of Rekhmire (TT100)
  Foreign laborers making mudbricks under Egyptian overseers, painted on a vizier's tomb wall · found 1832
• Mummies of Ramesses II and Merneptah
  The two pharaohs most often named as 'Pharaoh of the Exodus', both found in their tombs' aftermath · found 1881
• Tomb of the Vizier Aper-El
  A Semitic-named vizier of Egypt under Amenhotep III and Akhenaten · found 1987
• The Plagues and the Exodus: What Archaeology Has and Has Not Found
  An honest summary keyed to the eastern Delta evidence · found 1966
• Jaffa (Joppa): The Ramesses II Gate
  An Egyptian fortress gate inscribed with Pharaoh's names in the port of Jonah and Peter · found 1955
• Ophel Cuneiform Tablet Fragment
  The oldest written text found in Jerusalem, a scrap of an Amarna-age royal letter · found 2010
• The 'Split Rock of Horeb' near Jabal Maqla
  A giant cleft boulder in Saudi Arabia claimed as the rock Moshe struck · found 1992
• The 'Golden Calf Altar' Petroglyphs at Jabal al-Lawz
  Boulder pile with cattle carvings, claimed as Aharon's calf altar · found 1984
• The 'Altar of Moses' and 'Twelve Pillars' at Jabal al-Lawz
  Stone structure and column fragments at the mountain's foot, claimed from Exodus 24 · found 1988
• The 'Boundary Markers' around Jabal al-Lawz
  Stone cairns claimed as the fence Moshe set around the mountain · found 1988
• The 'Cave of Elijah' at Jabal al-Lawz
  A rock-cut chamber claimed as the cave of 1 Kings 19 · found 1988
• The Blackened Summit of Jabal Maqla
  The dark peak said to be scorched when YHVH descended in fire · found 1984
• עַיִן
  Maqna 'Springs of Moses' (Arabian Elim and Marah claims)
  Palm-oasis springs on the Gulf of Aqaba offered as the twelve wells of Elim · found 1984
• יְהוָה נִסִּי
  The 'Rephidim Battlefield' Claim near Al-Bad'
  Cairns and stone rings on the plain by the split rock, read as the fight with Amalek · found 1992
• Nuweiba Crossing and the 'Chariot Wheels' Claim
  Coral shapes in the Gulf of Aqaba said to be Pharaoh's drowned army · found 1978
• The Nuweiba Granite Column ('Solomon's Pillar')
  An unmarked column on the beach said to have been raised by Shlomo to mark the crossing · found 1978
• Jabal al-Lawz: The Official Archaeology and the 2019 Opening
  What Saudi surveys actually found, and how the fenced site became a tour stop · found 1980
• סִין
  Gabal Sin Bishar (Har-El's Mount Sinai)
  A low peak in western Sinai proposed by an Israeli geographer · found 1983
• Jebel Serbal (the Early Christian Mount Sinai)
  The peak above Wadi Feiran that hermits honoured before Jebel Musa · found 1845
• עַצְמוֹת
  Joseph's Tomb at Shechem (Nablus)
  The domed shrine where tradition says Yosef's bones were buried; never excavated · found 333
• Saqqara 'Joseph's Granaries' Claim (Djoser's Step Pyramid Complex)
  Deep shafts and vaults said to be Yosef's grain stores; Imhotep said to be Yosef · found 1924
• The Famine Stela (Sehel Island)
  A Ptolemaic rock inscription telling of seven years of famine under Djoser · found 1889
• Hawara 'Labyrinth' and the Faiyum Works of the 12th Dynasty
  Amenemhat III's vast administrative temple and the land reclamation many link to Yosef's era · found 1843
• Tell el-Yahudiya ('Mound of the Jews')
  A Delta site with a Hyksos-era rampart and, much later, a Jewish temple · found 1887
• The Hyksos Expulsion: Kamose's Stelae and Ahmose son of Ebana
  Egyptian records of driving out the Asiatic rulers, background to 'a new king who knew not Yosef' · found 1908
• Ayun Musa (Springs of Moses) near Suez
  The traditional Marah or Elim on the Egyptian shore of the Gulf of Suez · found 1838
• עֲמָלֵק
  Wadi Feiran (Pharan): The Traditional Rephidim
  Sinai's largest oasis, a Byzantine bishopric built on the Amalek battle tradition · found 1984
• Mount Nebo: The Memorial of Moses
  Byzantine basilica and mosaics on the peak where Moshe viewed the Land · found 1933
• בָּרָד
  Tempest Stele of Ahmose I
  An Egyptian king's record of a great storm, darkness, and flooding at the start of the New Kingdom · found 1947
• El-Arish Naos (the 'El-Arish Stele')
  A Ptolemaic myth of Shu and Geb, read by some as an echo of the darkness and the drowning at the sea · found 1890
• Thera (Santorini) Eruption and the Plagues
  A Bronze Age volcanic disaster proposed as the natural engine behind the plagues of Egypt · found 1967

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