Merneptah Stele

The Merneptah Stele (also known as the Israel Stele and the Victory Stele of Merneptah) is the reverse of a stele originally erected by the Ancient Egyptian king Thutmose III, but later inscribed by Merneptah. The stela was made to commemorate a victory in a campaign against the Libu and Meshwesh Libyans and their Sea People allies, but a short portion of the text is devoted to a campaign in the Levant. It is also widely known as the "Israel stele", as it is the only Egyptian document generally accepted as mentioning "Israel", thus becoming the first known documentation of Israel. It was discovered at Merneptah's mortuary temple at Thebes and now is in the collection of the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, though a copy of the stela was also found at Karnak. It stands some ten feet tall, and its text is mainly a prose report with a poetic finish, mirroring other Egyptian New Kingdom stelae of the time.

Because of the fact it mentions "Israel" and is the first known record of "Israel" in history, the stela has gained some notoriety. Many Egyptologists refer to it as the "Israel stele" because of this, though the title is an erroneous one, as the stela is clearly not about Israel at all. In fact, there is only one line about Israel – "Israel is wasted, bare of seed" – and very little about the region of Palestine as a whole, as Merneptah inserts just a single stanza to the Canaanite campaigns and multiple stanzas to his defeat of the Libyans.

There are two debates by scholars concerning the details of the stela. For one, there is disagreement over whether or not Merneptah actually did campaign in Canaan and didn't just merely recount what was there, mirroring later Assyrian documents that could never admit that Assyria could lose. This argument holds some weight, as a stela by Merneptah's predecessor Ramesses II about the Battle of Qadesh indicates firm control of the Levant, making it strange that Merneptah had to reconquer it – unless Merneptah had in fact lost it. On the flip side, if taken literally, Merneptah may have faced a revolt that he crushed, meaning that regardless, Merneptah's rule over Caanan was most likely precarious at best.

The other debate surrounds "Israel". As the stela mentions just one line about Israel it is difficult for scholars to draw any information at all about Israel. The stela does point out that Israel, at this stage, refers to a people since a hieroglyphic determinative for "country" is absent regarding Israel (whereas the other areas had the determinative for "country" applied to them). However, after that there is not much else that can be drawn about Israel at this time. A theory by Donald Redford states that "Israel" was a band of Bedouin-like wanderers known to Egyptians as "Shasu". Redford notes that among the Shasu in a 15th century BC list is one labelled "Yhw- in the land of the Shasu", thus providing a possible explanation for the origin of Israel. As far as what "Israel" became after that, there is little that can be drawn. The next extra-Biblical source about Israel, detailing a campaign against Moab by Omri, appears some 300 years later in the Mesha Stele, and Biblically-speaking, the 200 years between the stele and the foundation of the Kingdom of Israel by Saul in c.1000 BC are treated in a rather cursory manner, leaving much in the air over how Israel became a kingdom. Regardless, the stele becomes an important source for Israelite history simply because it is the first official record in history of an "Israel", even if this record does not explain much.

References

• Görg, Manfred. 2001. "Israel in Hieroglyphen." Biblische Notizen: Beiträge zur exegetischen Diskussion 106:21–27.
• Kitchen, Kenneth Anderson. 1994. "The Physical Text of Merneptah's Victory Hymn (The 'Israel Stela')." Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 24:71–76.
• Kuentz, Charles. 1923. "Le double de la stèle d'Israël à Karnak." Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale 21:113–117.
• Lichtheim, Miriam. 1976. Ancient Egyptian Literature, A Book of Readings. Volume 2: The New Kingdom. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Manassa, Colleen. 2003. The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the Thirteenth Century BC. Yale Egyptological Studies 5. New Haven: Yale Egyptological Seminar, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University. ISBN 0-9740025-0-X
• Redford, Donald Bruce. 1992. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Stager, Lawrence E. 1985. "Merenptah, Israel and Sea Peoples: New Light on an Old Relief." Eretz Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographic Studies 18:56*–64*.he:מצבת ישראל