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Shasu

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Shasu prisoner as depicted inRamesses III'sreliefsatMedinet Habu.

TheShasu(Ancient Egyptian:šꜣsw,possibly pronouncedšaswə[1]) wereSemitic-speakingpastoral nomadsin theSouthern Levantfrom the lateBronze Ageto the EarlyIron Ageor theThird Intermediate Period of Egypt.They were tent dwellers, organized in clans ruled by a tribal chieftain and were described asbrigandsactive from theJezreel ValleytoAshkelon,in theTransjordanand in theSinai.[2]Some of them also worked as mercenaries for Asiatic and Egyptian armies.[3]

Etymology

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The name's etymon may be Egyptianšꜣsw,which originally meant "those who move on foot". Levy, Adams, and Muniz report similar possibilities: the Egyptian wordšꜣsthat means "to wander", and an alternative Semitictriliteral root,Hebrew:שָׁסַס‎,romanized:šāsas,with the meaning "to plunder".[4]

Land

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Though their homeland seems to be in theTransjordan,the Shasu also appear in northern and southernPalestine/Israel,Syriaand evenEgypt.[5]

History

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Late Bronze

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The earliest known reference to the Shasu occurs in a 16th-century BCE list of peoples in theTransjordan region.The first occurrence of Shasu is in the biographical inscription of Admiral Ahmose found inElkab,[6]who claims to have taken Shasu prisoners while serving Pharaoh AakheperenreThutmose II.The Shasu were on his way as he led a punitive expedition north. Giveon (1971) argued the only event that could account for the Shasu' appearance at that date was the expulsion of theHyksos(around 1550 BC).[7]

In the year 39 ofThutmose III,during his 14th campaign, the pharaoh fought the Shasu before reaching theRetjenu.Shasu are therefore found in southern Canaan. According to the Pharaoh's list, they are more specifically located in theNegev(No. 14 of the list).

The name appears in a list of Egypt's enemies inscribed on column bases at the temple ofSolebbuilt byAmenhotep III.Among the details uncovered at the temple was a reference to a place called "sʿrr,in the land of Shasu "(tꜣ-shꜣsw sʿr), a name thought to be related to or near toPetra,Jordan.[8][9]

In the13th century BCE,copies of the column inscriptions ordered bySeti Ior byRamesses IIatAmara, Nubia,six groups of Shasu are mentioned: those ofsʿrr,ofrbn,ofsmʾt,ofwrbr,ofyhw,and ofpysps.[10][11]The Shasu continued to dominate the hill country of Cis- and Transjordan. The Shasu had become so powerful during this period that they could even cut off Egypt's northern routes through Palestine and Transjordan for a while. This, in turn, prompted vigorous punitive campaigns byRamesses IIand his sonMerneptah.After Egyptian abandonment, Canaanite city-states came under the mercy of the Shasu and the ʿabiru, who were seen as 'mighty enemies'.[3]

The other documents of the 18th dynasty attest to the increasing importance of the Shasu in Canaan, by the large number of prisoners (atAmenhotep II,a list of prisoners gives about half of those ofKhor/Kharu), and then by their appointment to Egypt's greatest enemies, like Babylon or Tehenou (Libya).

During the reign ofAmenhotep III,a source of the Shasu ( "En-Shasus" ) is mentioned near the biblical city ofDothan,a place is wherebedouinsbrought their flocks. The story ofJosephin theHebrew Biblealso mentions nomads who come to water their animals at a source near Dothan.

During the pharaohSeti I's campaign, primarily attested as a historic event by the presence of victorystelesfound atTel MegiddoandBeth Shean,Shasu live in a fertile, mountainous area betweenSilehand Pa-Canaan (perhaps the city ofGaza[12]?). The introductory text of the relief showing the Shasu under notes: "The Shasu enemies plot a rebellion, their tribal leaders are gathered, standing on the hills ofKhor(Kharu),and they are engaged in turmoil and tumult. They don't respect their neighbours, they don't consider the laws of the Palace! "In this campaign, the pharaoh confronts theʿApiruaround Megiddo.

The Shasu would eventually be eclipsed by theSea Peoples.[3]

Shasu ofYhw

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Egyptians beating Shasu spies (detail from theBattle of Kadeshwall-carving)

Two Egyptian texts, one dated to the period ofAmenhotep III(14th century BCE), the other to the age ofRamesses II(13th century BCE), refer totꜣ šꜣśw yhwꜣ,i.e. "The Land of the Shasuyhwꜣ",in whichyhwꜣ(also rendered asyhw) orYahu,is atoponym.[13]

tAM8M23wiihV4A
Hieroglyph Name Pronunciation
tA
 N16 tꜣ
M8
 M8 šꜣ
M23
 M23 sw
w
 w w
ii
 y y
h
 h h
V4
 V4 wꜣ
G1
 G1 ꜣ

Regarding the nameyhwꜣ,Michael Astour observed that the "hieroglyphic rendering corresponds very precisely to the HebrewTetragrammatonYHWH, orYahweh,and antedates the hitherto oldest occurrence of that divine name – on theMesha Stele– by over five hundred years. "[14]K. Van Der Toorn concludes: "By the 14th century BC, before the cult of Yahweh had reached Israel, groups ofEdomitesandMidianitesworshipped Yahweh as their god. "[15]

Donald B. Redfordhas argued that the earliest Israelites, semi-nomadic highlanders in centralCanaanmentioned on theMerneptah Steleat the end of the 13th century BCE, are to be identified as a Shasu enclave. Since later Biblical tradition portrays Yahweh "coming forth from Seʿir",[16]the Shasu, originally fromMoaband northern Edom/Seʿir, went on to form one central element in the amalgam that would constitute the "Israel" which later established theKingdom of Israel.[17]Per his analysis of theAmarna letters,Anson Raineyconcluded that the description of the Shasu best fits that of the early Israelites.[18]If this identification is correct, these Israelites/Shasu would have settled in the uplands in small villages with buildings similar to contemporaryCanaanitestructures towards the end of the 13th century BCE.[19]

Objections exist to this proposed link between theIsraelitesand the Shasu, given that a group of people in relief atKarnak,which has been suggested as depicting the victory over the Israelites, are not described or depicted as Shasu.[a]Frank J. Yurcoand Michael G. Hasel would distinguish the Shasu in Merneptah's Karnak reliefs from the people of Israel since they wear different clothing and hairstyles and are determined differently by Egyptian scribes.[20][21]The Shasu are usually depicted hieroglyphically with adeterminativeindicating a land, not a people;[22]the most frequent designation for the "foes of Shasu" is thehill-country determinative.[23]Thus, they are differentiated from Israel, which is determined as a people, though not necessarily as a socio-ethnic group; and from (the other) Canaanites, who are defending the fortified cities of Ashkelon,Gezer,andYenoam.[24]Lawrence Stageralso objected to identifying Merneptah's Shasu with Israelites, since the Shasu are shown dressed differently from the Israelites, who are dressed and hairstyled as Canaanites.[24][25][b]Scholars point out that Egyptian scribes tended to bundle up "rather disparate groups of people within a single artificially unifying rubric."[27][28]

The usefulness of the determinatives has been called into question, though, as in Egyptian writings, including the Merneptah Stele, determinatives are used arbitrarily.[29]Gösta Werner Ahlström countered Stager's objection by arguing that the contrasting depictions are because the Shasu were the nomads, while the Israelites were sedentary, and added: "The Shasu that later settled in the hills became known as Israelites because they settled in the territory of Israel".[25] Moreover, the hill-country determinative is not always used for Shasu, with theEgyptologist Thomas Schneiderconnecting references to "Yah", believed to be a short form of the Tetragrammaton, with the writings in the Shasu-sequence atSoleband Amarah-West.[30]In an EgyptianBook of the Deadfrom the late18thor19thdynasty, Schneider identifies aNorthwest Semitictheophoric nameʾadōnī-rō‘ē-yāh,meaning "My lord is the shepherd of Yah", which would be the first documented occurrence of the god Yahweh in a theophoric form.[31]

On the other hand,Lester L. Grabbeoffers a synthesis of hypotheses, arguing that while the Israelites were a Canaanite people, Shasu contribution cannot be excluded. The highlands were largely uninhabited in theLate Bronze Age,and the settlers would have included formerpastoralists,farmers moving to less settled areas, migrants from outsideCanaanand people in general seeking a new land and life. According to Grabbe, archaeology suggests that those who settled in the hillcountry had a pastoralist background, but one in which they lived near settled communities, perhaps forming asymbiotic relationshipwith the agrarian communities whereby they traded their animals for grain.[32]

See also

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References

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Notes

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  1. ^However, Yurco's interpretation of these relief also has been contested. SeeMerneptah Stele § Karnak reliefsfor further information.
  2. ^If the Egyptian scribe was not clear on the nature of the entity he called "Israel," knowing only that it was "different" from the surrounding modalities, then we can imagine something other than a sociocultural Israel. It is possible that Israel represented a confederation of united, but sociologically distinct, modalities that were joined either culturally or politically via treaties and the like. This interpretation of the evidence would allow for the unity implied by the endonymic evidence and also give our scribe some latitude in his use of the determinative.[26]

Citations

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  1. ^Redford 1992,p. 271.
  2. ^Miller 2005,p. 95.
  3. ^abcYounker 1999,p. 203.
  4. ^Levy, Adams & Muniz 2004,p. 66.
  5. ^Younker 1999,p. 198.
  6. ^R. Givéon, Les bédouins Shosou des documents égyptiens, Leyde, 1971.
  7. ^R. Givéon, Les bédouins Shosou des documents égyptiens, Leyde, 1971.
  8. ^Grosby 2007,p.109.
  9. ^Gibson, Daniel; Harremoës, Peter."Names for the city of Petra"(PDF).
  10. ^Sivertsen 2009,p. 118.
  11. ^Hasel 1998,p. 219.
  12. ^R. Givéon, Les bédouins Shosou des documents égyptiens, Leyde, 1971.
  13. ^Hen 2022.
  14. ^Astour 1979,p. 18.
  15. ^Van der Toorn 1996,p. 282–283.
  16. ^Book of Judges,5:4 andDeuteronomy,33:2
  17. ^Redford 1992,p. 272–3,275.
  18. ^Rainey 2008.
  19. ^Shaw & Jameson 2008,p. 313.
  20. ^Yurco 1986,p. 195, 207.
  21. ^Hasel 2003,p. 27–36.
  22. ^Nestor 2010,p. 185.
  23. ^Hasel 2003,p. 32–33.
  24. ^abStager 2001,p. 92.
  25. ^abAhlström 1993,p. 277–278.
  26. ^Sparks 1998,p. 108.
  27. ^Nestor 2010,p. 186.
  28. ^Sparks 1998,p. 105–106.
  29. ^Miller 2005,p. 94.
  30. ^Adrom & Müller 2017.
  31. ^Schneider 2007.
  32. ^Grabbe, Lester L. (17 November 2022).The Dawn of Israel: A History of Canaan in the Second Millennium BCE.Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 277–279.ISBN978-0-567-66324-5.

Sources

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