Shasu

Shasu prisoner as described in Ramesses III's reliefs at Madinat Habu

Shasu (from Egyptian š3sw, probably pronounced Shaswe[1]) were Semitic-speaking cattle nomads in the Levant from the late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age or Third Intermediate Period of Egypt. They were organized in clans under a tribal chieftain, and were described as brigands active from the Jezreel Valley to Ashkelon and the Sinai.[2] Some scholars link the Israelites and the Israelite god Yahweh with the Shasu.

Etymology

The name's etymon may be Egyptian š3sw, which originally meant "those who move on foot". Levy, Adams, and Muniz report something similar: an Egyptian word that means "to wander", and an alternative Semitic one with the meaning "to plunder".[3]

History

The earliest known reference to the Shasu is in a 15th-century BCE list of peoples in Transjordan. It is used in a list of enemies inscribed on column bases at the temple of Soleb built by Amenhotep III. Copied later by either Seti I or Ramesses II at Amarah-West, the list mentions six groups of Shasu: the Shasu of S'rr, the Shasu of Rbn, the Shasu of Sm't, the Shasu of Wrbr, the Shasu of Yhw, and the Shasu of Pysps.[4][5]

Shasu of Yhw

Shasu spies being beaten by Egyptians (detail from the Battle of Kadesh wall carving)

There are two Egyptian texts, one dated to the period of Amenhotep III (14th century BCE), the other to the age of Ramesses II (13th century BCE) which refer to 'Yahu in the land of the Šosū-nomads' (t3 š3św yhw3), in which yhw3/Yahu is a toponym.

Regarding the name yhw3, Michael Astour observed that the "hieroglyphic rendering corresponds very precisely to the Hebrew tetragrammaton YHWH, or Yahweh, and antedates the hitherto oldest occurrence of that divine name – on the Moabite Stone – by over five hundred years."[6] One hypothesis is that it is reasonable to infer that the demonym 'Israel' recorded on the Merneptah Stele refers to a Shasu enclave, and that, since later Biblical tradition portrays Yahweh "coming forth from Seʿir",[7] the Shasu, originally from Moab and northern Edom/Seʿir, went on to form one major element in the amalgam that was to constitute the "Israel" which later established the Kingdom of Israel.[8] Anson Rainey came to a similar conclusion in his analysis of the el-Amarna letters.[9] K. Van Der Toorn concludes that, "By the 14th century BC, before the cult of Yahweh had reached Israel, groups of Edomite and Midianites worshipped Yahweh as their god."[10]

Donald B. Redford has argued that the earliest Israelites, semi-nomadic highlanders in Palestine are to be identified with the Shasu, and if the identification, though it has been challenged, is correct, these Israelites/Shasu would have settled in the uplands of Palestine in small villages towards the end of the 13th century BCE.[11] Objections exist to this proposed link between the Israelites and the Shasu, given that the group in the Merneptah reliefs identified with the Israelites are not described or depicted as Shasu (see Merneptah Stele#Karnak reliefs). The Shasu are usually depicted hieroglyphically with a determinative indicating a land, not a people.[12] The usefulness of the determinatives has been called into question, though; it has been pointed out that in Egyptian writings, including the Merneptah Stele, determinatives are used arbitrarily.[13] The most frequent designation for the "foes of Shasu" is the hill-country determinative.[14] Thus they are differentiated from the Canaanites, who are defending the fortified cities of Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yenoam.[15] At the same time, the hill-country determinative is not always used for Shasu, as is the case in the "Shasu of Yhw" name rings from Soleb and Amarah-West.

Frank J. Yurco and Michael G. Hasel would distinguish the Shasu in Merneptah's Karnak reliefs from the people of Israel since they wear different clothing, hairstyles, and are determined differently by Egyptian scribes.[16] Moreover, Israel is determined as a people, though not necessarily as a socioethnic group.[17] Egyptian scribes tended to bundle up "rather disparate groups of people within a single artificially unifying rubric."[18] Stager also objected to identifying Merneptah's Shasu with Israelites, since the Shasu and the Canaanites are shown dressed differently from each other. Gösta Werner Ahlström countered that this is because the Shasu were the nomads, while the Israelites were sedentary, and adds that "The Shasu that later settled in the hills became known as Israelites because they settled in the territory of Israel".[19]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Donald B. Redford (1992), p. 271.
  2. ↑ Miller (2005), p.95
  3. ↑ Levy, Adams, and Muniz, p. 66
  4. ↑ Sivertsen (2009), p. 118
  5. ↑ Hasel (1998), p. 219
  6. ↑ Astour (1979), p. 18
  7. ↑ Book of Judges, 5:4 and Deuteronomy, 33:2
  8. ↑ Donald B. Redford (1992), p. 272–3,275.
  9. ↑ Rainey (2008)
  10. ↑ K. Van Der Toorn, p. 282-283
  11. ↑ Shasu, in Ian Shaw, Robert Jameson (eds) Dictionary of Archaeology, John Wiley & Sons, 2008 p.313.
  12. ↑ Dermot Anthony Nestor, p.185.
  13. ↑ Miller (2012), p. 94
  14. ↑ Hasel (2003), p. 32–33
  15. ↑ Stager (2001), p. 92
  16. ↑ Yurco (1986), p. 195, 207; Hasel (2003), p. 27–36.
  17. ↑ Kenton L. Sparks, p.108
  18. ↑ Nestor, p.186.
  19. ↑ Ahlström, pp. 277–278, note 7

References

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