As pharaohs were launching military campaigns into Canaan during the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 B.C.E., Egypt’s New Kingdom), they attempted to secure the empire’s northeastern frontier with fortifications along the coastal road (also called the Ways of Horus) connecting Egypt with Canaan in north Sinai. In the Biblical account of the Exodus, the Israelites do not attempt to take this more direct route to the “Promised Land,” but rather choose the longer way through the wilderness (see Exodus 13:17—18). Both the Biblical account and the archaeological remains—in addition to Egyptian records—illustrate that the maritime region of north Sinai was a critical point in the interactions between Egypt and the Levant.
Tell el-Borg
Tell el-Borg, vol. 1, The “Dwelling of the Lion” on the Ways of Horus Excavations in North Sinai
Edited by James K. Hoffmeier
(Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2014), xiv + 520 pp., b&w illustrations, CD (color images, plans), $99.50 (hardcover)
This volume publishes the results of the archaeological investigation of two Egyptian forts at the site of Tell el-Borg in north Sinai along the Ways of Horus. Directed by James K. Hoffmeier of Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, the team excavated Tell el-Borg between 1999 and 2007. This collective volume, edited by Hoffmeier, introduces the site and then focuses on its military zone. (A complementary volume is planned to report on the public and domestic spaces and the cemetery areas at Tell el-Borg.) Individual contributions cover issues of local geology and geography and the role of the area in the east frontier defense network, but the bulk of the volume focuses on the two forts and an evaluation of their archaeology, architectural remains and finds.
Perhaps the most intriguing find from Tell el-Borg is the votive stela of Betu, the stable master of the fort. Although Egyptian in design, it portrays the “overseer of horses” with the non-Egyptian, Semitic deities Reshep and Astarte, who bear previously unattested epithets. Scholars wonder whether the artist is suggesting superiority of Reshep and Astarte over the deities of Egypt.