Footnote 3 – 3,200-Year-Old Picture of Israelites Found in Egypt

See Kenneth Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant (see endnote 5) pp. 215, 220 and fig. 70. In a recent article, Donald B. Redford (“The Ashkelon Relief at Karnak and the Israel Stele” [see endnote 141, pp. 188–200) tried to return to the older viewpoint by claiming that the usurped cartouches on this wall were unreadable, and that the pharaoh’s chariot team names are the same as those used by Ramesses II. Both of these arguments and others he poses are based on inadequate study of the reliefs and Ramesside sources in general, and on a serious underestimate of epigraphic work; moreover, the usurpation sequence on this wall in some cartouches is unambiguous (for example, in scene 2). See further, my response to Redford, in Yurco “Once Again, Merenptah’s Battle Reliefs at Karnak,” IEJ, forthcoming.