Footnote 7 – The Patriarchal Age: Myth or History?

During the full span of the Middle Bronze Age (roughly 2000–1600 B.C.), most of our limited archaeological evidence for Western Asiatic people in Egypt comes from the East Delta, not beyond it; compare the rich archaeological evidence from Tell el-Dab‘a found by the Austrian expedition led by Manfred Bietak. For a convenient introduction, see Manfred Bietak, Avaris and Piramesse, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford Univ. Press/British Academy, 1986), pp. 238–268, 294–295. Evidence from elsewhere is very thin indeed at present, even though Egyptian slaves traveled all over the region. See William C. Hayes, A Papyrus of the Late Middle Kingdom (Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Museum, 1955).