Summary: A collection of 3,500-year-old gold jewelry was recently uncovered at Tell El-Amarna, from a period some connect to the Exodus.
All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord. – Exodus 35:22 (NIV)
Gold Jewelry Found in Young Woman’s Grave
Excavations in an Egyptian cemetery have led to the amazing discovery of the burial site of a young woman adorned with ornate gold jewelry. The site of the find was Tel-Amarna, the city built by the New Kingdom’s Pharaoh Akhenaten during a period some scholars have connected to the biblical Exodus.
The woman’s body was found wrapped in a textile and plant-fiber matting in a small shaft-and-chamber tomb along with several other burials. Around her neck she wore a golden necklace of hollow petal-shaped pendants and on her fingers were three gold and steatite (soapstone) rings, explained Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
One of the rings notably features an engraving of the Egyptian god of childbirth, Bes, who was worshiped as a protective deity to mothers and children. The other two rings display the hieroglyphic inscription “Sat Nebet Tawy,” which translates as “the daughter of the Lady of the Two Lands.” Researchers believe this may be a reference to the two kingdoms of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, which scholars believe was united in 3,150 BC under Pharaoh Menes.
The young woman’s burial “is located at the Amarna North Desert Cemetery in the low desert west of the North Tombs. It includes a small number of burial shafts and tombs, as well as pit graves,” said Anna Stevens of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge.
Stevens is part of a team of Egyptian and English archaeologists excavating at the Tell El-Amarna site which is located along the eastern bank of the Nile River in modern-day Minya, about 200 miles south of Cairo.
Tell El-Amarna and Pharaoh Akhenaten
Archaeologists have been exploring Tell El-Amarna for over thirty years, uncovering a wealth of ancient artifacts and restoring grand mud-brick buildings alongside houses and palaces to their previous grandeur.
Since 2005, the Amarna project has been mainly focused on the city’s large gravesite or necropolis. Researchers hope to gain more information about the food quality and disease prevalence of the ancient citizens who lived here during challenging times centuries ago.
The cemetery was a non-elite burial ground for Egypt’s new capital city, Amarna, under Pharaoh Akhenaten (originally named Amenhotep IV), the 10th ruler of the New Kingdom’s 18th Dynasty who adopted a form of monotheism, or at least elevated the worship of one god in a way not seen before in Egypt.
Numerous temples dedicated to the Egyptian sun god, Aten, who was the subject of the new religion started by Pharaoh Akhenaten, are contained at the Tell El-Amarna site. Akhenaten is also notable for being the father of the famous boy king, Tutankhamun, who later abandoned his father’s new capital city and divisive monotheistic religion.
The city of Amarna had a very brief history. Pharaoh Akhenaten’s religious revolution exchanged the traditional Egyptian polytheism for worship centered on the single deity Aten (depicted as the rays of light extending from the sun’s disk). After this shift, Akhenaten had the entirely new city of Amarna constructed for his grand capital in a matter of five short years.
Once completed, it only served as a thriving city for about a decade, and was quickly abandoned and demolished after the death of the heretic king. Most of its stones were scavenged for building projects at other locations. Conventional dates for the city are from 1346 BC to shortly after 1332 BC, when Akhenaten died. His successor Tutankhamun (King Tut) moved the capital to Memphis (Thebes), and Amarna was never rebuilt.
Akhenaten and the Exodus?
The reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten is conventionally dated to about 1352-1335 BC. Because of a variety of factors, there have been many attempts to connect him to the Exodus story. The kind of shift to monotheism taken by Akhenaten is almost completely unique. Apart from the Hebrews, this may have been the only theology to come close to monotheism in the ancient world.
This unusual turn has prompted some scholars to suggest that Akhenaten’s theology strongly influenced the beliefs of Moses (this would suggest an Exodus at the end of Akhenaten’s reign or later). Others propose that Akhenaten’s shift may have been a reaction to the momentous events of the Exodus (which would mean an Exodus before Akhenaten).
While some lines of evidence, including recent finds of slavery at the site, seem to connect Akhenaten with the Exodus, the same can be said for other pharaohs in Egypt’s history that have been put forward as possible candidates. Whole books have been written showing why Ramesses II (conventionally dated 1279-1213 BC) was the one, with the primary point being the Bible’s reference to the Israelites building the store city of Ramesses. Thutmose III and Amenhotep II (conventionally around 1450 BC) are also popular suspects.
1 Kings 6:1 says that the Exodus was 480 years before Solomon, which would put it into the 1400s BC, long before the time of Ramesses and Akhenaten. Others contend that evidence near the end of the Middle Bronze Age and Egypt’s Middle Kingdom (conventionally around 1650 BC) seems to fit the events of the Exodus best.
With each view containing at least some evidence, how do we know which one is the real Exodus? This is where the “patterns” approach comes in.
What is needed is a tool that lays out the entire sequence of events for the Exodus. Instead of speculating about possible connections to details, the primary focus of the pattern should be on the “big picture” conditions that are hardest to hide in the archaeological record – like a collapse of Egyptian society, and a conquest of the cities in Canaan that are mentioned in the Bible for Joshua’s conquest, 40 years after the Exodus. Laying these criteria against the events of ancient history helps narrow down the likely spots for the Exodus.
The film Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus follows this approach and highlights one idea for a good match in a period earlier in time than where most scholars are looking – and long before the time of Akhenaten.
Conclusion
As one of the world’s preeminent archeological sites, Tell El-Amarna continues to show us more of how human society has developed throughout history. The newly found collection of jewelry is the latest in a long line of discoveries that are changing our understanding of the lives of ancient Egyptians. We must also keep in mind that caution is needed when reporting dates in this era since there are different opinions in regards to the exact timing of the 18th Dynasty and Akhenaten. As one of Israel’s close neighbors, understanding more about Egypt provides greater insight into the history recorded in the Bible.
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TOP PHOTO: Gold jewelry discovered at ancient tomb in Tell El-Amarna. (credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities)
