Shasu
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Shasu is an Egyptian term for nomads who appeared in the Levant from the 15th Century BCE all the way to the Third Intermediate Period. The name evolved from a transliteration of the Egyptian word ลก3sw, meaning "moving on foot", into the term for Bedouin-type wanderers. The term first originated in a 15th century list of peoples in the Transjordan, with one of the Shasu territories described as "Yhw in the land of the Shasu". From this evidence , some scholars, including Donald B. Redford and William G. Dever[1], conclude that the people who would eventually be the "Israel" recorded on the Merneptah Stele (widely known as the Israel Stele) and later form the Kingdom of Israel were originally a Shasu tribe. However, the proposed link between the Israelites and the Shasu is undermined by the fact that in the Merneptah reliefs, the Israelites are not depicted as Shasu, but wear the same clothing and have the same hairstyles as the Canaanites, who are defending the fortified cities of Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yanoam.[2]
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- Dever, William G. (1997). "Archaeology and the Emergence of Early Israel" . In John R. Bartlett (Ed.), Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation, pp. 20โ50. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-14113-3
- MacDonald, Burton (1994). "Early Edom: The Relation between the Literary and Archaeological Evidence". In Michael D. Coogan, J. Cheryl Exum, Lawrence E. Stager (Eds.), Scripture and Other Artifacts: Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Honor of Philip J. King, pp. 230โ246. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-22364-8
- Redford, Donald B. (1992). Egypt, Canaan and Israel In Ancient Times. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00086-7.
- Stager, Lawrence E. (2001). "Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel". In Michael Coogan (Ed.), The Oxford History of the Biblical World, pp. 90โ129. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508707-0
