Donald B. Redford

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Donald B. Redford (born 1934) is an influential Canadian Egyptologist and archaeologist, currently Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Professor Redford has directed a number of important excavations in Egypt, notably at Karnak and Mendes. Along with his wife, he is the director of the Akhenaten Temple Project.

Redford has presented some controversial theories concerning the Bible and history. He argues that the experiences of the Hyksos in Egypt became a central foundation of myths in Canaanite culture, leading to the story of Moses. He further argues that many of the details in the Exodus story are more consistent with the 7th century BC, long after the time of King David, rather than the era when the event is described as having taken place. This view was expounded upon in The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman.

Redford's work in editing The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, published in 2001, earned the American Library Association's Dartmouth Medal for a reference work of outstanding quality and significance.

[edit] Publications

  • History and Chronology of the 18th dynasty of Egypt: Seven studies. Toronto: University Press, 1967.
  • Akhenaten: The Heretic King. Princeton: University Press, 1984
  • Pharaonic King-Lists, Annals, and Day-Books: A Contribution to the Study of the Egyptian Sense of History, SSEA Publication IV (Mississauga, Ontario: Benben Publications) 1986
  • Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-691-00086-7.
  • The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, 2001.
  • The Wars in Syria and Palestine of Thutmose III, [Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 16]. Leiden: Brill, 2003. ISBN 90-04-12989-8

[edit] External links