Saturday, October 04, 2014

Shishak in Jordan?

INSCRIPTION: Pharaoh-Branded Amulet Found at Ancient Copper Mine in Jordan (Megan Gannon, LiveScience).
While exploring ancient copper factories in southern Jordan, a team of archaeologists picked up an Egyptian amulet that bears the name of the powerful pharaoh Sheshonq I.

The tiny artifact could attest to the fabled military campaign that Sheshonq I waged in the region nearly 3,000 years ago, researchers say.

[...]
That military campaign being the invasion of Sheshonq I ("Shishak") mentioned in 1 Kings 14:25-26 (cf. 11:39). Here we have a tantalizing potential link between a contemporary epigraphic source and a story about the Judean kingdom just after the United Monarchy. We don't get those very often.