Canaanite toponyms in ancient Egyptian documents

CANAANITE TOPONYMS IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCUMENTS is the first geographical handbook of Canaanite and Hebrew place-names found in ancient Egyptian documents from the Old Kingdom to the Late Period. The work is intended for students of the historical geography of the Holy Land and Egyptology. The author lectures in the Department of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba. He serves as an editor of the Encyclopaedia Migra'it (= Encyclopaedia Biblica), and is the general editor of the Encyclopaedia Migra'it Library.

Egyptian documents from the third through the first millennia B.C.E. are of decisive importance in the study of the history and the historical topography of Eretz Israel, They are of special significance for the study of the second millennium, due to both their quality and quantity in the Middle and New Kingdom Periods of ancient Egypt. At times they are the sole documents at our disposal, but even when other documents, such as the Bible and cuneiform texts, are available, the information to be derived from the Egyptian documents is still indispensable. For the third millenium we have very few relevant documents, so that the handful of Egyptian documents are most welcome. As to the first millennium, the Egyptian topographical list of Shishak contributes a great deal toward the understanding of the nature of his campaign to the Land of Israel. It ís also a most important source of information for the historical topography of the Kingdom of Israel and of the Judaean Negeb.

Egyptian documents contribute greatly to the study of Canaanite and Hebrew toponyms, which is essential for historical topography. Although the corpus of toponyms presented here is meant primarily for students of the historical topography of the…