Pithom
Pithom or Teku (also Pithom; ancient Egyptian Per- Tum Per- Tem; Assyrian Nathu ) is located in the eastern Nile Delta region of the semi-arid valley Tjeku. Due to the existing mapping difficulties and partial contradictions exists with respect to a safe location of Pithom today among scientists no consensus, which corresponds to the archaeological developed mound the Biblical Pithom or Heroonpolis, the region on the places Tell it - Retaba and Tell el- Maschuta could be limited. Pithom ( Tjeku ) was the capital of the eighth nome of Lower Egypt.
Background
Older excavation finds
1883 examined Édouard Naville which is about 16 km west of Ismailia located ruins of Tell el- Maschuta in the eastern Wadi Tumilat. He came to his research to the conclusion that there must be at Pithom, as were several monuments from the time of Ramses II under archaeological objects.
On a statue of the 22nd Dynasty "House of Atum ( Per- Atum ) " is mentioned. Another great stela from the Ptolemaic period, known as " Pithomstele ", contains the names Tjeku and Per- Atum.
From Roman times, a Latin inscription with the place names Ero ( castra ) is obtained, which corresponds to the Greek " Heroonpolis ". In the Septuagint is in Genesis. 46,28 the Hebrew place name Goshen reproduced with Heroonpolis. The Coptic translation of the Bible called instead Heroonpolis the place Pethom. Naville concluded the identification of Tell el- Maschuta with Pithom. Tjeku should, however, designate the entire region.
Flinders Petrie in 1905 uncovered at Tell - he Retaba ( near present-day al - Qaṣṣāṣīn ), about 15 km west of Tell el- Maschuta, a fortress from the New Kingdom. Ramses II had built there a temple for the cult of Atum as Lord of Tjeku. A statue stele and show him with Atum. Ramses III. erected as monuments in this place and strengthened the fortress. During the time of the New Kingdom, the area was also used, among other things, on the Shasu strains:
" The Shasu tribes from Edom ( šʒśw n JMDR ) passed the fort of Merenptah in Tjeku to graze their cattle in the Pools of Atum temple. I took her on the day of the birth of Seth ( 3 Heriu - renpet ) to the place, where there is already living the other Shasu strains that passed the fort of Merenptah in Tjeku days ago. Report an Egyptian border guard "
The statement in the Old Testament (Gen. 47.11 ), that Joseph's family settled in the land of Rameses, is influenced by the handing down of the extract motif that implies a participation in the construction of cities Pi -Ramesses and Pithom. Alan Gardiner had suggested he Tell - Retaba equated with Pithom, while Tjeku may designate as a place name in both a larger area than a specific city and is equated with Tell el- Maschuta.
New excavation campaigns
Since 1977, Tell el- Maschuta was examined several times by new excavations. In the second Intermediate Period ( 1648-1550 BC) existed at Tell el- Maschuta a settlement of the Hyksos. In contrast, for the period during the New Kingdom ( 1550-1070 BC ) and the third Intermediate Period ( 1070-652 BC) determine any settlement, as the excavation findings of the ceramic was found.
The fortified town of Tell - Retaba he was uninhabited during the New Kingdom in Wadi Tumilat the only major town and only 600-400 BC. From these results, it follows that it is very probable that Tell el- Maschuta was further established by Tell it - Retaba a piece of east new. During this time, let Necho II ( 610-595 BC) to create the Bubastis channel to the Red Sea, led by the Wadi Tumilat.
The older monuments of Rameses and third meantime, probably from Tell el- Maschuta, therefore, would have experienced a later transport there. Kenneth Anderson Kitchen disagreed with this reconstruction. In his opinion, he existed Tell - Retaba ( Pithom ), and Tell el- Maschuta ( Tjeku ) in the New Kingdom at the same time as significant settlements. However, the ceramic findings made Kitchen incurred on its adoption.
Identifications
Tell it - Retaba and the succession settlement at Tell el - Maschuta were designated with both Tjeku and Pithom. However, definite evidence is just the equation of Pithom with Tell el- Maschuta. The titled of Naville excavated buildings as " trading houses ", which he referred to Ex 1.11, were first built in the Ptolemaic period, when Ptolemy II had to renew the channel. Herodotus pinpointed the channel built by Necho II geographically a branch of the Nile at Bubastis to that of the wadi Tumilat resulted in the further course to the Red Sea and flowed past on " the Arab city Patumos ".
From the 1st century BC to the 2nd century BC missing evidence of settlements. A short time later, under Trajan, the place reached the greatest extent by the re- expansion channel. The term allegedly used in the Hellenistic period as Heroonpolis is not secured. Strabo situate Heroonpolis " to the farthest corner of the Arabian Gulf " But then Heroonpolis may not have been the settlement of Tell el- Maschuta.