"In 1966, Manfred Bietak --head of the
Austrian Institute of Archaeology--
excavated ruins at Avaris (Tel el-Dab'a) in the Nile Delta, and discovered a settlement of "Asiatics," which is a term that Egyptians used for people from Canaan/Palestine. The inhabitants of Tel el-Dab'a were not Egyptians, but were Semitic Canaanites. They were of the Syro-Palestinian Middle Bronze Age Culture, and none of the remains are Egyptian. Significantly,
the U-shaped floor-plans, and the walls of their buildings are exactly like those later constructed by the Hebrews in Israel. In addition, their burial methods were different than the Egyptians. This particular Semitic settlement at Tel el-Dab'a had a population of about 30,000 people, and is dated as being from the Late Hyksos or the early 18th Dynasty of Egypt.
This time would be not long after the time of Joseph (see Genesis chapters 37-50) --perhaps somewhere around 1500 BC.
(ref: "The Exodus Revealed," Docu-Video, Discovery Media Prod., 2002)
In Genesis 46:27 we read that when Joseph's family immigrated to Egypt (because of famine), there were only 70 people involved in the move --however, the families of Jacob and Joseph surely intermarried with other Asiatics who fled the famine, and by the time the Semites were established well enough to have built cities with walls, there was a population of almost 30,000 in Tel el-Dab'a. --There may have been other Semitic cities as well.
Thus, we have direct archaeological evidence of the presence of at least several tens of thousands of Semites with Hebrew culture established in cities in the Nile Delta around the very time that the Bible says the Hebrews were there.
The Exodus of Moses: Archaeology Verifies The Bible
As a way of "bragging" about their slaves, there are 18th dynasty wall-painting insciptions in Egyptian tombs which show such Semitic slaves from Canaan (the home-land of the Hebrews) making bricks out of mud and straw, with stick-wielding taskmasters forcing them to work --and the biblical account states the very same thing: The Hebrews labored as slaves in the making of "bricks" out of mud and straw. Such inscriptions are found in the tomb of Rekhmire, who was the vizier of pharaoh Thutmose III in the mid-1400s BC. --Professor Hoffmeier adds, "It is worth noting, that the practice of using forced labor for building projects is only documented for the period 1450 to 1200, the very time most biblical historians place the Israelites in Egypt."
--Thus, it so happens that at the time the Hebrews would have been enslaved, there are actually Egyptian inscriptions to verify the fact.
(ref. "Did the Exodus Never Happen?" by K.D.Miller, Christianity Today, Sept.7, 1998, p.48)
Possibly much more significant is a line from the "Leiden Papyrus 348," which dates from the time of Ramesses II. It has orders that food be given to "the Apiru who are dragging stones to the great pylon" which was part of some unspecified construction.
(ref: J.K.Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt, New York/Oxford U.Press, 1997, p.112-114)
--The word "Apiru" meant a "state-less" individual, and many scholars think it was used to refer to the Hebrews --and indeed, Dr. Frank Moore Cross of Harvard University directly says that "the term 'Apiru' is the origin of the term Hebrew."
--The Apiru (Hebrews) were being employed as slaves in Egypt.
(ref: "The Exodus Revealed," Docu-Video, Discovery Media Prod., 2002)
The Exodus of Moses: Archaeology Verifies The Bible
Like banging my head against a brick wall ...
