Monday, July 8, 2019

Biblical Zoan found?


The bible says Hebron was built 7 years before Zoan.

Zoan has long supposed to be Tanis, but the problem with this is that it is said that Tanis is not known before the 19th dynasty. This would agree with the conventional chronology which places Joshua in the 19th dynasty (re Hebron was city of Arba in 'Joshua'), but the problem is there are evidences that the orthodox chronology places all biblical events before Solomon too late in Egyptian history (i.e. their Egyptian dates for the dynasties are too old/long). Though Hoeh says a statue of a 13th dynasty king Mermeshoi was found at Tanis. A statue of the 6th dynasty king Merira Pepi was also found at Tanis (ref Brugsch-Bey), These might agree with our Moses in the 6th & 12th/13th dynasty, but the statues might have been moved there later, plus Mamre/Macpelah/Kirjath-Arba/Hebron/Khalil was founded in the bible somewhere between/before Abraham or Isaac/Jacob or Kohath or Moses or Joshua or Caleb or Samson or David and Absalom. Archaeologically it is attested by the EBA, though almost devoid in the LBA. So Hebron was seemingly fairly earlier/older than Tanis was.)

So anyway what this means is that either Tanis was known before the 19th dynasty or else Zoan was not Tanis but was some other place in Egypt. Another support for it being another place is that Moses performing miracles in the field of Zoan can't be so close to the Egyptian border as Tanis was/is. Tsoan is said to  mean "place of departure" which supposedly supports a site in the north-east delta, but  Josephus said the exodus started from Latopolis/Sokhem near Saqqara/Memphis. Zoan/Tso'an is also not necessarily as/so linguistically close to Zean/Djan/Djanet/Sant/Tanis/Djan/Tsan/San as has been assumed. Djanet/Tanis means "stronghold" or "the great city", different meaning to the Hebrew one.

The two most likely sites for Zoan are Memphis/Noph and Thebes/No/Noamun because Zoan is mentioned in association with in Noph the bible (Isaiah 19:13). (Tanis & Memphis also appear in Judith 1:10.) This might seem to imply that the sites Zoan & Memphis can't be the same because it seems Noph was Memphis (and the Judith verse mentions both Tanis and Memphis), but to me it alternatively can be that Zoan is Memphis and "Noph" is Thebes, or that the 2 biblical sitenames are two parts of same city (since Memphis does have a few different parts and names), or the bible also used Zoan for the later Tanis (as it later did in the Septuagint).

On checking it looks like Zoan is Memphis. Our reasons are:

- The name Zo'an/Tso'an could match either Ankh-tawy or
Inebu-hedj/Anbu-hat or Dahshur which were ancient names for parts of greater Memphis, with a consideration that there are evidences that Egyptian hieroglyphs may not always be read the right way around by modern scholars. Reversing Ankh-tawy/Anch-ta we have Tawy-ankh/Ta-anch. Tawy/Ta is also read taui and means "two (lands)". (Compare the similar word kaui/ka which means "bull/kine".) In any case Taui-ankh is close to Zo'an/Tso'an.

- The biblical "field of Zoan" for Zoan and/or for Egypt could match Memphis' "field of the sun" and/or "Pyramid fields", and/or match Memphis as city joining Upper and Lower Egypt. (Note the name Egypt comes from temple Hut-ka-Ptah at Memphis. Mit-rahina at modern Memphis also recalls the biblical Mizraim/Mizrahi "Egypt"? and/or Rumeida at Hebron?)
(Compare the later Tanis dynasties "saw selves as the legitimate rulers of UE & LE. Incidentally Tanis also has/had a "field" or "fields" too apparently.)

- Goshen was Giza which is an outer district of Memphis (Zoan). So Moses being there makes sense.

- Zoan means "place of departure". Josephus said that the exodus started from Latopolis which is near Memphis.

- If Moses was Pepi 2/1 of the 6th dynasty then we note that Pepi's other main/pyramid name was Men-nefer which was whence the name of Memphis. Traditional story that Moses was found in the marshes of Nile at Zoan/"Tanis" (for which there is no archaeological evidence at the later Tanis).

- Hebron built before Memphis would make sense since Memphis is like the earliest city built by the 1st pharaoh/king Menes, and it was the 2nd dynastic capital of Egypt (3rd-8th dynasties, after the Thinite 1st-2nd dynasties).

- Hebron was built 7 yrs before Zoan. This may also imply there were/are also some other similarities between the two sites. Hebron had graves/caves of patriarchs/matriarchs. Memphis had necropolis and pyramids. (Thebes in the south also had valley of kings/queens burials,, but Zoan seems to match Memphis much better than Thebes.) Jacob was buried at Hebron, like Khufu's (Jacob's) Great Pyramid is at Giza in outer Memphis. The later Tanis also had a necropolis which replaced he one at Thebes.
Helwan beside Memphis has a name similar to Hebron?

- Tanis had 17 pyramids? Memphis had Pyramid fields at Giza and Saqqara.

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