Beisan steles explained

The Beisan steles are five Ancient Egyptian steles from the period of Seti I and Ramesses II discovered in what was then known as Beisan, Mandatory Palestine by Alan Rowe in the late 1920s and early 1930s.^{[1] [2] [3]}

First stele and second stele

They are known as

• "First Stele": COS 2.4B / ANET 253-254 (A Campaign of Seti I in Northern Palestine)
• "Second Stele": COS 2.4D A badly damaged and weathered stele / ANET 255 (Stelae of Seti I and Ramses II)
• Ramesses Stele: ANET 255 (Stelae of Seti I and Ramses II)

The First Stele of Seti I has been described as "the most impressive find from Egypt’s rule over Canaan".

The first stele is considered to testify to the presence of a Hebrew population: the Habiru, which Seti I protected from an Asiatic tribe.^[4]

Today they are in the Penn Museum,^[5] Philadelphia, and the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, East Jerusalem.

Other Egyptian / Canaanite steles

Two other important steles from the same period were found in the same area. Today these are both at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.^[6]

Mekal Stele

One of the steles, discovered in 1928,^[7] states that the temple was dedicated to “Mekal, the god, the lord of Beth Shean”;^[8] an otherwise unknown Canaanite god – the stele itself is our main source of knowledge about Mekal.^[9]

Mekal is seated on a throne, receiving lotus flowers from the builder Amenemapt and his son Paraemheb, holding an ankh and was-sceptre.

Lion Stele

A Canaanite stele showing a lion and lioness at play was found in the excavation of the "governor's house".

See also

• Egyptian Stelae in the Levant
• List of inscriptions in biblical archaeology

External links

• Web site: Pharaoh in Canaan: The Untold Story . The Israel Museum, Jerusalem . none . 2023-04-17.

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Two Royal Stelæ of Beth-Shan . The Museum Journal . 2023-04-15 . 2023-04-15.
2. Levy . Eythan . 2018 . A Fresh Look at the Mekal Stele . Ägypten und Levante / Egypt and the Levant . Austrian Academy of Sciences Press . 28 . 359–378 . 10.1553/AEundL28s359 . 1015-5104 . 26664996 . 2023-04-15 . JSTOR.
3. Černý . J. . צ'רני . י. . אסטילת רעמסס השני מבית-שאן / STELA OF RAMESSES II FROM BEISAN . Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies / ארץ-ישראל: מחקרים בידיעת הארץ ועתיקותיה . Israel Exploration Society . ה . 1958 . 0071-108X . 23612473 . 75*–82* . 2023-04-15.
4. Albright . W. F. . 1952 . The Smaller Beth-Shan Stele of Sethos I (1309-1290 B. C.) . Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research . American Schools of Oriental Research . 125 . 24–32 . 10.2307/1355937 . 0003-097X . 1355937 . 163588078 . 2023-04-15 . JSTOR . William F. Albright.
5. Web site: Stela - 29-107-958 - Collections . Penn Museum . 2023-02-22 . 2023-04-15.
6. Web site: Standing stone depicting the Canaanite god Mekal . 2023-04-15 . The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
7. Mallon . Alexis . Une nouvelle stèle égyptienne de Beisan (scythopolis) . Syria . PERSEE Program . 9 . 2 . 1928 . 0039-7946 . 10.3406/syria.1928.3283 . 124–130 . fr.
8. Rowe 11
9. Book: Thompson, H.O. . Mekal: The God of Beth-Shan . E. J. Brill . 1970 . 978-90-04-02268-3 . 2023-04-15 . 6.