Editing Shasu (section)

== Shasu of ''Yhw'' ==
[[File:Ancient carving - Shasu spies being beaten by Egyptians.png|thumb|250px| Egyptians beating Shasu spies (detail from the [[Battle of Kadesh]] wall-carving)]]

Two Egyptian texts, one dated to the period of [[Amenhotep III]] (14th century BCE), the other to the age of [[Ramesses II]] (13th century BCE), refer to {{transliteration|egy|[[wikt:tꜣ šꜣsw yhwꜣ|tꜣ šꜣśw yhwꜣ]]}}, i.e. "The Land of the Shasu ''[[wikt:yhwꜣ|yhwꜣ]]''", in which ''{{transliteration|egy|yhwꜣ}}'' (also rendered as ''{{transliteration|egy|yhw}}'') or ''Yahu'', is a [[toponym]].{{sfn|Hen|2022}}

<hiero>tA-M8-M23-w-i-i-h-V4-A</hiero>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Hieroglyph!! Name||Pronunciation
|-
|<hiero>tA</hiero> ||[[List of Egyptian hieroglyphs#N|N16]] ||tꜣ
|-
|<hiero>M8</hiero> ||[[List of Egyptian hieroglyphs#M|M8]] ||šꜣ
|-
|<hiero>M23</hiero> ||[[List of Egyptian hieroglyphs#M|M23]] ||sw
|-
|<hiero>w</hiero> ||[[Egyptian uniliteral signs|w]] ||w
|-
|<hiero>i-i</hiero> ||[[Egyptian uniliteral signs|y]] ||y
|-
|<hiero>h</hiero> ||[[Egyptian uniliteral signs|h]] ||h
|-
|<hiero>V4</hiero> ||[[List of Egyptian hieroglyphs#V|V4]] ||wꜣ
|-
|<hiero>G1</hiero> ||[[Egyptian uniliteral signs|G1]] ||ꜣ
|}
Regarding the name {{transliteration|egy|yhwꜣ}}, Michael Astour observed that the "hieroglyphic rendering corresponds very precisely to the Hebrew [[Tetragrammaton]] YHWH, or [[Yahweh]], and antedates the hitherto oldest occurrence of that divine name – on the [[Mesha Stele]] – by over five hundred years."{{sfn|Astour|1979|p=18}} K. Van Der Toorn concludes: "By the 14th century BC, before the cult of Yahweh had reached Israel, groups of [[Edom]]ites and [[Midian]]ites worshipped Yahweh as their god."{{sfn|Van der Toorn|1996|p=282–283}}

[[Donald B. Redford]] has argued that the earliest Israelites, semi-nomadic highlanders in central [[Canaan]] mentioned on the [[Merneptah Stele]] at the end of the 13th century BCE, are to be identified as a Shasu enclave. Since later Biblical tradition portrays Yahweh "coming forth from Seʿir",<ref>[[Book of Judges]], 5:4 and [[Deuteronomy]], 33:2</ref> the Shasu, originally from [[Moab]] and northern Edom/Seʿir, went on to form one central element in the amalgam that would constitute the "Israel" which later established the [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|Kingdom of Israel]].{{sfn|Redford|1992|p=272–3,275}} Per his analysis of the [[Amarna letters]], [[Anson Rainey]] concluded that the description of the Shasu best fits that of the early Israelites.{{sfn|Rainey|2008}} If this identification is correct, these Israelites/Shasu would have settled in the uplands in small villages with buildings similar to contemporary [[Canaanites|Canaanite]] structures towards the end of the 13th century BCE.{{sfn|Shaw|Jameson|2008|p=313}}

Objections exist to this proposed link between the [[Israelites]] and the Shasu, given that a group of people in relief at [[Karnak]], which has been suggested as depicting the victory over the Israelites, are not described or depicted as Shasu.{{efn|However, Yurco's interpretation of these relief also has been contested. See [[Merneptah Stele#Karnak reliefs|Merneptah Stele §&nbsp;Karnak reliefs]] for further information.}} [[Frank J. Yurco]] and Michael G. Hasel would distinguish the Shasu in Merneptah's Karnak reliefs from the people of Israel since they wear different clothing and hairstyles and are determined differently by Egyptian scribes.{{sfn|Yurco|1986|p=195, 207}}{{sfn|Hasel|2003|p=27–36}} The Shasu are usually depicted hieroglyphically with a [[determinative]] indicating a land, not a people;{{sfn|Nestor|2010|p=185}} the most frequent designation for the "foes of Shasu" is the [[hill-country (hieroglyph)|hill-country determinative]].{{sfn|Hasel|2003|p=32–33}} Thus, they are differentiated from Israel, which is determined as a people, though not necessarily as a socio-ethnic group; and from (the other) Canaanites, who are defending the fortified cities of Ashkelon, [[Gezer]], and [[Yenoam]].{{sfn|Stager|2001|p=92}} [[Lawrence Stager]] also objected to identifying Merneptah's Shasu with Israelites, since the Shasu are shown dressed differently from the Israelites, who are dressed and hairstyled as Canaanites.{{sfn|Stager|2001|p=92}}{{sfn|Ahlström|1993|p=277–278}}{{efn|If the Egyptian scribe was not clear on the nature of the entity he called "Israel," knowing only that it was "different" from the surrounding modalities, then we can imagine something other than a sociocultural Israel. It is possible that Israel represented a confederation of united, but sociologically distinct, modalities that were joined either culturally or politically via treaties and the like. This interpretation of the evidence would allow for the unity implied by the endonymic evidence and also give our scribe some latitude in his use of the determinative.{{sfn|Sparks|1998|p=108}}}} Scholars point out that Egyptian scribes tended to bundle up "rather disparate groups of people within a single artificially unifying rubric."{{sfn|Nestor|2010|p=186}}{{sfn|Sparks|1998|p=105–106}}

The usefulness of the determinatives has been called into question, though, as in Egyptian writings, including the Merneptah Stele, determinatives are used arbitrarily.{{sfn|Miller|2005|p=94}} Gösta Werner Ahlström countered Stager's objection by arguing that the contrasting depictions are because the Shasu were the nomads, while the Israelites were sedentary, and added: "The Shasu that later settled in the hills became known as Israelites because they settled in the territory of Israel".{{sfn|Ahlström|1993|p=277–278}}
Moreover, the hill-country determinative is not always used for Shasu, with the [[Thomas Schneider (Egyptologist)|Egyptologist Thomas Schneider]] connecting references to "Yah", believed to be a short form of the Tetragrammaton, with the writings in the Shasu-sequence at [[Soleb]] and Amarah-West.{{sfn|Adrom|Müller|2017}} In an Egyptian ''[[Book of the Dead]]'' from the late [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt|18th]] or [[Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt|19th]] dynasty, Schneider identifies a [[Northwest Semitic]] [[theophoric name]] ''ʾadōnī-rō‘ē-yāh'', meaning "My lord is the shepherd of Yah", which would be the first documented occurrence of the god Yahweh in a theophoric form.{{sfn|Schneider|2007}}

On the other hand, [[Lester L. Grabbe]] offers a synthesis of hypotheses, arguing that while the Israelites were a Canaanite people, Shasu contribution cannot be excluded. The highlands were largely uninhabited in the [[Late Bronze Age]], and the settlers would have included former [[Pastoralism|pastoralists]], farmers moving to less settled areas, migrants from outside [[Canaan]] and people in general seeking a new land and life. According to Grabbe, archaeology suggests that those who settled in the hill country had a pastoralist background, but one in which they lived near settled communities, perhaps forming a [[Symbiosis|symbiotic relationship]] with the agrarian communities whereby they traded their animals for grain.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grabbe |first1=Lester L. |title=The Dawn of Israel: A History of Canaan in the Second Millennium BCE |date=17 November 2022 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-567-66324-5 |pages=277–279 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MUGXEAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>