Episode Two: The Bronze Age, The Land before Israel

[@unrealspetznaz]

These are wonderful interviews. Very well thought out, with very very interesting questions. Thank you so much!

[@MINIOZONIO]

amazing let's go episode 3

[@lakshmangunasekara9401]

This particular lecture presents a research and analytical methodology (and philosophy) that can be emulated by Lankan historiography and archeology which would help distil more credible and socially useful record of the evolution of Lankan society in early times. As against the current popularisation of myth-privileged popular historiography as well as historiography aimed at legitimising current ethnic politics and general national identity politics. Thanks, Israel Finkelstein!

[@klaasbarends]

Could the memory of Egypt controlling the territory be the basis for the exodus story? With the exodus not being Israelites leaving Egypt, but Egyptians leaving 'Israel'?

[@annascott3542]

It’s one out of a list of about 5 of the most popular theories for the exodus. I think it makes a lot of sense.

[@josh4643]

@@annascott3542 It might be a popular theory, but Prof. Finkelstein explains in this interview why it's very unlikely to be correct. As Prof. Finkelstein describes, there is no historical memory in the biblical texts of Egyptian domination of the land of Canaan. There is simply no mention of it at all, and yet we know from the material archaeological record that Egypt was the dominant power in the southern Levant in the late Bronze Age. The city states of Canaan were small semi-autonomous vassals within the larger sphere of Egyptian domination, and jostled among each other for the favour and protection of Egypt against rivals. The biblical story of the exodus from Egypt was developed many centuries later, when Egypt was no longer the dominant power in the southern Levant.

[@Achill101]

@7:35, Finkelstein tells us about their attempt to localize the origins of tablets by trying to identify the source of the clay. @8:27, he claims they identified for most tablets their origin (for most of all tablets or of those originating in Israel?) and created a reliable map of Canaan for the Late Bronze age - WOW. Could you show the map sometimes, even if for just a second? . . . I've read also the Wikipedia page of the Amarna tablets under en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarna_letters and saw a reference to the work by Goren et al. from 2004 but, unfortunately, no mentioning of their results within the Wikipedia page. (Has someone removed the results? Not in the last 50 revisions.)

[@bendahmon]

This is good stuff. Regarding the exodus below; I think the story is a result of multiple generations of immigration. Ramses the third, for example, chased people of various backgrounds to the borders. Some groups could have brought this story to Canaan. In the end, I think Exodus is based on multiple memories, to make a shared history.