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 PalestinebyAlan Rowe in the late 1920s and early 1930s.[1][2][3][4]
They are known as
The First Stele of Seti I has been described as "the most impressive find from Egypt’s rule over Canaan".[7]
The first stele is considered to testify to the presence of a Hebrew population: the Habiru, which Seti I protected from an Asiatic tribe.[8][9]
Today they are in the Penn Museum,[10] Philadelphia, and the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, East Jerusalem.
Two other important steles from the same period were found in the same area. Today these are both at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.[11]
One of the steles, discovered in 1928,[12] states that the temple was dedicated to “Mekal, the god, the lord of Beth Shean”;[13] an otherwise unknown Canaanite god – the stele itself is our main source of knowledge about Mekal.[14]
Mekal is seated on a throne, receiving lotus flowers from the builder Amenemapt and his son Paraemheb, holding an ankh and was-sceptre.
A Canaanite stele showing a lion and lioness at play was found in the excavation of the "governor's house".
A number of Stelae or Stele fragments derive from LB IIB-Iron IA Palestine. Five came from Beth Shan, four from Deir el-Balah, and two from sites on the east bank of the Jordan. All were made of local stone basalt, kurkar (sandstone), or limestone. Three of the Beth Shan Stelae contain lengthy inscriptions, which were discussed in chapter 2 in the sections on the reigns of Seti I
One stele discovered from Seti i is called the "Large Stele" and is considered the most impressive find from Egypt's rule over Canaan.
The stela of Seti I discovered at Beisan indicates that the Apiru or Hebrews were certainly in the neighbourhood at that time, c. 1300 B.C. and they seem to have come from the East of Jordan. This is not absolutely certain because the words on the stela are partly obliterated, but it would seem to be confirmed by the second stela of Seti I found at the same site, which distinctly refers to an invasion from the east side of Jordan.
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