Tempest Stele
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The Tempest Stele was erected by Ahmose I early in the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, circa 1550 BCE. The stele describes great storms striking Egypt during this time. Upper Egypt is very dry climatically, and flash floods as detailed in the stele are very rare. Yet the stele tells of an incessant tempest all over Egypt, leading author Ralph Ellis to equate this storm with the Hebrew Bible's tale of plagues in Exodus. [1]
Prof. Donald Redford of Penn State University, one of the world's leading Egyptologists gave the following comment on the stele:
| “ | We have this very interesting stele which is dated to the reign of Ahmose, [which] records a tremendous catastrophe that happened to Egypt. We’re not quite clear what it was, but it involved rain and thunder and lightning and such a storm that rarely happens in northeast Africa... a dry area. It [seem]s peculiar to me that the Biblical tradition preserves the memory of plagues, you know, which involve climatic cataclysms and here we have from the very time this curious stele.” [2] | ” |
There are other Egyptologists who believe the stele to be fictional propaganda put out by the pharaoh, based on parallels among other stele, such as Hatshepsut's Speos Armedios. [3]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Ellis, Ralph (2001). Tempest and Exodus. Chesire, UK: Edfu Books. ISBN 0-9531913-8-9.
- Jacobovici, Simcha (Director). The Exodus Decoded * [TV]. Canada, U.S.: The History Channel.
- Wiener, Malcolm H.; James P. Allen (January 1998). "The Ahmose Tempest Stela and the Thera Eruption". Journal of Near Eastern Studies 57 (1).
[edit] External links
- Professor Donald B. Redford - Penn State University department page
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