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The Merneptah Stele: "Israel is laid waste; his seed is not." The first mention of Israel outside the Bible, already a people in Canaan.
The mechanism
THE RECORD NAMES THE LINE — from an enemy's victory hymn
How it was checked
- EvidenceT7 PRIMARY DOCUMENT / MEASUREMENT; Status: ADDED 2026-09-18
- Letter eraTHE ENCLOSURE AT THE BIRTH OF WRITING c. 3500 to c. 1150 BC
- Plate — The Merneptah Stele, Egyptian Museum, Cairo (JE 31408) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Merneptah_Stele_2022_11.jpg
- SourcesINSCRIPTION — the Merneptah Stele (Egyptian Museum, Cairo)
The whole timelineThe Enclosure at the Birth of WritingThe historical recordAll eras