The Midianites and the Amalekites and the Exodus Wanderings
(The Archaeolgical Evidence Behind the Biblical Traditions)
Please click here for my latest map (21 Nov. 2009) showing the site of Israel's "crossing of the Red Sea"
in the Exodus as being at Ras el Ballah (my Baal-zephon)
10 August 2004
A number of scholars understand that Israel's settling of the Hill Country of Canaan under Joshua is to be identified with the sudden appearance of over 200+ villages, farms and hamlets of stone in the Iron I period (ca. 1230-1100 BC), also known as the Ramesside Era. I am in in agreement with this assessment. The below article attempts to cast light on the Exodus traditions about Midianites and Amalekites who were encountered by Israel in the course of her wanderings, using the findings of archaeology.
We are told that after leaving Egypt, Israel encounters Amalekites and Midianites at Mount Sinai. The text is somewhat confusing in that it suggests that after defeating the Amalekites at Rephidim (Ex 17:1-16), Jethro the Midianite father-in-law of Moses, brings Moses' wife and children to the Israelite encampment at the "Mountain of God", Hebrew Har-El (Ex 18:5), whereas verses 19:1-2 speak of Israel breaking camp at Rephidim and moving on to the Wilderness of Sinai and then camping before the sacred mount. At Mount Horeb/Sinai Moses asks "Hobab the son of Reu'el the Midianite," to act as a guide through the wilderness,ensuring their arrival in Canaan. Hobab declines and returns to his country (Nu 10:30).
We are later informed that Kenites settle in the Negeb near Arad under Joshua, and the text suggests to me that the term Kenite is possibly an alternate name for a Midianite (Judges 1:16-17 & Exodus 3:1).
Judges 1:16-17 RSV
"And the descendents of THE KENITE, MOSES' FATHER-IN-LAW, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad; and they went and settled with the people."
Exodus 3:1, RSV
"Now Moses was keeping the flock of HIS FATHER-IN-LAW JETHRO PRIEST OF MIDIAN; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God."
The biblical texts suggest that Israel dwelt briefly at Kadesh-Barnea in the Negev, left that place and wandered the Arabah valley as far south as Ezion Geber and Elath on the Gulf of Aqabah (Nu 33:35-36, De 2:8) and eventually wound up in Transjordan from which the invasion of Canaan commenced.
The question which arises is to what extent does archaeolgy confirm "any" of the above traditions? Some scholars have declared that there is nothing in the Sinai, Negev and Arabah to tie the Exodus traditions to, citing the absence of archaeological evidence. I understand that there is evidence, it has simply been overlooked and misunderstood. While I do agree that certain elements in the Exodus and Conquest stories are fictional, I nevertheless understand that certain "historical kernels" attested by archeology, are identifiable from the Late Bronze and Early Iron I periods in these regions.
Professor Rothenberg has proposed that the Al-Qurayyah wares found at Har Timna and the Timna Valley in the southern Arabah are "Midianite" (Professor Nelson Glueck had earlier proposed these wares were Edomite in his surface surveys of the 1930's and 40's). Rothenberg has dated these wares to the 13th-12th centuries BC, due to their presence in strata possessing Egyptian cartouches of Ramesses II through Ramesses V, ca. 1279-1141 BC, appearing on various votive items found at the Egyptian Hathor shrine.
Of interest, is a map accompanying an article on Midianite ceramics showing the distribution of the "Midianite wares" (cf. pp. 65-124. Beno Rothenberg & Jonathan Glass. "The Midianite Pottery." in John F. A. Sawyer & David J. A. Clines, editors. Midian, Moab and Edom, the History and Archaeology of Late Bronze and Iron Age Jordan and North-West Arabia. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series No. 24. Sheffield, England. Sheffield University Press. 1983). I note that this map suggests that this ware is attested as present to some degree in the Arabah, Edom, the Negeb, the Hill Country of Canaan and Transjordan, areas appearing in the Exodus narratives as places Israel wandered in. The map also shows a single site, Bir el Abd in the northern Sinai, near the biblical "way of the Philistines" which is based on an archaeological report, but this sherd has not been physically inspected by Rothenberg. Although Rothenberg led a number of archaeological expeditions into the Sinai during the 1960's-1970's identifying several hundred archaeological sites from Stone Age to Iron Age times, he noted that Midianite wares had not been encountered in the Sinai in the course of those surveys. So the notion that Midianites were in the southern Sinai, where tradition locates Mount Sinai, is unattested for the time being.
Rothenberg & Glass:
"The Sinai Survey of the "Arabah Expedition," conducted in 1967-1978 under the direction of B. Rothenberg, covered considerable areas of northern and southern Sinai and recorded more than 300 sites. Not a single Midianite sherd was found there, not even in the Egyptian sites of the 19th-20th Dynasties. However, along the coastal strip, connecting Egypt with Israel, Midianite sherds were discovered...An Egyptian fort was found in excavations near the bedouin village of Bir el-'Abd. It was obviously erected there to protect the Egyptian military road to southern Canaan. One of the silos uncovered at the fortress, dated to the 19th-20th Dynasties, contained 3 decorated sherds which the excavator classified as Midianite." (p. 83. Rothenberg & Glass. "The Midianite Pottery." 1983)
The Midianite wares distribution map notes that sherds were reported at Amman in Transjordan and Tell el Kheleifh near the Gulf of Aqabah, but Rothenberg at the time of publication, 1983, stated he had not physically inspected these sherds, but relied archaeological reports. His site map notes locations for sherds which were petrographically analyzed, sites where he and/or Glass had an opportunity to physically inspect the sherds, and listings of "reported" finds in various archaeological reports. Also of interest was his finding of Midianite sherds on the coral isalnd of Jezirat Faraun, "the island of Pharaoh" which he has proposed might be biblical Ezion Geber, a site appearing in the Exodus wanderings. Professor Glueck had earlier suggested Tell el Khelifeh near the Gulf of Aqaba night be Ezion Geber- Rothenberg has noted that some of the sherds found at that site appear to be Midianite, and he has suggested some kind of Midianite presence at the site in Ramesside times.
Professor Stager on the Exodus and the Iron Age I Midianites:
"Thus the distribution of Midianite painted pottery from its production centers in northern Arabia (Midian) to a wide range of settlements in the Negeb, the Arabah and beyond...The floruit of this distinctive pottery is precisely the era in which most biblical historians (quite independently of this ceramic evidence which has only recently come to light) would date the Israelite Exodus from Egypt, their sojourn through Midian and Transjordan, and their settlement in Canaan in the late 13th and 12th centuries BCE." (p. 148. Lawrence Stager. "Forging An Identity, the Emergence of Ancient Israel." Micheal D. Coogan. Editor. The Oxford History of the Biblical World. New York. Oxford University Press. 1998)
Rothenberg, has proposed that Negeb-dwelling Amalekites were present at Har Timna, working the copper mines with Midianites under Egyptian supervision, identifying some of the crude hand made wares of Har Timna with similar wares found in the Negeb (cf. p. 94, 111 "Local Rough Hand-made Pottery."Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988).
He accordingly has argued on the basis of his findings at Har Timna, that some of the sites in the Negeb may possibly be Amalekite and date as early as Ramesside times, the 13th-12th centuries BC. The presence of 10th century BC Judaean wheel thrown pottery at some sites, might be explained as Judaeans entering the region at a later time when the crude Negebite handmade pottery was still in use. Thus the argument would appear to be that some Negebite sites may be Amalekite of the 13th-12th centuries BC whilst other sites with the Judaean wares are of the 10th or later centuries BC. That is to say the crude handmade Negebite/Amalekite wares may have a long life-span of several centuries.
It is interesting to note here, that the bible does suggest that the Kenites (Midianites?) settled in the Negeb near Arad under Joshua and in King Saul's days they were apparently on "amicable" terms with the Amalekites as Saul warned them to separate themselves from their neighbors so as to not be harmed in the coming Israelite offensive against Amalek (1 Sam 15:6). Perhaps this "amicability" between Midianite/Kenite and Amalekite goes back to their "working together" at Har Timna ca. 1279-1141 BC in Ramesside times? I note the bible has the Exodus beginning at the city of Rameses in Egypt and this statement has suggested for some scholars that the Exodus is a Ramesside event, for instance, as argued by Professors Kenneth A. Kitchen and James K. Hoffmeier, both of whom are Egyptologists, both of whom have recently authored books dealing with the Exodus (K. A. Kitchen. On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2003 and James K. Hoffmeier. Israel in Egypt, the Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition. New York. Oxford University Press. 1996)
Some envision Israel in the Exodus as separated into 12 tribal encampments, and of interest here is that Rothenberg, in passing, mentioned that he found 12 smelting sites in the Timna Valley, all of which possessed Midianite pottery:
"Between 1964 and 1976, three smelting camps were excavated in the Timna Valley, and at all three sites Midianite pottery was found in layers of the Egyptian New Kingdom, dated, on the basis of finds at Site no. 200 (the Egyptian-Midianite Sanctuary of Timna), to the 19th-20th Dynasties, i.e., from the beginning of the 13th to the mid 12th century BC. Nine other sites in the valley also produced the same Midianite pottery." (p. 77. Rothenberg & Glass. "The Midianite Pottery." 1983)
The latest Egyptian cartouche found at Har Timna was of Pharaoh Ramesses V who reigned ca. 1145-1141 BC (cf. p.166. Peter A. Clayton. Chronicle of the Pharaohs, the Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt. London. Thames & Hudson. 1994). According to the Exodus account, God caused a plague to break out amongst the Egyptians, securing his people's release. Of interest is that Ramesses V's mummy possesses smallpox scabs. Also of interest is that Israel in the wilderness is afflicted with leprosy. Could smallpox have been seen as a form of leprosy, a disease of the skin?
"Ramesses V's mummy...has a much larger than usual embalmer's incision on its left side for extracting the viscra. Lesions on the face suggest that the king suffered from smallpox." (p. 167. Clayton. 1994)
Rothenberg has suggested that after the Egyptians abandoned Har Timna ca. 1140 BC, the site was for a brief time exploited by the Midianites. He found evidence of a large amount of heavy cloth with beads sewn on it that suggested a tent had been erected over the site of the former Hathor shrine, which had been dismantled and the Egyptian inscriptions effaced, also effaced were images of Hathor's head as a woman with cow ears.
He also found a row of masseboth with votive offerings, a large stone dish with a granite boulder placed on it, under the boulder were found additional votive items. Just outside the shrine was found a small copper snake, with traces of gold gilt on its head. Also found was a copper image of a male god with a prominent phallus. Traces of the clay mold it had been cast in still adhered to the legs. Apparently it had been cast aside as useless, because one of the feet had been attached "backwards" by oversight. A small bronze ram was also found with a piercing through its neck perhaps as an amulet for wearing (cf. the very detailed and illustrated inventory of much of what was found at Har Timna in Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988).
The finding of possible votives in a Midianite setting of a nude phallic male god, a serpent, and a ram, suggests to me that the Midianites may not have been aniconic in their form of worship. That is to say the 10 Commandments had forbidden the making of an image of God to Israel, and the phallic male item appears to contradict the notion some scholars have that Moses' Midianite father-in-law, Jethro may have also abhorred the making of an image of God. The bronze/copper serpent on the other hand, appears to recall somewhat "the brazen serpent" Moses made for Israel in the wanderings, to heal snakebites (Nu 21:9), after setting out from Kadesh Barnea and Mount Hor and wandering in the "Way to the Red Sea" (Nu 21: 4) which I associate with the Arabah valley, where lies Har Timna.
The biblical narratives mention Israel engaged in metallurgical acivities, she donates ear-rings, bracelets and necklaces to be smelted down to make items for the Tabernacle. Of interest, is that amongst votives found at Har Timna were ear-rings, finger rings and bracelets. Many items were copper, and a rare few of iron (pp. 147-169. "The Metal Finds." Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988).
Other votives for the Sinai Tabernacle were of a textile nature (flax/linen and wool), clothing for the priests, curtains, tent walls, etc. Rothenberg found similar items as votives at Har Timna in association with the Midianite tent-shrine and the nature of the weave suggested that they were not Egyptian made textiles, but made by Asiatics, which recalls, somewhat for me, the Israelite wives who wove votive textiles for the Tabernacle (cf. pp. 224-231. Avigail & Amalia Tidhar,"Textiles and Textile Impressions on Pottery."in Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988).
We are informed that semi-precious stones were also collected as votives for the Sinai Tabernacle and became a part of the ephod that Aaron wore. Of interest is that four small votive semi-precious stones were also found at the Midianite shrine of Har Timna (p. 266. David Price, "Minerals and Fossils."Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988).
Curiously, God is referred to as a "Rock" who accompanied Israel in her wanderings (De 32:4, 18, 31), could the granite boulder carefully placed by the Midianites on a large stone basin with votives under it, be an allusion to this "Rock"? .
"In E-F 6-7 a basin of rather brittle red sandstone (rectangilar on the outside but with an oval inside), stood in the line of standing stones, with a heavy granite boulder on top of it. The basin and granite boulder were found in situ, under a mass of rubble and sand...The heavy granite boulder remained an enigma. It was carefully flattened on its narrowest side, perhaps to create a more solid base for its use as a Standing Stone -but in the basin it was lying on its side. It was not put right into the middle of the basin, but was found lying on top of the rather brittle sidewalls at the west half of the basin, which seemed to have cracked under its weight or the impact of its deposition. Underneath the (removed) boulder the basin had a fill of stones and sand and right on top of this fill lay a bundle of textiles. In the fill a surprising assembly of finds turned up (besides the textiles), Midianite, Egyptian and local sherds, some slag and miscellanea.(cf. pp. 42-43. "Locus 106." Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988)
The inner surface of the basin was found covered by a thin, hard layer of whitish plaster, obviously an attempt to make the highly permeable red sandstone watertight. This indicated that as a member of the row of standing stones the basin was in secondary use and thatoriginally it may have served in the Hathor Tempe as an ablution basin."
Of interest were a number of amulets inscribed with hieroglyphs, which rendered various forms of the Egyptian word 'Imn, the English "Amon/Amun," the Sun-god of Egyptian myths. I wonder if the Arabic name for this site, Mene'iyeh (Wadi Mene'iyeh, Gebal Mene'iyeh, Khirbet Mene'iyeh), preserves the Egyptian 'Imn (Amun/Amon)? I also wonder if Arabic 'iyeh might possibly preserve Hebrew eyeh from eyeh asher eyeh "I am that I am, tell them [Israel] eyeh has sent you" (Ex 3:14). That is to say might Gebel Mene'iyeh be Mount Horeb, near Midian?
Schulman:
"...Thus the entire group is to be read 'Amun." (p. 138. Egyptian Catalog 184. Alan R. Schulman. "Amulets."
Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988)
"...all signs would have their normal values and the inscription would read 'Imn-R-nb(i) 'Amun-Re is (my) Lord'. (p. 138. Egyptian Catalog 185. Alan R. Schulman. "Amulets." Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988)
"...The entire group then reads 'Imn, 'Amun'. (p. 138. Egyptian Catalog 187. Alan R. Schulman. "Amulets."
Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988)
"...However, since the hieroglyph has the three values i, m, n used to spell the name of Amun, it may be read here simply as 'Imn, 'Amun'. " (p. 139. Egyptian Catalog 194. Alan R. Schulman. "Amulets." Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988)
Another surprise was the presence of Camel bones at Har Timna and a drawing of a camel on a Midianite sherd, it is of interest that the Midianites/Ishmaelites are portrayed as using camels for the transport of goods (Ge 37:25-28) and Leviticus forbade the eating of the camel to Israel (Lev 11:4):
"The find of numerous camel bones in the New Kingdom smelting camps of Timna must have come with people from Arabia...A drawing of a camel has been found in Qurayya, on a typical Midianite sherd...It should be noted that, contrary to the large number of camel bones found in the smelting camps, no camel bones were found in the Temple itself...This might indicate that the camel was taboo as a votive offering for the Midianites also." (p. 277. "The Archaeological History of Site 200." Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988).
The Kenites, Hebrew qeni are understood by some scholars to be nomadic metal smiths wandering the Sinai, they have proposed a relationship to Cain, Hebrew qayin, perhaps related to a root qyn meaning "to forge," or "a metal worker" in Arabic, Syriac and Palmyrene. Some have suggested that Genesis' Tubal-Cain (qyn) is portrayed as being the founder of metallurgy. (cf. p. 17. Vol. 4. Baruch Halpern."Kenites." David Noel Freedman, editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992).
The Al-Qurayyah pottery found at Har Timna in an area of copper mines, would seem to support the above speculations that the Kenites/Midianites were involved in metallurgy in Ramesside times and the archaeological data above presented, suggests to me, that at least "some" of the Exodus traditions about Kenites/Midianites are "correctly" rooted in the Ramesside era, the 13th-12th centuries BC and align somewhat with the sudden appearance of 200+ villages of stone suddenly appearing in Transjordan, the Hill Country of Canaan and the Negev near Arad where the Kenites settled under Joshua.
As I noted earlier (above), the biblical texts suggest that "Kenite and Midianite" are interchangeable terms (Exodus 3:1; Judges 1:16). Could it be that Midianites came to be called "Kenites," Hebrew qeni because they were metal-smiths, workers of copper at Har Timna?
Conclusions:
To date, the archaeological data has failed to substantiate the presence of Amalekites or Midianites in the Southern Sinai, but their presence is suggested in other areas that Israel is said to have wandered in: the Negev, the Arabah (the so-called "way to the Red Sea"), Edom, Transjordan and the HIll Country of Canaan.
The archaeological record does NOT support "in toto" every event appearing in the Exodus narratives. As has been noted by scholars like Professors Israel Finkelstein and Burton MacDonald, some sites appearing in the Exodus and Conquest narratives appear to have come into existence no earlier than Iron I times ca. 1200-1000 BC), and others in Late Iron II (ca. 1000-587 BC). The archaeological record is a "mixed bag," some of the data presevered in the Exodus narratives is attested and other data not. How to account for these archaeological anomalies?
I am in agreement with Professor Burton MacDonald that the Exodus account was written in the Exile. The narrator while possessing bits and pieces of data reaching back to Ramesside times, the 13th and 12th centuries BC, had to make his account understandable for his Exilic audience, so his geographical setting is one that they could comprehend and relate to, that of the Late Iron II period, ca. 640-560 BC.
Not possessing Sir Flinders Petrie's sophisticated pottery chronologies aligned with Egyptian cartouches there was NO WAY that the ancient Israelites could tell the age of an ancient tell or site. So Early Bronze Age sites could just as easily have been identified as being in existence at the time of Ramesside Exodus as well as an Iron I or II site.
The intent of this brief article has not been "to prove the bible to be true," rather, its intent is to show that the archaeological evidence while CONTRADICTING in some cases data in the Exodus narratives (No Midianite pottery in the Southern Sinai), SUPPORTS in other cases the "memory" of a Ramesside event- a time when Amalekites and Midianites were metal-smiths and active in the Negev and Arabah, at the very borders of the Sinai penninsula at the very time that Israel appears in the Ramesside Egyptian annals of Pharaoh Merneptah ca. 1208 BC, and when 200+ villages of stone suddenly dot the landscape of Transjordan, the Hill Country of Canaan and the Negev.
The Israeli archaeologist Professor Beit-Arieh came across a number of new sites in the Southern Sinai that did not appear on earlier survey maps (His research being conducted ca. 1971-1982). No doubt other sites wait to be found (Itzhaq Beit-Arieh. Archaeology of Sinai, the Ophir Expedition. Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv University. Monograph Series No. 21. 2003). Perhaps one day a "lucky" find in the Southern Sinai may turn up the missing Al-Qurraya ware of the Midianites?
Some Conservative scholars understand that the Exodus was ca. 1446 BC and the Conquest ca. 1406 BC on the basis of 1 King 6:1. I am not aware of any archaeological finds in the Sinai, Negev and Arabah from this era, which would be the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1560-1200 BC) of "Negebite" and "Al-Qurayya" pottery, _if_ these wares have been correctly associated by Rothenberg with Amalekites and Midianites. There is an Egyptian presence at the mining camp of Serabit el-Khadim ca. 1446-1406 BC in the Southern Sinai, which might be recalled in the Exodus narratives, but no Negebite or Al-Qurayya wares have been found at this location, to my knowledge.
If no Amalekite (Negebite ware) or Midianite ware exists in the southern Sinai, how to account for this area being the location of Mount Horeb/Sinai in the biblical traditions of Judaism and Christianity?
I have argued elsewhere that two different locations, Har Timna in the southern Arabah and Jebel Saniya near Serabit el Khadim in the southern Sinai lie behind the Exodus traditions and that events in their locales have been fused together and lie behind the Exodus account of ca. 560 BC. Both locales possess Ramesside Egyptian mining camps and evidence of Asiatics working these camps with Egyptians. The notion that Israel worshipped a Golden Calf, is, for me, recalling the Egyptian shrines in these two locations dedicated to the patron goddess of miners, Hathor, who was also a sky-cow-goddess, who in Egyptian myth, gave birth to the sun each day as the Golden Calf.
Rothenberg on the two Egyptian mining camps:
"In fact, the Ramesside kings activated only two major areas in the vast desert tract between the Delta, Palestine and Edom: the turquoise mines of south-western Sinai and the copper mines of the Arabah. The rest of this expanse seems not to have had any attraction for the Egyptian kings and it was left to the the not always friendly nomads of the desert." (p.14. "Introduction." Beno Rothenberg. Timna, Valley of the Biblical Copper Mines. Warrington, Lancashire. Thames & Hudson. 1972. ISBN 0-500-39010X)
Bibliography:
Itzhaq Beit-Arieh. Archaeology of Sinai, the Ophir Expedition. Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv University. Monograph Series No. 21. 2003.
Peter A. Clayton. Chronicle of the Pharaohs, the Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt. London. Thames & Hudson. 1994.
Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed, Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York. The Free Press. 2001.
Baruch Halpern.p. 17. Vol. 4. "Kenites." David Noel Freedman, editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992.
Burton MacDonald. East of the Jordan, Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures. Boston. American Schools of Oriental Research. 2000.
Beno Rothenberg & Jonathan Glass. pp. 65-124. "The Midianite Pottery." in John F. A. Sawyer & David J.A. Clines, editors. Midian, Moab and Edom, the History and Archaeology of Late Bronze and Iron Age Jordan and North-West Arabia. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series No. 24. Sheffield, England. Sheffield University Press. 1983.
Beno Rothenberg, et al. The Egyptian Mining Temple at Timna. Institute for Archeo-Metallurgical Studies Institute of Archaeology, University College London. 1988 [Thames & Hudson, Distributors].
Lawrence Stager. "Forging An Identity, the Emergence of Ancient Israel." p. 148. Micheal D. Coogan. Editor. The Oxford History of the Biblical World. New York. Oxford University Press. 1998)
