TheShasu (Ancient Egyptian:šꜣsw, possibly pronouncedšaswə[1]) wereSemitic-speakingpastoral nomads in theSouthern Levant from the lateBronze Age to the EarlyIron Age or theThird Intermediate Period of Egypt. They were tent dwellers, organized in clans ruled by a tribal chieftain and were described asbrigands active from theJezreel Valley toAshkelon, in theTransjordan and in theSinai.[2] Some of them also worked as mercenaries forAsiatic andEgyptian armies.[3]
The name'setymon may beEgyptianšꜣsw, which originally meant "those who move on foot". Levy, Adams, and Muniz report similar possibilities: the Egyptian wordšꜣs that means "to wander", and an alternativeSemitictriliteral root,Hebrew:שָׁסַס,romanized: šāsas, with the meaning "to plunder".[4]
The earliest known reference to the Shasu occurs in a 16th-century BCE list of peoples in theTransjordan region. The first occurrence of Shasu is in the biographical inscription of Admiral Ahmose found inElkab,[5] who claims to have taken Shasu prisoners while serving Pharaoh AakheperenreThutmose II. The Shasu were on his way as he led a punitive expedition north. Giveon (1971) argued that the only event that could account for the Shasu's appearance at that date was the expulsion of theHyksos (around 1550 BC).[6]
Though their homeland seems to be in theTransjordan, the Shasu also appear inCanaan,Syria andEgypt.[7]
In the year 39 ofThutmose III, during his 14th campaign, the pharaoh fought the Shasu before reaching theRetjenu. Shasu are therefore found in southern Canaan. According to the Pharaoh's list, they are more specifically located in theNegev (No. 14 of the list).
The name appears in a list of Egypt's enemies inscribed on column bases at the temple ofSoleb built byAmenhotep III. Among the details uncovered at the temple was a reference to a place called "sʿrr, in the land of Shasu" (tꜣ-shꜣsw sʿr), a name thought to be related to or near toPetra,Jordan.[8][9]
In the13th century BCE, copies of the column inscriptions ordered bySeti I or byRamesses II atAmara, Nubia, six groups of Shasu are mentioned: those ofsʿrr, ofrbn, ofsmʾt, ofwrbr, ofyhw, and ofpysps.[10][11] The Shasu continued to dominate the hill country of Canaan (Cis-Jordan) and Trans-Jordan regions. The Shasu had become so powerful during this period that they could temporarily cut off Egypt's northern routes. This, in turn, prompted vigorous punitive campaigns byRamesses II and his sonMerneptah. After Egyptian abandonment, Canaanite city-states came under the mercy of the Shasu and theʿApiru, who were seen as 'mighty enemies'.[3]
The other documents of the 18th dynasty attest to the increasing importance of the Shasu in Canaan, by the large number of prisoners (atAmenhotep II, a list of prisoners gives about half of those ofKhor/Kharu), and then by their appointment to Egypt's greatest enemies, likeBabylon orTehenou (Libya).
During the reign ofAmenhotep III, the origin of the Shasu ("En-Shasus") is given as near the biblical city ofDothan, a place wherebedouins brought their flocks. The story ofJoseph in theHebrew Bible also mentions nomads who come to water their animals at a source near Dothan.
During the pharaohSeti I's campaign, primarily attested as a historic event by the presence of victorysteles found atTel Megiddo andBeth Shean, the Shasu live in a fertile, mountainous area betweenSileh and Pa-Canaan (perhaps thecity of Gaza).[12] The introductory text of the relief showing the Shasu under notes: "The Shasu enemies plot a rebellion, their tribal leaders are gathered, standing on the hills ofKhor (Kharu), and they are engaged in turmoil and tumult. They don't respect their neighbours, they don't consider the laws of the Palace!" In this campaign, the pharaoh confronts theʿApiru aroundMegiddo.
The Shasu would eventually be eclipsed by theSea Peoples.[3]
Two Egyptian texts, one dated to the period ofAmenhotep III (14th century BCE), the other to the age ofRamesses II (13th century BCE), refer totꜣ šꜣśw yhwꜣ, i.e. "The Land of the Shasuyhwꜣ", in whichyhwꜣ (also rendered asyhw) orYahu, is atoponym.[13]
|
| Hieroglyph | Name | Pronunciation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N16 | tꜣ | |||
| M8 | šꜣ | |||
| M23 | sw | |||
| w | w | |||
| y | y | |||
| h | h | |||
| V4 | wꜣ | |||
| G1 | ꜣ |
Regarding the nameyhwꜣ, Michael Astour observed that the "hieroglyphic rendering corresponds very precisely to the HebrewTetragrammaton YHWH, orYahweh, and antedates the hitherto oldest occurrence of that divine name – on theMesha Stele – by over five hundred years."[14] K. Van Der Toorn concludes: "By the 14th century BC, before the cult of Yahweh had reached Israel, groups ofEdomites andMidianites worshipped Yahweh as their god."[15]
Donald B. Redford has argued that the earliest Israelites, semi-nomadic highlanders in centralCanaan mentioned on theMerneptah Stele at the end of the 13th century BCE, are to be identified as a Shasu enclave. Since later Biblical tradition portrays Yahweh "coming forth from Seʿir",[16] the Shasu, originally fromMoab and northern Edom/Seʿir, went on to form one central element in the amalgam that would constitute the "Israel" which later established theKingdom of Israel.[17] Per his analysis of theAmarna letters,Anson Rainey concluded that the description of the Shasu best fits that of the early Israelites.[18] If this identification is correct, these Israelites/Shasu would have settled in the uplands in small villages with buildings similar to contemporaryCanaanite structures towards the end of the 13th century BCE.[19]
Objections exist to this proposed link between theIsraelites and the Shasu, given that a group of people in relief atKarnak, which has been suggested as depicting the victory over the Israelites, are not described or depicted as Shasu.[a]Frank J. Yurco and Michael G. Hasel would distinguish the Shasu in Merneptah's Karnak reliefs from the people of Israel since they wear different clothing and hairstyles and are determined differently by Egyptian scribes.[20][21] The Shasu are usually depicted hieroglyphically with adeterminative indicating a land, not a people;[22] the most frequent designation for the "foes of Shasu" is thehill-country determinative.[23] Thus, they are differentiated from Israel, which is determined as a people, though not necessarily as a socio-ethnic group; and from (the other) Canaanites, who are defending the fortified cities of Ashkelon,Gezer, andYenoam.[24]Lawrence Stager also objected to identifying Merneptah's Shasu with Israelites, since the Shasu are shown dressed differently from the Israelites, who are dressed and hairstyled as Canaanites.[24][25][b] Scholars point out that Egyptian scribes tended to bundle up "rather disparate groups of people within a single artificially unifying rubric."[27][28]
The usefulness of the determinatives has been called into question, though, as in Egyptian writings, including the Merneptah Stele, determinatives are used arbitrarily.[29] Gösta Werner Ahlström countered Stager's objection by arguing that the contrasting depictions are because the Shasu were the nomads, while the Israelites were sedentary, and added: "The Shasu that later settled in the hills became known as Israelites because they settled in the territory of Israel".[25]Moreover, the hill-country determinative is not always used for Shasu, with theEgyptologist Thomas Schneider connecting references to "Yah", believed to be a short form of the Tetragrammaton, with the writings in the Shasu-sequence atSoleb and Amarah-West.[30] In an EgyptianBook of the Dead from the late18th or19th dynasty, Schneider identifies aNorthwest Semitictheophoric nameʾadōnī-rō‘ē-yāh, meaning "My lord is the shepherd of Yah", which would be the first documented occurrence of the god Yahweh in a theophoric form.[31]
On the other hand,Lester L. Grabbe offers a synthesis of hypotheses, arguing that while the Israelites were a Canaanite people, Shasu contribution cannot be excluded. The highlands were largely uninhabited in theLate Bronze Age, and the settlers would have included formerpastoralists, farmers moving to less settled areas, migrants from outsideCanaan and people in general seeking a new land and life. According to Grabbe, archaeology suggests that those who settled in the hill country had a pastoralist background, but one in which they lived near settled communities, perhaps forming asymbiotic relationship with the agrarian communities whereby they traded their animals for grain.[32]
