Caphtor (Hebrew:כַּפְתּוֹרKaftōr) is a locality mentioned in theBible, in which its people are calledCaphtorites orCaphtorim and are named as a division of the ancient Egyptians.[1] Caphtor is also mentioned in ancient inscriptions fromEgypt,Mari, andUgarit.
According to the Bible, Caphtor is the original homeland of the Philistines. They are reported to have eradicated theAvvim prior to settling in Gaza. Genealogically, the Philistines are categorized as descendants of the Caphtorites within the table of nations. The Book of Jeremiah suggests that Caphtor is an island ("the isle of Caphtor"), but the term might alternatively refer to a seashore.[2]
Traditionally, Caphtor has been linked toCrete and associated with EgyptianKeftiu or AkkadianKaptara.[2][3] Jewish sources placed Caphtor in the region ofPelusium. Contemporary research has challenged the link with Crete, proposing alternative locations such asCyprus orCilicia.[3][2]
The Caphtorites are mentioned in theTable of Nations,Book of Genesis (Genesis 10:13–14) as one of several divisions ofMizraim (Egypt). This is reiterated in theBooks of Chronicles (1 Chronicles 1:11–12) as well as later histories such asJosephus'Antiquities of the Jews i.vi.2,[4] which placed them explicitly in Egypt and theSefer haYashar 10 which describes them living by the Nile. A migration of the Philistines from Caphtor is mentioned in theBook of Amos (Amos 9:7).
Josephus, (Jewish Antiquities I, vi)[4] using extra-Biblical accounts, provides context for the migration from Caphtor to Philistia. He records that the Caphtorites were one of the Egyptian peoples whose cities were destroyed during theEthiopic War.
Tradition regarding the location of Caphtor was preserved in the AramaicTargums and in the commentary ofMaimonides which place it atCaphutkia in the vicinity ofDamietta[5] (at the eastern edge of theNile Delta near classicalPelusium). This view is supported by the tenth century biblical exegeteSaadia Gaon,[6] and byBenjamin of Tudela, the twelfth-century Jewish traveller from Navarre, who both wrote that Damietta was Caphtor.[7][8]
TheMidrash Rabbah on Genesis 37:5 (page 298 in the 1961 edition of Maurice Simon's translation) says that the "Caphtorim were dwarfs".[9]
A location calledKaptar is mentioned in several texts of theMari Tablets and is understood to be reference to Caphtor. An inscription dating to c. 1780–1760 BCE mentions a man from Caphtor (a-na Kap-ta-ra-i-im) who receivedtin fromMari. Another Mari text from the same period mentions a Caphtorite weapon (kakku Kap-ta-ru-ú). Another records a Caphtorite object (ka-ta-pu-um Kap-ta-ru-ú) which had been sent by kingZimrilim of the same period, to kingShariya (king) ofRazama. A text in connection withHammurabi mentions Caphtorite (k[a-a]p-ta-ri-tum) fabric that was sent to Mesopotamia via Mari. An inventory thought to be from the same era as the previous texts mentions a Caphtorite vessel (GAL kap-ta-ri-tum) (probably a large jug or jar).[3]
AnAkkadian text from the archives ofUgarit (modern Ras Shamra, Syria) contains a possible reference to Caphtor: it mentions a ship that is exempt from duty when arriving from a place whose name is written with theAkkadian cuneiform signsKUR.DUGUD.RI.KUR is a determinative indicating a country, while one possible reading of the signDUGUD iskabtu, whence the name of the place would beKabturi, which resembles Caphtor.
WithinUgaritic inscriptions from theAmarna period,k-p-t-r is mentioned and understood to be Caphtor: A poem usesk-p-t-r as aparallel for Egypt (H-k-p-t) naming it as the home of the godKothar-wa-Khasis the Ugaritic equivalent of the Egyptian godPtah.[3] Prior to the discovery of the reference toH-k-p-t scholars had already considered the possibility ofiy Caphtor found in Jeremiah being the Semitic cognate of "Egypt".[10]
The namek-p-t-ȝ-r is found written in hieroglyphics in a list of locations in thePtolemaictemple of Kom Ombo inUpper Egypt and is regarded as a reference to Caphtor.
The reference tok-p-t-ȝ-r should not be confused with other inscriptions at the temple and from earlier sites mentioning a locality calledKeftiu listed amongst lands to the northeast of Egypt and having different spelling and pronunciation, although it has been conjectured by some scholars that this is also a reference to Caphtor.[3] Attempts to identify Caphtor with Keftiu go back to the 19th century[11][12][13] and argue thatr changed toy in the Egyptian language.[14] However the namek-p-t-ȝ-r more closely resembling "Caphtor" is from the (late) Ptolemaic era and still has the "r" and references to "Keftiu" occur separately at the same site. Those arguing for the identification suggest thatk-p-t-ȝ-r is an Egyptian transliteration of the Semitic form of the name and that "Keftiu" is the true Egyptian form.[3] Sayce had however already argued in the 19th century that the names in the text in whichk-p-t-ȝ-r occurs were not transliterations of the Semitic forms. Other scholars have disagreed over whether this can be said for the occurrence ofk-p-t-ȝ-r.[3]
The equation of Keftiu with Caphtor commonly features in interpretations that equate Caphtor with Crete, Cyprus, or a locality in Anatolia.Jean Vercoutter in the 1950s had argued, based on an inscription of the tomb ofRekhmire that Keftiu could not be set apart from the "islands of the sea" which he identified as a reference to theAegean Sea. However in 2003, Claude Vandersleyen pointed out that the termwedj wer (literally "great green") which Vercoutter had translated "the sea" actually refers to the vegetation growing on the banks of the Nile and in the Nile Delta, and that the text places Keftiu in the Nile Delta.[15]
This issue is not settled though. In Caphtor / Keftiu: a New Investigation, John Strange argues that the late geographical lists referenced in the preceding paragraph cannot be taken at face value, as they appear to be "random" collections of antique place names, and contain other corruptions and duplicates.[16]
Thetargumim translate Caphtor into Aramaic asKaputkai,Kapudka or similar i.e.Caphutkia explained byMaimonides as beingDamietta on the coastland of Egypt.[5][7][17]
Referencing Katpatuka, theSeptuagint translated the name as "Kappadokias" and theVulgate similarly renders it as "Cappadocia". The seventeenth-century scholarSamuel Bochart[18] understood this as a reference toCappadocia in Anatolia but John Gill writes that these translations relate to Caphutkia.[7]
From the 18th century onwards commentators attempted several identifications of Caphtor which increasingly disregarded the traditional identification as an Egyptian coastal locality in the vicinity of Pelusium. These included identification withCoptus,Colchis,Cyprus,Cappadocia in Asia Minor,Cilicia, andCrete.
The identification with Coptus is recorded in Osborne'sA Universal History From The Earliest Account of Time,[19] where it is remarked that many suppose the name to have originated from Caphtor. While this interpretation agrees with tradition placing Caphtor in Egypt it disregards the tradition that it was a coastland (iy rendered island in some Bible translations) and more precisely Caphutkia; and this contradiction is noted in Osborne. It is now known that the name Coptus is derived from EgyptianGebtu[20] which is possibly not associated with the name Caphtor.
Egyptiankftı͗w (conventionally vocalized asKeftiu) is attested in numerous inscriptions.[21] The 19th-century belief that Keftiu/Caphtor was to be identified with Cyprus or Syria[22] shifted to an association with Crete under the influence ofSir Arthur Evans. It was criticized in 1931 byG. A. Wainwright, who locatedKeftiu inCilicia, on the Mediterranean shore ofAsia Minor,[23] and he drew together evidence from a wide variety of sources: in geographical lists and the inscription ofTutmose III's "Hymn of Victory",[24] where the place ofKeftiu in lists appeared to exist among recognizable regions in the northeasternmost corner of the Mediterranean, in the text of the "Keftiuan spell"śntkppwymntrkkr, of c. 1200 BCE,[25] in which the Cilician and Syrian deitiesTarku (theHittite sun god), Sandan (the Cilician and Lydian equivalent of Tarku),[26] andKubaba were claimed,[27] in personal names associated in texts withKeftiu and in Tutmose's "silvershawabty vessel of the work of Keftiu" and vessels of iron, which were received as gifts from Tinay in northern Syria. Wainwright's theory is not widely accepted, as his evidence shows at most a cultural exchange between Keftiu and Anatolia without pinpointing its location on the Mediterranean coast.
In 1980 J. Strange drew together a comprehensive collection of documents that mentionedCaphtor orKeftiu. He writes that crucial texts dissociateKeftiu from "the islands in the middle of the sea", by which Egyptian scribes denoted Crete.[28]
The stone base of a statue during the reign ofAmenhotep III includes the namekftı͗w in a list of Mediterranean ship stops prior to several Cretan cities such asKydonia,Phaistos, andAmnisos, showing that the term clearly refers to the Aegean.[29]