Luxor: Merneptah Stele - overview

The Merneptah Stele, pictured here, is an inscription written in hieroglyphs on granite during the reign of the Egyptian king Merneptah (1213-1203 BCE). It contains the earliest preserved inscriptional evidence of the name Israel (and perhaps therefore the Israelites). In the inscription 'Israel' it is mentioned together with three other defeated states in Canaan (Gezer, Yanoam, and Ashkelon). The hieroglyphic symbols used designate a foreign people group, as opposed to a city (as the words for Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yano'am are marked), suggesting that in the late 12th century Israel had achieved a specific identity as a people but had not yet developed into a fixed political entity or state.