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Joseph and Potiphar, Immanuel Velikovsky

The story of Joseph is one of the best known in the Bible... in order to find out whether the personality of Joseph or the patron of the early stage of his career, Potiphar, is referred to in the historical documents, we have to look into those of the Middle Kingdom. The task appears simple. According to the Book of Genesis Potiphar was "an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard." In the register of the private names to the Ancient Records of Egypt by James Breasted, we find the name Ptahwer... at the service of the Pharaoh Amenemhet III of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. According to an inscription of Ptahwer at Sarbut el-Khadem in Sinai dated in the forty-fifth year of Amenemhet III, his office was that of "master of the double cabinet, chief of the treasury." ...The inscription records the successful accomplishment of some peaceful expedition. Since there is only one Ptahwer in the historical documents, and since he lived in the time when we expect to find him, we are probably not wrong in identifying the biblical Potiphar with the historical Ptahwer. This being the conclusion concerning Potiphar, we are curious to find whether any mention of Joseph is found in historical documents, too. the fact that from the great and glorious age of the Middle Kingdom only a very few historical inscriptions are extant. Since a great famine took place in the days of Joseph, it is, of course, important to trace such a famine in the age of which we speak. In the days of Amenemhet III there occurred in Egypt a famine enduring nine long years... Thus it seems that the Pharaoh in whose days was the seven years' famine was the successor of the Pharaoh in whose days began the rise of Joseph's career (if Yatu is Joseph). Potiphar, who lived under Amenemhet III, probably lived also under his successor. The inscription which deals with Ptahwer mentions a man whose name is transliterated by Breasted as Y-t-w. Among the monuments of Amenemhet III's reign is one of the Storekeeper... The inscription that mentions Ptahwer refers to his activity in the mines of the Sinai peninsula. In this respect it is of interest to find that the Jewish traditions connect Joseph with the area of the Sinai Peninsula saying that he kept a large quantity of treasuries near Baal Zaphon, the scene of the Passage of the Sea.

...The populations were from a Pan-Grave culture, a name given to them in the late 19th century by archaeologist Flinders Petrie, in reference to low, circular mounds of stones that were over their graves... the Second Intermediate Period was a phase in Egyptian history that was ''very complicated and chaotic''. ''Egypt was divided'' into ''small political units'' and invaded by the Hyksos from the north, while the Kush Kingdom was pushing towards its southern borders. An absence of control over the territory would probably have enabled nomads to infiltrate from Nubia, the Eastern Desert and the ''fourth cataract'' of the Nile... In illustrating circular tombs that evolved into rectangular ones, semi-buried amphorae, bracelets, handmade leather items and painted cow horns... underscored that these are ''more ancient proof'' of the Pan-Grave culture, which offer a 'different perspective'' on the history of Ancient Egypt. | Italian archeaologist sheds light on nomads in Upper Egypt | Rodolfo Calo | ANSAmed