Ah, ok, I'm not trying to dispute archeology or prove the bible, just that the timing was curious since Abraham purportedly came from the area that is now Iraq but this was way before the story in Egypt (obviously I'm not much of a bible scholar here, just a passing interest).
On the other hand, if God rained 10 plagues including famine, locusts, flood and the killing of all firstborn, could be that He destroyed the documents too. Or, that they destroyed the documents hoping to forget they ever messed with the Jews :-)
"Further, the exodus is placed, timewise, during the Golden Age of Egypt"
How do we know this if there is no evidence? Could be give or take 500 years no?
It's not that there's a lack of documentation during the period. It's just that there's no documentation of the Jews being slaves in Egypt or them leaving or any plagues or the Egyptian army being wiped out in the Red Sea.
The Egyptians kept meticulous records which included defeats in battle and crop failures, so it seems unlikely that they wouldn't have documented the biggest crisis in all of their history.
I suppose all evidence of the Jews being in Egypt could have been miraculously removed, but you'd have to ask for what purpose.
The problem with my position is that it casts doubt on the literal reading of the oldest books of the bible which makes the vast majority of Christians uncomfortable. Heck, it makes me uncomfortable, but when you objectively look at the actual evidence it's hard to reach any other conclusion.
I believe there was an exodus and that it was associated with the volcanic eruption at Santorini which was a monumental event in that part of the world. It certainly corresponds with the timeframe and it explains the pillar of fire at night and pillar of cloud by day that guided the Jews to Canaan.
However, the direction of that volcano as a guiding beacon doesn't make sense from an Egyptian starting point. It does from Mesopotamia.