NELC 150 |
Introduction to the Bible |
Slide 1 |
Beni Hasan wall painting, ca. 1890 BCE. This mural, from the wall
of a tomb at the site of Beni Hasan in Egypt, shows a band of "Asiatic"
nomads from Syria-Canaan visiting Egypt. (In the original this is one
painting; it is split into two halves here to fit on the screen.) The
painting gives an impression of what semi-nomads like the Hebrew
patriarchs in Genesis, during what the Bible describes as the patriarchal
period (give or take a few centuries), may have looked like. Note
headbands, style of clothing, style of beards, donkey as beast of burden,
weapons, tools? (NOTE: The identification of this group as "Asiatics"
appears in the hieroglyphic "caption" at the upper right. In Egyptian
paintings, "Asiatics" refers to people from Syria-Palestine/Canaan. The
men are usually identifiable by their style of beard and, often, headbands
[here worn by the women]. We cannot identify their specific ethnicity
because usually Egyptian artists depicted everybody from that region the
same way and Egyptian writers used the term "Asiatic" for everybody from
that region.) The caption above the scene describes the occasion as "the
arrival, bringing stibium [a mineral used as a cosmetic for painting the
eyes], which thirty-seven Asiatics brought to him [the owner of the
tomb]." The caption in front of the leader of the "Asiatics" identifies
him as "The Ruler of a Foreign Country, (whose name is) Ibsha" [perhaps
Abi-Sha, a name related to Biblical Elisha]. To see the original layout,
click here and scroll right and
left.