Strata: Egyptian Pharaoh in Edom

A scarab bearing the name of Pharaoh Sheshonq I was discovered in the copper-ore-rich Faynan region of southern Jordan—the land of Edom—during archaeological work led by University of California, San Diego’s Thomas E. Levy and Mohammad Najjar.^1a

Referred to as Shishak in the Bible (1 Kings 11:40; 14:25; 2 Chronicles 12:2‒4), Sheshonq is famous for his campaign into Israel and Judah in c. 925 B.C.E.^b Whether he attacked Jerusalem is a scholarly conundrum. The Bible says he (or rather Shishak) did. Sheshonq himself built a grand entrance—the Bubastite Portal—to the colonnaded forecourt at the temple of Amun in Karnak in which he lists more than 150 towns and peoples he conquered in this campaign, but he does not list Jerusalem.

The recently discovered 0.5-by-0.4-inch enstatite scarab is inscribed with hieroglyphs that read “bright is the manifestation of Re, chosen of Amun/Re.” According to the archaeologists, this is very likely the throne name of Sheshonq I. The only other epigraphic artifact bearing the name of Sheshonq I from the southern Levant is a stela fragment found in a dump at Megiddo in 1925.