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Shasu
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Shasu is an Egyptian term for nomads who appeared in the Levant from the fifteenth century BCE all the way to the Third Intermediate Period. The name evolved from a transliteration of the Egyptian word š3sw, meaning "moving on foot", into the term for Bedouin-type wanderers. The term first originated in a fifteenth century list of peoples in the Transjordan, with one of the Shasu territories described as "Yhw in the land of the Shasu".
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Shasu is an Egyptian term for nomads who appeared in the Levant from the fifteenth century BCE all the way to the Third Intermediate Period. The name evolved from a transliteration of the Egyptian word š3sw, meaning "moving on foot", into the term for Bedouin-type wanderers. The term first originated in a fifteenth century list of peoples in the Transjordan, with one of the Shasu territories described as "Yhw in the land of the Shasu". From this evidence , some scholars, including Donald B. Redford and William G. Dever, conclude that the people who would eventually be the "Israel" recorded on the Merneptah Stele (widely known as the Israel Stele) and later form the Kingdom of Israel were originally a Shasu tribe. Rainey supports this view with texts from the Amarna letters. However, the proposed link between the Israelites and the Shasu is undermined by the fact that in the Merneptah reliefs, the Israelites are not described or depicted as Shasu. This has led other scholars like Frank J. Yurco and Michael G. Hasel to identify the Shasu in Merneptah's Karnak reliefs as a separate entity from Israel since they wear different clothing, hairstyles, and are determined differently by Egyptian scribes. Moreover, Israel is determined as a people, or socioethnic group. The most frequent designation for the "foes of Shasu" is the hill-country determinative. Thus they are differentiated from the Canaanites, who are defending the fortified cities of Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yenoam.
Shasu of Yahweh is a term that appears in Egyptian inscriptions of the 18th and 19th Dynasties (c. 1540-1190 B.C.). One, found at Amarah or Amrah in Upper Nubia, dates to the reign of Seti I (c. 1300 B.C.). An earlier inscription, probably from the reign of Amenhotep III (c. 1400 B.C.) was found at the Temple of Amun in Soleb, Sudan. Early identifications of this name were cautious, as Siegfried H. Horn stated, "Whether one of the Edomite tribal names bearing the name Yahweh (t3 š3sw yhw) implies that Edomites were followers of the god Yahweh or whether the name of the tribe has only a curious coincidence with the name of the Israelite god is still undecided." With time, however, it has generally become recognized for what it is. Redford states that "For half a century it has been generally admitted that we have here the tetragrammaton, the name of the Israelite god, 'Yahweh'; and if this be the case, as it undoubtedly is, the passage constitutes a most precious indication of the whereabouts during the late fifteenth century B.C. of an enclave revering this god." Redford even goes so far as to call this group "nascent Israel."
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