Six Temples at Thebes, 1896
The excavator’s report of the 1896 season at western Thebes, in which the Merneptah Stele was found. It records where the stone lay, describes it, and prints a photograph, a facsimile and an English translation.
Flinders Petrie excavated the ruined royal mortuary temples on the west bank at Thebes in the winter of 1895–1896 and published this report the following year. It is the first-hand record of the discovery of the Merneptah Stele (Israel Stela): page 13 describes how the stone was found lying in the first court of the temple of Merneptah, page 10 gives its material and measurements, and plates XIII and XIV show it in a photograph and a hand copy.
The translation on pages 26–28 is by Wilhelm Spiegelberg, who copied the inscription on the spot. Spiegelberg was the first to publish the text. His English version here renders the key line as “the people of Israel is laid waste”. On page 30 Petrie adds his own first thoughts on how the name might relate to the biblical Israelites. Those remarks document the debate that began with the find; they are not a settled reading.
Cited in
- about 1208 BC, estimated date