In 1904, British archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie and his wife led an expedition to the Sinai Peninsula. No one thought it was a good idea.
First off, their destination -- a site called Serabit el-Khadim -- was nearly impossible to access. It was on a rocky plateau 2,800 feet up a steep approach. There were no roads or maps. The only way to get there was ascending to the site on foot across jagged mountain terrain, with camels in tow carrying food, water, tents, and excavation tools. It was a grueling, unforgiving trek. All this with temperatures regularly over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In Petrie's own words: "the ascent to Serabit is one of the most frightful paths I have ever had the misfortune to follow. It is a break-neck track up crags and precipices, without any pretense of a route."
That alone made the idea ill advised. But there was a second reason not to go: no one had any idea if anything was up there. The epic effort could all be for nothing. Again, according to Petrie, from his own diary in 1906, "the site was scarcely known. Some blocks with hieroglyphs had been seen by travelers, but no one had examined the place. I hoped that a temple might be found."
They were going on hope. The Petries heard rumors of hieroglyphic records from the Nile Valley that mentioned a temple on the site. No one had documented any buildings at Serabit el-Khadim. But the Petries had a hunch.
Turns out, they were right.
When they finally made it to the site, they found ruins of a temple. And with it, tons of figurines and jewelry and stone tablets, dating back as early as 1900 BCE, the heart of the Pharaoh's rule. The treasures were offerings to the Temple's God, which hieroglyphs confirmed was the goddess Hathor. This was amazing news to the Petries -- they knew their history. Hathor was known as the "Lady of Turquoise", because she was associated with turquoise mining. Temples dedicated to her were usually built near mining sites.
This was no exception.
Next to the Temple, the Petries team excavated enormous turquoise mines. And what they contained would have an impact beyond any treasure from the Temple itself. Because on the walls of the mineshafts were crude inscriptions carved into the rock. And they weren't Egyptian hieroglyphs. Instead they were alphabetic-looking symbols -- about 30 unique signs -- possibly carved by Canaanite-speaking workers or slaves. Today, using an alphabet is something we take for granted. But at the time of the Pharoahs, it was revolutionary. All the writing from that time, from Egyptian hieroglyphs to Sumerian cuneiform to Chinese characters, used symbols to represent words, or even entire ideas. The ancient languages had hundreds of symbols. But the script on the walls of that mine was different. And even today, it remains the earliest known attempt to write a language using a limited set of symbols that each represent a sound -- what we call an alphabet.
Of course, that's not so exciting. Things didn't get interesting until someone actually read what it said.
Over the last century, scholars worked hard to translate the ancient script. In 1916, Sir Alan Gardiner identified the language as a precursor to Hebrew, finding the Semitic word Baʿalat ("Lady"), likely referring to Hathor. Later scholars expanded and refined the theory, all agreeing the language used in the carvings appeared to be an early form of Northwest Semitic, closely related to biblical Hebrew, with traces of Aramaic.
But it wasn't until last year, when researcher Michael Bar-Ron worked up a translation that the world stopped and paid attention. Bar-Ron spent eight years analyzing high-resolution images and 3D scans of the mining tunnel walls. And he claims he found one inscription that reads 'zot m'Moshe.' That's Hebrew for 'This is from Moses.'
We've seen so many images of Moses, so many movies. And obviously we've heard all the stories of Moses with the Ten Commandments, parting the Red Sea, or leading the Israelites out of Egypt. It seems like, even if some of the supernatural elements may not have happened, at least the contours of the story must be true, or had some basis in historical reality. But the surprising thing about Moses is, there's no proof he ever existed.
In the Bible, Moses was a descendant of one of the 12 sons of Jacob. But there is no direct historical or archaeological record of Jacob or his sons, or any of those events. As a metaphor, the story of Moses is among the most powerful in human history, illustrating the power of a covenant with God, and the formation of a people chosen by God. But as an actual person who walked the Earth? Well, there was just no proof.
Until now.
Those inscriptions in the ancient turquoise mines dated back to the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. Some scholars have proposed that Amenemhat III, known for his extensive building projects, could have been the pharaoh mentioned in the Book of Exodus. Which would place him squarely in the time of Moses. And if the inscriptions were written by Canaanite slaves, working in those mines, they would be people closely associated with early Israelites. In fact, they may even be one and the same, if current theories of Israelites growing out of Canaanite society prove true.
Did Moses and the Hebrew slaves walk those mines?
Of course, scholars say no. The idea that Moses existed doesn't get any traction. The time of the Pharaoh is highly documented. There is no direct archaeological or Egyptian textual evidence in the extensive records from the New Kingdom era mentioning the existence of Moses, the Israelites' slavery in Egypt, or the Exodus. In fact, there's no mention of any mass enslavement or escape of any large slave populations. It's a powerful story, but for scholars, that's where it ends.
Except there was more in those mines.
Dr. Douglas Petrovich, a professor of biblical history who translated the inscriptions, discovered a second passage - logged as Sinai 361 - that reads, "Our bound servitude had lingered. At that time, Moses provoked astonishment."
There could have been other people called 'Moses' at the time. But the one mentioned in the Bible did provoke astonishment.