The Bubastite Portal — Shoshenq I's campaign in Canaan
An Egyptian campaign into Canaan at roughly the biblical date is recorded by the pharaoh himself, on a temple wall still standing.
DisputedInscriptionc. 925 BC
A triumphal relief of the pharaoh Shoshenq I listing towns taken in a campaign through Canaan, including sites in the Negev and the northern valleys. The Bible records a pharaoh named Shishak invading in the fifth year of Rehoboam and stripping the temple treasury.
A list of more than 150 captured place-names, among them Megiddo, Taanach, Beth-Shean and Gibeon.
- Found
- Temple of Amun, Karnak, Egypt — Recorded by nineteenth-century Egyptologists in situ
- Now held at
- In place at Karnak
- Language
- Egyptian (hieroglyphic)
How far it goes
The identification of Shoshenq I with the biblical Shishak is the mainstream view but not unanimous, and Jerusalem does not appear in the surviving, damaged list — so the campaign is attested while its biblical detail is not.
How historians use it
A key synchronism between Egyptian and Levantine chronology, used in secular scholarship to date Iron Age destruction layers — while remaining a live debate.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Bubastite Portal — overview and bibliography
- Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC), 3rd ed.
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.