The stele has gained much fame and notoriety for being the only Ancient Egyptian document generally accepted as mentioning "Isrir" or "Israel"
In 1896 W. M. Flinders PetrieOffsite Link discovered the Merneptah SteleOffsite Link -- also known as the Israel Stele or Victory Stele of Merneptah -- in the first court of Merneptah's mortuary templeOffsite Link at ThebesOffsite Link. It is inscribed on the reverse of a large granite steleOffsite Link originally erected by the Ancient Egyptian king Amenhotep IIIOffsite Link, but later inscribed by MerneptahOffsite Link who ruled Egypt from 1213 to 1203 BC. The black granite stele primarily commemorates a victory in a campaign against the LibuOffsite Link and MeshweshOffsite Link LibyansOffsite Link and their Sea PeopleOffsite Link allies, but its final two lines refer to a prior military campaign in CanaanOffsite Link in which Merneptah states that he defeated AshkelonOffsite Link, GezerOffsite Link, Yanoam and Israel among others. It is preserved in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities Offsite Linkin Cairo.
The Merneptah Stele known as the Israel stele (JE 31408) in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
The stele has gained much fame and notoriety for being the only Ancient Egyptian document generally accepted as mentioning "Isrir" or "Israel". It is also, by far, the earliest known attestation of Israel. For this reason, many scholars refer to it as the "Israel stele". This title is somewhat misleading, however, because the stele was clearly not focused on Israel per se— in fact, it mentions Israel only in passing. There is only a single line about Israel: "Israel is wasted, bare of seed" or "Israel lies waste, its seed no longer exists" and very little about the region of Canaan. Israel was simply grouped together with three other defeated states in Canaan (Gezer, Yanoam and Ashkelon) in the stele. Merneptah inserts just a single stanza to the CanaaniteOffsite Link campaigns but multiple stanzas to his defeat of the Libyans. The line referring to Merneptah's Canaanite campaign reads:
Canaan is captive with all woe. Ashkelon is conquered, Gezer seized, Yanoam made nonexistent; Israel is wasted, bare of seed
