ABSTRACT
New Kingdom Egyptian influence can be identified among a range of material culture and traditions in Iron Age Israel and Judah. This essay explores specific outcomes resulting from Egyptian imperial intervention in Canaan and the social entanglements of its personnel that would have contributed to the shaping of Iron Age identities, like that of Israel. It is suggested that New Kingdom involvement was sufficiently protracted and intensive in nature to constitute an essential component of early Israelite tribal identities, giving rise to cultural memories in biblical tradition that relate directly to a period under Egyptian rule before Israel’s emergence.
