Have Evidence of the Israelites in the Sinai Desert Been Found?

Uzi asks:

"The Torah recounts the Israelites' wandering in the Sinai Desert for 40 years, during which a whole generation passed before entering the land, approximately 3 million people. So where is all the evidence of the Israelites' settlement and the graves in the Sinai Desert? Where are the camps of such a large population?"

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Hello and blessings, Uzi, and thank you for your question.

The size of the State of Israel is 21,000 km². In contrast, the size of the Sinai Desert (Sinai Peninsula) is 61,000 km². This means that the Sinai Desert is three times larger than all of Israel! Making it a practical impossibility to excavate the entire Sinai Desert, which would require tens of thousands of research teams working around the clock. So far, very limited studies have been conducted in the Sinai Desert, involving no more than dozens of research teams in limited areas, and naturally, they only sought out large external evidence that has survived on the surface.

The desert climate also does not preserve objects well. Gravestones and stones naturally erode in the barren desert, breaking and dissolving over the years, and most inscriptions that were on them disappear entirely. Even stone gravestones and altars are very unlikely to endure for thousands of years, not to mention materials such as wood, clothing, or bones.

Since the Sinai Desert is an arid and dry region, it is not reasonable to expect that clothes, leathers, or skeletons would be preserved there even for hundreds of years, let alone thousands. If a few do survive the desert climate, it would be extremely rare and unexpected.

Nevertheless, astonishingly, evidence of mass settlement in the Sinai Desert has been found.

In the book "Studies in the Archaeology of the Desert Nomads in the Negev and Sinai" (1998) published by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Ofer Bar-Yosef from Harvard University's Department of Anthropology notes that "...the earliest shepherds continued to live in circular structures, huts covered with skins or branches and twigs... Due to the scarcity of carbon 14 datings in the arid areas, one must rely on comparative standards to determine the age of the sites... The main difficulty lies in dating the sites, which currently relies mainly on typological comparisons of flint tools... The architectural remains... include a variety of circular structures, courtyards, and graves.

It is common to find the combination of courtyards and rooms as bases for huts or tents... Early Bronze Age II sites scattered across the Sinai are interpreted as remains of camps and settlements of populations originating from the Land of Israel... The design of pottery in the Israeli style in Sinai... as exemplified by the Egyptian site at Ein Besor, which is Egyptian in character, proven by the design of pottery made from local clay but shaped in Egyptian forms...".

The greatest wonder is that no group of people could naturally survive for years in the Sinai Desert in such conditions.

Israel, as we know, is a fertile and green area - as can easily be seen on the map, whereas the Sinai Desert is barren and arid, without sources of water or fertile vegetation. Yet, significant human settlement remains have been found in the Sinai Desert in numerous camps (which even include grinders), despite the fact that the Sinai Desert has no fresh water sources or grain! To this day, it remains an archaeological mystery how the many settlers in the Sinai Desert survived without having sources of available food and drink. Sheep skeletons were found, but what did they feed and water them with? The Sinai Desert is an empty area (where no trees are found in most parts), far from the fertile Nile, so it does not allow for agriculture or crops.

Archaeologists testify: "We have no answer to the question of how these settlements sustained themselves so far from a water source. Their food source is also a mystery. Although many millstones have been discovered, indicating they had grain to grind, unlike the assumption that the people engaged in agriculture, the finding suggests they rarely worked the land: "The sickle blade, an indicator of agricultural occupation, was found in negligible quantity." Importation cannot be the answer: "Small items found... indicate commerce, but on a limited scale only. There is no evidence of a trade system that could form a worthy component of existence" [Source: M. Haiman, Nomads and Settled People in the Negev Mountains during the Early Bronze Age; Studies in the Archaeology of Nomads in the Negev and Sinai, Be'er-Sheva 1998, pp. 109, 112, 113].

Moreover, cemetery remains have been found in the Sinai Desert, and unlike the burial practice in the ancient world (cremation and embalming), the burial in the Sinai Desert was done in the ground, as is customary in Judaism.

Joshua Etzion, an amateur archaeologist and author of the book "The Lost Bible," was among the first to point to these findings in his book:

"... Generally, the Sinai Peninsula is viewed as the land of Israelite wanderings... Limited archaeological surveys and excavations were conducted on the peninsula as early as the late 19th century. Many interesting finds have been discovered in Sinai and the Zin Desert, and it is possible to attribute most of the early archaeological findings on the Sinai Peninsula and the central Negev plateau to the Israelites who came out of Egypt.

The prominent discovery found in the excavations and surveys was burial fields scattered over the peninsula and central Negev plateau. The graves found were sometimes in large concentrations and sometimes dispersed. The shape of the graves was not uniform: the burial site was usually marked by stone piles called tumuli; sometimes these were actual burial structures. Resident sites or encampment sites were found next to burial concentrations. It was difficult to identify any particular architectural pattern at these sites. Generally, remains of circular structures arranged around a central courtyard were found... The circle sites and tumuli fields (burial) found in Sinai clearly show that during a short period in antiquity, masses of people passed through Sinai. What then were the water sources for these multitudes during their stay in the desert? According to the dating, these masses are, as mentioned, the ones who left Egypt. The Bible says that the Israelites drank water that miraculously came from the rock (the Water of Miriam). The food sources of the early nomads in Sinai are also not sufficiently clear. The scripture tells that the departed from Egypt ate man that miraculously fell from the skies..." (The Lost Bible, pp. 53-59).

For additional archaeological evidence, it is recommended to obtain the book "Biblical Archaeology" by Rabbi Zamir Cohen.