Footprints

Footprints in the sand, Author Face Potter, Source https://web.archive.org (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported)

Footprints

“One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each, I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints;
other times there was only one.

During the lowest times of my life
I could see only one set of footprints,
so I said, ‘Lord, you promised me,
that you would walk with me always.
Why, when I have needed you most would you leave me?’

The Lord replied, ‘My precious child,
I love you and would never leave you.
The times when you have seen only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you.’ ”

Many are familiar with one or another version of the inspirational poem “Footprints” by Mary Stevenson.  But a new technology is uncovering footprints of another kind.

Lidar is a device which surveys the landscape using pulses of infrared laser light.  Operating in much the same way as radar, lidar reveals the heat signatures of long gone structures now buried beneath the earth and overgrown by vegetation.

In Egypt, lidar has located the unique fingerprint of a home similar to those found throughout the Holy Land in biblical times [1].  This home is associated with the Shasu of Yawheh, a Semitic people present in the Levant from the late Bronze to the early Iron Age.

The Shasu were first identified as enemies of Egypt at the Temple of Soleb [2A].  The name Shasu of Yahweh appears in texts dated to Amenhotep III (14th Century BC) and Ramesses II (13th Century BC) [2B].  Ramesses II is thought to be the pharaoh associated with the Exodus.

Some scholars identify the Shasu with the ancient Israelites [2C].  The lidar evidence would provide physical proof of Israelite presence in Egypt, something long disputed.

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[1]  National Geographic, “Buried Secrets of the Bible with Albert Lin”, S1 E1, “Parting the Red Sea”, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/buried-secrets-of-the-bible-with-albert-lin/.

[2A, B, an C]  Wikipedia, “Shasu”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shasu.

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