DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0263
RAMESES THE GREAT. 245
eloquent testimony to the toil of the suffering colonists
and confirm in its minutest details the record of their
oppression; some being duly kneaded with straw ; others,
when the straw was no longer forthcoming, being mixed
with the leafage of a reed common to the marsh lands of
the delta; and the remainder, when even this substitute
ran short, being literally "bricks without straw," molded
of mere clay crudely dried in the sun. The researches of
M. Naville further showed that the temple to Turn,
founded by Barneses II, was restored, or rebuilt, by Osor-
kon II, of the twentj-second dynasty ; -while at a still
higher level were discovered the remains of a Roman
fortress. That Pithom was still an important place in the
time of the Ptolemies is proved by a large and historically im-
portant tablet found by M. Naville in one of the store-cham-
bers, where it had been thrown in with other sculptures and
rubbish of various kinds. This tablet records repairs done to
the canal, an expedition to Ethiopia and the foundation of
the city of Arsinoe. Not less important from a geograph-
ical point of view was the finding of a Roman milestone
which identifies Pithom with Hero (Heroopolis), where,
according to the Septnagint, Joseph went forth to meet
Jacob. This milestone gives nine Roman miles as the dis-
tance from Heroopolis to Clysma. A very curious manu-
script lately discovered by Sig. Gamurrini in the library
of Arezzo, shows that even so late as the fourth century of
the Christian era this ancient walled inclosure—the camp,
or "Ero Castra," of the Roman period, the " Pithom" of
the Bible — was still known to pious pilgrims as "the
Pithom built by the children of Israel ;" that the adjoin-
ing town, external to the camp, at that time established
within the old Pithom boundaries, was known as " Heroo-
polis;" and that the town of Barneses was distant from
Pithom about twenty Roman miles.*
*This remarkable manuscript relates the journey made by a female
pilgrim of French birth, circa a. v. 370, to Egypt, Mesopotamia and
the holy land. The manuscript is copied from an older original and
dates from the tenth or eleventh century. Much of the work is lost,
but those parts are yet perfect which describe the pilgrim's progress
through Goshen to Tanis and thence to Jerusalem, Odessa and the
Haran. Of Pithom it is said: "Pithonaetiam civitas quam oedifica-
verunt lilii Israel ostensa est nubis in ipso itinere ; in eo tamen loco
"hi jam fines figypti intravimus, religentes jam terras Saracenorum.
Nam et ipsud nunc Pithona castrum est. EJeroun autem civitas qua?
eloquent testimony to the toil of the suffering colonists
and confirm in its minutest details the record of their
oppression; some being duly kneaded with straw ; others,
when the straw was no longer forthcoming, being mixed
with the leafage of a reed common to the marsh lands of
the delta; and the remainder, when even this substitute
ran short, being literally "bricks without straw," molded
of mere clay crudely dried in the sun. The researches of
M. Naville further showed that the temple to Turn,
founded by Barneses II, was restored, or rebuilt, by Osor-
kon II, of the twentj-second dynasty ; -while at a still
higher level were discovered the remains of a Roman
fortress. That Pithom was still an important place in the
time of the Ptolemies is proved by a large and historically im-
portant tablet found by M. Naville in one of the store-cham-
bers, where it had been thrown in with other sculptures and
rubbish of various kinds. This tablet records repairs done to
the canal, an expedition to Ethiopia and the foundation of
the city of Arsinoe. Not less important from a geograph-
ical point of view was the finding of a Roman milestone
which identifies Pithom with Hero (Heroopolis), where,
according to the Septnagint, Joseph went forth to meet
Jacob. This milestone gives nine Roman miles as the dis-
tance from Heroopolis to Clysma. A very curious manu-
script lately discovered by Sig. Gamurrini in the library
of Arezzo, shows that even so late as the fourth century of
the Christian era this ancient walled inclosure—the camp,
or "Ero Castra," of the Roman period, the " Pithom" of
the Bible — was still known to pious pilgrims as "the
Pithom built by the children of Israel ;" that the adjoin-
ing town, external to the camp, at that time established
within the old Pithom boundaries, was known as " Heroo-
polis;" and that the town of Barneses was distant from
Pithom about twenty Roman miles.*
*This remarkable manuscript relates the journey made by a female
pilgrim of French birth, circa a. v. 370, to Egypt, Mesopotamia and
the holy land. The manuscript is copied from an older original and
dates from the tenth or eleventh century. Much of the work is lost,
but those parts are yet perfect which describe the pilgrim's progress
through Goshen to Tanis and thence to Jerusalem, Odessa and the
Haran. Of Pithom it is said: "Pithonaetiam civitas quam oedifica-
verunt lilii Israel ostensa est nubis in ipso itinere ; in eo tamen loco
"hi jam fines figypti intravimus, religentes jam terras Saracenorum.
Nam et ipsud nunc Pithona castrum est. EJeroun autem civitas qua?