The discovery of Babylonian tablets naming Khedorla’omer, Ariokh, and Tidhal aided in identifying the Biblical names of the affiliation of kings as being real. They describe a war much more wide spread than the Bible relates. That should be expected, however, as the Hebrew scribes would have known little about the politics of Mesopotamia. The inscriptions mentioned a king of Elam, Kudur-laghamar along with a king Eri-aku and one named Tud-ghula.It was almost unanimously agreed that “Kudur laghamar” was the Biblical Chedorlaomer. Kudur indicated a servant and was indeed an Elamite royal title. There were several known Elamite kings that used the title Kudur. It was also agreed on that the Biblical Arioch was the Eri-e-a-ku in the Babylonian cuneiform script from the original Sumerian ERI.AKU, meaning "Servant of the god Aku." Aku was the god Nanner also known as Sin. It is known from a number of inscriptions that Elamite rulers of Larsa bore the name "Servant of Sin," and there was therefore little difficulty in agreeing that the biblical Eliasar, the royal city of the king Ariokh, was in fact Larsa.
There was also unanimous agreement among that the Babylonian text’s Tud-ghula was the equivalent of the Biblical "Tidhal, king of Go’im". The name Tidal has shown up in Hittite texts as being used by kings. The word goiim in the Bible was translated as nations, which is the way the word is still used. It was the Biblical Gomer in present day Turkey. Judges 4:4 mentions Harosheth-ha-goiim as the home of the commander of Jabin’s army. In that verse goiim was translated as gentiles rather than nations. It was a city in Syria near Hazor which had been under control of the Hittites since prior to the 15th century bce. It is generally accepted by archeologists that Goiim meant conglomeration, making Tidal truly the king of nations. The Akkadians pronounced it Gimirru, which later became known as Cimmerian. Amraphel was mentioned in Assryian texts as Ammirapaltu, a king during the Old Babylonian Empire. Arioch is believed to be Eri-Aku, a king of Larsa (Ellasar). There was one Eri-Aku that was the son of Kudur-Mabug. His reign would have fallen within the correct time line. Inscriptions for Babylonia and dated to 2007 BC, tells of an invasion by the Elamites who were allied with people of the north. They were repulsed but returned in 2004 BC and destroyed the city of Ur. Inhabitants who could not escape were slaughtered.
Among the clans that were put under tribute by the affiliation were Rephaims, the Zuzims, Emims and the Horites. Not all of them have been identified, but the Horites are known to have been the cave-dwellers mentioned in the Bible inhabiting areas around Petra. They have been identified with Egyptian references to Khar which concern a southern region of Canaan. They were sometimes referred to as Hurru The location given in Egyptian texts is similar to the Biblical location of the Horites. They were known to the Mesopotamians as Hurri. They were referred to as Trogladytes by Josephus. The villages constructed by these people were entirely subterranean. They are composed of extensive caves dug straight down into the alluvial soil on the banks of the Wadi. This way the Horites could remain cave dwellers in a cave less part of the country. Amenhotep II boasted of having taken 89,600 prisoners in his campaign in Palestine (around 1420 BC), including 127 princes and 179 nobles of Retenu, 3600 Apiru, 15,200 Bedouin, and 36,600 Horites. It is believed by archaeologists that the Raphaims, Emins and the Zuzims are the same people.
Trying to find undeniable evidence of Abraham or any of the Hebrews being in Egypt will probably prove to be waste of time. It has been said that archeology is not like looking for a needle in a haystack, I is more like looking for a particular piece of straw in a haystack. In most cases archeologists dig in an area where something has been found by accident. Some of them are Christians and may have a theory that evidence is connected to the Bible in some way. They do not go to a particular spot and look for something Biblical unless they are confident that something that came from that spot is Biblical. They do not gather in droves as some would have us believe. Politics plays a part in archeology as do rainy seasons. When expecting something to pop up in Egypt that has to do with the Israelites, there are a lot of things to consider. First of all, the Egyptians were not the prolific record keepers we have been told in the past. The archeologist Sir Alan Gardiner once wrote:
“What is proudly advertised as Egyptian history is merely a collection of rags and tatters.” Gardiner, A., Egypt of the Pharaohs, 28.
The Egyptians had no single system of numbering years and like the Bible, written texts referred to the reign of a king, or a memorable event. There was no consistent system of regal years and no concept of naming years. The Egyptians were known for omitting anything that made the king or his god look bad. The kings were declared gods by the major deity of their choice and everything that happened was a reflection of not only the king, but the god who chose him to be king. A king who was displeasing to the people was also displeasing to the god. They were careful about how they were remembered. In many cases the priests made attempts to erase the names of undesirable kings from history. It is not true, as some skeptics seem to think, that Egyptian can now be read with the ease of a newspaper. Ancient Egyptian did not use vowels and there were no spaces between words. Egyptologists sometimes take years to translate and interpret inscriptions. The Hebrews were much better record keepers and more concerned with preserving records than the Egyptians.
The desert is not a very good place to expect to find written records. Inscriptions on temple walls have survived to some extent, but again, they only tell of the victorious exploits of kings. Stone inscriptions were done by masons and were expensive. Inscriptions were for the wealthy and usually royalty. Papyrus was difficult to make and deteriorated rapidly. Clay Tablets were not used extensively in Egypt and were easily broken. Clay didn’t last long in the desert. The best kept material is pottery, which wasn’t used by the Egyptians for record keeping.
References: J.H.Breasted “Inscription of Ameni,” Ancient Records of Egypt, Part One, Kenneth Kitchen “Ancient Orient and the Old Testament.” Randall W Younker,. (1997), “Late Bronze Age Camel Petroglyphs in the Wadi Nasib, Sinai,” Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin, 42:47-54. Randall W Younker,. (2000), “The Bible and Archaeology,”
