The Palace of Joseph

As I go through the story of Joseph in Genesis, I believe it wouldn't be proper to neglect mentioning the recent archaeological finds of Joseph's palace.

The Bible states that Joseph's family settled in a land called Rameses in Gen 47:11. Archaeologists did not originally know exactly where this lost city of Rameses was located until recent years.

The story of finding this lost city begins about 40 years ago in the 1970's, when the feet of a colossal statue were found in a field of an ancient Egyptian city. The name of the remains of this ancient city under the field was called Pi-ramesse by the locals. Pi-ramesse I should ad had no evidence of Semitic occupation when excavated. This city was built hundreds of years after the time of Joseph.

Some inscriptions during the excavation of Pi-ramesse indicated that the city was built over top of another ancient city called Avaris. When archaeologists dug to the level of Avaris, it was found that this city did indeed exist during the time of Joseph. Most buildings in Avaris were built in a typical Egyptian style except for one area of the city where the buildings were built in the style of ancient Canaan land and they also found the remains of a palace. Because the archaeologists found the remains of a palace in this area, it would seem to indicate that a person of high ranking Semitic origin lived there. This palace was built with 12 columns and had other features that represent significant numbers in the bible.



In the back of this palace they found a small pyramid and a tomb chapel. Some archaeologists believe that this empty tomb may have possibly been the tomb of Joseph. Along with this chapel they also found a vandalized statue. When this statue was restored, they realized that the statue had red hair. Red hair is a Semitic feature that Joseph most likely had because his father Jacob/Israel had red hair also. This is easily proven in  Genesis 25:25 when the bible describes Esau's red hair, and of course Esau was the identical twin brother of Jacob. The statue also had yellow paint for skin which is the typical way the Egyptians represented foreigners from the North that had fair skin, and of course the Bible eludes to the fact that King David, which is in the same genetic line as both Joseph and Jacob, also had fair skin; 1 Sam 16:12, 1 Sam 17:42, Song of Solomon 5:10-11, Etc, Etc...

The most distinguishing characteristic of this statue is that the outline had a Multicolored coat with distinct patterns.Although one could argue that any one of these findings are circumstantial, there is no other person that a reasonable person could come to conclude this statue of being of. One other finding that was found in this temple of the city of Avaris, was the remains of a ring that had the seal of the Pharaoh on it. It's believed this is the exact ring was given to Joseph by the Pharaoh, for Joseph to able to conduct business in order to save both Egypt and the known world Gen 41:42.

Praie the Lord for the faith of Joseph, the Bible, and for Archaeology which proves his word to be true every day!