The Reed Sea

Exodus is the story of the Israelites' journey to freedom from slavery. The central drama is crossing the Red Sea which was made possible by a miraculous parting of the waters. Throughout history, the exact location of the crossing has been hotly debated and centers on the translation of the name of the body of water. Red Sea is a direct and undisputed translation of the Greek name Erythra Thalassa which may simply be the Greek color-identifier for a southern sea.  The original Hebrew name, Yam Suph, has been translated as Reed Sea and has no etymological connection to Erythra Thalassa.

Biblical scholars have theorized that the Exodus story was based on an ancient psalm entitled Song of the Sea found embedded in the Jawist source of Torah. According to this song, the original incident clearly places the crossing in the Gulf of Aqaba. The references to the "Edomites, Moabites and inhabitants of Philistia" make this identification certain. The map above does not show the Gulf of Aqaba so perhaps Greek speakers did not have a frame of reference for this arm of the Red Sea.

When it was widely disseminated that Yam Suph translates to Reed Sea, everyone turned their attention elsewhere to find this sea of reeds. While papyrus thrives in brackish water, the Gulf of Aqaba is much too salty to sustain any form of shoreline vegetation. In ancient depictions, the lakes of the Nile delta were choked with many species of reeds and popular opinion moved the location of the Yam Suph nearer to ancient Egypt. However, other biblical passages place the Yam Suph in the Gulf of Aqaba and it is never associated - in scripture - with the Nile delta. In Exodus, the Hebrews quit Goshen and Ramses; assumed to be places in the region of the Nile. The ancient Egyptian sphere of influence went far beyond the Nile river and delta area. Evidence shows that the Egyptians were involved in copper mining throughout the Sinai, Negev and Jordan Valley. Wadi Faynan in Jordan and the Timna mines north of Eilat, Israel are two examples. Egyptian scarabs, aegides of Maut and images of Hathor have been discovered at these locations. The copper deposits in the Faynan and Timna districts belong to the same family of rock-hosted mineral deposits. Host rocks are part of Early Cambrian lagoonal strata and both sites are geologically identical.

The Gulf of Aqaba, Arava and Dead Sea of the Great Rift Valley divide the Arabian and African plates of the supercontinent Gondwanaland. The Sinai Peninsula is part of the African plate and has historically been administratively controlled by Africans. Slave labor and complex supply chains for the ancient bronze market would have required a powerful and organized controller of people. Industrial scale copper smelting at the Rift Valley sites has been ongoing for 5,000 years. In the early and and middle Bronze Age, it was the Egyptians that had the military might to exploit and control an industrial operation. A powerful Egyptian colonial power subjugating an indigenous Rift Valley populace could produce enough smelted copper to supply the entire ancient world! If Hebrew speaking slaves quit Goshen and Ramses, then the copper mines of the Rift Valley could not be eliminated as their point of departure.

Fluvial Geomorphology is the study of river related landforms. The FG of the southern Arava was perennial meandering streams 7,500 years ago. In Water, Life & Civilization: Climate, Environment and Society in the Jordan Valley, the data suggests "wet conditions requiring an excess of precipitation over evaporation." Rainfall 7.5 ka BP may have been as high as 800 mm per year. Surveys of pollen show that the Faynan region was on the southern edge of the Mediterranean Forest Zone with "C4 sedge (papyrus) becoming the dominant plant in the south". Arava means willow and the paleosol record has periods of calcrete nodule formation. Calcretions are formed by a simultaneous increase in temperature and rainfall which may have been aided by a canopy of water-soaking willows.

The Rift Valley is a narrow tube hemmed in on both sides by mountain ranges until it reaches Sharm el Sheik in the Sinai. Sea water fills the deep crevice in the south and silt fills in the central Arava.Water would have a hard time escaping this tub/tube because of the concave topography. A picture is emerging of an ancient valley swampland giving way to trees in higher elevations. Papyrus would have choked the lowland and become a natural barrier between Africa and Arabia as was the Gulf of Aqaba. Traveling northward, the swamp becomes willow and sycamore and finally hardwood forests of the Mediterranean Forest Zone. The Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee were combined into one body of water which was replenished by the Hermon snow melt.

The rapid desertification of this region is profound compared to similar ancient population centers. The Faynan industrial complex could be the reason. The amount of charcoal required for the furnaces of the bronze age surely contributed to deforestation. Locating the copper mines on the southern boundary of a forest zone would be a convenient source of fuel.. Slaves to work the mines could be obtained from local people but would be hard to control. The sea of papyrus would have been a welcoming refuge for escaping slaves or those that did not want to become the property of the Pharaoh. The chariots and horses of the Egyptian state would be useless in the impenetrable suph.

Moses had sojourned in Midian (Arabia) and so was familiar with the mountain passages as well as the suph sea. He had to cross it in his escape after murdering an Egyptian. A man traveling through suph would be hidden by walls of reeds and sound would be baffled. Having a common Egyptian enemy may have united escaping slaves so that they gave assistance to others in similar situations.One important way to help would have been to show them the hidden passages through the suph sea. Symbols for pathways could easily be translated into lines for mapping of escape routes. 

Teba is a reed word that may be from tef (tsuf, suph, chufa) and is used to build words that are "unsinkable". Reeds stand high above the water, can be hollow and, when bundled together, can hold a man afloat. Tub and tube may be words stemming from the unsinkable word for the ark of Moses - teba. As a baby, Moses had been found floating in a teba amongst the suph of the Nile. Another teba was the floating ark of the deluge. Noah floated his household and livestock so they would not sink. The Akkadian tabalu is a continent which was thought to float above the primordial water. Syriac tabayl is the "world fit for habitation" or that which would not sink. Table and tablet must also originate from teba. Moses knew the hidden roads and topography from tablets of reed writing (Arabic k'tob). Since he had sojourned here before he knew where the sea floor was gently sloping and where it dropped off into the chasm of the tehowm. Moses seems to have lured the Egyptians into the water and perhaps the charioteers were not familiar with the area and did not know about the crack in the earth.

There is such a place in the Gulf of Aqaba. It has a gently sloping shoreline but then suddenly drops off into a deep crevice. It is called Taba and is the ancient name given to the place where the suph met the abyss of the tehowm. Taba is located on the ancient edge of the tub of suph. Perhaps this is precisely where the Israelites entered the water and so has always been remembered as the place of the unsinkable Taba.