Hathor in Timnah

The faïence mask of Hathor was discovered in what is now known as Timna Valley Park, in the southern Aravah (Arabah) desert (Wādī ʿArabah), about 25 km north of modern Eilat. It comes from an Egyptian-style shrine erected near the great copper mines worked during the Late Bronze Age.

Hathor, revered as the radiant “Lady of Turquoise,” was long associated with mining and metallurgy. In the Sinai Peninsula, where Egyptians had quarried copper and turquoise since the Middle Kingdom, she was honoured as patroness of those who delved into the earth’s treasures. This devotion was later carried into the copper-rich valley of Timna, where a shrine to the goddess safeguarded the labour and resources of Egypt’s expeditions. Under imperial rule, her cult flourished, before passing into the hands of local Midianite groups, who reshaped the sanctuary in their own tradition.

The temple at Timnah was not a grand stone sanctuary like those on the Nile, but more of a small, hybrid cult-site: a modest stone-built shrine, with an open courtyard and chambers containing offering tables, votive masks, and Egyptian-style figurines. Archaeologists have found Hathor-related faïence plaques, sistrums (her musical instrument), and cow imagery; all echoes of her Egyptian cult. When the Egyptian presence waned in the 12th century B.C., the local Midianites reused the shrine and rededicated it, placing their own cultic objects there.

The Levant in the New Kingdom (Ramesside period, c. 1300–1130 B.C.)

At this time (c. 1300–1130 B.C.), the southern Levant was a mosaic of peoples and polities. The indigenous Canaanite city-states, often under Egyptian suzerainty, flourished in places such as Gaza (Ḥazzatu in Egyptian texts; modern Gaza), Jaffa (Yapu, Amarna Letters; modern Yafo/Jaffa), and Beth Shean (Bet-Shan, Egyptian stelae of Seti I and Ramesses II; modern Beit She’an). Their peoples worshipped Baal, El, Asherah, and other Northwest Semitic deities.

The Egyptians, meanwhile, maintained military garrisons and administrative outposts in these centres, as well as expeditions to mining districts such as Timna (Timnaʿ, Egyptian mining inscriptions; modern Timna Valley Park), exerting control over trade routes and resources rather than establishing full-scale colonies. Nomadic and semi-nomadic groups, including the Midianites from east of the Arabah, were active in the copper trade and eventually took over the shrine of Hathor at Timna.

Arriving somewhat later, around the early 12th century B.C., came the Philistines, one branch of the “Sea Peoples.” They settled along the coastal plain, transforming cities such as Ashkelon (Isqeluna in Egyptian and Amarna records; modern Ashqelon), Ashdod (Isduda in later Assyrian/Babylonian texts; modern Ashdod), and Gaza into the core of their new settlement zone.

Egyptian Presence in Canaan

From the fifteenth to the twelfth centuries B.C., Egypt exerted a strong political and cultural influence over the southern Levant, which the Egyptians called Retjenu or Djahi. Following the campaigns of Thutmose III in the fifteenth century B.C., much of Canaan came under Egyptian suzerainty. Pharaohs established a network of garrisons, demanded tribute from local rulers, and monitored the vital coastal and inland trade routes that linked Egypt to Syria and Mesopotamia.

Key centres included Gaza (called Ḥazzatu in Egyptian sources such as the Amarna Letters and Ramesside inscriptions; modern Gaza), which guarded the southern approaches into Canaan, and Beth Shean (Bet-Shan, recorded on stelae of Seti I and Ramesses II; modern Beit She’an), which dominated the northern valleys. Excavations at both sites have yielded Egyptian temples, administrative buildings, stelae, scarabs, and monumental inscriptions, attesting to their role as Egyptian strongholds. Other important bases were Jaffa (Yapu, named in the Amarna Letters and Papyrus Anastasi I; modern Yafo/Jaffa), serving as a coastal harbour, and the copper-mining district of Timna (Timnaʿ, mentioned in Egyptian mining inscriptions; modern Timna Valley Park, c. 25 km north of Eilat), where Egyptians established a shrine to Hathor, “Lady of Turquoise,” patroness of miners.

Egypt’s cultural presence was also deeply felt. Egyptian deities such as Hathor, Ptah, and the warrior-god Reshef were worshipped alongside Canaanite gods like Baal, El, and Asherah. Art and religious expression reveal a fusion of traditions: Egyptian-style amulets, faïence figurines, and pottery appear in local contexts, while temples sometimes combined Egyptian motifs with Canaanite cult practices.

Aamu (Egyptian language: 𓂝𓄿𓅓𓅱 ꜥꜣmw) was an Egyptian word used to designate Western Asians in antiquity. It is commonly translated as “Western Asiatic,” however some argue that it could refer to the Canaanites or Amorites

By the thirteenth and twelfth centuries B.C., when the faïence mask of Hathor from Timna was in use, Egyptian authority in the region was beginning to wane. Internal unrest in Egypt was compounded by the movements of the so-called Sea Peoples, a confederation of seafaring groups who appear in Egyptian records under names such as the Sherden, Shekelesh, Lukka, Denyen, and Peleset. Among these, the Peleset are generally identified with the Philistines. While the wider Sea Peoples passed through or vanished into the patchwork of the eastern Mediterranean, the Philistines established themselves permanently on the coastal plain of Canaan. By the early twelfth century B.C., they had transformed cities such as Ashkelon (Isqeluna in Egyptian and Amarna texts; modern Ashqelon), Ashdod (Isduda, attested in Assyrian and Babylonian conquest lists; modern Ashdod), and Gaza into the core of their new settlement zone.

Even as Egyptian rule receded, the lingering traces of Egyptian religion, art, and administration reveal how thoroughly the Levant had been woven into Egypt’s imperial and spiritual orbit during the New Kingdom.

Ancient Egyptian Sinai