Shasu

Shasu was a term for nomads, and transliterated, basically means “moving on foot”. There are two kinds of Shasu, those unaffiliated religiously, just, nomads in general, bands of thieves and criminals, or exiled members of other societies, traveling together for convenience, though not out of any specific system of loyalty. And then the other class, which were religiously affiliated, although they may or may not have shared the same culture or ethnicity. Both groups were types of nomadic travelers, dubbed “Shasu” by the Egyptians, although the word is more of a corrupted form of Egyptian, which means it was probably a word that was circulated through several cultures. The Shasu were a bit like the Bedouins, but of a separate race, and origin.

The nomads, or Shasu with no particular theorised culture were located in, or around the Transjordan regions, and which was literally called the “lands of the Shasu”. These nomads were believed to have formed the first citizens and loose foundation that would one day become the Kingdom of Israel, making them the very first of the Israelites. However, the Egyptian scribes distinguished the two quite differently, –Egyptian had one word for the Shasu, and another for the Israelites. Furthermore, the Egyptians also referred to the Shasu as being enemies of the Israelites.

Then there are the Shasu theorised to be followers of Yahweh; or just the “Shasu of Yahweh” which was a term that was inscribed first by the Egyptians, and later translated. However, that does not mean that one Shasu group was the same as another; the term “Shasu” may have just been a general word for nomad in Egyptian. The Shasu of Yahweh inscriptions were first perceived skeptically, with many archaeologists willing to admit the possibility of coincidence, but later it became taken at face value, for what it was: a rare glimpse of Israelite religion from over three thousand years ago.