Yahweh's Desert Origins

Abstract

SHASU-LAND OF YAHU: The earliest evidence for the name Yahweh comes from the temple at Soleb in Sudan and dates to the 14th century B.C.E. This view presents the temple’s remains with a column in the foreground that shows two cartouche inscriptions, including one noting the “Shasu-land of Yahu” (left cartouche). At the nearby Amara West temple, a slightly later set of inscriptions lists this same land alongside the “Shasu-land of Seir,” a region associated with biblical Seir and closely linked with the land of Edom in southern Jordan.