New claims from an independent researcher suggest that inscriptions found in a 3,800-year-old Egyptian mine could reference Moses, who Christians believe led the Israelites out of slavery.
Michael Bar-Ron, who has spent eight years analysing inscriptions at Serabit el-Khadim in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, believes one Proto-Sinaitic carving translates to “This is from Moses”, or “zot m’Moshe” in Hebrew.
The markings, etched by Semitic-speaking labourers during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III (circa 1800 BC), could offer an early textual link to the Exodus account.
“You’re absolutely correct, I read this as well, it is not imagined!” Dr Pieter van der Veen, Bar-Ron’s academic advisor told the Daily Mail, in support of the reading.
The inscriptions, some of the earliest known alphabetic scripts, appear to include dedications to Baʿalat, invocations of the Hebrew God El, and even signs of religious conflict, such as erasures of Egyptian gods' names.
Bar-Ron believes these may reflect a theological shift among workers and potentially support the biblical narrative of a Hebrew uprising or exodus from Egypt.
However, mainstream scholars remain sceptical.
Egyptologist Dr Thomas Schneider dismissed the interpretation, warning that “arbitrary identifications of letters can distort ancient history.”
A second possible mention of Moses has also been spotted in the mine, though its meaning remains uncertain.