Immanuel Velikovsky and his Worlds in Collision, 50 years after by Emilio Spedicato Introduction alf a century a!

o "more precisely in #$50 published by %c%illan, in #$5# by &oubleday, the house to 'hich the publications ri!hts 'ere transferred after boycott threats to %c%illan by the astronomical academia( a book 'as published of substantial si)e and very rich in references, titled Worlds in Collision* It 'as a bestseller in +S in #$5, and appeared in condensed form in -eaders &i!est, includin! the Italian version Sele)ione* .t that time the present 'riter 'as a schoolboy of seven, an avid reader of everythin! printed* I read the article in Sele)ione 'ith utmost fascination, bein! particularly impressed by the e/planation provided of the 0miracle0 of the Sun stoppin! in the sky durin! the sie!e of 1ericho* 2hen I for!ot both the name of the author and the book* 2hese I recalled suddenly over 30 years later, 'hen I 'as discussin! 'ith an Irish collea!ue some ideas I had developed about a possible catastrophic ori!in of ice a!es and e/planation 'ithin this conte/t of the ori!in of the .tlantis myth* Velikovsky had been for!otten at the conscious level, but had left a seed in the deep that 'as !oin! to !erminate* When his book 'as published, Velikovsky "later on referred to as V*( 'as unkno'n for most people, albeit he 'as 'ell kno'n to a limited number of scientists* Indeed, in addition to several papers in psychiatry, in the 2hirties V* had edited in collaboration 'ith .lbert Einstein the 4ournal Scripta +niversitatis at5ue 6ibliothecae ierosolymitarum, that 'as instrumental in leadin! to the establishment of the ebre' +niversity in 1erusalem* 2he !reat success of his book 'ith the public 'as due to several factors, partly related to a post'ar rea'akenin! of interests in reli!ious traditions and 'idespread critical sentiments a!ainst a science that had led to the atomic 'eapon and to the risk of a nuclear obliteration of humankind* .lso a factor 'as the publicity provided by the opposition to the book by the astronomical academia led by Shapley and 7ayne 8aposhkin, 'ho forced %c%illan to discontinue the publication of the book* 2here are not many authors 'ho incur the attacks of the academia, 'ho tends to simply i!nore those 'ho propose alternative points of vie' from the outside* Worlds in Collision 'as mainly devoted to a nonstandard presentation of events in the recent life of the solar system* In the follo'in! years V* published several other books 'ith no less revolutionary content in the field of !eolo!y, chronolo!y and ancient history* e !ave moreover talks in several countries and inspired a number of 4ournals and study !roups, 'ho further developed his ideas, some of these bein! still 5uite active* %any of the ideas of V* have by no' been accepted by academia, albeit 5uite often his precursor role is simply i!nored* &ebate and influence of V* have been 5uite si!nificant in the an!losa/on 'orld "+S, Canada, En!land, .ustralia and 9e' :ealand(* %uch less the attention in the ;atin 'orld, perhaps due to the less interest in these countries for biblical topics* Concernin! Italy, 'e should recall that V* !ot positive attention by the !reat mathematician 6runo de <inetti and that the science historian <ederico &i 2rocchio has devoted to him a substantial chapter of his book Il 8enio Incompreso* In ne/t sections 'e 'ill !ive some bio!raphical information on V* and on the content of his main mono!raphs Worlds in Collision and .!es in Chaos* 2hen 'e end

'ith information on a forthcomin! symposium on V* or!ani)ed by the +niversity of 6er!amo* Immanuel Velikovsky= a bio!raphical sketch Velikovsky 'as born in #>$5 in Vitebsk, city of 'estern -ussia, then countin! about ?0*000 inhabitants, many of them 1e's, native city also of Cha!all* 2hird son, his name 'as chosen by father durin! a solitary promenade in the nearby 'oods* We read in his autobio!raphy &ays and @ears available in the internet site due to 1an Sammer "'''*varchive*or!( 0my name 'as chosen from a verse of the seventh chapter of IsaiahA there 'as no Immanuel amon! the ancestors kno'n to him he e/pected from me a !reat role concernin! the tra!ic story of our nation'e should see the personality of my father, a 1e' 'ith a vision of national rea'akenin!* When I 'as seven my father sho'ed m the chapter of Isaiah 'ith the name Immanuel***0* #>$5 'as the year 'hen <reud be!an 'ritin! 2he interpretation of dreams, 'hen -oent!en discovered B rays and 'hen, e/actly on #0th 1une, the day V* 'as born, er)l 'rote in his diary I take in my hands the broken thread of the tradition of my people= I 'ill brin! them to the 7romised ;and <rom Vitebsk the family moved to %osco', 'here his father became a successful businessman and one of the most active persons in the Sionist movement* e 'as amon! the first or!ani)ers of the policy of buyin! land in 7alestine for kibbut)* Immanuel did classical studies, learnt several lan!ua!es and e/celled in mathematics* .s teena!er he traveled 'idely to Europe and to 7alestine "2el .viv had been founded only three years before(* e !raduated in medicine in %osco' in #$,#, after doin! part of the studies in %ontpellier* e left -ussia after the revolution 'ith an adventurous escape via the Caucasus* e settled first in 6erlin, marryin! Elisheva Cramer, a brilliant performin! violinist and pianist* e started in this period the editorial 'ork of the above 5uoted 4ournal Scripta +niversitatis***, 'hose mathematics and physics section 'as under the care of .lbert Einstein* <rom #$,D to #$3$ he lived in 7alestineA in #$30 he published a paper 'here, apparently for the first time in literature, he proposed that epile/y 'as characteri)ed by patholo!ical encephalo!rams* 2he interest of V* for a reinterpretation of ancient history 'as kindled by readin! <reudEs 'ork %oses and %onotheism* In contrast 'ith the interpretation of <reud, V* !ot the idea that pharaoh .khnaton 'as the real fi!ure behind the mythical Fedipus* Such idea 'as further developed in the year #$30 that V* spent researchin! in the libraries of 9e' @ork producin! the e/traordinary book Fedipus and .khnaton, published only in #$G0, that this 'riter read nonstop bet'een $pm and 3am* In this book V* analy)es the impressive parallelisms bet'een 'hat is historically kno'n on .khnaton and the data of the 8reek tradition on Fedipus, in the conte/t of his revised chronolo!y of E!yptian history* 2hus .khnaton is dated not only 'ell after %oses "therefore killin! any hypothesis of %oses !ettin! from him the idea of monotheism( but even after Solomon, i*e* in the ninth century, not many years before the .ssyrians 'ould invade E!ypt and put it under their control, a thesis later developed in the book 2he .ssyrian con5uest "still unpublished, albeit available in the 5uoted internet site(* In .pril #$D0 V* !ot the idea that a !reat natural catastrophe characteri)ed the time of E/odus, interpretin! the phenomena described in the 6ible as the 2en 7la!ues of E!ypt as natural phenomena due to an e/traterrestrial cometary ori!in*

2he idea 'as reinforced 'hen he found a description of similar events in an E!yptian source, i*e* the Ipu'er papyrus of the ;eiden collection* e therefore abandoned his profitable profession of psychiatrist for a full time study lastin! many years of ancient and modern documents useful for his thesis* Worlds in Collision 'as the outcome of ten years of research in the !reat libraries of 9e' @ork and 7rinceton "he had moved to 7rinceton at the be!innin! of second 'orld 'ar(* Several other books follo'ed in a short time dealin! 'ith !eolo!ical issues "Earth in +pheaval( and especially 'ith chronolo!ical issues and correspondin! revision of ancient history of the eastern %editerranean countries* In 7rinceton V* reestablished fre5uent and friendly contacts 'ith Einstein, 'ith lon! discussions on astronomical and historical topics* Einstein fre5uently visited him at his home 'here his violin playin! 'as accompanied by the piano playin! of V* 'ife Elisheva* 2he story of his contacts 'ith Einstein in these years is available in another of the still unpublished books, 6efore the &ay 6reaks, available in the 5uoted internet site* &urin! the <ifties and Si/ties V* 'as persona non !rata in universities and research centers in +S* o'ever 'hen first space missions confirmed in a spectacular 'ay some of his forecasts he 'as invited to !ive talks in several universities "6ro'n, @ale, 7ennsylvania, Columbia, &artmouth, &uke, -ice***(A of !reat success 'ere his conferences at arvard and %c%aster at the be!innin! of the Seventies* V* died a!ed >D in 7rinceton, in #$?$* 2he archive of his 'orks H includin! several still unpublished mono!raphs H is under care of his survivin! t'o dau!hters, -uth, a psychanalist in 7rinceton, and Shulamit, 'ho lives in a kibbut) near aifa, married 'ith the 'ell kno'n mathematician .braham Co!an* Worlds in Collision Worlds in Collision 'as published in +S by %c%illan in #$50 and from #$5# by &oubleday, that !ot the publications ri!hts from %c%illan, after Shapley let %c%illan kno' that its role of important publisher of academic 'orks in astronomy 'as threatened by the presence of V* book in its catalo!ue* 2he story of this censorship episode and of other events about the difficult relation of V* 'ith .merican academia is available in the book Star!a)ers and 8ravedi!!ers, published in #$>3 after V* death, copyri!ht of Elisheva V* Worlds in Collision had immediate !reat success 'ith the readers, albeit it had been re4ected by several publishers previously contacted "a similar story happened around that time 'ith 2hor eyerdahl Con 2iki( and 'as defined by 9e' @ork 2imes 0. literary earth5uake0* In the preface to the paperback edition V* 'rote= <irst published in #$50, this book 'as left unchan!ed in all subse5uent printin!sin #$50 it 'as !enerally assumed that the fundamentals of science 'ere all kno'n and that only details and decimals 'ere let to fill in* In the same year, a cosmolo!ist, certainly not of a conservative bent of mind, <red oyle, 'rote in the conclusion of his book 02he 9ature of the +niverse0= 0Is it likely that any astonishin! ne' developments are lyin! in 'ait for usI Is it possible that the cosmolo!y of 500 years hence 'ill e/tend as far beyond our present beliefs as our cosmolo!y !oes beyond that of 9e'tonI I doubt 'hether this 'ill be so* I am prepared to believe that there 'ill be many advances in the detailed understandin! of matters that still baffle us6ut by and lar!e I think that our present picture 'ill turn out to bear an appro/imate resemblance to the cosmolo!ies of the future0* 2hat oyleEs opinion 'as then the dominant one 'as recently confirmed to me by a statement made at a meetin! dealin! 'ith the planned "in ,0#,( 8.I. ES. mission by the famous Italian physicist Salvini "5uoted not verbatim(= <orty years a!o 'e believed to kno' all essentials, no' 'e are in deep uncertainties .bout

oyle one has any'ay to observe that he later became an advocate of radical ne' theories and has been in particular a stron! opponent of the bi! ban! theory, albeit this name 'as invented by him* oyle has 5uoted V* in his autobio!raphy "they met at a seminar !iven by oyle( 'ithout any of the usual heavy criticism by most people in the academia* 2he book Worlds in Collision is based upon the hypothesis that the events of clearly catastrophic nature described in ancient literature, particularly in the 6ible, are phenomena that really happened, 'hose e/planation cannot be !iven in a purely terrestrial conte/t and must therefore be found in interactions bet'een Earth and e/traterrestrial bodies* 2he book deals in particular 'ith t'o catastrophes= the first one associated 'ith E/odus, the second one 'ith the sie!e of 1erusalem by Sennacherib "that is dated some ,0 years after Sar!on II had con5uered and deported the 2en 2ribes of Israel, to a place that has been sub4ect of much discussion and that this 'riter have identified 'ith eastern .f!hanistan(* V* claimed that the a!ents of the catastrophe 'ere not ordinary comets or asteroids but t'o planets, namely Venus in the first case, %ars in the second case* .ccordin! to him these planets had at that time orbits 'ith different shape, more elliptical than no', as conse5uence of previous interactions 'ith other planets in the solar system "the story of the previous events in the solar system is partly !iven in the book .t the 6e!innin!, another of the unpublished 'orks available in the cited internet site(* 2he orbits of the t'o planets 'ould have been circulari)ed after the last catastrophe, thereby terminatin! for our planet the catastrophic era, 'here planets 'ere a real threat and 'here astrolo!y 'as a real science based upon the study of planetary interactions in a differently or!ani)ed solar system* 2he book is based mainly on the analysis of a hu!e number of classical and mytholo!ical references "about a thousand 5uotations, of te/ts in many lan!ua!es or of difficult access(* While the analysis is never 5uantitative H and a 5uantitative analysis of the scenarios proposed by V* 'ould even 'ith present computer po'er be beyond modelin! and computation possibilities JHV* is 'ell a'are of 'here modern science stood and has a number of pointed criticism to the traditional scenarios, in particular 'here they only consider !ravitational effects in the astronomical relations, ne!lectin! the electroma!netic effects, both on lar!e scale and in the study of close flybys of lar!e bodies* Worlds in Collision is 'ritten 'ith a very clear albeit synthetic lan!ua!e* We cannot here !ive a detailed presentation of the e/tremely rich content of this book, thus 'e only revie' some of the main theses* K V* stresses the information value of ancient te/ts, based accordin! to him on real e/periences lived in a different astronomical conte/t than no'* 2he idea that the events described in ancient te/ts pertained to real e/periences used to be accepted 'ithout difficulty in 'estern 'orld until Illuminism= this included in particular the idea of catastrophes 'ithin human memory, includin! the +niversal &elu!e described in the 6ible and in other traditions "&eucalion,(* 2hese ideas 'ere accepted by 9e'ton and Cuvier* Illuminism started criticism of 6ible openin! the 'ay to the so called uniformitarism approach that became dominant in the #$th century thanks in particular to the 'orks of ;yell in !eolo!y and of &ar'in in biolo!y= the present is the key of the past, there are no celestial catastrophes today, there 'ere none in %oses time* 9o stones fall from the sky today, no stones could have fallen in the past "this e/treme statement dominated astronomy 'ell into the second half of #$th century, 'hen a heavy fall of meteorites in <rance convinced the astronomers to accept ancient records of fallin! stones(* 9o', fifty years after Worlds in Collision 'e can certainly say that scholars in the natural sciences pay more attention to ancient records of catastrophes* Such attention is partly due also to the e/istence of technolo!ical means, not available at V* time, to verify the effects of such unusual events in the !eolo!ical and biolo!ical record= sophisticated analysis of pollen and other or!anic material in lacustral

and oceanic sediments, analysis of or!anic and inor!anic materials in lon! ice carrots e/tracted in 8reenland or .ntarctica, dendrochronolo!ical series e/tendin! no' to about #0*000 years in some cases* <rom such analysis evidence has emer!ed of stron! climatic variations in the last #,*000 years, some settin! so 5uickly that they can probably not be e/plained in terms of the usual terrestrial processes* <inally the direct observation in the case of the ShoemakerJ;evy comet of the processes of disinte!ration proposed by V* and other neocatastrophists "especially Clube and 9apier( and of planetary impact, an event that astronomers considered e/tremely unlikely to be able to observe in their lifetime, has made the astronomical community conscious that our solar system surroundin! is more frau!ht 'ith dan!ers than it 'as believed 4ust fifty years a!o K V* has claimed the instability of solar system and the emer!ence of the present orbital confi!uration, 'ith re!ard at least to %ars and Venus, in very recent times, in fact in historical times "the last catastrophe, associated 'ith Sennacherib sie!e of 1erusalem, bein! dated at about ,? centuries a!o(* Such claim 'as made at a time 'hen the solar system 'as considered to be an e/tremely stable confi!uration, on the basis of appro/imate analytical analysis of the stability of dynamical nJbody systems and of the properties of the standard model "condensation from a !as cloud( for the formation of the solar system* 2his scenario after fifty years has dramatically chan!ed, albeit the theses of V* about Venus and %ars are still considered unacceptable, e/cept from a small minority of scholars* 2he analysis made usin! the modern very sophisticated analytical instruments has indeed sho'n that nonlinear comple/ dynamical system, includin! planetary systems, have !enerally a behavior of the type defined chaotic, 'hose lon! term behavior cannot be predicted and 'hose dynamical structure is e/tremely rich* 9o' it is estimated that, even disre!ardin! the very possible interactions 'ith other bodies and structures in the !ala/y, the solar system cannot be back inte!rated in time for more than a fe' million years, a factor one thousand less than estimated fifty years a!o* %oreover components of the solar system have been discovered, both at lar!e distances or at planetary distances, that either 'ere then unkno'n or their importance 'as not properly evaluated, e*!* the so called .polloL.mor ob4ects and the Cuiper belt "'here ob4ects of a considerable G00 km diameter are no' kno'n to e/ist(* 2he observation, albeit incomplete, of about si/ty non solar planetary systems has sho'n dynamical and structural features completely une/pected and actually in several cases considered previously as dynamical impossibilities "e*!* the presence of 1ovian or super 1ovian planets very close to the mother star, 'hen the current model had in that re!ion only terrestrial type planetsA or the presence of 1ovian type planets in hi!hly elliptical orbits(* With a hundred ar!uments the astronomer Van <landern has proposed a!ain the hypothesis of Flbers about the e/plosion of one or more planets in the re!ion of the asteroid belt, as the event that ori!inated not only the asteroids but as 'ell the ma4ority of comets and probably even %ars, considered as a survivin! satellite of the e/ploded planet* Van <landern dates the last e/plosion to 3*, million years a!o* Fbservin!, independently of Van <landern, that the se5uence of ice a!es on our planet starts also 3*, million years a!o, the physicists Woelfli and 6altensper!er have recently proposed a ne' theory for the ori!in of such ice a!es, in terms of effects on Earth a/is, called true polar 'anderin! "'here the north and south points move over the Earth surface(, due to the close flyby of a planet, 'hose si)e 'as taken as default as that of* %arsM 2hese authors have solved on the computer the e5uations definin! the dynamics of the flyby "considerin! only !ravitational forces, but 'ith heavy use of the tidal forces(* 2heir computations have sho'n that a sufficiently close passa!e can lead to a polar displacement of even #> de!rees, a conclusion 'ith Velikovskian flavor* 2hey have moreover found that the body interactin! 'ith Earth at its perihelium 'ould be heated so much by the Sun that it 'ould move a'ay from the Sun as a !iant comet, surrounded by bluish hot !as over one million km diameter a!ain a 'holly Velikovskian scenario* Futstandin! is ho'ever still the problem of provin! that the proposed roundin! of

orbits of Venus and %ars can be achieved in a fe' centuries, i* e a fe' hundred revolutions, albeit 'e are also not a'are of a ri!orous proof that it cannot* In conclusion, fifty years after Worlds in Collision 'e are facin! very open scenarios about the structural and dynamical confi!uration of planetary systems* 2his confirms the importance of the idea of V* to use the testimonial information from ancient people about the evolution of our o'n planetary system* K V* has also stressed the importance of electroma!netic interactions in astronomy, 'ith particular re!ard to close flybys of lar!e bodies* 8ravity still remains the only force considered by the ma4ority of cosmolo!ists for the evolution of the +niverse and smaller structures as planetary systems, despite the authoritative alternative ideas of 9obel 7ri)e .lfven "5uoted in several papers by V*( on the role of lar!e scale plasma structures in the +niverse* Several problems have ho'ever arisen by usin! the classical 9e'tonian la' of inverse s5uare dependence on distance 'hen used on structures "!lobular clusters, !ala/ies, clusters of !ala/ies( havin! much !reater si)e than the solar system si)e 'here Cepler derived his la's* 2hus the need of introducin! dark matter or even more e/otic structures and particles or to hypothesi)e a different functional relation to distance or to introduce ne' forces* V* had len!thy discussion 'ith Einstein on the role of electroma!netism in the +niverse, see his book in internet on his meetin!s 'ith Einstein* &evelopments of V* ideas on electroma!netism role are due to scholars inspired by V*, amon! them 1uer!ens, 2hornhill, 8inenthal, &e 8ra)ia, %ilton, :ysman* K V* predicted emission of radio 'aves from 1upiter, a hi!h temperature of Venus surface "'hen it 'as believed it should be a little above Earth temperatures( and that Earth 'as surrounded by a ma!netic field* 2hese forecasts 'ere confirmed 'ithin a fe' years and V* had his forecast reco!ni)ed in a letter sent to Science ",# &ecember #$G,( by the 7rinceton physicist 6ar!mann and the Columbia +niversity astronomer %ot)* V* had moreover often insisted 'ith Einstein to the purpose that durin! one of the first space missions his predicted radio emissions from 1upiter should be looked for* Einstein failed to obtain this e/periment and later sent a letter to V* e/cusin! himself for not havin! supported his proposal* K 2he detailed pictures obtained in the last years of the surfaces of %ars and Venus have sho'n 5uite surprisin! !eolo!ical features* Venus surface seems to have been recently melted or covered by ma!ma emissionsA erosion structures are essentially lackin!* %ars surface sho's evidence of very recent catastrophic sculpturin! events, includin! une/pected evidence of subterranean 'ater* .!ain there is a remarkable lack of the erosion phenomena that should have smoothed the planet surface in the course of the billion years of life in the standard model* . detailed analysis of %ars morpholo!y at the li!ht of V* hypotheses has been presented in a paper by 8inenthal at the 9e' @ork #$$5 conference for the centennial of V* .!es in Chaos 2he book .!es in Chaos 'as published in #$5,, the first of a number of historical mono!raphs, follo'ed by Fedipus and .khnaton "#$G0(, 7eoples of the Sea "#$??( and -amses II and his 2ime "#$??(* 9ot yet published by available in the 5uoted internet site are the 'orks 2he .ssyrian Con5uest and 2he &ark .!es of 8reece* 2he basic idea of V* is that the official chronolo!y of the first and second millennium 6C of E!yptian and other civili)ations dated by anchorin! them to the E!yptian one "%icenean, Cananean, +!aritic, Cretese, .natolian( is affected by a substantial error* 2his is for V* the main reason 'hy scholars have essentially been unable to fit the events described in the 6ible 'ith the events described in

E!yptian or other histories* V* claims that the fundamental error lies in the absolute anchorin! of the E!yptian chronolo!y that 'as made about t'o hundred years a!o, at the be!innin! of E!yptolo!y "the times of ;epsius and Champollion(* . conse5uence of this error has also been the introduction of so called dark centuries for the %icenean and .natolian civili)ations* <or these centuries there is practically no archeolo!ically documented activity, 'ith the curious fact that at the end of this sterile period archeolo!ical documentation reappears 'ith the same styles that 'ere active before the dark period, as if centuries had passed 'ithout any stylistic evolution* 2he problem of a correct determination of the chronolo!y of ancient civili)ations is very comple/, albeit it is often supposed to have been fully solved, e/cept for a fe' years possible variations, on the basis of chronolo!ies established mainly in the #$th century* 2his problem 'as of !reat interest to Isaac 9e'ton, 'ho 'rote a mono!raph, by him considered the landmark of his life, 2he Chronolo!y of .ncient Cin!doms .mended, product of his enormous classic culture "he had read essentially all 'orks of the ;atin and 8reek fathers, to make a better personal opinion of the trinity problem(* 2he 'ork of 9e'ton, ori!inally published in #?,> one year after his death, has been recently reprinted but very fe' people have read itA his bio!rapher Westfall has defined readin! that book the 'orst penitence one can think of for a person* <ollo'in! the seminal 'ork of V* the chronolo!y problem has since be at the center of the attention of several historians, especially in the an!losa/on 'orld "-ohl, 1ames, 6imson, %urphie(* 2he 8erman scholars einsohn and Illi! and the -ussian mathematician <omenko, 'ho has analy)ed chronolo!ical data 'ith statistical techni5ues, have reached even much more radical revision in shortenin! the time span than V* did* .!es in Chaos can be seen as a parallel book to Worlds in Collision, devoted to chronolo!y and historical correlations, 'hile the first book 'as concerned 'ith physical phenomena and their possible e/planation* V* determines the E/odus period, hence %oses time, as the end of the E!yptian %iddle Cin!dom, 'hen E!ypt 'as invaded by a population comin! from the east, called yksos in %anetho, .mu in contemporary E!yptian sources, .malek in the 6ible* 2he yksos devastated E!ypt, destroyin! to'n, temples and e/terminatin! lar!e amount of the population* 2he date !iven by V* for E/odus, based on internal chronolo!y of the 6ible and some ,00 years lo'er that the traditional date for the yksos invasion, is #DD? 6C* 2he 7haraoh is the 2utimaios of %anetho, i*e* the &udimose in the list of kin!s of the 'ell kno'n papyrus in the 2urin E!yptian %useum* +nder this chronolo!ical settin! it is clear that 'ith the E/odus %oses not only terminated the slavery of ebre's but most probably saved them from a likely annihilation by the yksos* 2his 'riter has recently proposed for the term yksos the meanin! people of the horses and has identified their ori!in in the 2uranian re!ion of the .mu &arya river, 'herefrom the .mu 'ould have moved in the time of 'orld'ide mi!rations due to a !lobal catastrophe of 'hich the events described in the 6ible for E!ypt are 4ust a local case* I have also hinted that the 'ife of %oses from Cush, land usually identified 'ith Ethiopia, 'as actually a 'omen form the indukushL6adakshan re!ion, land of the precious lapis la)uli e/ported also to E!ypt* 2hen %oses may have been informed of the arrival of the yksos by the 'ifeEs family and this 'ould e/plain 'hy he took the unusual 'ay throu!h the desert, 'ishin! not so much to escape from a pursuin! 7haraoh but from the oncomin! .mu* 2he datin! of E/odus at #DD? 6C at the end of the %iddle Cin!dom H no' accepted 'ith further ar!uments by scholars as -ohl, 1ames, 6imson J 'as at !reat variance 'ith the traditional datin!, 'hich put the E/odus, of 'hich someone even doubted the historicity, about 350 years after the yksos, at the time of the 9e' Cin!dom, often durin! the rei!n of -amses II* 2he lack of references to E/odus in E!yptian

sources 'as considered a si!n of unreliability of the 6ible as a historical document or at least of a tendency of the 6ible to amplify the importance of events relatin! the ebre's* 2he datin! proposed by V* redefines completely the historical settin! 'ith important conse5uences on the follo'in! history, till the time of .le/ander, 'hen use can be made of the 'ork of the 8reek and ;atin historians* 9o' 'e select some statements from .!es in Chaos= K 2he .muL yksos controlled their territory from the city of .varis, that accordin! to V* 'as located near El .rish, in present 8a)a strip* In this area recent archeolo!ical findin!s have discovered ellenistic and E!yptian ruins under over ten meters of sand, 'hich means that a search for the ruins of .varis 'ould imply a hu!e and very e/pensive e/cavation 'ork K 2he .muL yksos 'ere e/pelled by a coalition of E!yptians that had taken refu!e in the south of E!ypt, and of ebre's led by Saul K 2he 5ueen of Sheba 'as the 'oman pharaoh atshepsut K 2he pharaoh 'ho invaded the land that had been the !reat kin!dom of Solomon 'as 2uthmosis III K .menophis III and .menophis IV ".khnaton( lived in the ninth century 6C, hence after Solomon "this eliminates any possibility of interpretin! .khnaton as the inspirer of %oses monotheism(* 2he El .marna archive of their letters, to be dated to the period >?0J>D0 6C, includes letters sent to the ebre' kin!s of the kin!dom of Samaria "capital city of the territory of the 2en 2ribes of Israel( and of 1erusalem "capital of the territory of the tribes of 1udah and 6en4amin(* In three recent mono!raphs the ;ebanese historian Camal Salibi, professor at the .merican +niversity of 6eirut and director of the Interfaith Study Center in .mman, has claimed that the land of milk and honey 'here .braham settled "at a time that 'ithin the V* chronolo!y may be set at about #>50 6C, probably the time also of pharaoh Sesostris I the 8reat( 'as not 7alestine but the re!ion of southJ 'estern .rabia that is no' called .sir, rich of 'ater, pastures and forests* 2he present 'riter is of the opinion that the approach of Salibi can be blended 'ith that of V* contributin! to a further resolution of many pu))les of anti5uity*