PITHOM (pi'thom), (Heb. nar row pass), one of the 'treasure-cities' which the Is raelites built in the land of Goshen for Pharaoh' (Exod. :1 ). (See EGYPT ; GostiEN).
The excavations made by Naville, under the auspices of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, showed that Tell el-Maskhuta was the ancient Pithom. It is on the canal between Cairo and Suez. Inscriptions show that the city dates from about the time of Rameses II, the Pharaoh of the oppression. Bricks were found in the walls, some with, and some without straw (Exod. v: ro-12). Naville thinks that the city contained storehouses or granaries. Pithom was called Heroopolis in the time of the Greek dynasty. The civil city surrounding Pithom was called Thuku, probably the Succoth of Exod. xii :37.
Dr. William C. Winslow says: "Among the rays flashed from the prism of archaeological ex ploration and research in Old Egypt, during the past decade, are those which relate directly or indirectly to Old Testament history. From a purely scientific standpoint, light upon the history of the Hebrew nation, particularly in the dawn of its career, is of no little value to the scholar and to all interested in the evolution of civilization; while to the believer in Christianity as well as to the Jewish race, such light cast upon the nar rative of the sojourn in Egypt is doubly precious as well as interesting. lf science is glad to have a Schliemann answer the question, are the stories of Homer pure fiction ? both science and religion are glad to have a Naville reply to the interroga tion, was Rameses II the Pharaoh of the Oppres sion ? Now, does the Pithom discovered by Naville substantiate the descriptive contexts of Exodus i? We read that the children of Israel "built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses" (Exodus i n 1). The sacred name Pithom (Pi cum) occurs fifteen times, and the civil name, Succoth, twenty-two times, on the various ex cavated monumental inscriptions.
Consider how well the English, the Hebrew, and the Septuagint descriptive words—treasure, store, fortified—harmonize on this site of Pithom found by Navillc. A treasure city has special sig
nificance when we remember that grain was a medium of exchange, and granaries a kind of government bank. An order for so much corn meant an order on the treasury. An order for bread in the fifty-second year of Rameses II is thus translated: "Paid out in bread to the men this day—serf-folk, 8 persons, 16 loaves ; house folk, 12 persons, 24 loaves." I think the English translation does not, after all, misconceive the Hebrew of Exodus i :1 t ; for in the absence of iron and timelocks, the grain treasuries were strongly built, and the treasury not easily plun dered. How was it at Pithom? Enormously thick walls and most substantial partitions be tween the chambers; entrance only from the top; a place easily guarded against the Shasu, or Bedouins, of that day. In fact, these grain treas uries were as much needed in the days of Ranicses as are government treasuries in our own day.
And the site itself scientifically testifies to the statement of both versions.
We are informed, also, that the Israelites were forced to make bricks with straw, without straw, with stubble—the precise conditions of the brick found at Pithom. Moreover, it was not the usual practice to use mortar with sunburnt brick; yet the rare exception was made at Pithom, for there to-day may be seen the thin layers of mortar be tween the excavated bricks ; the sentence in Exodus after the mention of Pithom refers to its use. ( See BRICK.) The Hebrew builded better than he knew at Pithom. In the course of time, the clay, the brick, and the mortar over which he sighed bore witness to his historic servitude in Egypt, to his tyrant, to Pithom as a Biblical, and Hertnopolis as a classical, site of greatest value in our knowl edge of ancient geography.
It was no hyperbole for the London Times to say that the discovery of Pithom was the most brilliant Biblical identification of our time.