Achshaph

Achshaph (Hebrew: אַכְשָׁף‎; in LXX Ancient Greek: Άξείφ or Άκσάφ)[1] was a royal city of the Canaanites, in the north of Canaan (Josh. 11:1; 12:20; 19:25). The name means "sorcery".[2]

Tel Keisan, possible location of Achshaph

Location

Achshaph was in the eastern boundary of the tribe of Asher. There are several opinions as to its exact location, including Tell Keisan, Tell Regev[3], Tell Harbaj and Tell an-Nakhl.[4] In the Greek Septuagint, in various manuscripts, depending on the passage, its name is given in the forms Azeiph, Achsaph, Achas, Keaph, Achiph, Acheib, and Chasaph.[5]

History

or
ꜣksp[1][6] in hieroglyphs

The 1350 BC Amarna letters has Endaruta as the 'mayor' of Akšapa (Achshaph).[7][8] In this time period, the Habiru are attacking city-states, and Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem, Surata of Acco, Šuwardata of Qiltu (?), and Endaruta are aiding each other.

Only one extremely short letter–EA 223 (EA-el Amarna) is written from Endaruta of Akšapa, and it is a one sentence topic: [following a short 3-sentence formal-formulaic introduction] ... "Whatever the king (i.e. pharaoh), my lord, orders, I shall prepare."

But one perfectly preserved letter from Pharaoh, to Endaruta of Akšapa is known, EA 367. Its topic is to guard (and defend) Akšapa and to prepare for "troop arrivals"-(the archer-forces).

The third and only other reference in the Amarna letters corpus is from letter EA 366 (from Šuwardata of Qiltu (?)), and the letter states:

"...only 'Abdi-Heba and I have been at war with that 'Apiru. Surata, the ruler of Akka, and Endaruta, the ruler of Akšapa, these two also came to my aid, ..."

See also

• Endaruta
• Amarna letters
• Amarna letters–localities and their rulers

References

1. Gauthier, Henri (1925). Dictionnaire des Noms Géographiques Contenus dans les Textes Hiéroglyphiques Vol. 1. p. 112.
2. Cheyne and Black (1899), Encyclopaedia Biblica, entry for "Achshaph."
3. "Tel Kisson". biblewalks.com. Archived from the original on 2018-07-03. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
4. Shimon Gibson (1 September 2001). Amihai Mazar (ed.). "Agricultural Terraces and Settlement Expansion in the Highlands of Early Iron Age Palestine: Is There Any Correlation between the Two?", Studies in the Archaeology of the Iron Age in Israel and Jordan. A&C Black. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-567-19417-6.
5. Cheyne and Black (1899), Encyclopaedia Biblica, entry for "Achshaph."
6. Wallis Budge, E. A. (1920). An Egyptian hieroglyphic dictionary: with an index of English words, king list and geological list with indexes, list of hieroglyphic characters, coptic and semitic alphabets, etc. Vol II. John Murray. p. 965.
7. Biblical Achshaph is Akshapa according to Shimon Gibson (1 September 2001). Amihai Mazar (ed.). "Agricultural Terraces and Settlement Expansion in the Highlands of Early Iron Age Palestine: Is There Any Correlation between the Two?", Studies in the Archaeology of the Iron Age in Israel and Jordan. A&C Black. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-567-19417-6.
8. Endaruta is mayor of Akshapa according to Carl S. Ehrlich (January 2009). From an Antique Land: An Introduction to Ancient Near Eastern Literature. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 277. ISBN 978-0-7425-4334-8.

• Moran, William L. The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. (softcover, ISBN 0-8018-6715-0)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Achshaph" . Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.