At Karnak the Pharaoh Shoshenq I left a list of cities he conquered in Canaan. Traditional interpretations of the first 55 names include Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley, Penuel and Mahanaim and the Transjordan region, Aijalon and Gibeon north of Jerusalem, and Gaza and Gezer in the Philistine Plain. However, there are a number of problems with that interpretation: Jerusalem, other Philistine cities and a number of other well-known cities are missing; in addition, the archaeological record does not support such a route. This paper offers a different reconstruction, presenting a more modest route through the Judaean Shephelah, and proposes that Shoshenq did not go to Transjordan or into the hill country of Judah or Israel.
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