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Title	Author	Date
Biblical Israelite population sizes in Egypt and Israel	Goldstein, David	Oct 25, 2006
[continued] Based on considerations of this kind, the population of the whole Nile Delta in the second half of the second millennium BCE has been estimated at c. 1.2 million persons, living from c. 13,000 square km of cultivable land (see K. W. Butzer, Early Hydraulic Civilization of Egypt: A Study in Cultural Ecology [Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1976]: 83, 93-96). Now, the Pentateuch indicates that the Israelites resided in Egypt not in the whole Delta but in the vicinity of the royal city of Ra‘amses (Pi-Ramesse) – i.e., the easternmost part of the Delta. Thus, even though the figure of c. 1.2 million inhabitants in the Delta is approximate, it would be very difficult to imagine an Israelite population of over 2 million persons residing at that time in the easternmost part of the Delta alone. Regards, David Goldstein
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