Egyptian Curses

The earliest archaeological evidence mentioning Jerusalem was found in Egypt and is dated to the twentieth–eighteenth centuries BCE. The Egyptians wrote on pottery bowls or figurines the names of cities and their kings that might rebel against them. They would then smash the objects in a magic ceremony intended as a curse (hence scholars call these texts the Execration Texts (execration means curse).

Jerusalem appears in these texts as “Rushalimum,” a name that recalled the biblical Hebrew name Yerushalyim. The names of the city’s kings are also mentioned: Shas‘an and Y’qar‘am.