Beisan steles
The Beisan steles are five Ancient Egyptian steles from the period of Seti I and Ramesses II discovered in what was then known as Beisan, Mandatory Palestine by Alan Rowe in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
The first stele of Seti is considered to testify to the presence of a population of Hebrews: the Habiru, which Seti I protected from an Asiatic tribe.
First stele and second stele
They are known as- "First Stele": COS 2.4B / ANET 253–254
- "Second Stele": COS 2.4D A badly damaged and weathered stele / ANET 255
- Ramesses Stele: ANET 255
The first stele is considered to testify to the presence of a Hebrew population: the Habiru, which Seti I protected from an Asiatic tribe.
Today they are in the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, and the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem.
Other Egyptian / Canaanite steles
Two other important steles from the same period were found in the same area. Today these are both at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.Mekal Stele
One of the steles, discovered in 1928, states that the temple was dedicated to “Mekal, the god, the lord of Beth Shean”; an otherwise unknown Canaanite god – the stele itself is our main source of knowledge about Mekal.Mekal is seated on a throne, receiving lotus flowers from the builder Amenemapt and his son Paraemheb, holding an ankh and was-sceptre.