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Pithom (; ; or Ἡρώωνπόλις , and Πατούμος ) was an ancient city of Egypt. References in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Greece and Roman Empire sourcesStrabo xvi. 759, 768, xvii. 803, 804; Arrian, Exp. Alex. iii. 5, vii. 20; Josephus Ant. Jud. ii. 7. § 5; Plin. v. 9. § 11, vi. 32. § 33; Pomponius Mela, iii. 8; Steph. B. s. v.; Ptolemy ii. 1. § 6, iv. 15. § 54 exist for this city, but its exact location remains somewhat uncertain. Some scholars identified it as the later archaeological site of Tell el-Maskhuta (). Others identified it as the earlier archaeological site of Tell El Retabeh ().
The 10th-century Jewish scholar Saadia Gaon identified Pithom's location in his Judeo-Arabic translation of the Hebrew Bible as the Faiyum, southwest of Cairo.Saadia Gaon, Tafsir (Judeo-Arabic translation of the Pentateuch), Exodus 1:11;
''Rabbi Saadia Gaon's Commentaries on the Torah'' (ed. [[Yosef Qafih]]), Mossad Harav Kook: Jerusalem 1984, p. 63 (Exodus 1:11) (Hebrew)
Édouard Naville and Flinders Petrie were looking for Pithom along the Wadi Tumilat, an arable strip of land serving as the ancient transit route between Egypt and Canaan across the Sinai—the biblical 'Way of Shur'. Israel: Ancient Kingdom Or Late Invention? Daniel Isaac Block, ed. B&H Publishing Group, 2008. p. 113
Excavations at the Tell El Retabeh have shown that the site was first settled during the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt. Following the expulsion of the Hyksos during the reign of Ahmose I, a short-lived Egyptian settlement followed but ended in the middle of the 18th Dynasty. At the beginning of the 19th Dynasty of Egypt, a newer settlement was established, and Ramesses II built new fortifications, a Temple of Atum and many other structures. The site was inhabited also under the 20th Dynasty, the Third Intermediate Period (11th–7th century BC) and the Late Period (7th–4th century BC).
Some scholars, such as Manfred Bietak and Kenneth Kitchen, have argued that this was the ancient Pithom. This opinion goes back to the 19th century, when Alan Gardiner first identified Pithom with the site of Tell El Retaba, and this was later accepted by William F. Albright, and Kenneth Kitchen. Although John van Seters and Neil Asher Silberman argue that Tell El Retaba was unoccupied during the period when we find monuments relating to a town called Pithom,Seters, John Van, "The Geography of the Exodus", in Silberman, Neil Ash (editor), The Land That I Will Show You: Essays in History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Honor of J. Maxwell Miller, Sheffield Academic Press, 1997, p. 261-262, , [2] this claim has been disputed by James K. Hoffmeier and Gary Rendsburg based on recent findings at the site.
The joint Poland-Slovakia expedition has carried out a systematic research at Tell El Retaba since 2007. Aigyptos Foundation Slovak Egyptological team It is conducted with the cooperation of several institutions: Institute of Archaeology University of Warsaw, the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw, the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Aigyptos Foundation.
More recent analyses have demonstrated that the designation for the temple of Atum, pr-itm, can be found in inscriptions at both sites—both at Tell El Retaba and at Tell El Maskhuta. This seems to demonstrate that the name 'Pithom' was used originally for the earlier site, Tell El Retaba, before it was abandoned. When the newer city of Tel El Maskhuta was built, the same name was applied to it as well, as the temple of Atum was moved to El Maskhuta. Thus, in effect, 'Pithom' was moved to a new location, a phenomenon that is attested for some other cities as well, such as Migdol.James K. Hoffmeier, Ancient Israel in Sinai: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Wilderness Tradition. Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 64,
Here was found a group of granite statues representing Ramesses II, two inscriptions naming Pr-Itm (Temple of Atum), storehouses and bricks made without straw. Recent excavations have also uncovered a significant New Kingdom tomb at the site. The excavations carried on by Naville for the Egypt Exploration Fund uncovered a city wall, a ruined temple, and the remains of a series of brick buildings with very thick walls and consisting of rectangular chambers of various sizes, opening only at the top and without any entrances to one another.
Modern excavations at Tel El Maskhuta were carried out by the University of Toronto 'Wadi Tumilat Project' under the direction of John S. Holladay Jr. They worked over five seasons between 1978 and 1985. These excavations have shown that the history of Tel El Maskhuta is quite complex. There was a Middle Bronze IIB settlement there (18th–17th centuries BC), associated with the Hyksos, followed by a long break until the late 7th century BC, when there was rebuilding.Holladay, John S. Jr., "Tell el-Maskhuta: preliminary report on the Wadi Tumilat Project, 1978-1979", ARCE Reports 6, Cities of the Delta 3, Undena, 1982.
This construction at the end of the 7th century may have been carried out by Pharaoh Necho II, possibly as part of his uncompleted canal building project from the Nile to the Gulf of Suez.
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