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PITHOM

(Piʹthom).

One of two storage cities built by the enslaved Israelites in Egypt, the other being Raamses. (Ex. 1:11) The name Pithom is generally thought to have some relation to the Egyptian name Pr-Tm, meaning “house of (the god) Tem.” On this basis two locations have been suggested for Pithom, both in the Wadi Tumilat of the eastern delta region. From 1883 on, as a result of excavations there, Tell el-Maskhutah in the eastern end of this wadi was considered the most likely location. Ramses II is supposed to have built or rebuilt the city located on that site. However, in more recent years some of the claims made for this place have been found doubtful, as, for example, the supposed evidence for large storage chambers, later Egyptologists holding that these were only foundation structures of a fortress. At present, scholars generally favor Tell el-Ratabah, a few miles to the W of Tell el-Maskhutah. This location is preferred on the basis of an inscription on a Latin milestone found referring to Ero (an apparent abbreviation of Heroonpolis, thought to be the Greek translation of Pr-Tm). It seems clear, however, that no positive conclusion can be reached on the basis of these conjectures. The archaeologists have apparently been influenced in their conclusions by the popular view that the Pharaoh of the Israelite oppression was Ramses II, a view that is not soundly founded.—See EXODUS; RAAMSES, RAMESES.