thumb|300px|right|One reconstruction of the [[Generations of Noah, placing the "Caphthorim" on Ancient Crete]]

Caphtor ( ) is a locality mentioned in the Bible, in which its people are called Caphtorites or Caphtorim and are named as a division of the ancient Egyptians. Caphtor is also mentioned in ancient inscriptions from Egypt, Mari, and Ugarit.

According to the Bible, Caphtor is the original homeland of the Philistines. They are reported to have eradicated the Avvim prior to settling in Gaza. Genealogically, the Philistines are categorized as descendants of the Caphtorites within the table of nations. The Book of Jeremiah suggests that Caphtor is an island ("the isle of Caphtor"), but the term might alternatively refer to a seashore.

Traditionally, Caphtor has been linked to Crete and associated with Egyptian Keftiu or Akkadian Kaptara. Jewish sources placed Caphtor in the region of Pelusium. Contemporary research has challenged the link with Crete, proposing alternative locations such as Cyprus or Cilicia. which placed them explicitly in Egypt and the Sefer haYashar 10 which describes them living by the Nile. A migration of the Philistines from Caphtor is mentioned in the Book of Amos ().

Josephus, (Jewish Antiquities I, vi) and by Benjamin of Tudela, the twelfth-century Jewish traveller from Navarre, who both wrote that Damietta was Caphtor.

The Midrash Rabbah on Genesis 37:5 (page 298 in the 1961 edition of Maurice Simon's translation) says that the "Caphtorim were dwarfs".

In archaeological sources

Mari Tablets

A location called Kaptar is mentioned in several texts of the Mari Tablets and is understood to be reference to Caphtor. An inscription dating to c. 1780–1760 BCE mentions a man from Caphtor (a-na Kap-ta-ra-i-im) who received tin from Mari. Another Mari text from the same period mentions a Caphtorite weapon (kakku Kap-ta-ru-ú). Another records a Caphtorite object (ka-ta-pu-um Kap-ta-ru-ú) which had been sent by king Zimrilim of the same period, to king Shariya of Razama. A text in connection with Hammurabi mentions Caphtorite (k[a-a]p-ta-ri-tum) fabric that was sent to Mesopotamia via Mari. An inventory thought to be from the same era as the previous texts mentions a Caphtorite vessel (GAL kap-ta-ri-tum) (probably a large jug or jar).

Egyptian inscriptions

The name k-p-t-ȝ-r is found written in hieroglyphics in a list of locations in the Ptolemaic temple of Kom Ombo in Upper Egypt and is regarded as a reference to Caphtor.

The reference to k-p-t-ȝ-r should not be confused with other inscriptions at the temple and from earlier sites mentioning a locality called Keftiu listed amongst lands to the northeast of Egypt and having different spelling and pronunciation, although it has been conjectured by some scholars that this is also a reference to Caphtor. and argue that r changed to y in the Egyptian language. However the name k-p-t-ȝ-r more closely resembling "Caphtor" is from the (late) Ptolemaic era and still has the "r" and references to "Keftiu" occur separately at the same site. Those arguing for the identification suggest that k-p-t-ȝ-r is an Egyptian transliteration of the Semitic form of the name and that "Keftiu" is the true Egyptian form.

This issue is not settled though. In Caphtor / Keftiu: a New Investigation, John Strange argues that the late geographical lists referenced in the preceding paragraph cannot be taken at face value, as they appear to be "random" collections of antique place names, and contain other corruptions and duplicates.

Translation

The targumim translate Caphtor into Aramaic as Kaputkai, Kapudka or similar i.e. Caphutkia explained by Maimonides as being Damietta on the coastland of Egypt.

Referencing Katpatuka, the Septuagint translated the name as "Kappadokias" and the Vulgate similarly renders it as "Cappadocia". The seventeenth-century scholar Samuel Bochart understood this as a reference to Cappadocia in Anatolia but John Gill writes that these translations relate to Caphutkia. where it is remarked that many suppose the name to have originated from Caphtor. While this interpretation agrees with tradition placing Caphtor in Egypt it disregards the tradition that it was a coastland (iy rendered island in some Bible translations) and more precisely Caphutkia; and this contradiction is noted in Osborne. It is now known that the name Coptus is derived from Egyptian Gebtu which is possibly not associated with the name Caphtor.

right|thumb|100px| Detail of a generic captive enemy with the hieroglyph for Keftiu under it at Ramses II's temple at AbydosEgyptian kftı͗w (conventionally vocalized as Keftiu) is attested in numerous inscriptions. The 19th-century belief that Keftiu/Caphtor was to be identified with Cyprus or Syria shifted to an association with Crete under the influence of Sir Arthur Evans. It was criticized in 1931 by G. A. Wainwright, who located Keftiu in Cilicia, on the Mediterranean shore of Asia Minor, and he drew together evidence from a wide variety of sources: in geographical lists and the inscription of Tutmose III's "Hymn of Victory", where the place of Keftiu in lists appeared to exist among recognizable regions in the northeasternmost corner of the Mediterranean, in the text of the "Keftiuan spell" śntkppwymntrkkr<!--śntkppwymntrkkr is correct-->, of c. 1200 BCE, in which the Cilician and Syrian deities Tarku (the Hittite sun god), Sandan (the Cilician and Lydian equivalent of Tarku), and Kubaba were claimed, in personal names associated in texts with Keftiu and in Tutmose's "silver shawabty vessel of the work of Keftiu" and vessels of iron, which were received as gifts from Tinay in northern Syria. Wainwright's theory is not widely accepted, as his evidence shows at most a cultural exchange between Keftiu and Anatolia without pinpointing its location on the Mediterranean coast.

In 1980 J. Strange drew together a comprehensive collection of documents that mentioned Caphtor or Keftiu. He writes that crucial texts dissociate Keftiu from "the islands in the middle of the sea", by which Egyptian scribes denoted Crete.

The stone base of a statue during the reign of Amenhotep III includes the name kftı͗w in a list of Mediterranean ship stops prior to several Cretan cities such as Kydonia, Phaistos, and Amnisos, showing that the term clearly refers to the Aegean.

See also

  • Avim

Notes

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References

  • Hertz J.H. (1936) The Pentateuch and Haftoras. Deuteronomy. Oxford University Press, London.
  • Strange, J. Caphtor/Keftiu: A New Investigation (Leiden: Brill) 1980. Reviewed by J.T. Hooker, The Journal of Hellenic Studies 103 (1983), p.&nbsp;216.
  • Who Were the Keftiu?