Blane W. Conklin, «Arslan Tash I and other Vestiges of a Particular Syrian Incantatory Thread», Vol. 84 (2003) 89-101

The first part of this article is a new translation and interpretation of the first incantational plaque from Arslan Tash in northern Syria. Each of the three succeeding sections identifies and discusses elements of this incantation that find resonance in texts from Ugarit, Egypt, and the Hebrew Bible, respectively. At Ugarit we find texts predating Arslan Tash which describe incantational activity involving Horon and the Sun-deity, both of whom are present in the Arslan Tash text, and who have similar roles in the two traditions. Horon is also present in Egypt during the last centuries of the city of Ugarit, and is there also associated with the Sun-deity and performs similar functions as at Arslan Tash. In the Passover account of Exod 12 there are several elements in common with Arslan Tash, albeit in the distinctive form that might be expected in the theological and literary tradition of the Hebrew Bible.

New Kingdom³⁴. The specific evidence for the presence of Horon is instructive. The earliest evidence of Horon’s presence in Egypt is a proper name in a papyrus dating to the 18^th dynasty. There are six plaques found in a foundation deposit near the Great Sphinx in Giza that date to the reign of Amonhotep II (early 18^th dynasty, late 15^th century) which describe him as "beloved of H9auron-Harmakhis". Harmakhis is the Great Sphinx, the image of the Sun-deity³⁵, and in these plaques as in other artifacts particularly from the 19^th dynasty, Horon is identified with the Great Sphinx of Giza. After that, he is mentioned on a door-frame inscription by Tutankhamon (late 18^th dynasty, mid-14^th century) in Giza.

        In the 19^th dynasty the evidence for Horon’s cult in Egypt is more abundant ³⁶. Seti I added an inscription to a door-jamb belonging originally to Amonhotep II where he mentions Horon. Several private votive stelae from the 19^th dynasty mention Horon. There is a good amount of evidence specifically from the time of Ramses II (successor to Seti I). In the delta, a statue found at Tanis describes Ramses II as "beloved of H9auron ", as does a granite column in a military outpost west of Alexandria. A Rameside votive sphinx mentions "H9auron of the Lebanon". On the west bank of Thebes, there are, from the same period, several amulets with Horon and Shed together exercising power over dangerous desert animals. Perhaps the most famous and instructive reference to Horon is found in the Harris Magical Papyrus (501), dating to the late 19^th dynasty. Horon, along with fellow Canaanite deities ‘Anat and Reshep, are invoked for protection against wild desert animals. Horon, referred to as "Valiant Shepherd", renders wolf-fangs useless, and is entreated along with Horus to let none of the harmful beasts enter the cultivated field ³⁷.

        These data link Horon with four different kings across the 18^th and 19^th dynasties, Amonhotep II, Tutankhamon, Seti I, and Ramses II; and associate him with the sun-deity (as at Ugarit, see section 2 above). Horon is found on Gizan door-post inscriptions in both the 18^th and 19^th dynasties; and most importantly, he is invoked to keep dangerous animals out of domesticated areas on the Theban west bank.

IV. Exodus 12 and the "First Passover"

        Cross and Saley³⁸ were the first to recognize that the importance of the doorposts in AT1, the mzzt (line 26), may very well be compared to the apotropaic application of the lamb’s blood on the tzzm of the houses of the