Biblica_1:Layout 1 21-11-2011 12:59 Pagina 327 327 EISODUS AS EXODUS: THE SONG OF THE SEA There is good reason to see literacy as a resource for the powerful even in the pre-state period. R.D. Miller’s work on pre-state chief- doms has pointed to the recycling of resources from Late Bronze Age institutions in early Iron Age hinterland contexts 24, and two more recent examinations shed additional light on these conditions. The first, by R. Byrne, conceives of the secondary chiefdom system identified by Miller as a social space where scribes could peddle their skills to the elite in the transition from the Late Bronze to Early Iron ages 25. J.M. Hutton arrives at a similar conclusion, and argues that social and religious elites were the patrons of scribes whose skills could bolster their claims to power, and that the early 10th cen- tury Israelite state/s could employ scribal resources 26. When con- sidered alongside studies emphasizing the prominent place of priestly castes in the sustenance of literacy and scribalism 27, and bol- stered by the discovery of the Tel Zayit and Khirbet Qeiyeifah in- scriptions, the model proposed by Jamieson-Drake must be adjusted to allow for much earlier opportunities for the emergence of written works in ancient Israel beyond the parameters he delineates. II. The Textualization of Exod 15: when and how? If the limited presence of scribes in Iron I Israel is admitted, then the archaic style of the poem could be explained by its early textu- alization among these scribes who transcribed it from an active con- text as an oral liturgy. This, however, poses a problem: the presence of scribes in early Israel may allow for the poem’s early transcrip- tion, but the presence of such early scribes does not necessitate the 24 R.D. MILLER, Chieftains of the Highland Clans. A History of Israel in the 12th and 11th Centuries B.C. (Grand Rapids, MI 2005). 25 R. BYRNE, “The Refuge of Scribalism”, BASOR 345 (2007) 22-23. 26 HUTTON, Transjordanian Palimpsest, 169-175. 27 D.M. CARR, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart. Origins of Scripture and Literature (New York – Oxford 2005) 116-121; I.M. YOUNG, “Literacy in Ancient Israel: Interpreting the Evidence”, VT 48 (1998) 408. For both CARR and YOUNG, priests factor significantly into the literati of Israel. Considering the role of priestly leadership in the pre-state period and the evidence within the Biblical record that David was able to recruit scribes into his early admin- istration, it seems likely that priestly authority during and before David’s day was characterized by literary facility as well.