Expert identifies ancient ‘propaganda' praising an infamous pharaoh who may have challenged Moses
Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier, an Egyptologist from Paris-Sorbonne University and Institut Catholique de Paris, recently spoke with Fox News Digital about his findings, which are set to be published in the coming months.
The expert found the propaganda, which is supportive of Ramesses II, on the 3,300-year-old obelisk that sits in Paris' Place de la Concorde. Olette-Pelletier saw the obelisk up close in 2021 after receiving permission to climb scaffolding to conduct research.
Ramesses II, who was born in 1303 B.C. and died in 1213 B.C., is considered one of the most influential and powerful Egyptian rulers of the New Kingdom.
The Egyptian monarch is often cited as the most likely candidate for the pharaoh mentioned in Exodus, though an explicit name was never given in the Old Testament. The pharaoh is said to have retaliated against Moses and refused his requests in Exodus — resulting in a series of plagues.
Olette-Pelletier called the pro-Ramesses hieroglyphs 'propaganda.'
3 The Luxor obelisk on the Place de la Concorde in Paris seen on May 15, 2025.
AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard
He identified seven cryptographies, or codes, which assert Ramesses II's authority from 1280 B.C. on.
'It was a message from Ramesses II to the nobility,' the expert said, noting the Egyptian nobility were able to read the codes.
Olette-Pelletier said Ramesses II was born before his father Seti I became pharaoh – and therefore was not conceived by the gods. Not being of divine essence could have hampered his legitimacy to the throne.
'The nobility, able to read cryptographies, might be tempted by an overthrow of power since Ramesses II was not born of theogamy and therefore not divine by birth,' Olette-Pelletier said.
3 Egyptian hieroglyphs seen on the side of the Luxor obelisk.
REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
The expert added, '[Ramesses II] spent the first two years of his reign emphasizing his divinity with his wife Nefertari by paying homage at Egypt's great shrines, and by buying priests.'
'In the process, he changed his name from Usermaatra to Usermaatra Setepenra, [which means] 'chosen of Ra.''
The obelisk has four sides, and Olette-Pelletier noted that the side that faces the Seine (and was intended to face the Nile) shows Ramesses II 'wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.'
The expert also said that Ramesses II 'underlined his divine knowledge' by using codes to convey the swaying messages.
3 According to French Egyptologist Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier, the obelisk has ancient propaganda in support of Ramesses II is written on the side.
AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard
'The obelisk also contains hidden texts that show the nobility that he is a legitimate and divine king, thus averting a possible coup d'état,' Olette-Pelletier said.
'So, indeed, these are propaganda texts.'
The cryptographies also claim that Ramesses II was the 'provider of the Nile flood and thus of the country's wealth,' according to Olette-Pelletier.
The discovery is one of many finds related to Ramesses II that have been uncovered in the past year.
In September, an ancient sword belonging to Ramesses' military was unearthed in Housh Eissa, a city in Egypt's Beheira Governorate.
In January, Egyptian officials announced they would begin to restore Ramesses II's temple in the Luxor Governorate, the Ramesseum.
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Moses with the Tablets of the Law (oil on canvas) by the Italian artist Reni Guido (1575-1642). Photograph by Bridgeman Images There is no doubting the importance of Moses to Jews and Christians. According to the Hebrew Bible, Moses was the one who delivered the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, guided them through the wilderness, and received the Ten Commandments from God. For historians, however, the existence of Moses has been a fiercely contested debate. Despite his religious importance, the archeological evidence for Moses has always been thin on the ground. But now a sensational new interpretation of a 3,800-year-old inscription claims that we finally have evidence for the law-giver's existence. (Ten plagues and a betrayal: How Moses freed the Israelites) Inscriptions in a mine The evidence in question is two inscriptions on the rock walls at Serabit el-Khadim, an Egyptian turquoise mine in the Sinai Peninsula. The inscriptions are part of a larger group of inscriptions excavated by famed archeologist Sir William Flinders Petrie in the early 20th century. Early on, Petrie recognized that the inscriptions were alphabetic, but it took decades for them to be deciphered. They are the main evidence of a Middle Bronze Age writing system known as the Proto-Sinaitic script and their precise meaning and decipherment continues to be debated. Scholarly consensus maintains that the inscriptions were carved by workers during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III (ca. 1800 BCE). Two other slightly older inscriptions, excavated from Wadi el-Hol on the west bank of the river Nile, suggest that the Proto-Sinaitic script originated in Egypt. This makes the 30-40 inscriptions from Serabit el-Khadim some of the oldest surviving alphabetic writing. Some of the inscriptions at Serabit el-Khadim seem religiously invested. Several refer to 'El,' one of the names given for God in the Hebrew Bible. Others mention Ba'alat, a female Semitic deity often viewed as a counterpart for the Egyptian goddess Hathor. In some instances, Ba'alat's name is scratched out, which might suggest that there was disagreement among the mine workers about which deity to follow. (Why Moses' brother worshipped a Canaanite god) The ruins at Serabit el-Khadim, documented during an ordnance survey of the Sinai Peninsula circa 1865. Photograph by Pump Park Vintage Photography/Alamy Stock Photo Sinai 346, a statuette excavated in 1906 by Hilda and Flinders Petrie from the Hathor temple at Serabit el-Khadim, was one of the first examples of Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions to be discovered. Photograph by Historic Collection/Alamy Stock Photo Michael S. Bar-Ron, a retired rabbi and graduate student at Ariel University, has used high-resolution photos and 3D scans to offer a reinterpretation of two of the inscriptions (357 and 361). According to Bar-Ron they read 'zot mi'Moshe' (This is Moses) and 'ne'um Moshe' (A saying/statement of Moses). Bar-Ron argues, in his proto-thesis, that many of the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions found at Serabit el-Khadim come from a single author who was familiar with Egyptian hieroglyphs. He even suggests, based on the lettering of the inscriptions, that Moses himself inscribed them. 'I am compelled to propose,' writes Bar-Ron, 'that [the inscriptions] could well have been written by a historical base personage found behind the biblical tradition of Moshe, Moses.' Still, it is difficult to understand why Moses—an alleged Prince of Egypt—would have been part of an Egyptian mining community. The reinterpretation, which has been widely reported in the media, has some profound implications for our understanding of the historicity of Moses. If, as Bar-Ron argues, these inscriptions were authored by Moses himself they would not only offer definitive proof of Moses's existence they would also be the only surviving piece of writing authored by a major biblical figure and religious founder. (Which Egyptian pharaoh challenged Moses?) Was Moses a common Egyptian name? The academic response to this new theory has been mixed. Many scholars are concerned about the reconstruction of the inscriptions themselves, which is a famously difficult task. One scholar told National Geographic that the readings are 'very problematic.' Thomas Schneider, an Egyptologist at the University of British Columbia told The Daily Mail that the new interpretation is 'completely unproven and misleading.' Schneider hinted that the inscriptions themselves had been misread, adding that the 'arbitrary identification of letters can distort ancient history.' Even if Bar-Ron's identification of letters and translation of the inscriptions is correct this does not necessarily mean that they were authored by the Moses of the Bible. Liane Feldman, an assistant professor of religion at Princeton University, told National Geographic that the name Moses may well be an Egyptian name and, thus, is less distinctive in the context of Egyptian mining inscriptions than it might appear to modern readers. As scholar Joshua Huddlestun has written, the name Moses appears in New Kingdom letters and legal documents including a 'high-profile case involving land inheritance brought by a plaintiff named Mose.' If, as the evidence suggests, Moses was a relatively common Egyptian name there's no reason to think that these inscriptions refer to or were authored by the biblical Moses. Limited Time: Bonus Issue Offer Subscribe now and gift up to 4 bonus issues—starting at $34/year.
