pot/kettle Dave,
pot/kettle
i say "could not be hidden," so i'm having to extrapolate here, and my reply is that i do not consider it hidden personally either, but that those archaeologists who got into arch specifically for the purpose of proving the Exodus have pretty much capitulated now, and it is not even argued that a physical exodus that large would not leave indelible traces. The more compelling bc they are/were trying to prove a literal exodus, is i guess the point there.
@ "the Pharaoh knew it happened," i would say that we know it happened too, only the story is not even meant to play in Historical space, but rather Literary. Meaning that Pharoah's part is surely accurate enough for the story, for illustrating his perspective iow, but again it does not play in Historical space; we are not reading a historical record of something that literally happened, we are reading a symbolic story that describes the overthrow of the Wisdom tradition of Egypt, might be one way to put it. The record does show an unmistakable decline in Egypt's fortunes and a shift in the center of power toward Israel then, apparently