486 BlaΩej ∏trba and Egypt in the relevant period. I want simply to point out that the narrative reflects some kind of similarities between the Israelite architectural culture and Egyptian one. B.U. Shipper (53) and P.S. Ash (54) on the basis of the examined biblical, Egyptian and archaeological evidence of this period concur about the minimal relations between Egypt and Palestine in the period c. 1100 BCE – c. 950 BCE (55). Yet, the indirect influence of Egypt would be recogni- zed via Phoenicia whose (primarily commercial) contact with the Egyptians, by contrast, was increasing in the same period. The early orientation of the small growing Levant states, like Israel, Moab and Ammon, was basically trade which depended on the Phoenician manufacturing cities and their sea trade (56). Hiram, the king of Tyre in the narrative 1 Kgs 5–10, would confirm more solidly the historical picture (57). Only slowly did the direct relations between the Levant and Egypt, almost extinct, start to develop from the ninth and even more powerfully from the first half of the eight century BCE onward. The Deuteronomistic presentation of the well-built connections between Israel and Egypt seems to reflect this later period, from which, retrospectively, the Solomon period is described. The nature of the personal contacts (cf. 3,1; 7,8; 9,16; 11,1-2; 2 Chr 8,11), although questionable as presented by the narrative, is more plausible than the political-cultural ones (5,1) (58). This examination of the evidence therefore, renders plausible the idea, that the embellishment of the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kgs 5–7), may reflect the indirect Egyptian influence. Such a typical embellishment as the lotus or papyrus shape capitals was simply a canon in the Egyptian construction tradition. No doubt the coastland trade was the mediator not only of the material but of the skills of the artisans too. Therefore, I hold “lotus” as the only correct translation of hnvwv/krinon in the narrative of the construction of the Temple. v (53) B.U. SHIPPER, Israel und Ägypten in der Königszeit. Die kulturellen Kontakte von Salomo bis zum Fall Jerusalems (OBO 170; Freiburg/Schweiz – Göttingen 1999). (54) P.S. ASH, David, Solomon and Egypt. A Reassessment (JSOTSS 297; Sheffield 1999). (55) SHIPPER, Israel, 35; ASH, David, 62-63. A power vacuum in the Levant was an excellent occasion for the rise of the small national states. (56) SHIPPER, Israel, 82-83; ASH, David, 97. (57) SHIPPER, Israel, 60-64, 82-83; ASH, David, 127. (58) SHIPPER, Israel, 83-116.