Numbers 1&2 Census and camping arrangements

Numbers 1 

The events of this chapter happen about 6 weeks after the Israelites had left Egypt. They had crossed the red sea and escaped the Egyptian elite armed forces.

This census covers only men over the age of 20 and able to serve in the army. There is one person from every tribe chosen to assist

In total the Israelites had 603,550 men  of military age. I can imagine that there are probably well over a million people wandering around in the desert.

It is interesting that the Levites are not counted - Moses family and their tribe are set apart to serve God and take care of the holy items - this makes them ineligible for front line military service.

Numbers 2 

I Imagine that moving around such a large number of people would probably be a logistical nightmare, in chapter 2 it explains that each of the different tribes would form camp in a square with the Levites and the tabernacle in the centre of the square.

Some sceptics will point out that after extensive archaeological investigations no trace has been found of the wanderings of Israel or identify any place that is described in the Bible.

I quite like archaeology programs like Time team, they would find a piece of what appears to be mud, but declare that it is part of a pot made in a certain place and at a certain time and they would then CGI in what the pot would have looked like new - my parents would usually exclaim "How can they tell?!" 

For me it is that experience  and expertise allow this type of identification and it is actually quite scientific.

But what really intrigues me is the dark ages and pre-historic excavations there the evidence for habitation can be seen at best as a circle of earth that is slightly darker than the surrounding earth that shows a post once was in the hole - and that is literally it for a building that would have been quite grand when built and may have stood for generations.

Or perhaps they have a chipped piece of stone that would get Professor Phil Harding (If you never saw time team and without being disrespectful he looks like a bit of a scruff with long straggly hair and a rather greasy hat but great knowledge and enthusiasm capped off with a wonderful west country accent) all excited, but these tend to have been found in conditions that have preserved them.- and this is for a site that is perhaps half the age of the exodus.

Really pottery is not something I can imagine that wandering people would really have a large amount of - it is fragile, quite heavy and much harder to repair or replace than other materials, and tents tend not leave obvious marks after a while.    

It is sometimes quite dangerous to say there is no evidence for something so it cannot be true too often evidence will show up - the best thing that can be said is that we have no evidence at present and we cannot prove it happened.