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89-574: It is best known as the period when the Hyksos people of West Asia established the 15th Dynasty and ruled from Avaris , which, according to Manetho 's Aegyptiaca , was founded by a king by the name of Salitis . The settling of these people may have occurred peacefully, although later recounts of Manetho portray the Hyksos "as violent conquerors and oppressors of Egypt". The Turin King List from

178-624: A Western Semitic language and "may be called for convenience sake Canaanites ." Kamose , the last king of the Theban Seventeenth ;Dynasty, refers to Apepi as a "Chieftain of Retjenu " in a stela that implies a Levantine background for this Hyksos king. According to Anna-Latifa Mourad, the Egyptian application of the term ꜥꜣmw to the Hyksos could indicate a range of backgrounds, including newly arrived Levantines or people of mixed Levantine-Egyptian origin. Due to

267-560: A campaign against several cities loyal to the Hyksos, the account of which is preserved on three monumental stelae set up at Karnak . The first of the three, Carnarvon Tablet includes a complaint by Kamose about the divided and occupied state of Egypt: To what effect do I perceive it, my might, while a ruler is in Avaris and another in Kush, I sitting joined with an Asiatic and a Nubian, each man having his (own) portion of this Egypt, sharing

356-406: A chancellor ( imy-r khetemet ) as the head of their administration. The names, the order, length of rule, and even the number of Fifteenth Dynasty rulers are not known with complete certainty. After the end of their rule, the Hyksos kings were not considered legitimate rulers of Egypt and were omitted from most king lists. The fragmentary Turin King List included six Hyksos kings, however only

445-625: A fork on the now-dry Pelusiac branch of the Nile. Memphis may have also been an important administrative center, although the nature of any Hyksos presence there remains unclear. According to Anna-Latifa Mourad, other sites with likely Levantine populations or strong Levantine connections in the Delta include Tell Farasha and Tell el-Maghud, located between Tell Basta and Avaris, El-Khata'na, southwest of Avaris, and Inshas . The increased prosperity of Avaris may have attracted more Levantines to settle in

534-708: A great deal of Levantine pottery and an occupation history closely correlated to the Fifteenth Dynasty, nearby Tell el-Rataba and Tell el-Sahaba show possible Hyksos-style burials and occupation, Tell el-Yahudiyah, located between Memphis and the Wadi Tumilat, contains a large earthwork that the Hyksos may have built, as well as evidence of Levantine burials from as early as the Thirteenth Dynasty, as well as characteristic Hyksos-era pottery known as Tell el-Yahudiyeh Ware The Hyksos settlements in

623-548: A king. She thus wonders whether the king's son Nehesy might be a different person from the better known king of the same name. In this situation, king Nehesy would still be an early 14th Dynasty ruler, but some of the attestations attributed to him would in fact belong to a Hyksos prince. According to the Austrian Egyptologist Manfred Bietak , Nehesy's 14th Dynasty kingdom started during the late 13th Dynasty , around or just after 1710 BC, as

712-546: A new reading of as many as 149 years, while Thomas Schneider proposed a length between 160 and 180 years. The rule of the Hyksos overlaps with that of the native Egyptian pharaohs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties, better known as the Second Intermediate Period . The area under direct control of the Hyksos was probably limited to the eastern Nile delta . Their capital city was Avaris at

801-547: A repetitive pattern of the attraction of Egypt for western Asiatic population groups that came in search of a living in the country, especially the Delta, since prehistoric times." He notes that Egypt had long depended on the Levant for expertise in areas of shipbuilding and seafaring, with possible depictions of Asiatic shipbuilders being found from reliefs from the Sixth Dynasty ruler Sahure . The Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt

890-404: A result of the slow disintegration of the 13th Dynasty. After this event, "no single ruler was able to control the whole of Egypt" until Ahmose I captured Avaris. Alternatively, Ryholt believes that the 14th dynasty started a century before Nehesy's reign, c. 1805 BC during Sobekneferu 's reign. Since the 13th dynasty was the direct continuation of the 12th, he proposes that the birth of the 14th

979-597: A series of wars against the Hyksos. King Kamose (c. 1545-1540 BC) continued the war against the Hyksos as a whole, but his brother Ahmose I would be the king to deal the final blow; he thus became the first king of the New Kingdom 18th Dynasty . At the end of the Second Intermediate period, the 18th Dynasty came to power in Egypt. The first king of the 18th Dynasty, Ahmose , completed the expulsion of

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1068-808: A short-lived local dynasty ruling over part of Upper Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period in Ancient Egypt and was contemporary with the 15th and 16th dynasties. The Abydos Dynasty stayed rather small with rulership over just Abydos or Thinis. Very little is known about the Abydos dynasty, since it was very short-lived, though we do have some king names that appear in Turin king list, but not in any other sources. The dynasty tentatively includes four rulers: Wepwawetemsaf , Pantjeny , Snaaib , and Senebkay . The Abydos Dynasty ceased when

1157-665: A slightly later time during the late 15th Dynasty c. 1580 BC. It is possible that most of the artefacts attributed to the king Nehesy mentioned in the Turin canon , in fact belong to this Hyksos prince. In his review of the Second Intermediate Period, egyptologist Kim Ryholt proposed that Nehesy was the son and direct successor of the pharaoh Sheshi with a Nubian Queen named Tati . Egyptologist Darrell Baker, who also shares this opinion, posits that Tati must have been Nubian or of Nubian descent, hence Nehesy's name meaning The Nubian . The 14th dynasty being of Canaanite origin, Nehesy

1246-462: A title for themselves. However, Kim Ryholt argues that "Hyksos" was not an official title of the rulers of the Fifteenth Dynasty, and is never encountered together with royal titulary , only appearing as the title in the case of Sakir-Har. According to Ryholt, "Hyksos" was a generic term encountered separately from royal titulary, and in regnal lists after the end of the Fifteenth Dynasty itself. However, Vera Müller writes: "Considering that S-k-r-h-r

1335-476: A variant of the contemporary late Palestinian Middle Bronze Age culture of the southern Levant. For some authors, this marks the end of the Middle Kingdom and the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period. This analysis is rejected by Ryholt and Baker however, who note that the stele of Seheqenre Sankhptahi , reigning toward the end of the dynasty, strongly suggests that he reigned over Memphis. The stele

1424-463: Is "nowadays rejected by most scholars." It is likely that more recent foreign invasions of Egypt influenced him. Instead, it appears that the establishment of Hyksos rule was mostly peaceful and did not involve an invasion of an entirely foreign population. Archaeology shows a continuous Asiatic presence at Avaris for over 150 years before the beginning of Hyksos rule, with gradual Canaanite settlement beginning there c.  1800 BC during

1513-526: Is also believed to be of Canaanite descent. Four scarabs found, including one from Semna in Nubia and three of unknown provenance, point to a temporary coregency with his father. Furthermore, one scarab mentions Nehesy as King's son and a further 22 as Eldest king son . Ryholt and Baker thus hold the view that Nehesy became the heir to the throne after the death of his elder brother, Prince Ipqu. Manfred Bietak and Jürgen von Beckerath believe that Nehesy

1602-407: Is also mentioned with three names of the traditional Egyptian titulary (Horus name, Golden Falcon name and Two Ladies name) on the same monument, this argument is somehow strange." Danielle Candelora and Manfred Bietak also argue that the Hyksos used the title officially. All other texts in the Egyptian language do not call the Hyksos by this name, instead referring to them as Asiatics ( ꜥꜣmw ), with

1691-533: Is believed to have conquered the entirety of Egypt, however it is more likely that his rule did not extend beyond Lower Egypt. Salitis may be equated to a poorly known king named Sharek , and possibly even Sheshi , the most attested ruler of the Second Intermediate Period. The Turin King list indicates that there were six Hyksos kings, with an obscure Khamudi listed as the final king of the 15th Dynasty. The 15th Dynasty of Egypt ruled from Avaris but did not control

1780-513: Is believed to have originally belonged to Nehesy. It is inscribed with "Seth, Lord of Avaris ", and was found in Tell el Muqdam . Nehesy is also attested by two relief fragments inscribed with the names of the king, which were unearthed in Tell el-Dab'a in the mid 1980s. Finally, two further stelae are known from Tell-Habuwa (ancient Tjaru ): one bearing Nehesy's birth name, the other one the throne of

1869-596: Is known to have had many Asiatic immigrants serving as soldiers, household or temple serfs, and various other jobs. Avaris in the Nile Delta attracted many Asiatic immigrants in its role as a hub of international trade and seafaring. The final powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Thirteenth Dynasty was Sobekhotep IV , who died around 1725 BC, after which Egypt appears to have splintered into various kingdoms, including one based at Avaris ruled by

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1958-462: Is of unknown provenance. Though the 13th Dynasty may have controlled Upper Egypt, the 14th Dynasty ruled Lower Egypt, and both houses agreed to co-exist allowing trade. Evidently the rulers had trouble with securing power within their territory, being replaced in rapid fashion, but other factors like famine may have played a part. The eventual collapse of the 13th Dynasty became an opening for two smaller dynasties to take control of Egypt. Similar to

2047-565: Is questioned in modern Egyptology. Instead, Hyksos rule might have been preceded by groups of Canaanite peoples who gradually settled in the Nile Delta from the end of the Twelfth Dynasty onwards and who may have seceded from the crumbling and unstable Egyptian control at some point during the Thirteenth Dynasty . The Hyksos period marks the first in which foreign rulers ruled Egypt. Many details of their rule, such as

2136-525: Is the origin of the distinction between the 12th and the 13th in the Egyptian tradition. Nehesy's authority may have "encompassed the eastern Delta from Tell el-Muqdam to Tel Habuwa (where his name occurs), but the universal practise of usurpation and quarrying of earlier monuments complicates the picture. Given that the only examples that were certainly found at the sites where they once stood are those from Tell el-Habua and Tell el-Daba, his kingdom may actually have been much smaller." After Nehesy's death,

2225-578: Is unclear why hostilities may have started. The much later fragmentary New Kingdom tale The Quarrel of Apophis and Seqenenre blames the Hyksos ruler Apepi/Apophis for initiating the conflict by demanding that Seqenenre Tao remove a pool of hippopotamuses near Thebes. However, this is a satire on the Egyptian story-telling genre of the "king's novel" rather than a historical text. A contemporary inscription at Wadi el Hôl may also refer to hostilities between Seqenenra and Apepi. Three years later, c. 1542 BC, Seqenenre Tao's successor Kamose initiated

2314-532: The 14th Dynasty ( c.  1700 –1650 BC). According to Syncellus, all three sources agree that the 14th Dynasty had seventy-six kings and their court was located in Xois , now modern day Sakha, although they provide different numbers of years ruled. Africanus stated the dynasty reigned for 184 years, while the Armenian version of Eusebius states 484 years. Eusebius states the same as Africanus, but in another copy

2403-506: The Fifteenth Dynasty , rather than a people. However, Josephus used it as an ethnic term. Its use to refer to the population persists in some academic papers. In Ancient Egypt, the term "Hyksos" ( ḥqꜣ-ḫꜣswt ) was also used to refer to various Nubian and especially Asiatic rulers both before and after the Fifteenth Dynasty. It was used at least since the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt (c. 2345–2181 BC) to designate chieftains from

2492-611: The First Intermediate Period of Egypt , the Second Intermediate Period was dynamic time in which rule of Egypt was roughly divided between rival power bases in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt , each controlling a portion of land. The 13th Dynasty proved unable to hold on to the entire territory of Egypt, and a provincial ruling family, located in the Nile Delta , broke away from the central authority to form

2581-627: The Fourteenth or Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt, who are sometimes called "'lesser' Hyksos." The Theban Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt is also given the title in some versions of Manetho, a fact which Bietak attributes to textual corruption. In the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and during the Ptolemaic Period , the term Hyksos was adopted as a personal title and epithet by several pharaohs or high Egyptian officials, including

2670-615: The Fourteenth Dynasty . Based on their names, this dynasty was already primarily of West Asian origin. After an event in which their palace was burned, the Fourteenth Dynasty would be replaced by the Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty , which would establish "loose control over northern Egypt by intimidation or force," thus greatly expanding the area under Avaris's control. Kim Ryholt argues that

2759-522: The Late antique historians Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius say that the Hyksos came from Phoenicia . Until the excavation and discovery of Tell El-Dab'a (the site of the Hyksos capital Avaris ) in 1966, historians relied on these accounts for the Hyksos period. Material finds at Tell El-Dab'a indicate that the Hyksos originated in the Levant . The Hyksos' personal names indicate that they spoke

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2848-591: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties , which were based in Thebes . Warfare between the Hyksos and the pharaohs of the late Seventeenth Dynasty eventually culminated in the defeat of the Hyksos by Ahmose I , who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt . In the following centuries, the Egyptians would portray the Hyksos as bloodthirsty and oppressive foreign rulers. The term "Hyksos" is derived, via

2937-452: The Syro - Palestine area. One of its earliest recorded uses is found c. 1900 BC in the tomb of Khnumhotep II of the Twelfth Dynasty to label a nomad or Canaanite ruler named " Abisha the Hyksos " (using the standard 𓋾𓈎𓈉 , ḥqꜣ-ḫꜣswt , "Heqa-kasut" for "Hyksos"). Based on the use of the name in a Hyksos inscription of Sakir-Har from Avaris, the name was used by the Hyksos as

3026-578: The Turin canon , Nehesy is attested there on the 1st entry of the 9th column (Gardiner, entry 8.1) and is the first king of the 14th dynasty whose name is preserved on this king list. Nehesy is also attested by numerous contemporary artefacts, foremost among which are scarab seals . In addition, a fragmentary obelisk from the Temple of Seth in Raahu bears his name together with the inscription "king's eldest son". A seated statue, later usurped by Merneptah ,

3115-464: The Twelfth Dynasty . Strontium isotope analysis of the inhabitants of Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period Avaris also dismissed the invasion model in favor of a migration one. Contrary to the model of a foreign invasion, the study didn't find more males moving into the region, but instead found a sex bias towards females, with a high proportion of 77% of females being non-locals. Manfred Bietak argues that Hyksos "should be understood within

3204-437: The 15th Dynasty, winning town after town from their southern enemies, continually encroached on 16th Dynasty territory, eventually threatening and then conquering Thebes itself. Famine, which had plagued Upper Egypt during the late 13th Dynasty and the 14th Dynasty, also blighted the 16th Dynasty, most evidently during and after the reign of Neferhotep III . The end of the 16th Dynasty came after relentless military pressure by

3293-449: The 16th Dynasty comprised shepherd kings (like the 15th Dynasty), but also Theban kings too. The 17th Dynasty would also see four different ruling families whose last king did not have a male heir to the throne. Subsequently, other powerful families established kings having short reigns. The 17th Dynasty maintained a short-lived peace with the 15th Dynasty, which ended with the start of the reign of Seqenenre (c. 1549-1545 BC), who started

3382-640: The Eastern Delta. Canaanite cults also continued to be worshiped at Avaris. Following the capture of Avaris, Ahmose, son of Ebana, records that Ahmose I captured Sharuhen (possibly Tell el-Ajjul ), which some scholars argue was a city in Canaan under Hyksos control. The Hyksos show a mix of Egyptian and Levantine cultural traits. Their rulers adopted the full ancient Egyptian royal titulary and employed Egyptian scribes and officials. They also used Near-Eastern forms of administration, such as employing

3471-551: The Fifteenth Dynasty invaded and displaced the Fourteenth. However, Alexander Ilin-Tomich argues that this is "not sufficiently substantiated." Bietak interprets a stela of Neferhotep III to indicate that Egypt was overrun by roving mercenaries around the time of the Hyksos ascension to power. The length of time the Hyksos ruled is unclear. The fragmentary Turin King List says that there were six Hyksos kings who collectively ruled 108 years, however in 2018 Kim Ryholt proposed

3560-408: The Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Manfred Bietak proposes that a king recorded as Yaqub-Har may also have been a Hyksos king of the Fifteenth Dynasty. Bietak suggests that many of the other kings attested on scarabs may have been vassal kings of the Hyksos. None of the proposed identifications besides of Apepi and Apophis is considered certain. In Sextus Julius Africanus 's epitome of Manetho,

3649-492: The Greek Ὑκσώς ( Hyksôs ), from the Egyptian expression 𓋾𓈎 𓈉 ( ḥqꜣ-ḫꜣswt or ḥqꜣw-ḫꜣswt , "heqau khasut"), meaning "rulers [of] foreign lands". The Greek form is likely a textual corruption of an earlier Ὑκουσσώς ( Hykoussôs ). The first century Jewish historian Josephus gives the name as meaning "shepherd kings" or "captive shepherds" in his Contra Apion (Against Apion), where he describes

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3738-527: The Hyksos ( 𓋾𓈎𓈉 ḥqꜣ-ḫꜣsw, Heqa-kasut for "Hyksos"), the first known instance of the name "Hyksos". Soon after, the Sebek-khu Stele , dated to the reign of Senusret III (reign: 1878–1839 BC), records the earliest known Egyptian military campaign in the Levant. The text reads "His Majesty proceeded northward to overthrow the Asiatics. His Majesty reached a foreign country of which the name

3827-537: The Hyksos as "in northernmost Syria and northern Mesopotamia ". The connection of the Hyksos to Retjenu also suggests a northern Levantine origin: "Theoretically, it is feasible to deduce that the early Hyksos, as the later Apophis, were of elite ancestry from Rṯnw , a toponym [...] cautiously linked with the Northern Levant and the northern region of the Southern Levant." Earlier arguments that

3916-527: The Hyksos as Jews as they appeared in the Hellenistic Egyptian historian Manetho . "Their race bore the generic name of Hycsos, which means 'king-shepherds'. For hyc in the sacred language denotes 'king' and sos in the common dialect means 'shepherd' or 'shepherds'; the combined words form Hycsos. Some say that they were Arabians." Josephus's rendition may arise from a later Egyptian pronunciation of ḥqꜣ-ḫꜣswt as ḥqꜣ- šꜣsw , which

4005-530: The Hyksos expanded into Upper Egypt. The 16th Dynasty (c. 1650-1580 BC) ruled the Theban region in Upper Egypt. Of the two chief versions of Manetho's Aegyptiaca , the 16th Dynasty is described by the more reliable Africanus (supported by Syncellus) as "shepherd [ Hyksos ] kings", but by Eusebius as Theban . The continuing war against the 15th Dynasty dominated the short-lived 16th Dynasty. The armies of

4094-524: The Hyksos from Egypt and consolidated his rule over the land, unifying Upper and Lower Egypt. With that, Ahmose ushered in a new period of prosperity, the New Kingdom . Hyksos The Hyksos ( / ˈ h ɪ k s ɒ s / ; Egyptian ḥqꜣ(w) - ḫꜣswt , Egyptological pronunciation : heqau khasut , "ruler(s) of foreign lands"), in modern Egyptology , are the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC). Their seat of power

4183-527: The Hyksos kings Khyan and Apepi, but little other evidence of Levantine habitation. Tell el-Habwa ( Tjaru ), located on a branch of the Nile near the Sinai, also shows evidence of non-Egyptian presence. However, most of the population appears to have been Egyptian or Egyptianized Levantines. Tell El-Habwa would have provided Avaris with grain and trade goods. In the Wadi Tumilat , Tell el-Maskhuta shows

4272-658: The Hyksos names might be Hurrian have been rejected, while early-twentieth-century proposals that the Hyksos were Indo-Europeans "fitted European dreams of Indo-European supremacy, now discredited." Some have suggested that Hyksos or a part of them was of Maryannu origins as evident by their use and introduction of chariots and horses into Egypt. However, this theory has been too rejected by modern scholarship. A study of dental traits by Nina Maaranen and Sonia Zakrzewski in 2021 on 90 people of Avaris indicated that individuals defined as locals and non-locals were not ancestrally different from one another. The results were in line with

4361-432: The Hyksos title, however, the majority of kings from the second intermediate period are attested once on a single object, with only three exceptions. Ryholt associates two other rulers known from inscriptions with the dynasty, Khyan and Sakir-Har . The name of Khyan's son, Yanassi , is also preserved from Tell El-Dab'a. The two best attested kings are Khyan and Apepi. Scholars generally agree that Apepi and Khamudi are

4450-531: The Hyksos were allowed to leave after concluding a treaty: Thoumosis ... invested the walls [of Avaris] with an army of 480,000 men, and endeavoured to reduce [the Hyksos] to submission by siege. Despairing of achieving his object, he concluded a treaty, under which [the Hyksos] were all to evacuate Egypt and go whither they would unmolested. Upon these terms no fewer than two hundred and forty thousand, entire households with their possessions, left Egypt and traversed

4539-544: The Theban official Mentuemhat , Philip III of Macedon , and Ptolemy XIII . It was also used on the tomb of Egyptian grand priest Petosiris at Tuna el-Gebel in 300 BC to designate the Persian ruler Artaxerxes III , although it is unknown if Artaxerxes adopted this title for himself. In his epitome of Manetho , Josephus connected the Hyksos with the Jews, but he also calls them Arabs. In their own epitomes of Manetho,

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4628-548: The Turin King List or from other sources who may have been Hyksos rulers. According to Ryholt, kings Semqen and Aperanat , known from the Turin King List, may have been early Hyksos rulers, however Jürgen von Beckerath assigns these kings to the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt . Another king known from scarabs , Sheshi , is believed by many scholars to be a Hyksos king, however Ryholt assigns this king to

4717-480: The Wadi Tumilat would have provided access to Sinai, the southern Levant, and possibly the Red Sea . The sites Tell el-Kabir, Tell Yehud, Tell Fawziya, and Tell Geziret el-Faras are noted by scholars other than Mourad to contain "elements of 'Hyksos culture'", but there is no published archaeological material for them. The Hyksos claimed to be rulers of both Lower and Upper Egypt ; however, their southern border

4806-526: The archaeological evidence, suggesting Avaris was an important hub in the Middle Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean trade network, welcoming people from beyond its borders. Historical records suggest that Semitic people and Egyptians had contacts at all periods of Egypt's history. The MacGregor plaque , an early Egyptian tablet dating to 3000 BC records "The first occasion of striking the East", with

4895-409: The city of Nefrusy as well as several other cities loyal to the Hyksos. On a second stele, Kamose claims to have captured Avaris, but returned to Thebes after capturing a messenger between Apepi and the king of Kush . Kamose appears to have died soon afterward (c. 1540 BC). Ahmose I continued the war against the Hyksos, most likely conquering Memphis, Tjaru , and Heliopolis early in his reign,

4984-491: The conflict as a war of national liberation. This perspective was formerly taken by scholars as well but is no longer thought to be accurate. Hostilities between the Hyksos and the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty appear to have begun during the reign of Theban king Seqenenra Taa . Seqenenra Taa's mummy shows that he was killed by several blows of an axe to the head, apparently in battle with the Hyksos. It

5073-495: The desert to Syria. ( Contra Apion I.88-89) Although Manetho indicates that the Hyksos population was expelled to the Levant, there is no archaeological evidence for this, and Manfred Bietak argues based on archaeological finds throughout Egypt that it is likely that numerous Asiatics were resettled in other locations in Egypt as artisans and craftsmen. Many may have remained at Avaris, as pottery and scarabs with typical "Hyksos" forms continued to be produced uninterrupted throughout

5162-432: The distribution of Hyksos goods with the names of Hyksos rulers in places such as Baghdad and Knossos , that Hyksos had ruled a vast empire, but it seems more likely to have been the result of diplomatic gift exchange and far-flung trade networks. The conflict between Thebes and the Hyksos is known exclusively from pro-Theban sources, and it is not easy to construct a chronology. These sources propagandistically portray

5251-529: The dynasty to come to an abrupt end, and with it, the most prosperous era of the Middle Kingdom; it was succeeded by the much weaker 13th Dynasty . According to the Byzantine chronicler George Syncellus , all three sources of the translated king list of Africanus, Eusebius , and the Armenian of Eusebius state that the 13th Dynasty had sixty kings that ruled and lived in Dioplus for roughly 453 years. Retaining

5340-464: The east, whose coming was unforeseen, had the audacity to invade the country, which they mastered by main force without difficulty or even battle. Having overpowered the chiefs, they then savagely burnt the cities, razed the temples of the gods to the ground, and treated the whole native population with the utmost cruelty, massacring some, and carrying off the wives and children of others into slavery ( Contra Apion I.75-77). Manetho's invasion narrative

5429-539: The eastern Delta. Kom el-Hisn, at the edge of the Western Delta, shows Near Eastern goods but individuals mostly buried in an Egyptian style, which Mourad takes to mean that they were most likely Egyptians heavily influenced by Levantine traditions or, more likely, Egyptianized Levantines. The site of Tell Basta (Bubastis), at the confluence of the Pelusiac and Tanitic branches of the Nile, contains monuments to

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5518-529: The entire land, leaving some of northern Upper Egypt under the control of both the Abydos Dynasty and the early 16th Dynasty. The 16th Dynasty was ruled not by the Hyksos themselves, but the Thebans . Ruled 40+ years. It is debated if the movement of the Hyksos was a military invasion or a mass migration of Asiatics from Palestine . The settling of Canaanite populations may have occurred peacefully in

5607-412: The first king. Recently, archaeological finds have suggested that Khyan may have been a contemporary of the Thirteenth Dynasty pharaoh Sobekhotep IV , potentially making him an early rather than a late Hyksos ruler. This has prompted attempts to reconsider the entire chronology of the Hyksos period, which as of 2018 had not yet reached any consensus. Some kings are attested from either fragments of

5696-406: The fragmented Second Intermediate Period . He is placed by most scholars into the early 14th Dynasty , as either the second or the sixth pharaoh of this dynasty. As such he is considered to have reigned for a short time c. 1705 BC and would have ruled from Avaris over the eastern Nile Delta . Recent evidence makes it possible that a second person with this name, a son of a Hyksos king, lived at

5785-432: The god Banebdjedet and also bears an inscription mentioning the king's sister Tany . A woman with this name and title is known from other sources around the time of the Hyksos king Apophis , who ruled at the end of the Second Intermediate Period c. 1580 BC. Daphna Ben-Tor, who studied the scarabs of Nehesy, concludes that those referring to the king's son Nehesy are different in style from those referring to Nehesy as

5874-472: The king Aahsere. Thanks to these stelae it was possible to connect the name Nehesy with the throne name Aahsere ˁ3-sḥ-Rˁ . Before this discovery, Aasehre was regarded as a Hyksos king. In 2005, a further stele of Nehesy was discovered in the fortress city of Tjaru , once the starting point of the Way of Horus , the major road leading out of Egypt into Canaan . The stele shows a king's son Nehesy offering oil to

5963-502: The land with me. There is no passing him as far as Memphis, the water of Egypt. He has possession of Hermopolis, and no man can rest, being deprived by the levies of the Setiu. I shall engage in battle with him and I shall slit his body, for my intention is to save Egypt, striking the Asiatics. Following a common literary device, Kamose's advisors are portrayed as trying to dissuade the king, who attacks anyway. He recounts his destruction of

6052-418: The last two kings of the dynasty, and Apepi is attested as a contemporary of Seventeenth-Dynasty pharaohs Kamose and Ahmose I . Ryholt has proposed that Yanassi did not rule and that Khyan directly preceded Apepi, but most scholars agree that the order of kings is: Khyan, Yanassi, Apepi, Khamudi. There is less agreement on the early rulers. Sakir-Har is proposed by Schneider, Ryholt, and Bietak to have been

6141-466: The latter two of which are mentioned in an entry of the Rhind mathematical papyrus . Knowledge of Ahmose I's campaigns against the Hyksos mostly comes from the tomb of Ahmose, son of Ebana , who gives a first-person account claiming that Ahmose I sacked Avaris: "Then there was fighting in Egypt to the south of this town [Avaris], and I carried off a man as a living captive. I went down into the water—for he

6230-466: The name of the last, Khamudi , is preserved. Six names are also preserved in the various epitomes of Manetho, however, it is difficult to reconcile the Turin King List and other sources with names known from Manetho, mainly due to the "corrupted name forms" in Manetho. The name Apepi/Apophis appears in multiple sources, however. Various other archaeological sources also provide names of rulers with

6319-479: The picture of Pharaoh Den smiting a Western Asiatic enemy. During the reign of Senusret II , c. 1890 BC, parties of Western Asiatic foreigners visiting the Pharaoh with gifts are recorded, as in the tomb paintings of 12th-dynasty official Khnumhotep II . These foreigners, possibly Canaanites or nomads , are labelled as Aamu ( ꜥꜣmw ), including the leading man with a Nubian ibex labelled as Abisha

6408-496: The possible exception of the Turin King List in a hypothetical reconstruction from a fragment. The title is not attested for the Hyksos king Apepi , possibly indicating an "increased adoption of Egyptian decorum". The names of Hyksos rulers in the Turin list are without the royal cartouche and have the throwstick "foreigners" determinative. Scarabs also attest the use of this title for pharaohs usually assigned to

6497-482: The rulers of Sixteenth Dynasty are also identified as "shepherds" (i.e. Hyksos) rulers. Following the work of Ryholt in 1997, most but not all scholars now identify the Sixteenth Dynasty as a native Egyptian dynasty based in Thebes , following Eusebius 's epitome of Manetho; this dynasty would be contemporary to the Hyksos. Nehesy Nehesy Aasehre ( Nehesi ) was a ruler of Lower Egypt during

6586-437: The rulers were replaced in rapid succession. The 14th Dynasty was overthrown by the Hyksos. The Hyksos established their own dynasty in Egypt, the 15th Dynasty (c.1650 to 1550 BC). The first king of the 15th Dynasty, Salitis , described as a Hyksos ( ḥḳꜣw-ḫꜣswt , a " shepherd " according to Africanus ), led his people into an occupation of the Nile Delta area and settled his capital at Avaris . According to Manetho , Salitis

6675-434: The same number as the Armenian version. The precise borders of the 14th Dynasty state are not known, due to the general scarcity of its monuments. In his study of the Second Intermediate Period, Kim Ryholt concludes that the territory directly controlled by the 14th Dynasty roughly consisted of the Nile Delta, with borders located near Athribis in the western Delta and Bubastis in the east. Most modern Egyptologists share

6764-460: The seat of the 12th Dynasty, the 13th Dynasty (c. 1773 – 1650 BC) ruled from Itjtawy ("Seizer-of-the-Two-Lands") for most of its existence. The 13th Dynasty switched to Thebes in the far south possibly in the reign of Merneferre Ay . Daphna Ben Tor believes that this event was triggered by the invasion of the eastern Delta and the Memphite region by Canaanite rulers, who had their own culture,

6853-585: The succeeding 15th Dynasty after many attempts, with evidence of Nebiryraw I 's own personal seals being found in the Hyksos territory. Sometime around 1580 BC, the 16th Dynasty collapsed after being conquered by King Khyan of the Hyksos 15th Dynasty. The 17th Dynasty (c.1571-1540 BC) was established by the Thebans quickly after the fall of the 16th. The details of the overthrow of the Hyksos in Thebes are unclear. Sources such as Africanus and Eusebius indicate that

6942-416: The time of Ramesses II remains the primary source for understanding the chronology and political history of the Second Intermediate Period, along with studying the typology of scarabs , beetle-shaped amulets mass-produced in Ancient Egypt and often inscribed with the names of rulers. The 12th Dynasty of Egypt ended in the late 19th century BC with the death of Queen Sobekneferu . She had no heirs, causing

7031-454: The translation of their nomens) are: The most attested, non-contested ruler of the dynasty, Nehesy Aasehre , left his name on two monuments at Avaris . His name means "the Nubian ". According to Ryholt, he was the son and direct successor of the pharaoh Sheshi with a Nubian Queen named Tati . The 14th Dynasty saw great success during their early years, but like the late 13th Dynasty,

7120-455: The true extent of their kingdom and even the names and order of their kings, remain uncertain. The Hyksos practiced many Levantine or Canaanite customs alongside Egyptian ones. They have been credited with introducing several technological innovations to Egypt, such as the horse and chariot , as well as the khopesh (sickle sword) and the composite bow , a theory which is disputed. The Hyksos did not control all of Egypt. They coexisted with

7209-589: The view that Avaris – rather than Xois – was the 14th Dynasty's seat of power. Contested rulers proposed by Ryholt as the first five rulers of the dynasty are commonly identified as being of Canaanite (Semitic) descent based on their names. His conclusions about their chronological position within the period are contested in Ben Tor's study. Other sources don't refer to the dynasty as foreign or Hyksos and they were not referred to as "rulers of foreign lands" or "shepherd kings" in kings lists. The contested rulers (with

7298-402: The wake of the disintegration of the 14th Dynasty. A recent Strontium isotope analysis also dismissed the invasion model in favor of a migration one. Contrary to the model of a foreign invasion, the study didn't find more males moving into the region, but instead found a sex bias towards females, with a high proportion (77%) being non-locals. The Abydos Dynasty (c. 1640 to 1620 BC.) may have been

7387-413: The work of Manfred Bietak, which found similarities in architecture, ceramics and burial practices, scholars currently favor a northern Levantine origin of the Hyksos. Based particularly on temple architecture, Bietak argues for strong parallels between the religious practices of the Hyksos at Avaris with those of the area around Byblos , Ugarit , Alalakh and Tell Brak , defining the "spiritual home" of

7476-445: Was Sekmem (...) Then Sekmem fell, together with the wretched Retenu ", where Sekmem (s-k-m-m) is thought to be Shechem and "Retenu" or " Retjenu " are associated with ancient Syria . The only ancient account of the whole Hyksos period is by the Hellenistic Egyptian historian Manetho , who exists only as quoted by others. As recorded by Josephus, Manetho describes the beginning of Hyksos rule thus: A people of ignoble origin from

7565-455: Was captured on the city side—and crossed the water carrying him. [...] Then Avaris was despoiled, and I brought spoil from there. Thomas Schneider places the conquest in year 18 of Ahmose's reign. However, excavations of Tell El-Dab'a (Avaris) show no widespread destruction of the city, which instead seems to have been abandoned by the Hyksos. Manetho, as recorded in Josephus, states that

7654-407: Was marked at Hermopolis and Cusae . Some objects might suggest a Hyksos presence in Upper Egypt, but they may have been Theban war booty or attest simply to short-term raids, trade, or diplomatic contact. The nature of Hyksos control over the region of Thebes remains unclear. Most likely Hyksos rule covered the area from Middle Egypt to southern Palestine . Older scholarship believed, due to

7743-555: Was the city of Avaris in the Nile Delta , from where they ruled over Lower Egypt and Middle Egypt up to Cusae . In the Aegyptiaca , a history of Egypt written by the Greco-Egyptian priest and historian Manetho in the 3rd century BC, the term Hyksos is used ethnically to designate people of probable West Semitic, Levantine origin. While Manetho portrayed the Hyksos as invaders and oppressors, this interpretation

7832-429: Was the second ruler of the 14th dynasty. Bietak further posits that his father was an Egyptian military officer or administrator, who funded an independent kingdom centered on Avaris. The kingdom controlled the northeastern Nile Delta, at the expense of the concurrent 13th dynasty. In spite of a very short reign of around a year, Nehesy is the best attested ruler of the 14th dynasty. According to Ryholt's latest reading of

7921-440: Was then understood to mean "lord of shepherds." It is unclear if this translation was found in Manetho; an Armenian translation of an epitome of Manetho given by the late antique historian Eusebius gives the correct translation of "foreign kings". "It is now commonly accepted in academic publications that the term Ḥqꜣ-Ḫꜣswt refers only to the individual foreign rulers of the late Second Intermediate Period," especially of

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