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The Hyksos ( or ; Ὑκσώς or Ὑξώς) were rulers of foreign origin who reigned over the Nile Delta and other parts of Lower Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1650-1530 BCE). The name derives from the ḥeqaꜣ ḫaꜣsuwt, "ruler of the foreign countries", which was both employed as a title by some of these rulers and as a derogatory epithet for these rulers by Egyptians who denied their legitimacy. Their principal capital was located at Avaris on the former Pelusiac branch of the Nile, where several successive palaces have been excavated. The Hyksos are perhaps most famous for having been "expelled" by Ahmose, who reunified Egypt at the start of the 18th Dynasty. Native Egyptian sources are almost invariably hostile and derogatory towards the Hyksos, and generally refuse to recognize them as having been legitimate kings of Egypt.

The rise of the Hyksos to power signalled the end of the unified Egyptian Middle Kingdom. It inaugurated the Second Intermediate Period, during which Egypt was fragmented into many pieces each with its own local rulers. The Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt reigned from Avaris in the Delta concurrently with the native Egyptian Seventeenth Dynasty (and possibly an earlier Sixteenth Dynasty) from Thebes, and a Nubian dynasty based at Kerma. The reunification of Egypt under the native Egyptian ruler Ahmose I brought an end to Hyksos rule, the rise of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and the inauguration of the unified New Kingdom.

Very little is known with confidence about the the political history and institutions of the Hyksos. Modern scholars disagree as to the identity of these rulers; their order, family relationships, and chronology; the circumstances under which they came to power; the extent of their territorial jurisdiction; their political institutions; and much else, as all of this must be inferred from scanty scraps of evidence. Very few contemporary inscriptions refer to these rulers, and most of these provide little historical information. The names of many, if not most, of these rulers are known only from scarab-shaped stamp-seal amulets, or from seal impressions made from such stamp-seal amulets. The relevant section of the Turin King List is badly damaged, and these rulers were never included in the King Lists from Abydos, Karnak, or Saqqara. The relevant sections of Manetho's History of Egypt are preserved only in three conflicting summaries. Except for Apophis, none of the rulers listed in any of the extant synopses of Manetho can be confidently identified from these contemporary monuments and stamp-seal amulets. Only the end of Hyksos rule is reasonably-well documented, thanks primarily to campaign accounts and later literature emanating from their native Egyptian opponents.

Much more is known about the material culture of the population over which the Hyksos reigned, thanks to extensive archaeological investigation in the eastern Nile Delta. During this period, much of the population of the Eastern Nile Delta was West Semitic of Canaanite or Syrian extraction. Sometimes, the term "Hyksos" is employed loosely but imprecisely as an ethnic designation for this foreign population of the Delta. The Egyptians referred to this foreign population as ꜥAꜣmu, conventionally but somewhat confusingly translated as "Asiatic". The name or names by which this population referred to itself are not known.

One reason for interest in the Hyksos is the possibility that the Biblical Exodus account may be based upon events surrounding the expulsion of the Hyksos. According to Josephus' quotes from Manetho, these two events had already been identified by Manetho himself. Many modern Egyptologists, including Alan Gardiner and Donald Redford, agree that the expulsion of the Hyksos is the only known historical event upon which the Biblical Exodus account could possibly be based. However, most Biblical historians place the Exodus later, if they treat the Exodus as a real historical event at all.

= Primary Sources =

Most of what we know —- or think we know —- about the Hyksos must be inferred from contemporary scarab-shaped stamp-seal amulets, contemporary dedicatory inscriptions, a handful of contemporary historical inscriptions all originating from the native Egyptian opponents of the Hyksos, the badly-damaged Turin King List and a few other sources from the Ramesside period, surviving extracts from Manetho's History of Egypt (written during the Hellenistic period), and the archaeological remains of their capital city at Avaris. There are no extant annals, victory inscriptions, tomb autobiographies, or similar accounts originating from among the Hyksos themselves. These rulers were never included in the king lists from Abydos, Karnak, or Saqqara, probably because they were not considered to have been legitimate rulers of Egypt.

A fairly complete list of attestations of the various rulers was given by Ryholt in 1997, updating the list given by von Beckerath in 1965. Ryholt's catalog lists stamp-seal amulets and cylinder seals bearing the names of the various rulers, as well as dedicatory and monumental inscriptions. To this catalog, one must add a number of more recent finds, including: seal impressions of Khayan from Tell Edfu, from a refuse pit near the Hyksos palace in area F/II at Avaris , and from area R/III at Avaris ; seal impressions of Yaꜥqub-Har in a secondary Eighteenth Dynasty context at Avaris ; wall fragments from Abydos depicting Ahmose's victory over the Hyksos and naming an "Apophis" as his opponent ; and additional stelae naming Aasehre Nehesy from Tell el-Hebouwe (Tjaru).

Most of the surviving inscriptions and documents known as of 1975 were collected in Egyptian by Helck, and most of those known as of 1997 were translated into English by Redford. Of these, the most informative are the two Stelae of Kamose and the Carnarvon Tablet, which recount a military campaign by Kamose (the native Egyptian ruler of Thebes) against Awoserre Apepi (one of the Hyksos rulers).

Ward published a substantial selection of scarab-shaped stamp–seal amulets naming the various Hyksos rulers. Many more lie unpublished in museums and private collections around the world. Most of these ultimately derive from the antiquities market and/or private collections of the 19th and early 20th century. Hence, their original find-spots and archaeological contexts are usually unknown. Recent major studies of these stamp-seal amulets include those of Ryholt, Krauss , and Ben-Tor.

The Egyptian priest Manetho wrote his History of Egypt, or Aegyptiaca, during the Hellenistic period, more than a millenium after the time of the Hyksos. Unfortunately, his Aegyptiaca is extant only in later extracts and summaries by Josephus, Africanus, and Eusebius. Furthermore, the summary by Africanus itself survives only in extracts by Syncellus. The extant extracts were collected, translated, and published by Waddell. Unfortunately, the three extant epitomes contradict each other on many important points. Virtually every study of the Hyksos attempts to make sense of the surviving extracts as best it can.

The site of Tell el-Dabʿa (ancient Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos) has been under extensive excavation by Manfred Bietak and his team since the mid-1960's. These excavations recently revealed a series of palaces (in Area F/II), that were probably employed by the Hyksos rulers. Excavations at this and other sites in the Nile Delta are very informative as to the material culture of the population over which the Hyksos reigned, but less informative as to their political history.

= Terminology =

The term "Hyksos" derives from the Egyptian expression ḥeqaꜣu ḫaꜣswet ("rulers [of] foreign lands"). This term was employed as a title by some (but not all) of these rulers. In the Turin King List it is applied, possibly pejoratively, to a group of six of these rulers who may or may not have employed this title themselves. In the singular form, "ruler of a foreign land", this term began to appear as early as the late Old Kingdom of Egypt to refer to various Nubian chieftains. During the Middle Kingdom, it was frequently employed to refer to the Semitic-speaking chieftains of Syria and Canaan.

However, Manetho as quoted by Josephus in Against Apion gave a false etymology for the term, deriving it instead from the Egyptian Šꜣsw) (Shasu) (shepherd or nomad) combined with either ḥqꜣ (ruler) or ḥꜣq (plunder). This gave rise to ancient interpretations of the name as "Shepherds", "Shepherd Kings", or "Captive Shepherds" . The interpretation of the term as "Shepherd Kings" is also found in Africanus' version of Manetho and the version of Eusebius . None of these expressions occur in any source contemporary with the events.

As is readily apparent from its true etymology, the term "Hyksos" properly refers only to the rulers themselves. In modern scholarly works, it is generally applied to any of the foreign rulers of the Nile Delta during the Second Intermediate Period, regardless of whether they are known to have employed the title "rulers of foreign lands" themselves or were designated as such in extant Egyptian sources. However, it is also commonly but imprecisely employed as an ethnic term for the population from which they originated and/or over which they reigned. This usage also derives from Manetho as quoted by Josephus, who reported that "Their race as a whole was called Hyksos".

Modern scholars generally follow Manetho as quoted by Africanus in referring to the principal line of Hyksos rulers as the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt. However, Josephus does not give Manetho's dynasty numbers, and Eusebius quotes Manetho as assigning these rulers to the Seventeenth Dynasty instead. The Turin King List also reflects a division into dynasties similar to that later given by Manetho. However, it does not number the dynasties, and its divisions sometimes differ from those of the latter.

Due to differences in the transcription and transliteration of Ancient Egyptian, all of these terms can be transliterated into English in various ways. The same confusion affects the names of the various Hyksos rulers that will be discussed below.

= Origins =

Virtually all Egyptologists today agree that the Hyksos were Egyptianized West Semites from Syria, Lebanon, and Canaan (today Israel/Palestine). This identification is supported by linguistic analysis of their names and by the terminology applied to them in contemporary Egyptian sources. Most importantly, their power base lay among the West Semites who occupied the Eastern Nile Delta during the Second Intermediate Period.

Technically speaking, "West Semitic" is a language family, which includes most of the languages spoken by the ancient population of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. Ancient Israelites, Canaanites, Amorites, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Aramaeans, Phoenecians, and others, all spoke West Semitic dialects. Of these languages, the best-known today are Hebrew and Aramaic, both of which still survive.

Contemporary Egyptian sources usually refer to these people as ꜤAꜣmu, the common Egyptian designation for the West Semitic-speaking peoples of Western Asia (Asia Minor, the Middle East). Modern Egyptologists often translate this term as "Asiatic", which unfortunately does not really convey the proper meaning. The Egyptian term ꜤAꜣmu may be related to the West Semitic term ʿAm(w), "people", or ḫam, "kinsman", but there is no proof of this. The same or a similar element also enters into West Semitic personal names, in which context it is usually understood as meaning "(divine) kinsman".

Many, if not most, Hyksos rulers and government officials bore West Semitic birth-names. Some of the most obvious are those compounded with the West Semitic theophoric element hr or harru, meaning "mountain" or (in this context) "the mountain god" or Aam (from the West Semitic Ham???), meaning "(divine) kinsman"; or the divine name Anat. Examples include the names Yaqub-Har ("may the mountain god protect"), Anat-her ("Anat is the mountain god"), Sakir-Har (possibly "may the mountain god reward"), Aper-Anat, Aamu and Ya'ammu. Other names of probable West Semitic origin include those of Semken, Khayan, and his eldest son Yanassi. Nehesy could be a name of Egyptian origin meaning "The Southerner", or derived from a West Semitic root meaning "serpent", "diviner", or "to divine" (c.f. Biblical Nachshon). The Fifteenth Dynasty ruler Awoserre Apepi and his family are possibly significant exceptions: the ethnic origin of the name "Apepi" is uncertain, as are the names of his daughter Herit and his sisters Tany and Ziwat. As a result, Ryholt has some doubts as to the origin of the Fifteenth Dynasty

The native Egyptians almost certainly attributed a West Semitic origin to the Hyksos. The title hekau khaswet itself suggests a West Semitic origin, as the singular form of the term was a regular designation during the Middle Kingdom for West Semitic chieftains (although it was not necessarily limited to that use). . On a contemporary stela Kamose, the last king of the Theban 17th Dynasty, refers to Apepi as a "Chieftain of Retjenu"; Retjenu was an ancient Egyptian name for Canaan. He also designates Apepi's subjects as "Aamu", the normal Egyptian term for the Semites of the Western Levant. Furthermore, Manetho refers to the "Shepherd Kings" (Hyksos) as Phoenecian. His false etymology of "Hyksos" from "Shasu" may also reflect an assumed West Semitic origin, for the historical "Shasu" of the New Kingdom period were also Semites.

Finally, the power base of the Hyksos rulers lay among the Egyptianized West Semitic population of the Eastern Delta. The characteristic cultural markers of this population are found not only at the Hyksos capital of Avaris itself, but throughout the Eastern Delta. In particular, these cultural markers are found all along the Pelusiac branch of the Nile from its mouth on the Mediterranean in the north at Tjaru to Heliopolis at the southern tip of the Delta, and throughout the Wadi Tumilat. The identification of this population as West Semitic is based upon multiple traits, including pottery, weaponry, and burial practices.

This identification of the Hyksos as Egyptianized West Semites has replaced earlier hypotheses, which had once been spurred by Manetho's apparent reference to the "Shepherd Kings" as "men of obscure race" (ἀσήμοι). For example, the German Egyptologist Wolfgang Helck once argued that the Hyksos were part of massive and widespread Hurrian and Indo-Aryan migrations into the Near East, but later abandoned this hypothesis. . Albright thought the Hyksos might have been Indo-Iranians ; Duncan that they might have been Hittites ; and Mayani thought they had been a horse-breeding aristocracy from Asia. Actually, as Redford pointed out, Manetho intended to insult the Hyksos by describing their race as "vile", rather than describe them as "obscure"; the Greek term ἀσήμοι that he employed is simply a transcription of the Egyptian ẖsi, meaning "vile" or "disgusting". = The West Semites of the Eastern Delta =

The center of Hyksos power lay in the Eastern Delta. Their capital city of Avaris lay in the Eastern Delta at a fork on the now-dry Pelusiac branch of the Nile. According to Manetho, they also maintained a second capital at Memphis, at the base of the Delta.

During the Second Intermediate Period, the population of the Eastern Delta was heavily but not exclusively West Semitic. Settlements exhibiting West Semitic cultural characteristics appeared throughout the Eastern Nile Delta, especially along the former Pelusiac branch of the Nile (now dry) and in the Wadi Tumilat. The presence of these West Semites can be recognized by their distinctive material culture, including architectural styles, burial practices, pottery, and weaponry.

The Capital of Avaris
The West Semitic population of the Eastern Delta is best attested at the Hyksos capital of Avaris. It was located at a fork in the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, near the modern towns of Qantir, Khatana, Tell el-Dabʿa, Ezbet Ḥelmi, and Ezbet Rushdi. The site was first identified by Hamza in the 1930's, and has been under intensive investigation since the mid-1960's by a team led by Manfred Bietak and his colleagues from the Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut. As the dynastic and absolute chronologies of the Second Intermediate Period are quite uncertain, the archaeological stratigraphy of this site currently provides the most reliable chronological scale for dating events and other archaeological finds in the Delta.

At Avaris, the population seems to have been heavily West Semitic from late in the Twelfth Dynasty until the "Expulsion of the Hyksos" at the start of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Significant settlement by Egyptianized West Semites first becomes apparent during Global Phase H. This phase is dated by the excavator to the late Twelfth Dynasty, around 1800 BCE. It continues through Global Phase D/2, which ends with the conquest of Avaris by the native Egyptian rulers of Thebes and overthrow of the Hyksos, around 1535 BCE.

The Start of West Semitic Occupation
At Avaris, significant settlement by Egytianized West Semites first becomes apparent during Global Phase H. This phase is dated by the excavator to the late Twelfth Dynasty, around 1800 BCE. Bietak believes these immigrants came primarily from Lebanon and coastal Syria, especially Byblos and the surrounding area. Others have suggested an origin in southern Canaan.

In Excavation Area F/I, houses were erected that are similar in layout to Syrian Middle-Room and Broad-Room houses. Burials took place in the immediate vicinity of the houses, a Syro-Palestinian practice that is foreign to Egypt. Approximately 20% of the pottery from the settlement debris belonged to Syrio-Palestinian types of the Middle Bronze Age; the remainder was primarily Egyptian.

In the subsequent stratum (Global Phase G/4), these houses were replaced by a palatial structure. The architecture of this palace is purely Egyptian. Nevertheless, various finds continue to suggest that its occupants were West Semitic. For instance, a fragment of a cylinder seal depicting the Syrian weather god was found in the ruins of the palace.

Tombs in the cemetery associated with the settlement of Phase H and the palace of the subsequent Phase G/4 were also purely Egyptian in architecture. However, the finds in the tombs demonstrates the West Semitic character of the population. Several of these graves constituted "warrior burials" of a type well-known from Syro-Palestine, and the associated weaponry is purely Syro-Palestinian in character. Another Syro-Palestinian practice was the burial of donkeys in front of several of these tombs. This practice is foreign to Egypt, but has antecedents in Mesopotamia.

Fragments of a statue of a West Semitic dignitary were found in one of these tombs. This statue can be identified as belonging to a West Semitic dignitary by his "mushroom" hair-do and the throw-stick over his shoulder. The head of a similar, better-preserved statue of uncertain provenance (but probably also from Egypt) is now in the Staatliche Sammlung Ägyptischer Kunst in Munich. Another, similar statue comes from Ebla, in Syra. Similar depictions of West Semites are also found engraved on stele from Serabit el-Khadim in Sinai, dating to the late Twelfth Dynasty.

Another tomb in the cemetery contained a badly-damaged amethyst scarab mentioning an official with the title "Ruler of Retjenu". Retjenu was a generic Egyptian term for what is now Coastal Syria, Lebanon, and Israel/Palestine.

The construction of palaces in Area F/I Phase G/4 and in an early stratum of Area F/II suggest that Avaris had begun to break away from the authority of the central government by the start of the Thirteenth Dynasty. Both Bietak and Ryholt associate this with the rise of the Fourteenth Dynasty, which they identify as a earlier group of Hyksos rulers predating the principal series of the Fifteenth Dynasty. However, Redford and many other Egyptologists consider the supposed Fourteenth Dynasty to be largely ephermal. The existence of these palaces is not probative, as they could have belonged to local officials who remained under the authority of the central government.

Settlements Along the Former Pelusiac Branch of the Nile
West Semitic occupation was not limited to the Hyksos capital of Avaris. West Semitic burials or occupation remains have been reported from a string of sites along the former Pelusiac branch of the Nile and in its vicinity. These include, from north to south: Tell el-Heboua (ancient Tjaru); Avaris itself ; Tell Farasha (Tell el-Maghud); Tell Basta (Bubastis); ; Tell el-Yahudiyeh; Inshas ; and possibly Heliopolis. A few of these have been excavated and published in sufficient detail to be worth noting.

Tjaru
At the northeastern edge of the Delta, near the former coastline where the former Pelusiac branch of the Nile emptied into the Mediterranean Sea, the border town of Tjaru stood on the site now known as Tell el-Heboue I. Both the overland route from Egypt to Syria/Palestine and the sea route to the Mediterranean passed through this location. Judging from the Second Intermediate Period remains on the site, numerous stelae of the Hyksos ruler Aasehre Nehesy found on the site, and its mention on the Rhind Papyrus Graffito as the site of a battle against the "Southern Prince", and the significance of its location, it probably served as a border fortification for the Hyksos just as it did in later times. So far, however, only scanty remains of the Hyksos city have been uncovered archaeologically, as excavations on the site penetrated below New Kingdom levels in only a few trial trenches.

The excavators attribute four "strata" in Area A to the Second Intermediate Period. These are numbered from earliest to latest as Va, IVc, IVb, and IVa. Va presumably represents the earliest Second Intermediate Period on the site, while IVa represents the latest. However, nothing was actually excavated of Stratum Va, although a number of stelae found out of secure stratigraphic context were assigned to that level. Stratum IVc was reached only in soundings (especially Sounding 7). Based upon the pottery found in those soundings, the excavator suggests that Stratum IVc may correspond to Phases E/1 to D/3 at Avaris.

Stratum IVb is represented primarily by a number of burials within granary GR.1. The grave goods are typical for Delta Semites of the Second Intermediate Period.

Stratum IVa is represented by houses and burials. Most of the pottery is of Egyptian types, with only a smattering of forms typical of Delta Semites. Imported Cypriot pottery is concentrated in this stratum. This imported Cypriot pottery includes both White Painted VI and Bichrome. This stratum could be parallel to Stratum D/2, the last Hyksos stratum, at Avaris. There is no indication that this stratum was violently destroyed at the end of the Second Intermediate Period.

Stratum IVa is followed by Stratum III, which is dated to the early Eighteenth Dynasty, no later than the reign of Thutmoses III. .

Tell el-Yehudiyeh and Heliopolis
Near the southern tip of the Delta stood two earthwork enclosures, one at Tell el-Yahudiyeh (Leontopolis) and the other at Heliopolis. Excavations at Tell el-Yahudiyeh have revealed large numbers of burials, along with grave goods typical of the Delta Semites. The earthwork enclosures themselves are similar to the earthen ramparts and glacis that surrounded many contemporary Canaanite cities. Both sites were probably fortified cities occupied by West Semites.

Settlements in The Wadi Tumilat
There were several West Semitic population centers in the central portion of the Wadi Tumilat, mostly between Tell er-Retabeh and Tell el-Maskhuta. Most of these are known only from a surface survey conducted by a team from the Univeristy of Toronto between 1977 and 1983. Major Second Intermediate Period settlements were identified at Tell er-Retabeh and Tell el-Maskhuta, along with smaller settlements at Birak el-Nazzazat (Site 25 and nearby sherd scatters at sites 15, 16, 17, 18, 34, 35, 36), Tell el-Ku'a (Site 37, slightly west of Tell er-Retabeh), and several sherd scatters that might represent even smaller settlements, farmsteads, or rural campsites. Only Tell er-Retabeh and Tell el-Maskhuta have been excavated.

Based upon the pottery found, the survey dated this West Semitic occupation to a relatively brief period during the Second Intermediate Period corresponding to phases E/1-D/3 at Avaris. However, the survey and excavations produced copious quantities of sherds of hand-made flat-bottom cooking pots, of a type now known only from the much earlier Phases H to G/1-3 at Avaris. . As of yet, there has been very little discussion as to whether this means that West Semitic occupation of the Wadi began earlier, or whether this is merely a regional variation.

Tell er-Retabeh
Tell er-Retabeh stood at the east end of a now-dry lake that once filled the western portion of the Wadi, and which was supplied from a distributary of the Nile. Early excavations on the site revealed numerous graves, whose contents exhibit the hallmarks of contemporary West Semitic culture. Recent excavations by the Polish-Slovak Archaeological Mission and an Egyptian rescue mission revealed an extensive "Hyksos Cemetery" within and between excavation areas 7 and 9 and below Ramesside-era remains above The use of this cemetery primarily seems to cover the time-span between phases E/1 and D/2 at Avaris ; however, one grave(burial [927] in tomb [920]) may be as early as phase F. The excavations by the Polish-Slovak Archaeological Mission also found evidence for a settlement which the excavators dated to the mid-late 15th dynasty. These were followed by an early 18th dynasty settlement with a very different material culture

Tel el-Maskhuta
To the east of Tell er-Retabeh, at a choke-point potentially guarding the entry into the Delta through the Wadi Tumilat, stood Tell el-Maskhuta. The site was excavated between 1977 and 1983 by a team from the University of Toronto under the direction of John Holladay.

These excavations produced evidence of a Second Intermediate Period settlement with interspersed burials, both of which exhibit the characteristic material culture of the Egyptianized West Semites of the Delta. Six successive phase of Egyptianized West Semitic Occupation were discerned, consisting of houses interspersed with burials.

Based upon the pottery, the excavators dated all six phases to a relatively short period during the SIP corresponding to Phases E/1 to D/3 at Avaris. However, their excavations also produced large quantities of sherds of the hand-made flat-bottom cooking pots mentioned above, of the type known only from the much earlier Phases H to G/1-3 at Avaris. These hand-made flat-bottom cooking pots dominated the earliest occupation phases (1-2), but were largely replaced by wheel-made or mold-made round-bottom cooking pots in the later phases (5-6).

This Second Intermediate Period occupation was the earliest on the site. The site was completely abandoned again at the end of the Second Intermediate Period, and not reoccupied until the Saite Period a thousand years later.

= The Hyksos Domination of Egypt =

West Semitic Immigration and Settlement in the Eastern Nile Delta
Large-scale immigration by Western Semites provides the backdrop for the later rise to power of the Hyksos. This mass immigration had begun by the mid-12th Dynasty, c. 1800 BC, if not before.

This large-scale immigration of Western Semites is attested archaeologically in the Eastern Nile Delta, especially at the future Hyksos capital of Avaris (see The Eastern Delta During the Second Intermediate Period below). During the late Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period, a string of cities, villages, and burial sites was established along the now-dry Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and in the Wadi Tumilat. The presence, often dominance, of West Semites at these sites is apparent from their material culture, including domestic architecture, burial practices, weaponry, pottery, and other finds.

Elsewhere in Egypt, the massive immigration of Western Semitic is attested primarily by documentary sources. For example, papyrii from el-Lahun in the Faiyyum contain many references to Western Semitic servants and officials on Egyptian estates. Even further south, at Thebes, Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446 contains many references to Western Semitic servants on an estate. Still other references come from tomb inscriptions of various types. In these areas, the West Semitic presence was apparently not sufficient to result in creation of pockets of West Semitic culture. Instead, the West Semites assimilated to their Egyptian surroundings.

Manetho's account
The only ancient account of the rise of the Hyksos to power comes from Manetho's History of Egypt, as quoted by Josephus in Contra Apionem. This account describes the appearance of the Hyksos in Egypt as an armed invasion by a horde of foreign barbarians who met little resistance, and who subdued the country by military force. Since Manetho elsewhere identified the Salities/Saites to whom this account refers as the first ruler of the Fifteenth Dynasty, it seems apparent that this account was intended to describe the rise of the Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty to power.


 * Tutimaeus. In his reign, for what cause I know not, a blast of God smote us ; and unexpectedly, from the regions of the East, invaders of obscure race marched in confidence of victory against our land. By main force they easily seized it without striking a blow ; and having overpowered the rulers of the land, they then burned our cities ruthlessly, razed to the ground the temples of the gods, and treated all the natives with a cruel hostility, massacring some and leading into slavery the wives and children of others. Finally, they appointed as king one of their number whose name was Salitis. He had his seat at Memphis, levying tribute from Upper and Lower Egypt, and always leaving garrisons behind in the most advantageous positions. Above all, he fortified the district to the east, foreseeing that the Assyrians, as they grew stronger, would one day covet and attack his kingdom.
 * In the Saite [Sethrolte] nome he found a city very favourably situated on the east of the Bubastite branch of the Nile, and called Auaris after an ancient religious tradition. This place he rebuilt and fortified with massive walls, planting there a garrison of as many as 240,000 heavy-armed men to guard his frontier. Here he would come in summertime, partly to serve out rations and pay his troops, partly to train them carefully in maneuvres and so strike terror into foreign tribes.

Modern research has been kind to some parts of this account, less so to others.

The supposed name of the first Hyksos king, "Salitis", cannot be identified from any source contemporary with the supposed events. In actuality, "Salitis" is probably a fragment of the title "Ruler of Foreign Countries" in West Semitic translation rather than a name, as "shalit" is simply the Aramaic pronunciation of the general West Semitic word for "ruler". In the synoposes of Africanus and Eusebius, the name has been further garbled into "Saites" to provide a false etymology for the name of the Saitic nome. .

"Tutimaeus", in whose reign the Hyksos invasion reportedly occurred, has not been confidently identified. An identification with the Thirteenth or Sixteenth dynasty ruler Dedumose I or Dedumose II may be possible, but the chronological position of each of these rulers is itself unknown. The reference to Tutimaeus may not even be real, as the text and its interpretation are uncertain.

The reported conquest of Memphis at the base of the Delta, the Old Kingdom capital of Egypt, apparently symbolizes the nominal conquest of Egypt as a whole. Fifteenth Dynasty control of Memphis is confirmed by the Second Stele of Kamose (line ???). That Memphis was indeed sacked is also reflected in the whole-scale transport of monuments from Memphis to the Hyksos capital at Avaris and later from there to other locations. However, the limited archaeological excavations thus far at Memphis have not produced any evidence for a conquest or any trace of a Hyksos palace, and very little evidence for the West Semitic material culture characteristic of the Northeastern Delta.

On the other hand, Manetho was apparently well-informed about Avaris. Excavations on the site have indeed produced evidence of several successive palaces, which probably served the Hyksos rulers. Changes in the material culture during Stratum E/2 suggest a correlation between this stratum and the rise of the Hyksos to power. So far, very little evidence has been found of the defensive walls to which Manetho refers; but there can be little doubt they once existed, as they are also mentioned on the Second Stele of Kamose.

The surviving extracts from Manetho's account do not mention the conquest of the Middle Kingdom capital of Itj-Tawy, which was located somewhere south of Memphis. The conquest of Itj-Tawy can be inferred from the collapse of the Thirteenth Dynasty, and the relocation of the capital to Thebes. It has often been assumed that the conquest of Memphis would have necessitated the simultaneous conquest of Itj-Tawy and the nearby necropolis of el-Lisht, but there is no proof of this. Hence, Itj-tawy could have fallen at the same time as Memphis, or later. The extant summaries of Manetho's account place the Twelfth and Thirteenth dynasty capitals at Thebes instead of 'Itj-Tawy'', and seem to have been unaware even of the latter's existence.

Janine Bourriau's examination of ceramic material retrieved from the necropolis at el-Lisht and Dahshur during the Second Intermediate Period shows a continuity of Middle Kingdom ceramic type wares throughout this era. She finds in them no evidence of intrusion of Hyksos-style wares

Winlock suggested that new revolutionary methods of warfare ensured the Hyksos the ascendancy in their influx into the new emporia being established in Egypt's delta and at Thebes in support of the Red Sea trade. He describes new military hardware, such as the composite bow, as well as the improved recurve bow, and most importantly the horse-drawn war chariot, as well as improved arrowheads, various kinds of swords and daggers, a new type of shield, mailed shirts, and the metal helmet.

Control over Egypt
The Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty seems to have reached the height of its power early in the reign of Awoserre Apophis. From the Carnarvon Tablet and the two Stelae of Kamose, it is apparent that Hyksos power extended at least as far south along the Nile as Cusae, just north of Thebes (Carnvon Tablet line 5). The major cities of Memphis and Hermopolis were both under their control (Carnavon Tablet line 4). Awoserre Apophis claimed control of lower and middle Egypt from Hermopolis to "Pi-hathor upon the Rekhty water" (in the Delta) (Kamose II line ???). This control was maintained by garrisons stationed in various towns along the Nile, including Nefrusy (Kamose I lines 13-16), Per-shak (Kamose I line 16)(unidentified) and Per-djedken ((Kamose II line 3) (also unidentified).

There is some indication that the Hyksos may even have exercised some control over Thebes and to its south, at least for a while. Building blocks bearing inscriptions naming Awoserre (Apophis) and Khyan were found at Gebelein, south of Thebes,, and  some forty seal impressions naming the Hyksos ruler Khyan were recently found at Tell Edfu, even further to the south. The building blocks may suggest that Awoserre and Khyan conducted building projects at Gebelein, and the seal impressions could indicate the presence of Hyksos government officials at Edfu. However, it has also been suggested that the blocks were brought to Gebelein much later, by accident as ballast for ships. Likewise, the sealings of Khyan found at Tell Edfu may indicate nothing more than trade relationships or diplomatic relationships, or could even have been attached to war booty taken from the Hyksos by the native Egyptian rulers of Thebes.

Ryholt, in particular, argues that the Hyksos actually controlled Thebes directly for two to three years, at the end of the reign of Khyan and beginning of the reign of Awoserre Apophis (whom he places in succession). According to him, this break in native Egyptian control of Thebes is the reason for the distinction between the Sixteenth Dynasty and Seventeenth Dynasty.

However, little evidence has been found south of the Delta for the West Semitic material culture that characterized the Eastern Nile Delta population that constituted the Hyksos power base. The southernmost Hyksos fortification that appears to have survived, was located at Heliopolis (today a suburb of Cairo) at the base of the Delta. Whatever political control the Hyksos may have exercised south of Delta, does not appear to have been accompanied by mass colonization.

Control over Canaan
The extent of Hyksos control over Canaan (modern Israel and Palestine) is even less clear. On the Second Stele of Kamose, Kamose refers to Apophis as "(just) a prince of Retjenu" (Retjenu was the contemporary Egyptian name for Canaan). It is unclear, however, whether this reflects actual territorial control over Retjenu, or was intended just as an insult. The same source also refers to ships filled with "all the fine products of Retjenu"; but it is unclear whether these constituted tribute or trade goods. Stamp-seal amulets naming Hyksos rulers have been found at various sites in Israel and Palestine, especially Tel Ajjul in the Gaza Strip. However, these were widely employed throughout the period as funerary amulets, so one cannot infer that they served as seals of government officials stationed in Canaan. There are many similarities between the contemporary material culture of Canaan and the Eastern Nile Delta, but there are also differences. In any event, one cannot necessarily infer the location of political boundaries from the location of cultural boundaries.

The "Expulsion of the Hyksos"
The account of the "Expulsion of the Hyksos" by the native Egyptian ruler Ahmose I is one of the best known stories in Egyptian history. It is recounted both by Manetho (as quoted by Josephus), and by native Egyptian sources contemporary with the events.

Unfortunately, Josephus' paraphrase of Manetho's account of these events is badly garbled. Either Josephus or Manetho apparently confused the siege of Avaris by Ahmose I with the slightly later siege of Megiddo by Thutmoses III. Hence, his account of these events has been superseded by reconstructions based upon archaeology and contemporary accounts.

The Campaigns of Seqenenre Tao
The revolt which drove the Hyksos from Upper Egypt began in the closing years of the Seventeenth Dynasty at Thebes. Later New Kingdom literary tradition (The "Story of Apophis and Seqenenre": Papyrus Anastasi I) has brought one of these Theban kings, Seqenenre Tao, into contact with his Hyksos contemporary in the north, Apepi (also known as Apophis). The tradition took the form of a tale in which the Hyksos king Apepi sent a messenger to Seqenenre in Thebes to demand that the Theban sport of harpooning hippopotami be done away with. His excuse was that the noise of these beasts was such that he was unable to sleep in faraway Avaris. Unfortunately, the end of the story is missing, and we did not know whether it went on to relate the outbreak of hostilities. Perhaps the only historical information that can be gleaned from the tale is that Egypt was a divided land, the area of direct Hyksos control being in the north, but the whole of Egypt possibly paying tribute to the Hyksos kings.

It seems likely, however, that Seqenenre Tao was involved in some kind of military conflict against the Hyksos. His mummy shows vicious head and neck wounds of the types that would have been caused by a battle-axe and dagger of the kinds employed by the Hyksos. From this, one can reasonably conclude that he either died in battle against the Hyksos, or that he was executed by the Hyksos after having been taken prisoner.

The Campaigns of Kamose
Kamose, the son and successor of Seqenenre Tao and the last ruler of the Seventeenth Dynasty at Thebes, is credited with the first significant victories in the Theban-led war against the Hyksos. He conducted at least one military campaign against the Hyksos ruler Awoserre Apophis, which he described in some detail on two stelae known today as the First and Second Stelae of Kamose.

According to the First Stela and its copy on the Carnarvon tablet, Kamose sailed north from Thebes at the head of his army in his third regnal year. He surprised and overran the southernmost garrison of the Hyksos at Nefrusy, just north of Cusae (near modern Asyut), and Kamose then led his army as far north as the neighborhood of Avaris itself. Though the city was not taken, the fields around it were devastated by the Thebans. A second stele discovered at Thebes continues the account of the war broken off on the Carnarvon Tablet I, and mentions the interception and capture of a courier bearing a message from Apepi at Avaris to his ally, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kush (modern Sudan), requesting the latter's urgent support against the threat posed by Kamose's activities against both their kingdoms. Kamose promptly ordered a detachment of his troops to occupy the Bahariya Oasis in the Libyan Desert to control and block the desert route to the south. Kamose, called "the Strong," then sailed back up the Nile to Thebes for a joyous victory celebration, after what was probably not much more than a surprise spoiling raid in force that caught the Hyksos off guard. His Year Three is the only date attested for Kamose and he may have died shortly after the battle from wounds.

By the end of the reign of Apepi, perhaps the second-to-last Hyksos king of the Fifteenth Dynasty, the Hyksos had been routed from Middle Egypt and had retreated northward and regrouped in the vicinity of the entrance of the Faiyum at Atfih. This Fifteenth Dynasty pharaoh had outlived his first Egyptian contemporary, Seqenenra Tao II, and was still on the throne (albeit of a much reduced kingdom) at the end of Kamose's reign. The last Hyksos ruler of the Fifteenth Dynasty, Khamudi, undoubtedly had a relatively short reign that fell within the first half of the reign of Ahmose I, Kamose's successor and the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

The Campaigns of Ahmose I and the Final Defeat of the Hyksos
Ahmose I, who is regarded as the first pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, continued the war against the Hyksos. The details of his military campaigns are taken primarily from the account on the walls of the tomb of Ahmose, son of Ebana, a soldier from El-Kab (a town in southern Upper Egypt), who served under him. Ahmose I also left a description of his campaign(s) in the form of wall reliefs at Abydos, but these were only recently discovered and are in very fragmentary condition. In addition, a graffito on the reverse of the Rhind Papyrus probably refers to his activities. Archaeological evidence from Avaris testifying to its conquest is also a significant source of information The details of his campaign(s) against the Hyksos must be pieced together from these fragmentary inscriptions at Abydos, from the account given by Ahmose, son of Ebana, the graffito on the reverse of the Rhind Papyrus, and the archaeological evidence.

Ahmose I may have been on the Theban throne for some time before he resumed the war against the Hyksos. It seems that several campaigns against the stronghold at Avaris were needed before the Hyksos were finally dislodged and driven from Lower Egypt. When this occurred is not known with certainty. Some authorities place the expulsion as early as Ahmose's fourth year, while Donald B. Redford, whose chronological structure has been adopted here, places it as late as the king's fifteenth year. The Ahmose who left the inscription states that he followed on foot as his King Ahmose rode to war in his chariot (the first mention of the use of the horse and chariot by the Egyptians); in the fighting around Avaris he captured prisoners and carried off several hands (as proof of slain enemies), which when reported to the royal herald resulted in his being awarded the "Gold of Valor" on three separate occasions. The actual fall of Avaris is only briefly mentioned: "Then Avaris was despoiled. Then I carried off spoil from there: one man, three women, a total of four persons. Then his majesty gave them to me to be slaves."

After the fall of Avaris, the fleeing Hyksos were pursued by the Egyptian army across northern Sinai Peninsula and into the southern Levant. Here, in the Negev desert between Rafah and Gaza, the fortified town of Sharuhen was reduced after, according to the soldier from El-Kab, a long three-year siege operation. How soon after the sack of Avaris this Asiatic campaign took place is uncertain. One can reasonably conclude that the thrust into southern Canaan probably followed the Hyksos’ eviction from Avaris fairly closely, but, given a period of protracted struggle before Avaris fell and possibly more than one season of campaigning before the Hyksos were shut up in Sharuhen, the chronological sequence must remain uncertain.

= Hyksos Rulers and Officials =

Names
The names of many Hyksos rulers and officials are known from contemporary sources, the later Turin King List, and the Hellenistic Manetho's History of Egypt. Unfortunately, the various sources differ considerably in the names of the Hyksos rulers. Given the incomplete and damaged nature of many of the sources, it is difficult to determine to what extent the different sources intended to name the same rulers but corrupted the names, or may actually have had different rulers in mind.

Contemporary Inscriptions and Stamp-Seal Amulets
The names known from contemporary inscriptions and stamp-seal amulets, together with their usual titles, are: Of these, only Anat-Her, Aper-Anat, Samuqenu, Sakir-Har, and Khyan are known to have actually employed the title "Ruler of Foreign Lands". All of their names are probably West Semitic, suggesting Canaanite or Syrian ancestry.

The other rulers on this list, while assignable to rulers of the Nile Delta during the Second Intermediate Period, employed the normal Egyptian royal titulature: "The Good God" before the prenomen (throne name), and "the Son of Re" or "King of Upper and Lower Egypt" before the nomen (birth name). The birth name of many -- but not all -- of these rulers is West Semitic; however, their throne name is always pure Egyptian. "Nehesy" is ambiguous; it has the form of a good Egyptian word meaning "The Nubian", but could also be a phonetic equivalent for the West Semitic "Nakhash" (c.f. Biblical Nachshon)

In addition to those who employed royal titles, the names of numerous Hyksos officials and subordinate rulers are also known. Many of these employed the title sa-nasu, an ambiguous title that may be rendered either as "king's son" or "vassal king". Others employed a title that may be rendered either as "Royal treasurer, he who is over the treasury" or as "Royal sealer, he who is over the seal".

The following table lists only a few of the better-attested officials, especially those known from monuments or multiple stamp seals. A more complete list of those known from stamp-seal amulets is given by Quirke

The Turin King List
The Turin King List originally listed six "rulers of foreign lands", along with the lengths of their reigns, in Gardiner Column X Lines 15-21 = Ryholt Column 10 lines 23-29. Only the last name, Khamudy, survives, along with the summation line giving the total duration of the dynasty as 108 years. In addition, a small fragment gives the regnal lengths of two rulers whose names are damaged. This fragment is usually placed just before the name of Khamudy, although there is no proof of this.

Unfortunately, the sole surviving name, Khamudy, does not match any of the names known from contemporary inscriptions or stamp-seal amulets. However, the fragment preserving a regnal length of 40+ years is usually associated with Auserre Apepi, the only ruler known from contemporary inscriptions to have reigned anywhere near that long.

Besides these explicitly designated "rulers of foreign lands", Gardiner Columns VIII - X = Ryholt Columns 9 and 10 list numerous rulers who employed the usual Egyptian titulature. Ryholt believes that a separate dynasty was originally listed in this section, even though the summation lines that would have preceded and followed it have not been preserved. The only name recognizable from the monuments is that of Nehesy in Ryholt Entry 9.1 = Gardiner Entry VIII.1. Whether or not this Nehesy is the same as the Aasehre Nehesy known from the monuments is hotly disputed, and has a major impact upon historical reconstructions of the period. The entry in the Turin King List gives only the nomen for this king, without his prenomen, leaving the correlation uncertain. Furthermore, Aasehre Nehesy is attested (as king) by at least eight monumental inscriptions and three scarab seals, an astoundingly large number for a ruler who, according to the Turin King List, reigned for less than one year. Bietak and Ryholt accept the identification; Redford and Ben-Tor reject it.

Some of the rulers listed in Gardiner columns VIII-X = Ryholt Columns 9-10 seem to have had West Semitic nomina (birth names) combined with Egyptian prenomina (throne names). This may have been true of others as well, since in most cases the birth name is not given or has been damaged. Those with apparent West Semitic birth names include:

Of these, the name Anati could be a shortened form of the name Aper-Anat or Anat-Her appearing with the title "Ruler of Foreign Lands" on stamp-seal amulets.

Manetho
The three extant extracts from Manetho's History of Egypt each give different names for the Hyksos rulers, assign them to different dynasties, and list them in different orders. Only three names — Salitis, Bnon, and Apophis — are common to all three versions.

The names and regnal years given by the various extracts are:

Of the names given by Manetho, only Apophis (=Apepi) is clearly identifiable from the contemporary monuments and inscriptions.

According to Redford, Manetho's "76 kings of Xois" is a simple transcription error for what would have been "76 Hyksos kings" in his Egyptian source. The Egyptian term for "kings of Xois", hekaw Khasww, is phonetically very similar to heqaw khasut, "ruler(s) of the foreign countries". The city of Xois, at modern-day Sakha in the central Delta, did not achieve prominence until the Hellenistic period, and there is no extant architecture from the 2nd millenium BCE. Unfortunately, none of the epitomes of Manetho give the names of any of these kings.

Sequence and Dynastic Affiliation
There have been numerous attempt to reconstruct the order and dynastic affiliation of the Hyksos rulers. These attempted reconstructions differ widely, due to the differences between the various sources in the names of the rulers, the lack of historical information from contemporary monuments, the damaged state of the Turin King List, and the difficulties in correlating rulers in Manetho's sequence with those known from contemporary sources. The primary sources employed in these reconstructions have been the typological sequencing of the stamp-seal amulets bearing names of Hyksos kings, the sequence given by Manetho, and the surviving portions of the Turin King List. A key difficulty is that both the Turin King List, and Manetho, seem to have had no mechanism for representing concurrent dynasties reigning in different parts of Egypt other than by listing them sequentially. Another issue is that far more Hyksos rulers using royal titles are known from contemporary scarab-shaped stamp-seal amulets and other inscriptions than can be fit into the six rulers attributed to the main Hyksos dynasty by the Turin King List, by Manetho as cited by Josephus, and by Manetho as cited by Africanus.

Gardiner, Redford, and many other Egyptologists reckon with only a single Hyksos dynasty, which they identify with the fifteenth dynasty of Manetho as cited by Africanus, the main Hyksos dynasty of Manetho as cited by Josephus, and the group of six rulers explicitly designated as "rulers of foreign lands" in the Turin King List. As all the above sources agree that this dynasty consisted of six rulers, these Egyptologists likewise assign precisely six rulers to this dynasty. However, they disagree as to which of the rulers named on contemporary monuments are to be included, and as to their order. As many more Hyksos rulers are known than will fit into this single dynasty, they dismiss the remainder as vassals or subordinates that were never included within the dynastic scheme. Redford dismisses the supposed "fourteenth dynasty" as chimerical, and suggests that the list of names in the Turin King List columns VIII-X represents apotheosed ancestors of the Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty. He identifies both the Sixteenth and the Seventeenth dynasties as native Egyptian dynasties that ruled successively from Thebes, at the same time that the Fifteenth Dynasty ruled Lower Egypt from Avaris.

Jürgen von Beckerath and Wolfgang Helck argued that the various Hyksos rulers should all be assigned to two concurrent dynasties, corresponding to the Fifteenth Dynasty and Sixteenth Dynasty in Manetho's dynastic chronology. These two dynasties reigned simultaneously, with the Sixteenth Dynasty subordinate to the Fifteenth Dynasty. These two Hyksos dynasties also reigned concurrently with the Seventeenth Dynasty, which controlled Upper Egypt from its capital at Thebes; and with yet another dynasty, which controlled Cush (Ethiopia). Both von Beckarath and Helck considered the supposed Fourteenth Dynasty to be largely ephemeral.

The Fifteenth Dynasty of Gardiner, Redford, von Beckerath and Helck corresponds to the fifteenth dynasty of Manetho according to Africanus, the first group of Shepherd Kings of Manetho according to Josephus, and to the "Rulers of Foreign Lands" of the Turin King List. As all these sources agree in assigning precisely six kings to this dynasty, these Egyptologists also assign six kings to this dynasty. However, there is disagreement as to which of the six kings known from contemporary monuments should be assigned to this dynasty, and as to their order. There also is disagreement as to whether Awoserre Apophis, Nebkhepeshre Apophis, and Akenenre Apophis should be counted as just one ruler, or as three. The rulers placed in this dynasty by some of the scholars who follow this general model are:

William Ward attempted to order the various Hyksos rulers based upon stylistic differences between the Scarab-Shaped Stamp Seal Amulets that bear their names. This led him to propose the sequence

Alongside the main sequence, he also constructed a supplementary sequence that contained the names of the remaining Hyksos rulers known from stamp-seal amulets, which he believed to be contemporary with the rulers listed in the main sequence. However, he did not attempt to assign the rulers in either sequence to specific dynasties, or to integrate his sequence with the evidence from the Turin King List or from Manetho. Ben-Tor, in her recent study of Stamp-Seal Amulets, strongly supported Ward's sequence and adduced additional arguments in its favor.
 * 1) Seuserenre Khyan
 * 2) Meruserre Yakubher
 * 3) Mayebre Sheshi
 * 4) Kauserre Amu
 * 5) Sekhaenre Ykbmw
 * 6) Nubuserre Yaʿamu
 * 7) Ahetepre
 * 8) Auserre Apophis
 * 9) Khamudy

However, Krauss noted a weakness with the position of Auserre Apophis in Ward's seriation. Some of the stamp-seal amulets bearing his name resemble those of Seuserenre Khyan much more closely than those of Ahetepre, Nubuserre Yaʿamu, Sekhaenre Ykbmw, and Kauserre Amu. To remedy this, he proposed reversing the order of the first few rulers in Ward's list, yielding the sequence Again, he did not attempt to assign these rulers to specific dynasties, or to isolate the rulers comprising the Fifteenth Dynasty. Nevertheless, the last five rulers in his last are identical to the last five rulers assigned to the Fifteenth Dynasty by von Beckerath.
 * 1) Ahetepre
 * 2) Nubuserre Yaʿamu
 * 3) Sekhaenre Ykbmw
 * 4) Kauserre Amu
 * 5) Mayebre Sheshi
 * 6) Meruserre Yakubher
 * 7) Seuserenre Khyan
 * 8) Auserre Apophis
 * 9) Khamudy

Kim Ryholt rejected the reconstructions of von Beckerath, Helck, and Ward. Instead, he holds that the various Hyksos rulers should all be assigned to the Fourteenth Dynasty and Fifteenth Dynasty, which reigned successively from Avaris in the Nile Delta. He also posits that two successive Native Egyptian dynasties (the sixteenth and seventeenth) governed Upper Egypt from Thebes, with a brief interlude between them when Hyksos (Fifteenth Dynasty) control extend southwards over Thebes and beyond. According to him, the Hyksos Fourteenth Dynasty was largely contemporary with the Thirteenth Dynasty, while the Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty was contemporary with the Theban Sixteenth Dynasty and Seventeenth Dynasty. One of his principal sources of evidence is again the seriation of stamp-seal amulets. His seriation resembles that of Krauss, except for a few differences in the matching of nomena with prenomena. However, unlike Krauss, he attempted to integrate his seriation of stamp-seal amulets with the portion of the Turin King List covering the Second Intermediate Period. He assigned six rulers to the fifteenth dynasty, and relegated the remainder to the Fourteenth Dynasty. He believed that the Fourteenth Dynasty rulers had all originally be listed in column 9 of the Turin King List. Since there is almost no overlap between the extant names in this king kist and those known from contemporary inscriptions and stamp-seal amulets, he had to fit most of these rulers into gaps in the extant king list and similar gaps (lacunae) in the prototype from which it was original copied.

According to Ryholt, the Fourteenth Dynasty dynasty arose organically among the West Semites of the Nile Delta as central rule by the Twelfth Dynasty collapsed. Its rulers had from the start employed standard Egyptian titles of kingship: "The Good God" before the prenomen (throne name), and "Son of Re" before the nomen (birth name).

By contrast, the Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty were foreign interlopers who originally used the title "Ruler of Foreign Lands" and only gradually adopted Egyptian titles of kingship. Khyan marked the transition between the two, initially using the title "Ruler of Foreign Lands" and later adopting standard Egyptian titles of kingship. As he and Awoserre Apophis are the only two Hyksos rulers attested south of Thebes, he places Awoserre Apophis immediately after Khyan so as to keep the domination of Thebes brief. He follows the Turin King List in identifying the last ruler of the Fifteenth Dynasty as Khamudi, and infers from the Second Kamose Stele that Apophis must have been the penultimate ruler of this dynasty. Since there is only room for six kings in the Fifteenth Dynasty, there is room for three rulers using the title the "Ruler of Foreign Lands" before Khyan. As four such rulers are known, he picks the three that he believes to be most likely, but notes that this choice is uncertain. Thus, the rulers that he places in the Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty are:

Ryholt's sequence, in turn, was heavily criticized and largely rejected by Ben-Tor, Allen, and Allen and Ben-Tor. Ben-Tor returns to the sequence proposed by Ward, which as noted above is not without its own difficulties.

Recent Developments
Several additional archaeological discoveries since the publication of Ryholt's study may bear on the sequence and chronology of the Hyksos rulers. As of 2017, no comprehensive study of the Hyksos integrating this new data is as yet available.

Perhaps the most important of these is the discovery at Tell Edfu of 41 seal impressions showing the cartouche of the Hyksos ruler Khyan together with 9 seal impressions naming the 13th Dynasty king Sobekhotep IV, in a sealed context dating to the Second Intermediate Period. These suggest that Khyan and Sobekhotep IV may have been near-contemporaries, and hence may necessitate placing Khyan much earlier in the sequence of Hyksos rulers than previously realized. However, they do not prove this to be the case since seals naming an Egyptian king could still be used for sealing long after his death. A similar ambiguity surrounds recently-published seal impressions of the Hyksos ruler Yaqub-Har from an early Eighteenth Dynasty context at Avaris, one of which was counter-sealed by the seal of a Thirteenth Dynasty official. The discovery at Avaris of a seal impression of Khyan in Local Stratum g of Area R/III, similar to those found at Tell Edfu, may prove to be chronologically more definitive, as this stratum can be dated to the mid-Second Intermediate Period. .

A totally-unexpected discovery consisted of fragments of wall reliefs from Abydos, depicting Ahmose's victory over the Hyksos at Avaris. One of these fragments seems to give the name of the opposing Hyksos ruler as "Apophis", rather than "Hamudy" as might have been expected from conventional interpretations of the Turin King List. Unfortunately, the fragments do not specify the prenomen of this "Apophis".

Finally, excavations at Tell el-Hebouwe (Tjaru) brought to light additional stelae of Aasehre Nehsy, including one bearing an inscription suggesting that he may have been a brother of Tany, herself a sister of an Apophis.

= Royal Building Activities =

The Hyksos Palaces
At Avaris, the Hyksos capital, Manfred Bietak and his colleagues from the Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut recently excavated a series of four major buildings in Area F/II. The last two of these are definitely palaces, and the same is probably true of the earlier buildings as well. Unfortunately, no epigraphic evidence was found that would allow assignment of a particular palace to a particular Hyksos ruler.

The Earliest (Middle Kingdom) Building Complex
Very little is known about the earliest structure, built directly upon the surface of the gezirah and assigned to Local Stratum e/2-1. Its remains are very scanty, and were excavated only over a very small area (Squares J26-K28). These remains were severely damaged by pits dug during the New Kingdom. Its plan resembles that of the early phase of the last palace, of Local Stratum c/2-1, and its mud-brick walls were several rows thick, suggesting that it, too, was a palace. It is only loosely dated by its excavator to the late Middle Kingdom; its precise correlation with the general stratigraphy of Avaris has not yet been determined. .

The Second Building Complex
The second structure is assigned to Local Stratum d, which is correlated with Global Phases E/3-E/2. The excavated portions consist of a series of store-rooms, which most likely belonged to another palace. Its remains were also severely damaged by robber-pits dug by looters (ancient and modern) searching for valuables, and by archaeological trial pits dug by Edouard Naville in 1895.

According to the excavator (Nicola Math), the fragmentary remains of the contents of these store-rooms include pottery, stone objects, (Egyptian) faience, and ivory. Raw materials that were once stored in these rooms include quartz, obsidian, ochre, flint, Egyptian blue, and seeds of fruits, shells, and fishbone. The pottery included 10 Egyptian imitations of Middle Cypriot White Painted Pendant Line jugs, 10 dipper juglets probably imported from the Levant, and a sistrum with a faience Hathor head. Ivory objects included a handle in the shape of a Djed-pillar covered with gold sheet, and an ivory magic knife with incised depictions of mythological animals. A particularly interesting find was a pair of stone building blocks found in the debris surrounding the burnt store-rooms. They bore an inscription referring to a Middle Kingdom official Khentikhety-wosr, and may testify to the despoliation of his tomb as a source of stone for building.

Other structures and remains are associated with these storerooms as well. Metallurgical workshops were attached to their south. To their north was a courtyard with remains of round silos, and even farther to the north were deposits of pottery and pits. These offering pits are dated to the same period as the store-rooms by the pottery which they contain, and appear to contain the relics of ritual banqueting.

This structure was destroyed by a massive conflagration, one of the few definite destructions attested in the history of Avaris. Nearly all walls were burnt to an intense red, and the upper parts either tumbled down or were deliberately levelled. All the ivory and faience objects showed the effects of fire. The rooms were largely filled with red-burnt soil.

Royal Tombs
The royal tombs of the Hyksos rulers have not been identified, and there is no extant documentary information that might assist in locating them.

Fortifications
Probable Hyksos fortifications have been identified at Heliopolis and at Tell el-Yahudiyeh, both south of Avaris in the Nile Delta.

The better-known and better-documented of these fortifications is the earthwork enclosure at Tell el-Yahudiyeh, which resembles in its general structure earthworks known throughout the Southern Levant during the contemporary Middle Bronze Age. Sir W.M.F. Petrie conducted excavations on the site in the late 1800's, and excavations were recently resumed by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. The enclosure was roughly square in shape, measuring approximately 515m by 490m. It was surrounded by an earthen embankment wall with a steep, sloping outer slope covered with plaster (a glacis). Large numbers of graves were found, that could be ascribed to the Hyksos based upon their contents. Especially noteworthy were a large number of Hyksos-style stamp-seal amulets, and a peculiar style of juglet that became known as "Tell el-Yahudiyeh ware".

An apparently-similar earthwork stood at Heliopolis, now a suburb of Cairo, into the 20th century. It appears to have been largely destroyed by modern construction activities. Very little archaeological data is available. The identification of this fortress as a Hyksos construction depends upon its similarity to the earthwork at Tell el-Yahudiyeh and the mention of Heliopolis as a Hyksos center on the Second Stele of Kamose.

=Hyksos Culture=

Hyksos Religion
Egyptian sources of the Ramesside era, approximately 250 years after the events, report that the chief deity of the Hyksos had been Seth. By then, Seth had been identified with the West Semitic storm god Ba'al Haddu, and so these reports should be understood as indicating that the chief deity of the Hyksos had been Ba'aal Haddu in his Egyptianized guise as Seth.

For instance, the "Story of Apophis and Seqenenre" (Papyrus Sallier I) notes
 * Thereupon king Apophis made Seth his lord, nor did he serve any other god in the entire land except Seth; and he built a temple of fine and enduring work beside the 'House of [king A]pophis l.p.h' and [there] he appeared [every] day to make the daily sacri[fice] to Seth, while the courtiers [of the palace] l.p.h. carried garlands, exactly as is done in the temple of Re-harakhty

Similarly, the 400-year Stela celebrates the 400th year of the rule of Seth (over the Delta?) and depicts him in the guise of the West Semitic storm god Ba'al Haddu.

Despite what the "Story of Apophis and Seqenenre" claims, the Hyksos were no monotheists. They fashioned their prenomena (throne names) with the name of Re in good Egyptian fashion, and adopted the Egyptian royal title "Son of Re". Awoserre Apophis styled himself as the scribe of Re and student of Thoth, and Aasehre Nehsy is depicted worshipping the god Benebded on a stela from Tell Hebouwe (Tjaru). Indeed, only Aa-kenen-re Apophis and Aasehre Nehsy seem to have been particularly devoted to Seth: they are the only rulers known to have used the epithet "Beloved of Seth", and Aa-kenen-re is the only ruler known to have dedicated votive gifts to Seth.

The temple of Seth to which the "Story of Apophis and Seqenenre" refers was still in active use at the time the story was written. It was one of the four primary temples of Pi-Ramesses, the 19th and 20th dynasty capital that stood just slightly northwest of where Avaris had been. The objects dedicated by Aakenenre Apophis bear further secondary or tertiary dedicatory inscriptions to Seth from later rulers, and undoubtedly stood in this temple, probably serving as the source for the idea that the temple of Seth had been built by Apophis.

Parts of the enclosure wall of this temple are still standing today, and were excavated in the early 1980's by Dorner. The earliest phase of this enclosure wall cuts into buildings of the last Hyksos stratum (D/2), and so could not have been built before the very end of the Hyksos period. Most likely, it dates to the early eighteenth dynasty. Unfortunately, the central area of the enclosure where the temple itself would have stood is now used as a cemetery, and so cannot be excavated. Even if it could be, the current ground level seems to have been eroded to below what would have been the original floor level of the temple, so no much is likely to survive. Consequently, archaeology cannot at present confirm that this temple was indeed constructed during the Hyksos period. The Hyksos practiced horse burials, and their chief deity, their native storm god, Baal, became associated with the Egyptian storm and desert god, Set.

Scribal Activity
Although the Hyksos were West Semites, almost all extant Hyksos inscriptions are in Egyptian hieroglyphic. These inscriptions were probably aimed at the Egyptian segment of the population, as there are no indications that much of the West Semitic population of the Delta could read or write hieroglyphic.

The Hyksos ruler Awoserre Apophis is known to have had at least two scribes in his service: ʿAḥmose and Atju. ʿAḥmose was responsible for copying the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus in the 33rd year of Awoserre Apophis. Atju is known from the inscription on a scribal palette donated to him by Awoserre Apophis. Both bear Egyptian names.

Two papyrii believed to have been copied under Hyksos rule are still extant: the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, and the Westcar Papyrus. The colophon of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus explicitly states that it was copied in the 33rd year of Awoserre Apophis. The colophon of the Westcar Papyrus is missing, but Miriam Lichtenheim and others suspect that it, too, was copied during the Hyksos period.

The Arts
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AApepi_Ring.png The principal surviving examples of Hyksos art consist of jewelry, stamp-seal amulets and cylinder seals. ???

Technical Innovations
The Hyksos brought several technical innovations to Egypt, as well as cultural infusions such as new musical instruments and foreign loanwords. The changes introduced include new techniques of bronze working and pottery, new breeds of animals, and new crops. In warfare, they introduced the horse and chariot, the composite bow, improved battle axes, and advanced fortification techniques. Because of these cultural advances, Hyksos rule became decisive for Egypt’s later empire in the Middle East.

=In Later Tradition=

Relationship to the Israelite Exodus
In his Against Apion, the first-century AD historian Josephus debates the synchronism between the Biblical account of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and two Exodus-like events that the Egyptian historian Manetho apparently mentions. These events are the "Expulsion of the Hyksos" at the end of the Second Intermediate Period, and the "Expulsion of the Lepers" by ???.

It is difficult to distinguish between what Manetho himself recounted, and how Josephus or Apion interpret him. Josephus identifies the Israelite Exodus with the first exodus mentioned by Manetho, when some 480,000 Hyksos "shepherd kings" (also referred to as just 'shepherds', as 'kings' and as 'captive shepherds' in his discussion of Manetho) left Egypt for Jerusalem. The mention of "Hyksos" identifies this first exodus with the Hyksos period (16th century BC).

Under the New Kingdom
Egyptian New Kingdom inscriptions and documents make occasional reference to the Hyksos. The stance taken towards them is almost invariably hostile and demeaning.

With the chaos at the end of the 19th Dynasty, the first pharaohs of the 20th Dynasty in the Elephantine Stele and the Harris Papyrus reinvigorated an anti-Hyksos stance to strengthen their nativist reaction towards the Asiatic settlers of the north, who may again have been expelled from the country. Setnakht, the founder of the 20th Dynasty, records in a Year 2 stela from Elephantine that he defeated and expelled a large force of Asiatics who had invaded Egypt during the chaos between the end of Twosret's reign and the beginning of the 20th Dynasty and captured much of their stolen gold and silver booty.

In Hellenistic Times
"Hyksos" continued to play a role in Egyptian literature as a synonym for "Asiatic" down to Hellenistic times. The term was frequently evoked against such groups as the Semites settled in Aswan or the delta. This may have led the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho to identify the coming of the Hyksos with the sojourn in Egypt of Joseph and his brothers, and led to some authors identifying the expulsion of the Hyksos with the Exodus.

The story of the Hyksos was known to the Greeks, who attempted to identify it within their own mythology with the expulsion from Egypt of Belos (Baal? ) and the daughters of Danaos, associated with the origin of the Argive Dynasty.

= Old =

Immigration by Canaanite populations preceded the Hyksos. Canaanites first appeared in Egypt towards the end of the 12th Dynasty c. 1800 BC, and either around that time or c. 1720 BC, established an independent realm in the eastern Nile Delta. The Canaanite rulers of the Delta, regrouped in the Fourteenth Dynasty, coexisted with the Egyptian Thirteenth Dynasty, based in Itjtawy. The power of the 13th and 14th Dynasties progressively waned, perhaps due to famine and plague. In about 1650 BC, both dynasties were invaded by the Hyksos, who formed the Fifteenth Dynasty. The collapse of the Thirteenth Dynasty created a power vacuum in the south, which may have led to the rise of the Sixteenth Dynasty, based in Thebes, and possibly of a local Abydos Dynasty. The Hyksos eventually conquered both, albeit for only a short time in the case of Thebes. From then on, the 17th Dynasty took control of Thebes and reigned for some time in peaceful coexistence with the Hyksos kings, perhaps as their vassals. Eventually, Seqenenre Tao, Kamose and Ahmose waged war against the Hyksos and expelled Khamudi, their last king, from Egypt c. 1550 BC.

The Hyksos practiced horse burials, and their chief deity, their native storm god, Baal, became associated with the Egyptian storm and desert god, Set. The Hyksos were a people of mixed Asiatic origin with mainly Semitic-speaking components. Although some scholars have suggested that the Hyksos contained a Hurrian component,  most other scholars have dismissed this possibility. The Hurrians spoke an isolated language, but were under Indo-European rule and influence, and Hurrian etymologies have been suggested for some Hyksos names while Indo-European etymologies have been suggested for a very few names. If a Hurrian component did indeed exist among the Hyksos, an Indo-European component becomes difficult to explain, as Indo-European peoples only exercised a significant influence upon Hurrians in Syria after the Hyksos were well established in Egypt.

The Hyksos brought several technical innovations to Egypt, as well as cultural infusions such as new musical instruments and foreign loanwords. The changes introduced include new techniques of bronze working and pottery, new breeds of animals, and new crops. In warfare, they introduced the horse and chariot, the composite bow, improved battle axes, and advanced fortification techniques. Because of these cultural advances, Hyksos rule became decisive for Egypt’s later empire in the Middle East.

Origins
As to a Hyksos "conquest", some archaeologists depict the Hyksos as “northern hordes. . . sweeping through Canaan and Egypt in swift chariots”. Yet, others refer to a "creeping conquest", that is, a gradual infiltration of migrating nomads or semi-nomads who either slowly took over control of the country piecemeal or by a swift coup d'état put themselves at the head of the existing government. In The World of the Past (1963, p. 444), archeologist Jacquetta Hawkes stated: “It is no longer thought that the Hyksos rulers... represent the invasion of a conquering horde of Asiatics... they were wandering groups of Semites who had long come to Egypt for trade and other peaceful purposes.” However, since then, it has been acknowledged by Egyptologists that the 14th Dynasty came for trade purposes while the 15th (the Hyksos) came in war.

The Hyksos kingdom was centered in the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt and was limited in size, never extending south into Upper Egypt, which was under the control of Theban-based rulers, except briefly, for about three years, at the end of Khyan's reign and the beginning of Aphophis'. The Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty rulers established their capital and seat of government at Avaris. The rule of these kings overlaps with that of the native Egyptian pharaohs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties, better known as the Second Intermediate Period. The first pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Ahmose I, finally expelled the Hyksos from their last holdout at Sharuhen in Gaza by the sixteenth year of his reign.

Scholars have taken the increasing use of scarabs and the adoption of some Egyptian forms of art by the Fifteenth Dynasty Hyksos kings and their wide distribution as an indication of their becoming progressively Egyptianized. The Hyksos used Egyptian titles associated with traditional Egyptian kingship, and took the Egyptian god Set to represent their own titulary deity. The native Egyptians viewed the Hyksos as non-Egyptian "invaders". When they were eventually driven out of Egypt, all traces of their occupation were erased. No accounts survive recording the history of the period from the Hyksos perspective, only that of the native Egyptians who evicted the occupiers, in this case the rulers of the Eighteenth Dynasty who were the direct successor of the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty. It was the latter who started and led a sustained war against the Hyksos. Some think that the native kings from Thebes had an incentive to demonize the Asiatic rulers in the North, thus accounting for the destruction of their monuments. Scholars such as John A. Wilson found that the description of the Hyksos as overpowering, irreligious foreign rulers had support from other sources.

The independent native rulers in Thebes do seem, however, to have reached a practical modus vivendi with the later Hyksos rulers. This included transit rights through Hyksos-controlled Middle and Lower Egypt and pasturage rights in the fertile Delta. One text, the Carnarvon Tablet I, relates the misgivings of the Theban ruler’s council of advisors when Kamose proposed moving against the Hyksos, whom he claimed were a humiliating stain upon the holy land of Egypt. The councilors clearly did not wish to disturb the status quo: "[W]e are at ease in our (part of) Egypt. Elephantine (at the First Cataract) is strong, and the middle (of the land) is with us as far as Cusae [near modern Asyut]. The sleekest of their fields are plowed for us, and our cattle are pastured in the Delta. Emmer is sent for our pigs. Our cattle have not been taken away… He holds the land of the Asiatics; we hold Egypt[.]"

Theoretical invasion
Manetho's account, as recorded by Josephus, describes the appearance of the Hyksos in Egypt as an armed invasion by a horde of foreign barbarians who met little resistance, and who subdued the country by military force. He records that the Hyksos burnt their cities, destroyed temples, and led women and children into slavery.

It has been claimed that new revolutionary methods of warfare ensured the Hyksos the ascendancy in their influx into the new emporia being established in Egypt's delta and at Thebes in support of the Red Sea trade. Herbert Eustis Winlock describes new military hardware, such as the composite bow, as well as the improved recurve bow, and most importantly the horse-drawn war chariot, as well as improved arrowheads, various kinds of swords and daggers, a new type of shield, mailed shirts, and the metal helmet.

In recent years the idea of a simple Hyksos migration, with little or no war, has gained support. According to this theory, the Egyptian rulers of the Thirteenth Dynasty were preoccupied with domestic famine and plague, and they were too weak to stop the new migrants from entering and settling in Egypt. Even before the migration, Amenemhat III carried out extensive building works and mining, and Gae Callender notes that "the large intake of Asiatics, which seems to have occurred partly in order to subsidize the extensive building work, may have encouraged the so-called Hyksos to settle in the delta, thus leading eventually to the collapse of native Egyptian rule."

By around 1700 BC (just over a hundred years later), Egypt was fragmenting politically, with local kingdoms springing up in the northeastern delta area. One of these was that of King Nehesy, whose capital was at Avaris; he ruled over a population consisting largely of Syro-Canaanites who had settled in the area during the 12th Dynasty, and who were probably mainly soldiers, sailors, shipbuilders and workmen. His dynasty was probably replaced by a West-Semitic-speaking Syro-Canaanite dynasty that formed the basis of the later Hyksos kingdom, able to spread southwards because of the unstable political situation while aided by "an army, ships, and foreign connections."

Josephus, quoting from the work of the historian Manetho, described more of an Egyptian assimilation to the corrupt ways of the emporia, followed by a rebellion of those who wished to perpetuate native Egyptian centered culture, rather than any kind of military struggle. "By main force they easily seized it without striking a blow; and having overpowered the rulers of the land, they then burned our cities ruthlessly, razed to the ground the temples of gods… Finally, they appointed as king one of their number whose name was Salitis. He had his seat at Memphis, levying tribute from Upper and Lower Egypt and always leaving garrisons behind in the most advantageous positions."

Recent archaeological finds at Edfu could perhaps establish that the Hyksos 15th Dynasty was already in existence at least by the mid-13th Dynasty reign of king Sobekhotep IV. In a 2011 paper by Nadine Moeller, Gregory Marouard and N. Ayers, these three scholars discuss the discovery of an important early-12th Dynasty (Middle Kingdom) administrative building in the eastern Tell Edfu area of Upper Egypt, which was in continual use into the early Second Intermediate Period until the Seventeenth Dynasty, when its remains were sealed up by a large silo court. Fieldwork by these Egyptologists in 2010 and 2011 led to the discovery of a large adjoining hall which proved to contain 41 sealings showing the cartouche of the Hyksos ruler Khyan together with 9 sealings naming the 13th Dynasty king Sobekhotep IV. The secure and sealed contexts of these seals likely demonstrate that Sobekhotep IV and Khyan were contemporaries. This would mean that the 13th Dynasty did not control all of Egypt when Sobekhotep IV acceded to power and that there was a significant overlap between the 13th and 15th Dynasties since Sobekhotep IV was only a mid-Thirteenth Dynasty ruler – although one of its most powerful kings. Therefore, Manetho's statement that the Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty violently replaced the Thirteenth Dynasty would appear as a piece of later Egyptian propaganda. This analysis of the discoveries in Edfu as well as the conclusions drawn from it are rejected by Robert Porter however, who argues that Khyan ruled much later than Sobekhotep IV and that the seals of a pharaoh were used even long after his death.

The ceramic evidence in the Memphis-Faiyum region of Lower Egypt also argues against the presence of new invading foreigners. Janine Bourriau's excavation in Memphis of ceramic material retrieved from Lisht and Dahshur during the Second Intermediate Period shows a continuity of Middle Kingdom ceramic type wares throughout this era. She finds in them no evidence of intrusion of Hyksos-style wares. Bourriau's evidence strongly suggests that the traditional Egyptian teaching, long espoused by Manetho, that the Hyksos invaded and sacked the Memphite region and imposed their authority there, is fictitious.

Not until the beginning of the Theban wars of liberation during the Seventeenth Dynasty are Theban wares again found in the Faiyum. Some texts indicate that while the Hyksos controlled the delta region administratively, the Thebans were too busy mining gold and making money off the Red Sea trade to care. Lower Egypt and Thebes functioned autonomously, and shared limited contact with each other.

Bourriau argues that Manetho's description of Hyksos rule is confirmed by the evidence in the Kamose texts: Kamose's rejection of vassal status, the strict control of the border at Cusae, the imposition of taxes on all Nile traffic, and the existence of garrisons of Asiatics led by Egyptian commanders.

By the Thirteenth Dynasty, the "foreign warlords" had taken the title pharaoh for themselves and had begun to fight over it. Some argued there was no need to pay tribute, homage or obedience to a weak king, and that began to cause problems.

Supporters of the peaceful takeover of Egypt claim there is little evidence of battles or wars in general in this period. They also maintain that the chariot didn't play any relevant role, e.g. no traces of chariots have been found at the Hyksos capital of Avaris, despite extensive excavation.

As the chariot became an important weapon of the nobles and kings of that period, it became a symbol of power throughout Eurasia, Mycenaean Greece, India, Mesopotamia, Eastern Europe and China. Kings were portrayed on chariots, went to war in chariots, and were buried in chariots.