Hyksos

The Hyksos (/ˈhɪksɒs/; Egyptian ḥqꜣ(w)-ḫꜣswt, Egyptological pronunciation: heqa khasut, 'ruler(s) of foreign lands'; Ancient Greek: Ὑκσώς, Ὑξώς) were a people of diverse origins, possibly from Western Asia, who settled in the eastern Nile Delta some time before 1650 BC. The arrival of the Hyksos led to the end of the Thirteenth Dynasty and initiated the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt. In the context of Ancient Egypt, the term 'Asiatic' refers to people native to areas east of Egypt.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 . 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 The Hyksos (/ˈhɪksɒs/; Egyptian ḥqꜣ(w)-ḫꜣswt, Egyptological pronunciation: heqa khasut, 'ruler(s) of foreign lands'; Ancient Greek: Ὑκσώς, Ὑξώς) were a people of diverse origins, possibly from Western Asia, who settled in the eastern Nile Delta some time before 1650 BC. The arrival of the Hyksos led to the end of the Thirteenth Dynasty and initiated the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt. In the context of Ancient Egypt, the term 'Asiatic' refers to people native to areas east of Egypt. Immigration by Canaanite populations preceded the Hyksos. Canaanites first appeared in Egypt at the end of the 12th Dynasty c. 1800 BC or c. 1720 BC and established an independent realm in the eastern Nile Delta. The Canaanite rulers of the Delta regrouped and founded the Fourteenth Dynasty, which coexisted with the Egyptian Thirteenth Dynasty and was based in Itjtawy. The power of the 13th and 14th Dynasties progressively waned, perhaps due to famine and plague. In about 1650 BC, the Hyksos invaded the territory of both dynasties and established the Fifteenth Dynasty. The collapse of the Thirteenth Dynasty caused 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 practised horse burials, and their chief deity, their native storm god, Hadad, they associated with the Egyptian storm and desert god, Set. The Hyksos were a mixed people of mainly Semitic-speaking origin. The Hyksos brought several technical innovations to Egypt, as well as cultural imports 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. These cultural advances received from the Hyksos became a decisive factor in Egypt's later success in building an empire in the Middle East during the New Kingdom. The term 'Hyksos' derives from the Egyptian expression heqau khaswet (or heqa-khaset; 'rulers foreign lands'), used in Egyptian texts such as the Turin King List to describe the rulers of neighbouring lands. This expression begins to appear as early as the late Old Kingdom of Egypt to refer to various Nubian chieftains and in the Middle Kingdom to refer to the Semitic-speaking chieftains of Syria and Canaan. Unique in the Ancient Greek language, the word ὑκσώς (trasl. hyksόs, with the rough breathing and the final grave accent on the omega) is said to derive from Egyptian. It is used with the unique meaning of 'king shepherd' by Manetho (in Ios. Ap. I,14), a third-century BC priest and historian who wrote in Greek and knew the pre-Ptolemaic documents, to support his history.Until the decipherment of hieroglyphics Manetho was the only available source for a list of the Egyptian kings. As a proof of its non-Greek origin, the word ὑκσώς (hyksōs) does not observe the rules of Ancient Greek accent, and is one of the few Greek words with a kappa followed by a sigma, instead of the more common xi. 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 (ca. 300 BC) apparently mentions. 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). Josephus provides the earliest recorded instance of the much repeated false etymology of the term Hyksos, as a Hellenised form of the Egyptian phrase Hekw Shasu, meaning 'Shepherd Kings'. Scholars have only recently shown that the term derives from heqa-khase, a phrase meaning 'rulers of foreign lands'.