November
16th Century B.C. Expulsion
of the Hyksos
Weiner
Noah. “The Expulsion of the Hyksos.” Biblical Archaeology. 11 Feb 2014. http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/the-expulsion-of-the-hyksos/. Accessed 29 Oct 2014.
The Expulsion of the Hyksos
Tel Habuwa excavations reveal the conquest of Tjaru by Ahmose I
Noah Wiener
• 02/11/2014
“After the conclusion of the treaty
they left with their families and chattels, not fewer than two hundred and
forty thousand people, and crossed the desert into Syria. Fearing the
Assyrians, who dominated over Asia at that time, they built a city in the
country which we now call Judea. It was large enough to contain this great
number of men and was called Jerusalem.”
–Josephus, Against Apion 1.73.7, quoting Manetho’s Aegyptiaca
–Josephus, Against Apion 1.73.7, quoting Manetho’s Aegyptiaca
Excavations at Tel Habuwa, thought to be ancient Tjaru,
reveal evidence of the expulsion of the Hyksos by Ahmose I at the end of the
Second Intermediate Period.
In the Second Intermediate Period (18th-16th centuries
B.C.E.), towards the end of the Middle Bronze Age, the West Asian (Canaanite)
Hyksos controlled Lower (Northern) Egypt. In the 16th century, Ahmose I
overthrew the Hyksos and initiated the XVIII dynasty and the New Kingdom of
Egypt.
Recent archaeological discoveries
at Tel Habuwa (also known as Tell el-Habua or Tell-Huba), a site associated
with ancient Tjaru (Tharo), shed new light on Ahmose’s campaign. A daybook
entry in the famous Rhind Mathematical Papyrus notes that Ahmose seized control
of Tjaru before laying siege the Hyksos at their capital in Avaris.
Josephus identifies the Israelite Exodus with the
expulsion of the Hyksos “shepherd kings.” Read more about archaeological
evidence for the Israelites in Egypt and new scholarship on the Exodus in our FREE
eBook Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus.
Excavations at the site, located two miles east of
the Suez Canal, have uncovered evidence of battle wounds on skeletons
discovered in two-story administrative structures dating to the Hyksos and New
Kingdom occupations. The site showed evidence of burned buildings, as well as
massive New Kingdom grain silos that would have been able to feed a large
number of Egyptian troops. After Ahmose took the city and defeated the Hyksos,
he expanded the town and built several nearby forts to protect Egypt’s eastern
border. Tjaru was first discovered in 2003, but until now, the excavation only
uncovered the New Kingdom military fort and silos. This new discovery confirms
a decisive moment in the expulsion of the Hyksos previously known from textual
sources.
Tomb painting from Beni Hasan, Egypt. A figure named
Abisha and identified by the title Hyksos leads brightly garbed Semitic
clansmen into Egypt to conduct trade. Dating to about 1890 B.C.E., the painting
is preserved on the wall of a tomb carved into cliffs overlooking the Nile at
Beni Hasan, about halfway between Cairo and Luxor. In the early second
millennium B.C.E., numerous Asiatics infiltrated Egypt, some of whom eventually
gained control over Lower Egypt for about a century and a half. The governing
class of these people became known as the Hyksos, which means “Rulers of
Foreign Lands.”
The Hyksos are well known from ancient texts, and their
expulsion was recorded in later ancient Egyptian historical narratives. The
third-century B.C.E. Egyptian historian Manetho–whose semi-accurate histories
stand out as valuable resources for cataloging Egyptian kingship–wrote of the
Hyksos’ violent entry into Egypt from the north, and the founding of their
monumental capital at Avaris, a city associated with the famous excavations at Tell ed-Dab’a. After the
Hyksos were expelled from Egypt, Manetho reports that they wandered the desert
before establishing the city of Jerusalem.
While Josephus cites Manetho’s history associating
the Israelites with the Hyksos, many modern scholars see problems with
Manetho’s conflation of the expulsion of the Hyksos and the Biblical narrative.
Manetho lived many centuries after these events took place, and he may have
combined two different narratives, wittingly or unwittingly, when associating
the Hyksos and Israelites. Ahmose’s defeat of the Hyksos occurred centuries
before the traditional date of the Exodus. In addition, the basic premise of
the Hyksos and Exodus histories differ: the Hyksos were expelled rulers of
Egypt, not slaves, and they were forced out, not pursued.
The expulsion of the Hyksos may not
have been a single event, and many still read Manetho’s texts on the Hyksos
expulsion as a record of the Israelites’ Exodus. After the Hyksos were defeated
by Ahmose, some Hyksos people likely remained in Egypt, perhaps as a subjugated
class. The Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut (1489–1469 B.C.E.) recorded the banishment
of a group of Asiatics from Avaris, the former Hyksos capital. While this
second expulsion would still have been centuries before the traditional date of
the Exodus, there may exist parallels between these events and the Exodus
narrative, or the earlier Biblical accounts of Abraham, Sarah and Lot’s own
expulsion from Egypt in Genesis 12:19.
No comments:
Post a Comment