Hyksos in Egypt: Foreign Kings of the Second Intermediate Period

The Hyksos were a line of kings of West Asian origin who ruled northern Egypt from their capital at Avaris in the eastern Nile Delta, roughly 1650–1550 BC. Known to Egyptologists as the Fifteenth Dynasty, they were the first foreign rulers to hold a large part of Egypt. Their century of power, and the war that ended it, shaped the militaristic New Kingdom that followed.

Who were the Hyksos?

The word Hyksos comes, through Greek, from the Egyptian phrase heqau khasut, “rulers of foreign lands”. The Egyptians used it for chiefs of foreign peoples long before it became the label for a dynasty. Manetho, an Egyptian priest writing in Greek in the 3rd century BC, translated it as “shepherd kings”, a popular but mistaken interpretation preserved by the later historian Josephus.

The kings themselves bore Semitic names, such as Khyan, Sakir-Har and Khamudi, and their culture had strong links with the Middle Bronze Age city-states of the Levant (Canaan and Syria). They were not a single “race” or invading nation but the leaders of a mixed population of Levantine origin that had settled in the Delta.

Background: the Second Intermediate Period

During the late Twelfth Dynasty, Egypt welcomed growing numbers of people from the Levant as soldiers, sailors, craftsmen and labourers. Many settled in the eastern Delta, near the routes to Sinai and Canaan, at a town that became Avaris.

Under the Thirteenth Dynasty, royal authority weakened, with many short reigns. By about 1700–1650 BC Egypt had split into rival centres. A local dynasty based at Avaris, sometimes called the Fourteenth Dynasty, controlled part of the Delta. Around 1650 BC the rulers later known as the Hyksos took power there and extended their control over Lower Egypt and Memphis.

According to the Turin King List, six Hyksos kings ruled for a total of 108 years. In the south, Theban kings of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties held Upper Egypt, while in Nubia the Kerma kingdom took over the old Egyptian fortresses.

Avaris and the excavations at Tell el-Dab’a

Avaris has been identified with Tell el-Dab’a, a group of mounds in the eastern Delta. The Austrian Archaeological Institute, under Manfred Bietak, has excavated there since 1966, making it one of the longest-running digs in Egypt.

The finds show a large and prosperous city with houses, temples and tombs of Near Eastern rather than Egyptian type. Burials were often placed within settlements, some with donkeys laid at the tomb entrance, and grave goods included Levantine pottery and bronze weapons such as daggers and axes. Pottery and other imports show trade with Cyprus, the Levant and the Aegean.

In the late Hyksos and early New Kingdom levels, the excavators found large palace complexes. In 2011 the team announced the discovery of pits near one palace containing the bones of severed right hands, which they linked to the later Egyptian custom of cutting off a hand from defeated enemies to count them and reward soldiers. The find suggests that this practice, known from New Kingdom texts and reliefs, may have had roots in the Hyksos period.

The city also shows how mixed its population was. Egyptian-style objects and inscriptions appear side by side with Levantine burial customs, and the town grew to cover an estimated 250 hectares at its height, making it one of the largest cities of the eastern Mediterranean world at the time.

A study published in 2020, which analysed strontium isotopes in teeth from Tell el-Dab’a burials, found that many people buried there had grown up outside the area. The researchers argued that this supports a gradual rise to power by an immigrant population rather than a sudden conquest from outside.

Hyksos kings, trade and technology

Khyan is one of the best-attested Hyksos kings. Objects bearing his name have been found far beyond Egypt, including an alabaster lid at the Palace of Knossos on Crete and a granite lion acquired in Baghdad, now in the British Museum. Seal impressions of Khyan excavated at Edfu in Upper Egypt suggest that Hyksos influence reached further south than once believed.

Apepi (Apophis) ruled for about 40 years and is the best-known Hyksos king. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus was copied in his 33rd regnal year, showing that Egyptian scribal culture continued under Hyksos rule. The Hyksos adopted Egyptian royal titles, wrote in hieroglyphs and honoured Egyptian gods, especially Seth, whom they identified with a Near Eastern storm god.

Hyksos power seems to have rested partly on networks of loyal local rulers rather than direct government everywhere. Thousands of scarab seals bearing the names of Hyksos kings and officials have been found in Egypt and the southern Levant, showing how widely their administration and trade reached.

What the Hyksos introduced

The Hyksos are often credited with bringing new technology to Egypt. Items that appear or become common around this time include:

• the horse and the light horse-drawn chariot;
• the composite bow, made of wood, horn and sinew;
• new types of bronze daggers, swords and axes;
• Levantine styles of fortification, pottery and metalwork.

How much of this was introduced directly by the Hyksos, and how much spread through general contact with the Near East, is debated. What is clear is that the Egyptians of the New Kingdom made the chariot and composite bow central to their armies.

The war with Thebes and the end of Hyksos rule

Relations between the Hyksos and Thebes may at first have been peaceful, with trade passing between them. By the mid-16th century BC war had broken out. A later Egyptian story, the Quarrel of Apepi and Seqenenre, tells of a provocative message from Apepi to the Theban king Seqenenre Tao. Seqenenre’s mummy shows severe head wounds, some consistent with weapons of Levantine type, suggesting he died in battle.

His successor Kamose campaigned north. His stelae at Karnak claim that he intercepted a letter from Apepi asking the ruler of Kush to attack Thebes from the south. Kamose’s successor, probably his younger brother, Ahmose I finally captured Avaris around 1550 BC and then besieged Sharuhen in southern Canaan for three years.

Myths and facts

The Hyksos have attracted many myths. Manetho’s account, preserved by Josephus, pictures savage invaders burning cities and temples; this reflects later Egyptian hostility, also seen in Hatshepsut’s inscription at Speos Artemidos condemning the “Asiatics” of Avaris. Josephus also identified the Hyksos with the Israelites of the Exodus story, an idea without archaeological support. Nor were they mounted horsemen sweeping across Egypt: chariots, not riders, were the new military technology.

Timeline

• c. 1800–1700 BC: Levantine communities grow at Avaris in the eastern Delta.
• c. 1650 BC: Hyksos rulers of the Fifteenth Dynasty take power in northern Egypt.
• c. 1600 BC: Reign of Khyan; objects bearing his name were later found on Crete and in Baghdad.
• c. 1590–1550 BC: Long reign of Apepi; the Rhind Papyrus is copied in his year 33.
• c. 1560 BC: Seqenenre Tao of Thebes dies, probably in battle.
• c. 1555 BC: Kamose campaigns against the Hyksos.
• c. 1550 BC: Ahmose I takes Avaris; Khamudi is the last Hyksos king.
• 1966: Austrian excavations at Tell el-Dab’a begin.

Why it matters

The Hyksos period showed that Egypt could be ruled by foreigners and left a lasting fear of invasion from the north-east. It also brought new military technology, and the war to expel the Hyksos launched the expansionist New Kingdom, when Egypt built an empire in the Levant and Nubia.