Origins of the Hyksos (1) 0 - 5m 27s

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Isotope Data On the Hyksos.

From the article at journal.plos.org,

"Who were the Hyksos?

"Challenging traditional narratives

"using strontium isotope analysis

of human remains from ancient Egypt."

Introduction.

A foreign dynasty, known as the "Hyksos,"

ruled parts of Egypt

between circa 1638 to 1530 BCE.

Their origins are thought
to be rooted in the Near East,

which is supported
by architectural features

and grave accouterments of Tell el-Dab'a.

In this former Hyksos capital
in the eastern Nile Delta,

burial culture is characterized
by a blend of Egyptian

and Near Eastern elements.

However, investigations are still ongoing

as to where the Hyksos came from

and how they rose to power.

The narrative of how the Hyksos,

15th Dynasty of ancient Egypt,

rose to rule, is apocryphal.

The Ptolemaic priest Manetho
was for centuries the only account

of their rise, rule, and fall.

Living approximately 12 centuries
after the Hyksos dynasty,

Manetho described the Hyksos rulers

as leading an invading force,
sweeping in from the northeast

and conquering
the northeastern Nile Delta

during the Second Intermediate Period,

in a time when Egypt as a country
was vulnerable.

Manetho's account
only survived in the works

of later historians
such as Flavius Josephus,

and, however biased and unreliable,

was the solitary known source

of the Hyksos for centuries.

Even after the decipherment
of hieroglyphs,

sources for the Hyksos rulers
remained scarce and unreliable

due to the ancient Egyptian
stately customs

of censorship and propaganda.

Hyksos became a part of the "topoi"

depicting disorder and chaos,

whose ritual killing
was the Pharaohs' way to maintain order

and legitimize power.

Western scholars further
entangled the origins of the Hyksos

with race-based science
mired in imperialism

and Orientalism,
conflating the Hyksos rulers

to represent an entire ethnic group

that further confused pursuits
to investigate the origins

of the 15th-Dynasty rulers.

During this paper, we only refer

to the dynastic rulers as the "Hyksos,"

not the elite attendant to the rulers,

nor that ethnic group
with which they are associated.

With the discovery
of the ancient Hyksos capital

at the archeological site of Tell el-Dab'a

and five decades of excavation,

including several cemetery sites,

an opportunity arises
to investigate the circumstances

in which the Hyksos rose to rule.

The last decades of research
have produced evidence

clearly pointing toward a Near Eastern
origin of the ruling class

known as the "Hyksos," notably borne out

by shared, non-Egyptian features
of ceramic types,

burial customs,
adornment, weapons,

as well as domestic
and cultic architecture,

though not the foreign elite
arriving directly

from foreign lands as Manetha recounted,

but people of non-Egyptian ethnicity

who were born and raised in the Delta.

To date, no tomb known
to belong to a Hyksos ruler

has been excavated,

but this wealth of new material
and insights

allows direct comparison
with the Levant

and the wider Near East
in a significant step forward

towards explaining cultural trends
and geographic provenance

of people associated with the Hyksos

and the background of their migration

into the northeastern Nile Delta.

The archeological evidence

also does not support Manetho's narrative
of the Hyksos

as leading an invading force
sweeping in from the northeast

to rule as Egypt's first foreign dynasty.

Instead, it is suggested that those
who became Hyksos rulers

were descended from Asiatics

who had been living in Egypt
for generations.

The site of Tell el-Dab'a.

The examination of individuals

buried in the cemeteries of Tell el-Dab'a

offers the opportunity
to directly assess the origins

of these residents

and assess questions relating to timing

and mechanisms
of the Hyksos's rise to rule.

The site, located
in the northeastern Nile Delta,

has revealed a stratigraphy

extending over a 500 year period.

This settlement was founded
in the 12th dynasty,

and was known from the 13th dynasty
onwards as "Hutwaret."

During the Middle Kingdom,

this city was an administrative center
and a harbor city

that grew in power
to finally become the capital

of the regional Hyksos kingdom,

then known as "Avaris."