Difference between revisions of "Hyksos"
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| − | + | HYKSOS, the Greek form of an Egyptian phrase: “rulers of foreign lands”, refers to a people who arrived - possibly forcibly - into Egypt, and built their capital at Avaris in the Nile Delta area in about 1640BC during the Thirteenth Dynasty. There is uncertainty about the method of their takeover. They ruled – as the Fifteenth Dynasty - the northern third or so of Egypt until driven out by Ahmose, first pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, around 1532. The rest of the country was ruled from Thebes as the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties, however Nubians pushed up from the south and took over part of Egypt towards the end of this period and their rulers are known as the Seventeenth Dynasty. Because of the general disruption to the land of Egypt at this time, it is thought a minor branch of the Hyksos set themselves up as minor rulers, and they have been acknowledged as the Sixteenth Dynasty. | |
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| + | The Hyksos may have been of Indo-Ayrian origin, however there is also linguistic evidence that points to their speaking a semitic language, possibly even Hebrew. The sites of cities of theirs have been excavated in the Holy Land. | ||
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| + | Their historically brief domination had long lasting affects. They introduced the horse and the chariot to Egypt; and, perhaps, the upright loom, and olive. They forced the end of Egypt’s long held isolation, as the early rulers of the Eighteenth Dynasty set about creating buffer states in Palestine; and this contact with the outside world led to the flowering of culture that this Dynasty is known for. | ||
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| + | The period of their control in Egypt (1640-1532BC) is known as the Second Intermediate Period. | ||
Revision as of 03:57, May 26, 2007
HYKSOS, the Greek form of an Egyptian phrase: “rulers of foreign lands”, refers to a people who arrived - possibly forcibly - into Egypt, and built their capital at Avaris in the Nile Delta area in about 1640BC during the Thirteenth Dynasty. There is uncertainty about the method of their takeover. They ruled – as the Fifteenth Dynasty - the northern third or so of Egypt until driven out by Ahmose, first pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, around 1532. The rest of the country was ruled from Thebes as the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties, however Nubians pushed up from the south and took over part of Egypt towards the end of this period and their rulers are known as the Seventeenth Dynasty. Because of the general disruption to the land of Egypt at this time, it is thought a minor branch of the Hyksos set themselves up as minor rulers, and they have been acknowledged as the Sixteenth Dynasty.
The Hyksos may have been of Indo-Ayrian origin, however there is also linguistic evidence that points to their speaking a semitic language, possibly even Hebrew. The sites of cities of theirs have been excavated in the Holy Land.
Their historically brief domination had long lasting affects. They introduced the horse and the chariot to Egypt; and, perhaps, the upright loom, and olive. They forced the end of Egypt’s long held isolation, as the early rulers of the Eighteenth Dynasty set about creating buffer states in Palestine; and this contact with the outside world led to the flowering of culture that this Dynasty is known for.
The period of their control in Egypt (1640-1532BC) is known as the Second Intermediate Period.
