The Expulsion of the Hyksos
Tel Habuwa excavations reveal the conquest of Tjaru by Ahmose I
“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
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.
Archaeological discoveries at Tel Habuwa (also known as Tell el-Habua or Tell-Huba), a site associated with ancient Tjaru (Tharo), shed 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.
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.
FREE ebook: Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus.
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.
Learn more about the fortress excavated at Tel Habuwa—the largest discovered to date in Egypt.
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.
This Bible History Daily feature was originally published in March 2013.
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Manetho’s misidentification of the Hyksos with the Israelites is one of the ancient origins of anti-semitism.
We don’t know where the Hyksos went, and maybe they were Amalek. But they certainly didn’t go to Jerusalem.
Ralph sounds correct.
The dependence on Josephus, I suspect is a big problem in solving the massaged and kernel promoted by modern Biblical Archaeology. It might have sufficed for 1st century AD scholars and perhaps those up to the 20th century, but in the 21th with so much more archaeological evidence and understanding. I can’t accept any work that is promoting history according or referencing Josephus, I am sorry.
Josephus left us vast amounts of information and it is not reasonable to reject it altogether. However, he and Manetho seem to have been wrong in conflating the Hyksos with the Israelites. The Hebrews were apparently slaves in Egypt; the Hyksos were rulers/elites. The Hebrews seem to have left Egypt during a time of extraordinary natural disasters; the Hyksos seem to have entered Egypt during the same time of catastrophe–the blast of divine or heavenly displeasure mentioned by Manetho-Josephus. This would explain how the Hyksos took over Egypt–they took advantage of Egypt’s weakened condition. I suggest reading ‘Ages in Chaos’ by Velikovsky (a great pioneer, despite his errors) to see many reasons for identifying the Hyksos with the Amalekites. Early Islamic historians mentioned Amalekite pharaohs of Egypt.
There is obviously a deep confusion that stems from the analysis of a text that is mythical, homiletical, political and historical simultaneously. (ie – the Bible!!!)
Having said that, I would offer the following:
The expulsion of the Hyksos is a MAJOR event in Egyptian history. Whether it coincides precisely with the Thera eruption or not, it nevertheless presents a milestone event in the history of that people.
There is simply no other event on record that could be identified as the actual Exodus of the Bible without resorting to all sorts of apologetics. The Exodus described in the Bible is not some minor slave revolt or rebellion. It is not an event that could be categorically ignored by later Egyptian historians and chroniclers. To be the Exodus of the bible it has to be a major, epoch shifting event for the Egyptian State.
Having said that – the real question is in understanding the relationship of the Israelites to the Hyksos.
The term Hyksos has been loaded with derogatory connotations since it was first mentioned in the classical literature. There is obviously a reluctance to associate the cursed Hyksos with the pure lamb of Israel. But we need to see beyond that.
I propose the following hypothesis:
As the Egyptian State reorganized itself into the command structure of the 12th Dynasty, famine swept through the near east causing the mass migration of pastoralist peoples into the Nile Delta region. (that’s nothing new)
Eventually these pastoralists outnumbered the local Egyptian population, a struggle ensued and these pastoralists became the new masters of Lower Egypt.
These pastoralists, however, did not remain pastoralists, but rather, they became thoroughly Egyptianized. The Hyksos (ie shepherd-king/foreign-king) state was built on the exact same principles as the 12th Dynasty state – one based on the mass enslavement of the population to a supreme central authority.
The slaves of the Hyksos regime were obviously, from amongst the descendants of the original migrants – the same origin as the ruling class.
ie – the “Israelites” were both the evil Hyksos rulers and their poor oppressed slaves.
Because more than a history – the Bible is politics – and revolutionary politics at that. It is at its core an argument for a different mode of social organization – and Egypt sits as the paradigm of the most despotic system imaginable.
The slavery that the Bible describes in the Egyptian system is not really some special situation in Egyptian history – rather – it is the default position of Egyptian history. the slide of the Israelites into slavery, while depicted as a vicious and calculated plot of an evil mastermind, was actually the inevitable result of remaining within the Egyptian society.
With each passing generation the community becomes more assimilated and beyond the loss of so called cultural values – language, dress, etc, comes the streamlining into the bureaucratic state machine. Which means a few individuals will become the ruling landed class, and the rest will be sold off their land into permanent destitution.
That is Egypt.
That is civilization.
That is the slavery that the Bible describes.
That is the mode of social organization that the Bible’s legal structure years to overturn.
I think Yoram makes a good point. What I would like to know is, which God did the Hyksos worship? I also read somewhere that the great pyramid in Egypt was built by the Hyksos as an alter to YHWH. I have been reading lately about biblical characters originally being Egyptian, if there is any truth in this, then this is where it may have originated from. After all Moses did rule in Egypt and so did Joseph, it’s a very interesting discussion.
I just thought you might find this interesting.
“The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt” by Shaw and Nicholson, British Museum Press, 1995
HYKSOS CHRONOLOGY
CA 1860-1430 BCE
ca1860
First wave of Hyksos (Israelites) enter country
ca1765
Joseph is made Grand Vizier
Second wave of Hyksos (Israelites)
Title to all land acquired by Pharaoh
People become slaves
20% tax on all produce imposed
Best land allotted to Hyksos (Israelites)
ca1684
Hyksos (Babylonians) invasion
Set up headquarters at Avaris
Retain Hyksos (Israelites) administration
ca1536
Egyptians revolt
Hyksos (Babylonian) army driven out
Hyksos (Israelites) made slaves
ca1430
Hyksos (Israelites) flee the country
Why would a ruling or elite nation falsify a history with themselves de-glorified as slaves?
And why would The Egyptians record a slave nation as rulers/elites?
Maybe the second question could be answered, but the first seems more difficult. Maybe recording slaves as powerful would lessen the embarrassment of a defeat or loss of a slave population.
Maybe even the first question could be made to agree with the Bible if it was referring to the beginning of Israelite settlement, as the first Pharoah is described as honoring them.
When Moses and the Israelites left Egypt (The Exodus) they were travelling roughly eastwards. The were attacked by the Amalekites (Arab tribal group) travelling westwards towards Egypt. They were Arabs from Arabia and were the the Amalekites called Amu by the Egyptians but later called Hyksos by the Greeks. They were able to enter mighty Egypt and take over simply because Egypt had just been laid waste by the Ten Plagues – the same disasters which allowed the Israelites to flee Egypt. Dr Velikovsky has explained all this 50 years ago in his book “Ages in Chaos” . Ahmose was “the Egyptian Prince” who was an ally of King Saul when he besieged Avaris (el-Arish). As a result, Egypt and Israel were allies for a very long period. The Philistines were foreign to the area and were allied to the Amalekites and lasted longer before being finally defeated by King David and being absorbed into the Israelite people. The Hebrew period of “Judges” was the same period that the Hyksos ruled Egypt.. Queen (Sheba) Hatshepsut was a contemporary of King Solomon who visited the “Wise King of Punt” (Holy Land) and became his lover and whose son became Regent of the Egyptian province of Ethiopia and that dynasty lasted until well into our own lifetime. That dynasty bore the title of Lion of Judah even though they became Christians. If you get the dates all correct then you will have various histories co-ordinated and synchronised with the Hebrew Bible.
Mervyn Kersh
IF the Hyksos were “Shepherd Kings” and the Egyptian memory of them being traumatic, perhaps this is the source of the mistrust that the Egyptians had for the Hebrews under Jacob that Joseph seemed to mention when the Egyptians ate seperately from the Hebrews.