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.
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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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This events with Hyksos happened by 1510/1500 BCE and exodus took place at 1405.march.31/30 BCE.
When Solomon began building the Temple in Yerusalem by 968/7.april.17 BCE he did talk with king of tyro and sidon.
Josephus (flavius because he was caught by roman tribune/proconsul lucius flavius silva) was forced by this man to write his books under roman point of view, against Josephus ideas and purposes, for what counted for was roman point of view.
Hyksos were semitic, phoenicians were camites (canaanites)
The Hyksos had a capital at Saruhen. The Greeks called them Karnites, translated as Phonecians; northern pre-phonecians. The city of Karne is modern Tartus in Syria.
The Hyksos were probably the pre-Noachian kings in Genesis. With names like Merrusere(like Methusaleh), and Khyan(like Cainan), and Yanassi(like Enosh), and Aper-Anat(like Abel), and Salatis(like Set), and Sakir-har(like Mahalel, transcription error, s for m).
***
The mention of Abraham is a little out of time, that’s more like Abiranu II from Ugarit, with Tudhaliya 4(Tidal), and Kuder-enlil(Chedor-laomer, n-l reversed).
The expulsion of the Hyksos occurred in 1533 BCE (https://www.academia.edu/2414447)
The three Hyksos dynasties (XIV, XV, XVI) ruled Egypt from approximately 1750 to 1530 BCE, disappearing abruptly after the death of pharaoh Seqenenre Taa (XVII). Egyptian documents are unanimous in describing the catastrophic departure of the Hyksos from Egypt to Canaan. Modern Egyptologists have imagined a “War of the Hyksos”, but no document speaks of a war, only that Avaris, the Hyksos capital, was plundered and vandalized after their departure. Moreover, all the accounts of ancient historians present the Hyksos as the ancestors of the Hebrews, led to Canaan by Moses. Moreover, both Biblical and Egyptian chronologies date the Hyksos departure to 1533 BCE, implying the coincidence of these two dramatic events. The only way to date the so-called “War of the Hyksos” is 1) to use all historical and archaeological documents on the Hyksos, 2) to establish a relative chronology of the ” War of the Hyksos “, 3) to identify who was the Hyksos Apopi (last king of dynasty XV) and his links with the biblical Moses, 4) determine where the Hyksos came from and where they were going, 5) date the “War of the Hyksos” according to Egyptian chronology using astronomically-dated synchronisms, and date the Exodus according to Israelite chronology (based on the Masoretic text), verified by absolute dates.
According to Egyptian documents, the last king of the XVth Dynasty, named Apopi, “very handsome” in Hebrew, which is the birth name of Moses (Ex 2:2), reigned 40 years in Egypt, from 1613 to 1573 BCE, 40 years later, Apopi met Seqenenre Taa, the last pharaoh of the XVIIth Dynasty, and conveyed to him an unspecified disturbing message. Seqenenre Taa’s eldest son, Ahmose Sapair, who was crown prince, died a dramatic and unexplained death shortly before his father. Seqenenre Taa died in May 1533 BCE, after 11 years of reign, in dramatic and unclear circumstances. The condition of his mummy, however, proves that his body suffered severe injuries and lay abandoned for several days before being mummified (see Psalm 136:15). Prince Kamose, brother of Seqenenre Taa, assumed interim authority for 3 years and threatened to attack the former pharaoh Apopi, the new prince of Retenu (South of Canaan). In the Tempest stele, he also blames Apopi for all the disasters that have befallen Egypt, causing many deaths.
There is another forgotten aspect to the tale. One would suppose it to be a part of the treasure hunt.
Everyone seems to forget Thira, the Greek island that exploded and collapsed into the sea leaving an exposed caldera over a hundred times larger than Krakatoa. The immediate reaction among the Greek islands would have resembled Yakutat in the 1960s on steroids. It would have been the flood of Daedalus. This event is thought to have occurred around the 16th century BC. Unlike the much smaller Krakatoa which was open to a great ocean, the much greater Thira in the enclosed environment of the Mediterranean would have produced a lake effect on an unimaginable scale. All the sea ports and coastal plains would have been repeatedly inundated. This would have included the North Kingdom of Egypt. This would have been the perfect opportunity for a revolution from the South.
This is something to consider. Also, for reference, the much tinier Yakutat wiped the neighboring cliffs to nearly 2,000 feet.