Origins of the Hyksos

An image representing the Egyptian pharaoh Ahmose I defeating the Hyksos in battle.

The origins for the term "Hyksos" derives from the Egyptian expression heka khasewet ("rulers of foreign lands"), used in Egyptian texts such as the Turin King List to describe the rulers of neighbouring lands. This expression begins to appear as early as the late Old Kingdom in Egypt, referring to various Nubian chieftains; and as early as the Middle Kingdom, referring to the Semitic chieftains of Syria and Canaan. It is generally accepted that only the six kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty are properly to be called "Hyksos", because not only do they bear Egyptian royal titles, but they are specifically called Hyksos by Manetho. The Turin Canon king list affirms there were 6 Hyksos rulers but only 4 of them are known with any certainty: Sakir-Har, Khyan, Apophis and Khamudi. Khyan and Apophis are by far the best attested kings of this dynasty whereas Sakir-Har is attested by only a single door jamb from Avaris which bears his royal titulary.

The names, the order, and even the total number of the Fifteenth Dynasty rulers are not known with any certainty. The names appear in hieroglyphs on monuments and small objects such as jar lids and scarabs. In those instances in which Prenomen and Nomen do not occur together on the same object, there is no certainty that the names belong together as the two names of a single person. The Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt sums up the complex situation by stating that "there are only vague indications of the origin of the Fifteenth Dynasty" and concurring that the small number of surviving names of the Fifteenth Dynasty are "too few to allow for general conclusions" about the Hyksos' background in his 1997 study of the Second Intermediate Period. Furthermore, Ryholt stresses that:

"we also lack positive indications that any of the rulers of the Fifteenth Dynasty were related by blood, and, accordingly we could be dealing with a dynasty of mixed ethnic origin."

Manetho's history of Egypt is known only through the works of others, such as Against Apion by Flavius Josephus. These sources do not list the names of the six rulers in the same order. To complicate matters further, the spellings are so distorted that they are useless for chronological purposes; there is no close or obvious connection between the bulk of these names — Salitis, Beon or Bnon, Apachnan or Pachnan, Annas or Staan, Apophis, Assis or Archles — and the Egyptian names that appear on scarabs and other objects.

Two otherwise unknown Hyksos pharaohs are mentioned in archaeological remains. The hieroglyphic names of these Fifteenth Dynasty rulers exist on monuments, scarabs, and other objects.

1. Sa-kha-en-ra Shalik (Each name is only found separately.)
2. Mer-woser-ra Yaqub-har (Both names are found together on one scarab.) The element Yaqub is the same Hebrew/Canaanite name as Biblical Jacob.

Identification as Hurrians or Indo-Europeans

The German Egyptologist Wolfgang Helck once argued that the Hyksos were part of massive and widespread Hurrian and Indo-Aryan migrations into the Near East. According to Helck, the Hyksos were Hurrians and part of a Hurrian empire that, he claimed, extended over much of Western Asia at this period. Most scholars have rejected this theory and Helck has himself now abandoned this hypothesis in a 1993 article.

The Georgian and Russian professors, T. V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov mention the Armenian leader Hayk combined with Hayasa, strongly resembling the Hyksos.

Identification as Asiatic Semites

It is usually assumed that the Hyksos were likely Semites who came from the Levant (ie. Syria or Palestine) although this has not been proven beyond all doubt. Kamose's explicit statement about the Asiatic origins of Apophis is the strongest evidence for a Canaanite background for the majority of the Hyksos. Kamose, the last king of the Theban 17th Dynasty, refers to Apophis as a "Chieftain of Retjenu (i.e., Canaan)" in a stela which implies a Canaanite background for this Hyksos king. Khyan's name "has generally been interpreted as Amorite "Hayanu" (reading h-ya-a-n) which the Egyptian form represents perfectly, and this is in all likelihood the correct interpretation." Ryholt furthermore observes the name Hayanu is recorded in the Assyrian king-lists for a "remote ancestor" of Shamshi-Adad I (c.1800 BC) of Assyria, which suggests that it had been used for centuries prior to Khyan's own reign.

The issue of Sakir-Har's name, one of the three earliest 15th Dynasty kings, also leans towards a West Semitic or Canaanite origin for the Hyksos rulers--if not the Hyksos peoples themselves. As Ryholt notes, the name Sakir Har:

is evidently a theophorous name compounded with hr, Canaanite harru, [or] 'mountain.' This sacred or deified mountain is attested in at least two other names which are both West Semitic (Ya'qub-Har and Anar-Har) and so there is reason to suspect that the present name also may be West Semitic. The element skr seems to be identical with śkr, 'to hire, to reward', which occurs in several Amorite names. Assuming that śkr takes a nominal form as in the names sa-ki-ru-um and sa-ka-ŕu-um, the name should be transliterated as either Sakir-Har or Sakar-Har. The former two names presumably mean 'the Reward' Accordingly, the name here under consideration would mean 'Reward of Har.'

Identification as the Biblical Hebrews

Josephus and Apion

In his Against Apion, the 1st-century AD historian Josephus Flavius debates the synchronism between the Biblical account of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and two Exodus-like events that the Egyptian historian Manetho apparently mentions. It is difficult to distinguish between what Manetho himself recounted, and how Josephus or Apion interpret him.

Josephus identifies the Israelite Exodus with the first exodus mentioned by Manetho, when some 480,000 Hyksos "shepherds" left Egypt for Jerusalem. The mention of "Hyksos" identifies this first exodus with the Hyksos period (16th century BC). If Manetho mentioned "Jerusalem", it may correspond with the Biblical account when Israelites under Joshua defeated the army of Jerusalem's city-king (Joshua 10:23).

Apion, with anti-Jewish bias, identifies a second exodus mentioned by Manetho when a renegade Egyptian priest called Osarseph led 80,000 "lepers" to rebel against Egypt. Apparently Manetho conflates events of the Amarna period (in the 14th century) and the events at the end of the 19th Dynasty (12th century). Then Apion additionally conflates these with the Biblical Exodus, and contrary to Manetho, even alleges that this heretic priest changed his name to Moses. Many scholars interpret "lepers" and "leprous priests" non-literally: not as a disease but rather as a strange and unwelcome new belief system.

Josephus records the earliest account of the false but understandable etymology that the Greek phrase Hyksos stood for the Egyptian phrase Hekw Shasu meaning the Bedouin-like "Shepherd Kings", which scholars have only recently shown means "foreign rulers".

Some scholars, while continuing to promulgate the idea of a Hyksos conquest of Egypt, assert that Josephus inaccurately associated the Hyksos with the ancient Israelites. This is primarily due to the fact that there is little or no information from ancient Egyptian sources to fill in the records of the period covering the thirteenth through the seventeenth dynasties. Based on random bits of information, Egyptian folk lore, and much conjecture, some historians conclude that during the fifteenth and sixteenth dynasties Egypt was under the domination of the Hyksos, and assume that a waning of native Egyptian power was limited to only the thirteenth and fourteenth dynasties.

As to a Hyksos “conquest,” some archaeologists depict the Hyksos as “northern hordes . . . sweeping through Palestine and Egypt in swift chariots.” Yet, others refer to a ‘creeping conquest,’ that is, a gradual infiltration of migrating nomads or seminomads who either slowly took over control of the country piecemeal or by a swift coup d’etat put themselves at the head of the existing government. In The World of the Past (1963, p. 444), archaeologist Jaquetta Hawkes states: “It is no longer thought that the Hyksos rulers... represent the invasion of a conquering horde of Asiatics... they were wandering groups of Semites who had long come to Egypt for trade and other peaceful purposes.” However, this view, still makes it difficult to explain how “wandering groups” could have gained control of Egypt, especially since the twelfth dynasty, prior to this period, is considered to have brought the country to a peak of power.

From the discussion above, it is evident that there is considerable confusion, not only in ancient Egyptian history, but also among its modern interpreters concerning the Hyksos Period. Consequently, no concrete conclusion about the validity of this period can be reached. However, it may be that Manetho’s account, as quoted by Josephus, is simply a garbled Egyptian tradition. It should never be forgotten that the recording of history in Egypt, as in many Near Eastern lands, was inseparably linked with its priesthood, under whose tutelage the scribes were trained. So it would not be unusual if, in an effort to rewrite history, the scribes and priests invented some propagandistic explanation to account for the utter failure of the Egyptian gods to prevent the disaster that the Hebrew god brought upon Egypt and its people. In the pages of history, even recent history, there are many examples of such gross misrepresentation—the oppressed are depicted as the oppressors, and innocent victims as dangerous and cruel aggressors.

Jacobovici's Exodus Decoded

A 2006 documentary created by Jewish Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici (and fellow producer James Cameron), which explores new evidence in favor of the account of the Book of Exodus, "Exodus Decoded" (The History Channel, aired 20 August 2006), investigates Egyptian records concerning the departure of the mysterious Semitic Hyksos.

These arguments are similar to, but not taken from, the proposal by Ralph Ellis, in his books Jesus, Last of the Pharaohs (1998) and Tempest & Exodus (2002), where he linked the Biblical Exodus with Pharaoh Ahmose I and the volcanic eruption of Santorini. One of Ellis' main arguments, is that both the Israelites and the Hyksos were identified with 'shepherd' symbolism.

Jacobovici also identifies the Hyksos as the Biblical Hebrews (whom he calls "Amo Israel", meaning, "His" - i.e., God's - "people Israel"). He supports this thesis with Egyptian-style signet rings uncovered in the Hyksos capital of Avaris. These signets read Yaqob, similar to Hebrew/Canaanite name of the Biblical patriarch Jacob (יעקב Ya'aqov). Also, Jacobovici suggests the name of the city itself, Avaris, may derive from the Hebrew/Canaanite word ivri (עברי), meaning "Hebrew", which is often identified with the Habiru/Apiru. Today, the ruins of the ancient city is Tell el-Yahudiyeh, which is Arabic for "city-mound of the Jews". The archaeological site is known for its distinctive black-and-white ceramic pottery.

Thus, the Biblical Pharaoh whom Moses confronts would be Pharaoh Ahmose I who expelled the Hyksos and founded the 18th Dynasty of Egypt in his view.

Jacobovici endorses the theory that the cataclysmic eruption of the volcano at the island of Thera/Santorini, which apparently ended Minoan civilization, may also be identified with the Biblical account of the plagues against Egypt. Currently Minoan radiocarbon dating for this eruption at roughly 1623 BC ±25 contradicts the Egyptian chronology placement at around 1550 BC. Controversially, Jacobivici redates this eruption later, to around 1500 BC, and while not impossible, that is difficult because it requires the redating of Egyptian chronology and the synchronous East Mediterranean events (which may need redating anyway because of the conflicting dates of the eruption).

Jacobovici suggests some of the Hyksos who fled Egypt (understood as "Hebrews") were Mycenaean Greeks who returned to Greece. Thus, images on certain Mycenaean tombs may depict the volcanic and seismic disasters that occurred in Egypt, including a tidal wave corresponding to Moses' "parting the Sea of Reeds". Even more daring is the claim that certain Mycenaean images in gold foil depict the Ark of the Covenant and the sacrificial altar that Israelites used in their religious ceremonies.

The academic response to the Jacobovici documentary is sceptical (e.g., [1]), noting that while at least some of the its claims are plausible, they are weakly supported and require rigorous scholarship to deal with serious problems that the archaeological evidence poses. Redating the established Egyptian chronology is especially disruptive as it underpins the chronologies of many surrounding ancient cultures. The Jewish historian Israel Finkelstein from Tel Aviv University (former director of the Institute of Archaeology there) explains that one can appropriately speak of Jewish people as a distinct population of Canaan only from the final decades of the XIIIth century ("The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts"), contradicting the biblical (and Jacobovici) chronology of the event (Exodus).