quote:CLEVELAND — A mysterious foreign dynasty that ruled ancient Egypt for about a century gained power not by force, as often thought, but by marrying into royalty, new evidence suggests.
Hyksos people, thought to have come from somewhere in West Asia, reigned as Egypt’s 15th dynasty from around 3,650 to 3,540 years ago. Although later, homegrown Egyptian pharaohs described these people as invaders, no remains of battles fought by Hyksos people against Egyptians have been found.
An influx of mostly female immigrants may have occurred at Tell el-Dab’a, the former Nile Valley Hyksos capital, shortly before the foreigners took over. “Hyksos people in Egypt appear to have been an elite group that gained power from within,” biological anthropologist Christina Stantis of Bournemouth University in Poole, England, said March 29 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
She and Bournemouth colleague Holger Schutkowski analyzed strontium in teeth from 71 individuals previously excavated at Tell el-Dab’a. Around half died within a few centuries before Hyksos rule; the rest died during the Hyksos dynasty. Measures of strontium, which gets absorbed into bones by regularly eating local plants and animals, are geographically distinct, indicating regions where people have lived.
Twenty-one of 27 females interred in elite graves dating to shortly before Hyksos rule came from outside the Nile Valley, Stantis said. Only a few nonlocal, elite males came from that time period. That female-skewed immigration fits a scenario in which Hyksos women married into Egyptian royal families, she said.
Tell el-Dab’a continued to attract high-ranking foreigners during the Hyksos dynasty, she said. About half of elite individuals, men and women alike, who died during its rule had immigrated to Tell el-Dab’a. “This was clearly an international city,” Stantis said.
Further strontium studies may locate where foreigners at Tell el-Dab’a came from.
She and Bournemouth colleague Holger Schutkowski analyzed strontium in teeth from 71 individuals previously excavated at Tell el-Dab’a. Around half died within a few centuries before Hyksos rule; the rest died during the Hyksos dynasty. Measures of strontium, which gets absorbed into bones by regularly eating local plants and animals, are geographically distinct, indicating regions where people have lived.
Twenty-one of 27 females interred in elite graves dating to shortly before Hyksos rule came from outside the Nile Valley, Stantis said. Only a few nonlocal, elite males came from that time period. That female-skewed immigration fits a scenario in which Hyksos women married into Egyptian royal families, she said.
Meaning 6 were well before, indicating a gradually increasing interest to take immigrant wives. A question that I have though, is to what extent mass immigration affected population growth.
They do touch on this...kind of.
quote:An influx of non-locals can be observed in the pre-Hyksos period (12th-13th Dynasties) during the establishment of Tell el-Dab’a/Avaris, while the number of local individuals is larger during the Hyksos period.
They started coming many years before they took over. It might be possible to consider that the "Hyksos" rule reflected a gradual demographic change. How much of the Hyksos expansion into upper Egypt can also be attributed to foreign inflow?
quote:Originally posted by Ase: How much of the Hyksos expansion into upper Egypt can also be attributed to foreign inflow?
I don't understand the question. If the Hyksos are foreigners then why wouldn't all of their expansion into upper Egypt be attributed to foreign inflow?
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Because I'm not sure from reviewing a single site if the expansion of their rule was the result of wars, political cooperation with native Egyptians (but for other reasons), or the result of the northern parts of Upper Egypt having so many people with foreign ancestry that it made sense to break from Thebes in support of these foreign rulers.
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So why are we using Strontium and not DNA anymore?
Sounds like an odd way of identifying "foreigners" in the Nile Valley.
Recall not so long ago these same researchers were saying they could not identify who the Hyksos were at the excavation sites in the Nile Delta.
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Well considering that DNA research is a touchy subject in Egypt, I can understand why people would resort to other means of identifying the people. This is less controversial. It emphasizes they are foreign in relationship to Egypt and less about who the Egyptians were genetically by comparison. The only reason the Abusir data was able to be done was because the remains had not been in Egypt, so the researchers didn't have to adhere to those kinds of restrictions. As for me, this seems like a viable way to explain in part what we see in Dakleh, Hermopolis and Abusir so far.
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It may attest to a significant presence of Hyksos is that area, but I don't know if it necessarily shows how the Hyksos took power. It wasn't exactly unusual for native Egyptian kings to take in wives from neighboring cultures, even during the kingdom's heyday (see Amenhotep III of the New Kingdom as another example). I don't think having a lot of non-Egyptian wives would necessarily lead to those foreigners seizing political control of the area.
posted
In the absence of a struggle from Native Egyptians living in the north, the conclusion is going to probably be that people being labeled "Hyksos" by some Egyptans were "foreigners" who gradually gained power, which you just mentioned happened. If it wasn't unusual for Egyptian kings to take foreign wives, there's evidence that Asiatics were getting coveted positions in Egyptian society, and they were able to assimilate into the society, then I understand how people would consider that the data is more likely suggesting that marriages and earning rank was more the reason for their rise than war and conquest.
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quote:Originally posted by Ase: In the absence of a struggle from Native Egyptians living in the north, the conclusion is going to probably be that people being labeled "Hyksos" by some Egyptans were "foreigners" who gradually gained power, which you just mentioned happened. If it wasn't unusual for Egyptian kings to take foreign wives, there's evidence that Asiatics were getting coveted positions in Egyptian society, and they were able to assimilate into the society, then I understand how people would consider that the data is more likely suggesting that marriages and earning rank was more the reason for their rise than war and conquest.
Personally I see this as simply some arm waving to shore up a theory with no serious definitive proof. This goes back to the historic problem of a lack of any identifyable "Hyksos" population anywhere in the Levant or Northern Egypt. Hence, Strontium is about meaningless in identifying who and where these so-called 'Hyksos' came from. Because the underlying implication here is that ONLY these 'Hyksos' people had Strontium which is so far fetched as to be ridiculous.
quote: What is ‘The Hyksos Enigma’ Research Programme about?
The Hyksos (Greek rendering of the Egyptian title ‘rulers of the foreign countries’) were a dynasty of foreign rulers being in power in Egypt between c.1640 and 1530 BC. Some modern researchers, following the ancient historian Flavius Josephus (1st cent. AD), thought them to be ancestors of the early Israelites. Others suggested that their appearance has to be tied to the expansion of the Hurrian people into the Levant, starting at the end of the 18th cent. BC. Nowadays those opinions are largely rejected. Most scholars dealing with the subject today believe, according to the existing onomastic data, that they were western Semites. Their exact geographical origin in the Levant, the process of their seizure of power in Egypt and their specific role in history remains, however, an enigma, as the period is poorly represented in texts. Nevertheless the Hyksos phenomenon has therefore mainly been studied by text-based Egyptology, ignoring other possible sources, like archaeological remains, burial customs, settlement patterns, not to mention biological data.
In the last decades though, excavations at Tell el-Dab‘a (Avaris, the ancient capital of the Hyksos kings), Tell el-Retaba (Rotaba), Tell el-Maskhuta and other places in Egypt‘s eastern Delta have produced an enormous wealth of new information due to the discovery of urban settlements, palaces, tombs, temples or offering deposits. Besides this, one can now resort to enormous quantities of objects reflecting the material culture as well as physical remains, which can be attributed to the carriers of the Hyksos rule and their predecessors. These materials now available and left so far largely aside in the scientific discussion can be utilised as first class historical sources.
This is from the main group doing the excavations in Northern Egypt and they themselves admit they don't have much in the form of actual evidence for a group called "Hyksos"...... In fact they have found more evidence for so-called "Nubians" than actual "Hyksos" in Northern Egypt at this time period, in addition to other identifiable populations from the Levant.
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Tukuler
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Yeah, one Pharaoh just called 'em A3mw lamenting he was scissored by them and Nhsw.
Hyksos title isn't limited to the 2nd Intermediate. 1st occurrence, afaik, are variou OK Nhsw. 13th(?) Dyn Abisha is apparently the 1st A3mw heka:khast.
Their influx was monitored by 'homeland security'. Nonetheless A3mw settlement overran the Delta, at the least, within a few centuries of steady if minute trickle.
AE had no Apartheid or Jim Crow. Qualified A3mw attained responsible positions. Delta already had Egyptians of A3mw lineage. Chancellor Wms proposed some of them were 5th columnist.
Don't know how much to trust Josephus channelled Manetho. Heka khast has no word for shepherd in it. Manetho, an Egyptian would know that.
quote: What is ‘The Hyksos Enigma’ Research Programme about?
The Hyksos (Greek rendering of the Egyptian title ‘rulers of the foreign countries’) were a dynasty of foreign rulers being in power in Egypt between c.1640 and 1530 BC. Some modern researchers, following the ancient historian Flavius Josephus (1st cent. AD), thought them to be ancestors of the early Israelites. Others suggested that their appearance has to be tied to the expansion of the Hurrian people into the Levant, starting at the end of the 18th cent. BC. Nowadays those opinions are largely rejected. Most scholars dealing with the subject today believe, according to the existing onomastic data, that they were western Semites. Their exact geographical origin in the Levant, the process of their seizure of power in Egypt and their specific role in history remains, however, an enigma, as the period is poorly represented in texts. Nevertheless the Hyksos phenomenon has therefore mainly been studied by text-based Egyptology, ignoring other possible sources, like archaeological remains, burial customs, settlement patterns, not to mention biological data.
In the last decades though, excavations at Tell el-Dab‘a (Avaris, the ancient capital of the Hyksos kings), Tell el-Retaba (Rotaba), Tell el-Maskhuta and other places in Egypt‘s eastern Delta have produced an enormous wealth of new information due to the discovery of urban settlements, palaces, tombs, temples or offering deposits. Besides this, one can now resort to enormous quantities of objects reflecting the material culture as well as physical remains, which can be attributed to the carriers of the Hyksos rule and their predecessors. These materials now available and left so far largely aside in the scientific discussion can be utilised as first class historical sources.
This is from the main group doing the excavations in Northern Egypt and they themselves admit they don't have much in the form of actual evidence for a group called "Hyksos".
The above quote says
" one can now resort to enormous quantities of objects reflecting the material culture as well as physical remains, which can be attributed to the carriers of the Hyksos rule and their predecessors"
and
"These materials now available and left so far largely aside in the scientific discussion can be utilized as first class historical sources."
So this is your example of a quote admitting they don't have much in the form of actual evidence of the Hyksos ???? They are saying the exact opposite of what you are saying they said
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This concept is based on the “Daughters of the Trade” hypothesis.
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010
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I remember a few years back this Somali activist explaining the history of Female Genital Mutilation in Egypt (Northeast Africa), how it was to prevent the population from getting raped by foreigners.
quote:Originally posted by Ish Gebor: This concept is based on the “Daughters of the Trade” hypothesis.
Elaborate more on the "Daughters of trade" theory if you will.
-------------------- Note: I am not an "Egyptologist" as claimed by some still bitter, defeated, trolls creating fake profiles and posts elsewhere. Hapless losers, you still fail. My output of hard data debunking racist nonsense has actually INCREASED since you began.. Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by zarahan- aka Enrique Cardova:
quote:Originally posted by Ish Gebor: This concept is based on the “Daughters of the Trade” hypothesis.
Elaborate more on the "Daughters of trade" theory if you will.
"Daughters of trade" is a 2015 book title on Atlantic slavers and interracial marriage on the Gold Coast
"Although interracial marriage was prohibited in European colonies throughout the Atlantic world, in Gold Coast slave-trading towns it became a recognized and respected custom..... Pernille Ipsen follows five generations of marriages between African women and Danish men, revealing how interracial marriage created a Euro-African hybrid culture specifically adapted to the Atlantic slave trade."
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