Tell el Dab'a mound [Avaris] on the Nile Delta was occupied initially ca 2000 BCE.During the First Intermediate period it was probably part of Egypt's eastern defensive system. Excavations of stratum G at Tell el Dab'a located an 18th century BCE cemetery.The funerary items suggest,that the deceased had adopted some Egyptian customs,but had retained their own burial practices,which had some affinities with those in the Near East.These newcomers ["the Asiatics"] probably entered Egypt via the Sinai Desert route. Subsequently during the 13th dynasty [stratum G/1-3] there were numerous shallow inhumations with no grave goods,which could reflect a deterioration in living conditions.The "Asiatics" seem to have abandoned the site and there may have been an occupational hiatus [M Bistok,1996],which might have be attributed to a plague [conjecture].
"Asiatics" resettled the site during the 14th dynasty [stratum F].They used Middle Bronze Age IIb ceramics and their warriors were frequently interred with slave girls [ibid].The Hyksos could have been an ethical mixture of SW Asian Sematic people,who occupied the Tell el Dab'a region during the late 13th or early 14th dynasties.They were proficient warriors,who utilized composite bows,war chariots and bronze weapons. Their occupation of the eastern Nile Delta,which probably coincided with a period of Egyptian military weakness,does not appear to have encountered serious opposition [I Shaw,2000].
The Hyksos may have launched their initial, major, southern campaign during the reign of the first 15th dynasty ruler.A 17th Thebian dynasty stele designates Hermpolis as the southern extent of Hyksos occupation.Occupation by "nomadic hordes" was an utter humiliation for Egypt and eventually Sanakhtenre began to mobilize opposition to the Hyksos .The Turin Canon King list for the 14th and 15th dynasty rulers of Egypt is poorly preserved.There is not sufficient reliable data to resolve the royal lineages and chronology during the Hyksos domination of northern Egypt.The authority of the 15th dynasty Hyksos rulers appears to have been more extensive than that of their predecessors [J White,1970].
After the walls of Jericho collapsed to the base of the tell,the settlement was burnt by an intense conflagration and was mostly abandoned for a number of decades.The fire destroyed the silo,which contained an appreciable amount of grain.H Bruins [2001] dated six, short lived, charred, cereal grains from the Jericho destruction level IV to 3306bp +/- 7a,which calibrates to 1579 BCE +/- 24a [calpal,2011]. A scarab of the Hyksos 15th dynasty king Moibre Sheishi,who might have been the second ruler of the 15th dynasty was recovered from tomb H13 at Jericho.
M Bistok [1991] correlated the Jericho fire to Avaris strata E/1, D/3 and D/2.Numerous homes had been demolished in stata E/2, E/1 and D/3 to allow construction of a ritual compound.It appears to have commemorated the god of the north, Baal/Hadda, with some components of Seth, the Egyptian god of chaos [ibid,1996]. Cultural material from the Avaris strata E/2, E/1 and D/3 is compatible with "Asiatic" occupation.M Bostok also excavated the nearby Helmi site.Adobe dwellings at Ezbet Helmi surround three massive blocks of Aswam granite and the remnants of an imposing portal,which was adorned with the cartouches of the 12th dynasty kings Amenemhati I and Senusret I, who reigned from ca 1985-1910 BCE, [it is difficult to account for the presence of these cartouches on a Hyksos portal-recycled rock??]. An eight metre thick, fortress wall was identified. It might have enclosed vine yards and gardens and provided defence for a major Hyksos port facility.Its construction could have been coeval with stratum D/3a and it was strengthened during the reign of Aasarra Apophis [Apepi ?] in a futile attempt to thwart the expansionist ambitons of the 17th Theban dynasty. Apepi had instructed his scribes to prepare the Rind Mathematical Papyrus as part of a project to preserve Egypt's history.A plat of his daughter, Herit, was found in the Tomb of the 18th dynasty monarch Amenhotep I [I Shaw,2000]. J Parkison [nd] estimated that the reign of the 15th dynasty king Aasarra Apophis ended ca 1570 BCE.
During the Hyksos period of ascendancy, their army gradually became less efficient and Ambose, the first king of the 18th dynasty, evicted the Hyksos warriors from Egypt during the eleventh year of his reign.Avaris was largely destroyed and there was another occupational hiatus, before Amhose initiated a reconstruction program. Egyptian texts record that he used the remnants of the Asiatics to restore the edifice at Avaris [M Bistok,1996]. Egyptian documents [J Brested,1905-07?] refer to storms and on the Tempest Stele at Karnok Amhose claims to have restored temples and pyramids in the Theban region, which were damaged by a storm,that was inflicted on upper Egypt by the wrath of Amum.The land was covered by water [I Shaw, 2000].Egyptian records report the departure of about 240,000 people from northern Egypt to the Near East sometime after Amhose had evicted the Hyksos army, probably about the middle of the 16th century BCE [J Brested, Egyptian records].
C Bronk Ramsey [2010] dated to onset of the New Kingdom to ca 1560 BCE, cal, which could imply that the above exodus occurred ca 1550 BCE or possibly slightly later.This is the only mass exodus of people from Egypt prior to 1100 BCE,The book of kings [1 Kings 6 1-2] dates the biblical exodus of people from Egypt at 480 years before the construction of the first temple of Jerusalem in the fourth year of Solomans reign.Since there is no exact chronology for this event,a realistic range estimate for the biblical exodus could be between 1485 and 1440 BCE.This is ca 100 years later than the departure of the "Asiatics' ,which is recorded in the Egyptian documents.The biblical exodus roughly equates to the reigns of Thutmose III/ Hatsheput or possibly to the latter years of Thutmose II.None of the Egyptian records for their reigns mention the departure of hordes of people to the Near East.The only Egyptian documentation that has any resemblance to the biblical exodus is the exodus during the reign of Amhose. Whether Egyptian and Hebrew scribes were recording the same event is a moot question.
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