The Hyksos: A New Investigation

by John Van Seters

The Hyksos, foreign rulers of Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period--from about 1700 to 1550 B.C. -have been a source of continuing debate among archaeologists and historians. Mr. Van Seters approaches the problems of their rise to power, their dynasties, the nature of their rule, and their religion from the joint perspectives of archaeology and literary criticism. Archaeological investigation shows the Middle Bronze culture of Syria-Palestine to have had highly developed fortifications, advanced urban life, fine buildings and temples, and a high quality of practical and artistic craftsmanship. Based on a revised date for the long-known The Admonitions of Ipuwer, this study offers a fresh explanation of the Hyksos' rise to power. A new examination of the location of Avaris, their capital, indicates that the previous identification with Tanis must give way to the region near Qantir. The Hyksos were not Hurrians or Indo-Aryans, but Ammurite princes who rose to power in Egypt following the dynastic weaknesses at the end of the Middle Kingdom.

Genres: History

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

John Van Seters was a Canadian scholar of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the Ancient Near East. Latterly University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina, he was formerly James A. Gray Professor of Biblical Literature at UNC. He took his Ph.D. at Yale University in Near Eastern Studies (1965) and a Th.D. h.c. from the University of Lausanne (1999). His honours and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEH fellowship, an ACLS Fellowship, and research fellowships at Oxford, Cambridge, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and National Research Foundation of South Africa. His many publications include The Hyksos: A New Investigation (1966); Abraham in History and Tradition (1975); In Search of History (1983, for which he won the James H. Breasted Prize and the American Academy of Religion book award); The Edited Bible (2006); and The Biblical Saga of King David (2009).

Reviews

[Dan]

Too technical. I can handle a degree of difficulty with Syro-Palestinian stuff, but for Egyptian history I need something more basic. Gave up halfway through.

UPDATE: Went back to it after a few weeks and found I'd quit just before it became intelligible. Chapters 8-14, about the Hyksos' rise to power, the site of their capital (Avaris), how they ruled, their religion and their ethnic and geographical origins, were a pleasure. Now I just need to find someone willing to either develop or trash the notion that the Joseph and Moses stories reflect, however dimly, a migration of West Semites into the Delta, their eventual rise to power, and their defeat by a ruler of Upper Egypt.

[Vagabond of Letters, DLitt]

5/10

[Ingrid]

Extremely methodical and detailed, but at times assumes a level of specialized knowledge that the general reader likely will not have; best read with a map and a list of ancient Egyptian kings and dynasties close at hand. The version I read was from 1967, but some cursory additional research leads me to believe that its conclusions are still largely accurate. Definitely learned a lot and felt that I came away with a fairly complete understanding of the larger context behind the rise of the Hyksos dynasty in ancient Egypt.