Tell el-Dab'a is an archaeological site in the Nile Delta region of Egypt where Avaris, the capital city of the Hyksos, once stood. Avaris was occupied by Asiatics from the end of the 12th through the 13th Dynasty (early second millennium BC). The site is known primarily for its Minoan frescoes.
Excavations in the area were started in 1885 by Édouard Naville. Between 1929 and 1939, Pierre Montet excavated at Tanis, 20km to the north, finding remarkably rich tombs. He believed that he found the location of Avaris, and his opinion was widely accepted at the time. Yet others, such as Labib Habachi, one of the pioneering Egyptian Egyptologists, were not convinced. In 1941-42 he excavated at Tell el-Dab'a for the Egyptian Antiquities Service and came to the conclusion that this was in fact Avaris:
When a detailed study of the topography of the site and its surroundings was made by Manfred Bietak of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in the 1980s, Habachi's hypothesis was confirmed. Bietak's mission revealed that the actual Hyksos capital was indeed Tell al-Dab'a. [1]
Recent investigations of cemeteries at Avaris have been conducted as part of thirty years of joint excavations by the Austrian Archaeological Institute of Cairo, led by Manfred Bietak, and since October 2010 by Irene Forstner-Müller. An interesting thrust of the latest investigations has to do with the historic epidemic at Avaris in 1715 BC, documented in archaeology and surviving papyrus.[ citation needed ]
The nature of civilization at Tell el-Dab’a is understood from archaeological examination of the site. Excavations have discovered buildings, namely residences, tombs, and temples, that combine Egyptian and Canaanite architectural styles. [2] The society of Tell el-Dab’a interacted with individuals from other regions who influenced their frescos. [3] Although the remains have been damaged by the marshy environment as well as by the continual rebuilding and agriculture on the site, archeologists have shown that this city was occupied by a wealthy society with a large sacred precinct and unusual burial practices. [2]
From 1951 to 1954, Shehata Adam partly excavated the 12th Dynasty site of Ezbet Rushdi near Tell El-Dab'a.
Tell el-Dab’a experienced an increase in immigration during the period 1610–1590 BCE. [2] Between 1590 and 1570 BCE, the population of Tell el-Dab’a faced overcrowding. [2] Due to space restrictions, small houses were built in cemeteries, and children were buried in the doorways of larger houses. [2] Tombs became incorporated into the structure of the houses. [2]
During the early Hyksos period, members of lower social classes built their houses around their master’s house. [2] This is not as evident during the later Hyksos Period due to the overcrowding and damage caused by agriculture. [2] The size of the houses of Tell el-Dab’a indicates the affluence of the inhabitants. [2] In the north-east periphery area, the houses were very small, reflecting poorer classes. [2] In contrast, in the eastern area of Tell el-Dab’a, the remains of large houses with stairs leading to upper floors were discovered, indicating that the more wealthy members of the society lived there. [2]
Towards the end of the Hyksos period, between 1600 and 1570 BCE, the rulers of Tell el-Dab’a felt threatened by the possibility of attack. [2] They therefore built a thick enclosure wall around the city for defense. [2]
The tomb styles and methods used to bury the dead in Tell el-Dab’a were Canaanite. [2] [4] The tombs consist of vaulted mud-brick chambers. [4] They reflect the belief in the afterlife of the inhabitants of Tell el-Dab’a, similar to that of the Egyptians. Grave goods were often buried with the bodies. [2] Servant and donkey burials are recognized as remarkable burial practices of Tell el-Dab’a. [2] The servant and donkey burials were practiced between 1680 and 1660 BCE. They were most popular during the period of Asiatic immigration at the beginning of the Hyksos reign. [2]
The servants were not buried in the same manner as the tomb owners: the servants were buried at a different orientation in the tomb in order to show their position in the hierarchy of Tell el-Dab’a. [2] They were buried across the tomb entrance, facing the door. [2] This is interpreted as the servants waiting for the instructions of the tomb masters, which would be a component of the ideal life in the afterlife. [2] Three servant burials have been found at Tell el-Dab’a. The servants appear to have been buried at the same time as the tomb owners during a servant sacrifice. [2]
The donkey burials took place throughout the history of Tell el Dab’a. The donkeys were generally found in pairs in front of the tombs at the site. [2] The donkeys may have been sacrificed when the tomb owner died as they were both buried at the same time. [2] The donkeys emphasize the society’s belief in the afterlife: donkeys were closely associated with expeditions and could thus be connected with the journey between life and death. [2]
Excavations at Tell el-Dab’a have uncovered temples that date to the Hyksos period. The temples exhibit Egyptian and Canaanite styles. [2] By convention, the entrances of the temples are in the north wall and the temples are orientated NNW-SSE. [2] Items such as bronze daggers, ax heads, and jugs have been found at these complexes. [4]
The most noteworthy temple is Temple I. [2] It is in the Egyptian style and dates to between 1680 and 1660 BCE. [2] It contains three sanctuaries and in its courtyard, there is evidence of an altar upon which sacrifices may have been made. [2] The outside walls were made of mud-brick that was whitewashed. Traces of blue paint have been found on the walls. [2]
In 1987, thousands of fragments of Minoan wall paintings were discovered in the ancient gardens that adjoin the palace complex of Tell el-Dab’a, on the site of a fortress of the early New Kingdom. [5] The fragments show techniques, subjects, and styles that are characteristic of Minoan frescos. [5] The frescos were applied as buon fresco , a defining aspect of Minoan works. [6] They include scenes of maze-like patterns, bulls and bull-leapers, the flying gallop, griffins, and leopard and lion hunts, images associated with the Minoan artistic culture. The Minoan wall paintings from Tell el-Dab’a therefore show that the early [7] 18th dynasty rulers were open to works and themes from the eastern Mediterranean. [8] The Hyksos and Minoan societies were in contact, potentially through itinerant artists who transferred Minoan technology to Tell el-Dab’a. The population of Tell el-Dab’a may have also included Aegean families, resulting in direct connections between Aegean and Egyptian art. [3]
The bull-leaping scenes depicted on the fresco fragments are considered to be indistinguishable from those found in Minoan palaces. [8] The theme of bull leaping is identified in particular with Knossos, Crete. [5] The fresco was painted in the Minoan bull-leaping fresco style: a dark-skinned individual with dark, wavy hair wearing Minoan-style clothing, namely the kilt, boots, and armbands, is depicted performing a flip over a bull’s back.
Nanno Marinatos tentatively formed a two-fold scene of the lion and leopard hunting fragments in 1994. [3] Leopards are depicted hunting deer against a red background in the upper scene of the fresco while lions chasing an ibex is illustrated in the lower region. Other fragments show boots. It was thus deduced that a hunting scene was depicted. In addition, Bietak included a photograph of a leopard in his work that shows its rear parts. [3] The animal’s legs and tail are fully extended in the flying gallop pose in order to show motion, a common representational technique of Minoan art.
Approximately 500 pieces of Cypriot pottery, containing oil and perfume, were discovered at Tell el-Dab’a. Pendent Line, Cross Line, and White Painted V styles of White Painted Cypriot pottery compose the largest component of exported pottery to Tell el-Dab’a, indicating that Tell el-Dab’a had trade relations with Cyprus. [9] The majority of the exported pieces were of the “broad band” tradition. [9] A single rim fragment from a jar of the White Painted V Fine Line Style was found at the site. [9]
The Hyksos citadel must have been constructed towards the end of the Hyksos Period (ph. D/2), as fragments of Cypriot Bichrome Ware have been found in sand dumps deposited in order to raise the land for the construction. [10]
Ezbet Rushdi is a small village about 1 km north-east of Tell el-Daba. A temple and a settlement of the Middle Kingdom period have been discovered there by recent excavations.
Previously excavated by Shehata Adam, who discovered a temple east of the village, the Austrian Archaeological Institute re-excavated the site in 1996. It was discovered that, prior to the construction of the temple, there was already an early 12th dynasty settlement there. [11]
Ahmose I was a pharaoh and founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. He was a member of the Theban royal house, the son of pharaoh Seqenenre Tao and brother of the last pharaoh of the Seventeenth dynasty, Kamose. During the reign of his father or grandfather, Thebes rebelled against the Hyksos, the rulers of Lower Egypt. When he was seven years old, his father was killed, and he was about ten when his brother died of unknown causes after reigning only three years. Ahmose I assumed the throne after the death of his brother, and upon coronation became known as nb-pḥtj-rꜥ "The Lord of Strength is Ra".
Hyksos is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The seat of power of these kings was the city of Avaris in the Nile delta, from where they ruled over Lower and Middle Egypt up to Cusae. In the Aegyptiaca, a history of Egypt written by the Greco-Egyptian priest and historian Manetho in the 3rd century BC, the term Hyksos is used ethnically to designate people of probable West Semitic, Levantine origin. While Manetho portrayed the Hyksos as invaders and oppressors, this interpretation is questioned in modern Egyptology. Instead, Hyksos rule might have been preceded by groups of Canaanite peoples who gradually settled in the Nile delta from the end of the Twelfth Dynasty onwards and who may have seceded from the crumbling and unstable Egyptian control at some point during the Thirteenth Dynasty.
Manfred Bietak is an Austrian archaeologist. He is professor emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Vienna, working as the principal investigator for an ERC Advanced Grant Project "The Hyksos Enigma" and editor-in-chief of the journal Ägypten und Levante and of four series of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oriental and European Archaeology (2016–2020).
Avaris was the Hyksos capital of Egypt located at the modern site of Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta. As the main course of the Nile migrated eastward, its position at the hub of Egypt's delta emporia made it a major capital suitable for trade. It was occupied from about the 18th century BC until its capture by Ahmose I.
Sharuhen was an ancient town in the Negev Desert or perhaps in Gaza. Following the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt in the second half of the 16th century BCE, they fled to Sharuhen and fortified it. The armies of Pharaoh Ahmose I seized and razed the town after a three-year siege.
Pi-Ramesses was the new capital built by the Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II at Qantir, near the old site of Avaris. The city had served as a summer palace under Seti I, and may have been founded by Ramesses I while he served under Horemheb.
Labib Habachi was an influential Coptic Egyptian Egyptologist.
Leontopolis is the Greek name for the modern area of Tell el Yehudiye or Tell el-Yahudiya. It was an ancient city of Egypt in the 13th nome of Lower Egypt, on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. This site is known for its distinctive pottery known as Tell el-Yahudiyeh Ware.
Seuserenre Khyan was an Hyksos king of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling over Lower Egypt in the second half of the 17th century BCE. His royal name Seuserenre translates as "The one whom Re has caused to be strong." Khyan bears the titles of an Egyptian king, but also the title ruler of the foreign land (heqa-khaset). The later title is the typical designation of the Hyksos rulers.
Sakir-Har was an Hyksos king of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling over some part of Lower Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, possibly in the early 16th century BC.
Minoan religion was the religion of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization of Crete. In the absence of readable texts from most of the period, modern scholars have reconstructed it almost totally on the basis of archaeological evidence of such as Minoan paintings, statuettes, vessels for rituals and seals and rings. Minoan religion is considered to have been closely related to Near Eastern ancient religions, and its central deity is generally agreed to have been a goddess, although a number of deities are now generally thought to have been worshipped. Prominent Minoan sacred symbols include the bull and the horns of consecration, the labrys double-headed axe, and possibly the serpent.
Nehesy Aasehre (Nehesi) was a ruler of Lower Egypt during the fragmented Second Intermediate Period. He is placed by most scholars into the early 14th Dynasty, as either the second or the sixth pharaoh of this dynasty. As such he is considered to have reigned for a short time c. 1705 BC and would have ruled from Avaris over the eastern Nile Delta. Recent evidence makes it possible that a second person with this name, a son of a Hyksos king, lived at a slightly later time during the late 15th Dynasty c. 1580 BC. It is possible that most of the artefacts attributed to the king Nehesy mentioned in the Turin canon, in fact belong to this Hyksos prince.
The Minoan wall paintings at Tell El-Dab'a are of particular interest to Egyptologists and archaeologists. They are of Minoan style, content, and technology, but there is uncertainty over the ethnic identity of the artists. The paintings depict images of bull-leaping, bull-grappling, griffins, and hunts. They were discovered by a team of archaeologists led by Manfred Bietak, in the palace district of the Thutmosid period at Tell el-Dab'a. The frescoes date to the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, most likely during the reigns of either the pharaohs Hatshepsut or Thutmose III, after being previously considered to belong to the late Second Intermediate Period. The paintings indicate an involvement of Egypt in international relations and cultural exchanges with the Eastern Mediterranean either through marriage or exchange of gifts.
Hotepibre Qemau Siharnedjheritef was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period.
Tell el-Yahudiyeh Ware or Tell el-Yahudiya ware is a distinctive ceramic ware of the late Middle Bronze Age / Second Intermediate Period. The ware takes its name from its type site at Tell el-Yahudiyeh in the eastern Nile Delta of ancient Egypt, and is also found in a large number of Levantine and Cypriot sites. It was first recognised as a distinctive ware by Sir Flinders Petrie during his excavation of the type site.
Elba Perla Fuscaldo is an Argentinian Egyptologist, specialist in the ceramics of Ancient Egypt.
Tel Haror or Tell Abu Hureyra, also known as Tel Heror, is an archaeological site in the western Negev Desert, Israel, northwest of Beersheba, about 20 km east of the Mediterranean Sea, situated on the north bank of Wadi Gerar, a wadi known in Arabic as Wadi esh-Sheri'a. During the Middle Bronze Age II it was one of the largest urban centres in the area, occupying about 40 acres. The city contains substantial remains of Middle Bronze Age II through to Persian-period settlement strata.
The ancient Egyptian Temple of Ezbet Rushdi was discovered near the modern village of Ezbet Rushdi el-Saghira – itself just north of Tell el-Dab'a, the ancient Avaris – and dates to the Twelfth Dynasty. It was first excavated from 1951 by Shehata Adam who was working for the Egyptian Antiquities Service. The temple was again excavated in 1996 by an Austrian mission under Manfred Bietak.
Yanassi was a Hyksos prince, and possibly king, of the Fifteenth Dynasty. He was the eldest son of the pharaoh Khyan, and possibly the crown prince, designated to be Khyan's successor. He may have succeeded his father, thereby giving rise to the mention of a king "Iannas" in Manetho's Aegyptiaca, who, improbably, was said to have ruled after the pharaoh Apophis.
Many naval bases were located in and around Egypt in the ancient times of this world. The particular naval base of Peru-nefer was one of the bases established in the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt. Perunefer is, according to Manfred Bietak, identified with Tell el-Daba or Ezbet Helmy. Support for this theory comes from excavations and digs that were conducted around the area the naval base was believed to be.
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