Episode 13 Second Intermediate Period

The History of Ancient Egypt

Professor Robert Brier

Film Review

Egypt was the only civilization to collapse twice and recover.*

Dynasty XIII (1783 1640 BC): All we know about Dyansty XIII is there were ten kings who built small mud brick pyramids in Dashur. Whereas previously only pharaohs could achieve immortality, nobles began building pyramids during the XIII dynasty near Snehorn. Some of the XIIIth dynasty kings built wooden statues (wood, which had to be imported from Lebanon, was very expensive and these statues only survived due to Egypt’s extremely dry desert). These included a large wood statue of the ka of King Hur. Kng Hur also built four small pyramids in the Sahara.

Dynasty XIV (1707-1650 BC): reigned in the delta region with a capital at Fayum.

During Dynasty XV (1650-1542 BC): Dynasty XV were foreign kings, known as the Hyksos, who were most likely Semites from Palestine or Canaan. Their rule in the Delta region may have resulted from military conquest or massive peaceful migration. Their capital was Avaris. Although they left no human remains or artifacts due to the high water table, their frescoes survive from other Mediterranean cultures. A jar with a Hykso cartouche was found in the palace of Knossis in Greece. The Hyksos worshiped Setf (the evil god with a canine body, goat head and forked tail) and Resheph, the god of storms and of war. They built a few pyramids but left no human remains and it’s unknown whether they mummified their dead.

Dynasty XVII (1550-1229 BC – there was no dynasty XVI): refers to princes who ruled in Thebes during the Hyksos occupation of the Delta. The Hyksos king Apophos sent a papyrus to to the Thebean prince Seqenenre (500 miles away) stating “The roaring of the hippopotami in your pools prevents me from sleeping! Hunt them and kill them, that I may rest.” Seqenenre sent his first son Kamose north to avenge his honor by laying siege to the walled city of Avis. Sequenenre’ second son Ahmos would drive the Hyksos all the way north to Palestine, became the first king of the 18th dynasty.

*Brier explains how to make papyrus scrolls in this lecture, by cutting the middle of a papyrus stalk into 18 inch segments, beating them with a mallet, drying them in the son and using their sap to glue them together before polishing them with a flat stone.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/1492791/1492821