The Theban ruler Kamose was advised by his councillors: ‘The middle country is with us as far as Cusae’, and the texts from Kamose’s reign remain our best written source for the history of Middle Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period. An inscription of Queen Hatshepsut (1473-1458 Bc) in the Speos Artemidos, 100 km. north of Cusae (el-Qusiya), records intensive restoration and reconsecration of temples in the area: ‘I have raised up what was dismembered from the first time when the Asiatics were in Avaris of the North Land (with) roving hordes in the midst of them overthrowing what had been made... The temple of the Lady of Cusae.. . was fallen into dissolution, the earth had swallowed up its noble sanctuary, and children danced upon its roof.’ This piece of royal propaganda was designed to show Hatshepsut in the traditional kingly role of restorer of order after chaos. Her scribe was writing more than eighty years after the Hyksos-Theban wars and it is as likely that the ‘roving hordes’ were the armies of Thebes as it is those of Avaris. It is interesting that, so long after the event, the rulers of Egypt were stiU boasting of the expulsion of the Hyksos.
Cusae lies about 40 km. south of Hermopolis (el-Ashmunein), which was the centre of the administration of the area during the Middle Kingdom. When Horemkhauef visited the Residence at Lisht, possibly between 1670 and 1650 bc, the river was still open, but shortly thereafter Cusae marked the boundary at which any traveller from the south had to pay tax to the ruler of Avaris if he wished to proceed.
Judging from Kamose’s account of his arrest of a messenger with a letter from King Apepi to the king of Kush, the Hyksos appear to have controlled the route from ‘Sako’ (probably modem el-Qes) via the Western Desert oases to the Nubian site of Tumas, midway between the first and second Nile cataracts. This route gave the king of Avaris access to allies—the fierce kings of Kush—and to gold. At least three of the cataract forts (Buhen, Mirgissa, and Uronarti) were still functioning, although there is some debate as to whether they were subject to the mle of Egypt or of Kush; nevertheless the organization still existed to control the oasis route (from the southern end) and to send expeditions to the gold mines. Despite the boundary at Cusae, regular contact and exchange of goods continued between Lower Egypt and Nubia, via the oasis route. This is clear from finds of pottery and mud sealings both at the cataract forts and at the Kushite capital, Kerma. Moreover,
Map of the Nile Valley and Palestine in the Second Intermediate Period
At Buhen at least, that contact seems to have continued without a break from the 13th Dynasty until the beginning of the Hyksos 15th Dynasty (see below).
We can enlarge our picture of Middle Egypt by looking at a group of cemeteries excavated about 50 km. south of Cusae, at Deir Rifa, Mostagedda, and Qau. Cemetery S at Deir Rifa contains the burials of a group of Nubians known as ‘pan-grave’ people (because of their distinctive shallow oval graves), who were semi-nomadic cattle-breeders living on the edge of the desert. Their cemeteries and settlements appear in Egypt during the 13th Dynasty, and they have been identified with the Medjay of the Kamose texts, who were sent to scout the land in advance of Kamose’s fleet. Their distinctive handmade pottery is ubiquitous in Middle Kingdom settlements and is found as far north as Memphis. At Deir Rifa, their graves contained Tell el-Yahudiya ware of types comparable with those from level E/i at Tell el-Dab'a, which are datable to the middle of the 15th Dynasty. The associated Egyptian pottery belongs to the Middle Kingdom style of the Memphis region and suggests that the cemetery goes back to the beginning of the 13th Dynasty.
Mostagedda, almost opposite Deir Rifa on the right bank of the Nile, also contained the burials of pan-grave people, and these can be placed into a chronological sequence according to the degree to which they follow Egyptian or Nubian burial customs (whereas the Deir Rifa cemetery is too poorly published to allow this to be done). Two phases before the beginning of the i8th Dynasty are present at Mostagedda and both contain Egyptian pottery remarkably different from that at Deir Rifa. These two phases, as well as earlier ones, have also been found in the large Egyptian cemetery at Qau, 15 km. to the south of Mostagedda and Deir Rifa. The pottery is characterized by elaborate incised decoration, the use of sandy marl clays, high-shouldered narrow-necked storage jars, and carinated jars. This ceramic corpus very clearly belongs to an Upper Egyptian tradition and provides the prototypes for vessels that appear at Memphis and Tell el-Dab'a in fully developed form in the early i8th-Dynasty strata.
The cemeteries of Deir Rifa and Mostagedda, on opposite sides of the river, belonged to the same Nubian cultural group, but the differences in funerary equipment show that Deir Rifa was in contact with the Memphis region, while Mostagedda was linked with Upper Egypt. The Nubian artefacts in both are similar enough to suggest that the difference between them is not one of time, but of wealth, status (Mostagedda being generally richer), and, above all, regional associations. Their location suggests that the region of Cusae did indeed, as the texts state, mark the border between Upper and Lower Egypt, and that the boundary existed at least by the beginning of the 13th Dynasty. It is possible to speculate that we have here the burial grounds of two groups of Medjay mercenaries patrolling the border region: perhaps one group based at Deir Rifa guarded the west bank for the Hyksos while the other looked after the east bank for the Theban kings.
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