Toward the end of the 13th dynasty, some of the Egyptian kings appear to have moved the seat of power to Thebes. At the same time, a rival dynasty, the 14th, became established in the Nile Delta in the north.
In addition to these internal threats to stability, Egypt was under pressure on its borders. In western Asia, tribal migration had been going on for some time— caused in part by the arrival in the area of new people from the Caucasus. The new arrivals drove many of the Semitic people living in coastal Phoenicia, Levant, and the Sinai Peninsula out into the northeastern Nile Delta. As early as the 12th dynasty, Egyptian texts refer to people called Asiatics with Semitic names. Several pharaohs of the 13th dynasty bore non-Egyptian names such as Chenger and Aya, indicating foreign ori-gins. The fact that these foreigners could set up settlements in Egypt without being repelled suggests a weakening of the Egyptian administration.
In the south, Egypt was losing its grip on the forts built to repel the Nubians. In the east, warlike Medjay tribesmen from
This tomb painting from the First Intermediate period depicts farmers slaughtering an ox. Cattle were a source of both labor and food.
The desert infiltrated the Nile Valley and left behind evidence of their culture in the form of shallow graves filled with black-topped pottery.
At the same time that foreigners were being assimilated into Egyptian society, non-Egyptian kingdoms from western Asia were being set up in the Nile Delta. The Egyptians called these new rulers Hekau-chasut (desert kings). This word
Appears in the writings of historians from the Greek period as “Hyksos.” These kings established a dynasty (the 15th) with a capital at Avaris in the eastern delta and dominated central and northern Egypt, rivaling the weaker contemporaneous 16th dynasty.
The Second Intermediate period
The era that followed the Middle Kingdom was the Second Intermediate period. It covered the rule of the 15th dynasty (that of the Hyksos), which lasted from around 1630 to 1550 BCE, as well as the Thebes-based 16th and 17th dynasties, which lasted from around 1630
This statue, made around 1800 BCE, depicts the pharaoh Amenemhet III, who ruled Egypt for more than 50 years.
World History
