The obscurity which gradually follows the ex- tinction of the 12tli Dynasty is no less impenetrable than that which follows on the Dynasties of the Old Kingdom. On some sides, indeed, the decline is scarcely perceptible ; the outward aspect of the kingdom is little changed ; the southern conquests are maintaineii, commerce on the Red Sea con- tinues, and the art of the period does not fall far short of the high standard lately set. But of the individual Pharaohs of the 13th Dyna.sty we know scarcely anything ; of those of the 14th, absolutely nothing. The former series, with the n.ames (.iniong others) of Sblchtp (Sebekhotep) and Shkms'f (Sebekemsef), is localized in Thebes ; the latter in Chois, an obscure Delta town, though it is quite possible that the Theban tradition was beiuL' uplield by a contemporary Dynasty in the soutli. The whole interval, inaeed, between the 12th and 17th Dynasties may have been occupied by the struggles of rival houses, each claiming legitiiutate rights to the throne, yet none strong enough to vindicate its claims permanently.
We QO not know at what point in this dark period of some 150 years the internal troubles were first complicated by foreign invasion. The name of one of the kings lussigned to this time is regarded as evidence for an Ethiopic supremacy ; on the other hand, there is perhaps ground for placing here one of the frequent Libyan inviision.s. Of trustworthy contemjiorary documents there is a complete dearth ; the Turin papyrus and the Mancthonian fragments are our sole authorities. In Manetho's arrangement these two obscure Dynasties are followed by two more of which still less is known ; yet they are of greater interest, for they are drawn from those foreign invaders who by this tiiue had subdued at least a part of northern Kgj'pt, and whom Manetho names Ilyk.sos ('Tuffuir, ?pl. 'tKovaauii). The racial position of this people is still unknown. Their Greek ( = Egyptian) name means merely 'Sheikhs of the (south Syrian) Be- dawin,' ' and it has been supposed that they con- sisted of mixed hordes, partly Semite, partly of some other race. Another hypothesis, Wseil on the fact that the worship of Swtli (Set) was common to Ilyksos and Hittites, and on the occurrence in
* ThL> kIo^ *Hlu-plRTcl' for i'nB \t demonstnMe only at a far later period of thu lariKuuge.
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cnneifonn documents of ^y'n (Khyan) as a Hittite kinp's name, while his namesake in Egypt is re- garded as a Hyksos king, would make of Ilyksos and Hittites one race. From the language we ean draw no arguments, for we know notlimg of it save a few Greek transcriptions of the royal names. Nor can we appeal to the portraits of the kings ; for the Sphinxes, etc., formerly regarded as sucli, are now held by many to belong rather to the latter kings of the 12th Dynasty.
Asiatics had undoubtedly been crossing the frontier for ages past ; but only in small numbers. Now they appear to have made a much more formidable onslaught upon the eastern Delta, and, after slaying, plundering, and burning, to have established themselves there in a dominant posi- tion. The events which had produced this south- ward migration from Asia are quite unknown ; possibly, the contemporary attack of Elam on Mesopotamia gave the immediate impetus.
Egypt was weak, and the earlier at least of the Hyksos princes were strong rulers ; and though resistance was persistent farther south, northern Egypt remained in their hands for two or three centuries, possibly longer. They resided in the eastern Delta, in the fortress of fftw'rt-Kvtma or at P'nt ■ Tanis (Zoan), where they soon so far assimilated Egyptian civilization that the remains of their work is indistinguishable from that of the native kings.
(c) The New Kingdom. — Just as the disorders of a former period had been ended by the energy or fortunate position of the Theban nomarchs, so now resistance to the Hyksos oppression centred at Thebes, which may even itself have suffered at their hands, since traces of them have come to light still farther south. Their expulsion neces- sitated a Ion" struggle, and they probably only finally quitted the Delta many years after being driven from Upper E^ypt. The 17th Dynasty, which began the war or liberation, seems for some time to have been contemporarjr with the Hyksos kings. It is, however, only of its later members that we have any knowledge. There is preserved from this period the autobiography of an Egyptian officer, /'A»/is-Amosis, who took part in the war, and from it we learn that, Avaris having been captured, the foreigners were not merely expelled from Egypt, but pursued into S. Palestine and their stronghold (or, perhaps, place of temporary retreat) Sharuhen (Jos ig") taken.
The military expeditions here described are the first-fruits ol a new tendency in the history of the nation. The art, language, and social organization of the early period of the New Kingdom bear a close resemblance to those of the age that had sunk in the obscurity of the Hyksos invasion. Indeed, that the change had been so slight may be an argument for the relatively short duration of the foreign occupation. But the political his- tory of Egypt, with the rise of the new Theban Dynasty, begins to follow a new course. Instead of a nation content with victories over the wild tribes of Nubia and the Soudan, both kings and people a[)pear now to be eager for conquest among races of quite other attainments, in the arts both of jieace and war. The nations of Syria had not, so far as we know, seen an Egj'ptian invasion since that conducted by IVni (Gth Dynasty). The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom, however, mitiated into Asiatic warfare by tiie circumstances of the Hyksos expulsion, soon came to regard such cam- paigns—aggressive now — as their most important occupation. But first they set about the recon- quest of Nubia, and before long carried their bouthem frontier as far as Dongola-