Type: Hyksos Scarab Seal
Age: 2000-1550 BCE
Era: Middle Bronze Age/Second Intermediate Period
Culture: Egyptian/Hyksos/Semitic
Excavated: Unknown
The Hyksos were a very interesting group of people that took power of Lower Egypt right around the time the Bible states that Joseph rose to power in Egypt. Scholars agree that the Hyksos were a Semitic people that came from the Levant (Canaan, Assyria, etc.); but many will not say that they are the decedents of Israel. Given the anti-Biblical bias amongst many scholars and Archaeologists, this is not surprising. Nonetheless, the first century Jewish Historian, Josephus, cites Manetho (a Hellenistic Egyptian Historian ca. 300 BCE) who identifies the Hyksos as Shepard Kings and foreign rulers. Josephus later states that the Hyksos were, in fact, the decedents of Joseph.
In an effort to consolidate power over lower and upper Egypt, Pharaoh Ahmes expelled the Hyksos into the territory that would eventually become Israel.
The greatest concentration of Hyksos archaeological data comes from three cities, one being Tell El-Yahudiyah, which means Mountain of the Jews. Another of the three cities includes Avaras, one of the largest ancient semitic cities in Egypt. According to some archaeologists, there is solid evidence to support the Israelite presence in this city, at that time.