Page "John Van Seters" Paragraph 4

Van Seters ’ s doctoral dissertation was on the problem of the Hyksos ( Yale, 1965 ), and published as The Hyksos: A New Investigation ( 1966 ).

It challenged the consensus view about these foreign rulers of Egypt in the mid-second millennium BCE on a number of points.

On the matter of their origins, they were not Hurrians from northern Syria and Anatolia, they did not invade Egypt with chariots and horses and their capital city of Avaris was not to be located in the vicinity of Tanis.

Instead, these foreigners came from southern Palestine, migrating into the eastern Delta during a period of political decentralization in the Second Intermediate period and eventually established the capital of their kingdom, Avaris, at Tell ed-Dab ‘ a.

All of this was later confirmed by archaeological excavations at Tell ed-Dab ‘ a and at Tell el-Maskhuta in the Wadi Tumilat, one of the overland routes of entry into Egypt from Asia.