DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0460
420 THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
■
wsr-n-R\ s R\ Hyn—' The good God, Suserenra, son of the Sun,
Khyan V
No discovery made in the whole course of the excavations at Knossos
can rival in historic interest the finding: of this record of the king- who seems
first to have united the whole of Egypt under the Hyksos dynastic sceptre.
The appearance of this relic in the Mine n Palace is itself highly symptomatic
of a renewal of the relations with the Nile Valley broken off by the process of
internal disruption that had set in in Egypt during the Thirteenth Dynasty.2
Thanks largely to the recent researches of Monsieur R. Weill3 and to
the evidence of scarabs, the place of Khyan in the Hyksos series is now
fairly ascertained. The Hyksos invaders, unquestionably of Semitic stock,
appear first, under the later Sebekhoteps of Egypt, as small Princes in the
Delta region. Among these, Jakeb and Jakebher (or Jakeb-el) show an
unmistakable affinity with the Tribe of Jacob. Khyan (whose name
already appears among the later Sheikhs of this class) may have taken over
the 'legitimist' Egyptian claims of some native dynast of Tanis 4 and
reduced the whole country, including the Thebaid, to his sway, with the full
Pharaonic titles. He was thus the predecessor of the Hyksos kings
belonging to the Tanite Dynasty of the name of Apepi, one of whom
survives under the form ' Apophis ' in the tale preserved in Manetho. He
is there represented as the suzerain of the native dynast Skenen-ra, who
appears, after an interval, at Thebes, and whose revolt heralds the final
liberation under Karnes and Aahmes and the advent of the Eighteenth
Dynasty about 1580 b.c. Weill 5 places the disappearance of the last
Sebekhotep from Thebes and the accession of Khyan about 1633 b. c, and
if, as would seem to be a reasonable hypothesis, we may take the appear-
ance of this inscribed alabastron among the Royal treasures of Knossos
as a sign of official intercourse, its deposit may well have dated from shortly
after the middle of the seventeenth century b. c. It is to be observed that
the lid itself was in absolutely fresh condition.
The finished execution of the alabastron lid itself and the fine engraving;
of the inscription are remarkable. It is indeed evident that the Hyksos
king who restored Egyptian unity, as w^ell as his successors, had the command
1 F. LI. Griffith, Archaeological Report of the {lb., 1915, Juillet-Aout); Complements (lb.,
Egyptian Exploration Fiund, 1900-1, p. 37. 1917, Janvier-Fevrier); Livre des Rois (lb.,
2 See above, p. 300. 1917, Mars-Avril).
:i Monuments et Histoire de la Pe'riode com- 4 Cf. Weill, op. cit., Rec. des Memoires, T. iv,
prise en/re la Jin de la xiie Dynastie et la 1914, p. 107.
Restauraiion thebaine (Journ. Asiatique: Re- 5 Op. cit., T. vi, 1915, p. 47.
cueil des Me'moires, 1914); Synthese historique
■
wsr-n-R\ s R\ Hyn—' The good God, Suserenra, son of the Sun,
Khyan V
No discovery made in the whole course of the excavations at Knossos
can rival in historic interest the finding: of this record of the king- who seems
first to have united the whole of Egypt under the Hyksos dynastic sceptre.
The appearance of this relic in the Mine n Palace is itself highly symptomatic
of a renewal of the relations with the Nile Valley broken off by the process of
internal disruption that had set in in Egypt during the Thirteenth Dynasty.2
Thanks largely to the recent researches of Monsieur R. Weill3 and to
the evidence of scarabs, the place of Khyan in the Hyksos series is now
fairly ascertained. The Hyksos invaders, unquestionably of Semitic stock,
appear first, under the later Sebekhoteps of Egypt, as small Princes in the
Delta region. Among these, Jakeb and Jakebher (or Jakeb-el) show an
unmistakable affinity with the Tribe of Jacob. Khyan (whose name
already appears among the later Sheikhs of this class) may have taken over
the 'legitimist' Egyptian claims of some native dynast of Tanis 4 and
reduced the whole country, including the Thebaid, to his sway, with the full
Pharaonic titles. He was thus the predecessor of the Hyksos kings
belonging to the Tanite Dynasty of the name of Apepi, one of whom
survives under the form ' Apophis ' in the tale preserved in Manetho. He
is there represented as the suzerain of the native dynast Skenen-ra, who
appears, after an interval, at Thebes, and whose revolt heralds the final
liberation under Karnes and Aahmes and the advent of the Eighteenth
Dynasty about 1580 b.c. Weill 5 places the disappearance of the last
Sebekhotep from Thebes and the accession of Khyan about 1633 b. c, and
if, as would seem to be a reasonable hypothesis, we may take the appear-
ance of this inscribed alabastron among the Royal treasures of Knossos
as a sign of official intercourse, its deposit may well have dated from shortly
after the middle of the seventeenth century b. c. It is to be observed that
the lid itself was in absolutely fresh condition.
The finished execution of the alabastron lid itself and the fine engraving;
of the inscription are remarkable. It is indeed evident that the Hyksos
king who restored Egyptian unity, as w^ell as his successors, had the command
1 F. LI. Griffith, Archaeological Report of the {lb., 1915, Juillet-Aout); Complements (lb.,
Egyptian Exploration Fiund, 1900-1, p. 37. 1917, Janvier-Fevrier); Livre des Rois (lb.,
2 See above, p. 300. 1917, Mars-Avril).
:i Monuments et Histoire de la Pe'riode com- 4 Cf. Weill, op. cit., Rec. des Memoires, T. iv,
prise en/re la Jin de la xiie Dynastie et la 1914, p. 107.
Restauraiion thebaine (Journ. Asiatique: Re- 5 Op. cit., T. vi, 1915, p. 47.
cueil des Me'moires, 1914); Synthese historique