Second Intermediate Period

Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period
(about 1700-1550 BC )

There is no general agreement in Egyptology either about the length or about how to define the Second Intermediate Period. Von Beckerath 1964 and Ryholt 1997 include the 13th to the 17th Dynasty. Other Egyptologists mark the end of the Middle Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC) as the 'historical moment' when the country became politically divided, some time in the second half of the 13th Dynasty. In Digital Egypt for Universities, the Second Intermediate Period includes (for more technical reasons) the 13th to the 17th Dynasty. The material culture of the first half of the period thus defined belongs to the Middle Kingdom; it is therefore not specially treated here. Note that many finds of the Middle Kingdom presented in Digital Egypt belong to the 13th Dynasty.

The kings of the Second Intermediate Period form three blocks:

late 13th Dynasty, when the area along the eastern fringes of the Eastern Delta broke away from central control; the little known rulers of this separate kingdom form the 14th Dynasty
the 15th Dynasty, or Hyksos (so called in later Greek sources: the Egyptian original is HqAw xAswt 'rulers of foreign lands'); they invaded Egypt at some unknown point. The Hyksos had their capital at Avaris in the Eastern Delta. The material culture of the Hyksos is a variant of that of the Palestinian Middle Bronze Age.
Contemporary with the Hyksos there are Egyptian kings at Thebes, ruling the southern part of Upper Egypt. The Theban kings eventually defeated the Hyksos.

The king under whom Hyksos rule in the north was ended is Ahmose I; as the king who reunited Egypt he is the founder of the New Kingdom (about 1550-1069 BC), and considered first king of the 18th Dynasty, though it is not known in which year or years reunification took effect.

kings	art