The "Second Intermediate Period" is the term conventionally used for the period of divided rule in Egypt after the Middle Kingdom. It begins after the end of the 12th Dynasty and ends with the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt and the inception of the New Kingdom (18th Dynasty).
Dynastic stability ended with the beginning of the 13th Dynasty. According to Manetho, 60 kings reigned for 153 years, with an average of one king every three years, a definite sign of political instability. There were few or no established criteria for dynastic succession. This seems to have been a period with usurpers on one side, and king-makers and a strong administration on the other. Some of the kings were most probably of Asiatic origin, such as Chendjer, "the Boar." It can be assumed that most of the kings previously held high positions in the court or army. For example, one king was named Mermesha, "the General." Some stability can be observed, however, in the middle of the 13th Dynasty with the reigns of Sobekhotep III, Neferhotep I, Sihathor I and Sobekhotep IV, and for a short time there was some form of dynastic succession.
From the beginning of the 13th Dynasty, mining expeditions to the Sinai and inscriptions in the region of the Second Cataract ended abruptly. The royal mortuary cults of the 12 th Dynasty also ended soon afterwards. The 13 th Dynasty was very active abroad, however, especially in southwest Asia. A scepter of King Hotepibre was found in a royal tomb at the site of Tell Mardikh (ancient Ebla), in northern Syria. Good relations were fostered with Byblos, whose rulers had probably already accepted the Egyptian title of "governor" (b^’y- ‘) during the 12th Dynasty, as did another Asiatic ruler of Kumidi (in the Beqaa valley in Lebanon). Many Levantine peoples were employed in the Egyptian army or as servants in upper-class households. Some of these foreigners made careers in their positions, especially in the royal household, and consequently rose to positions of power, which explains the foreign names of some kings of this dynasty.
With a lack of dynastic stability, political fragmentation had occurred in Egypt by circa 1700 BC and local kingdoms arose in the northeastern Delta. Of special importance was the kingdom ruled by King ‘Aasehre Nehesy, with its capital at Avaris (Tell ed-Dab’a). With the 13th Dynasty no longer in control of the whole country, its rulers withdrew to Upper Egypt. Nehesy ruled primarily over peoples of Syro-Palestinian origin, who had settled in large numbers in the northeastern Delta, in special settlements granted by the kings of the late 12th Dynasty. They were probably employed as soldiers, sailors, shipbuilders and workmen. These foreigners introduced the cult of the northern Syrian storm god Ba’al Zephon/ Haddad in the region of Avaris, the most important settlement. Nehesy’s dynasty in Avaris was probably soon replaced by a local dynasty of Syro-Palestinians, who spoke a West Semitic dialect. Thus, the nucleus of the later Hyksos kingdom was formed. The unstable political situation in the country invited these non-Egyptian rulers to expand their control to Middle Egypt and soon afterwards to Upper Egypt. Facilitating this expansion were an army, ships and foreign connections. An inscription on a stela describes marauding hordes of such soldiers destabilizing the region of Thebes, where one of the last kings of the 13th Dynasty, Neferhotep III, had withdrawn.
By this time the Egyptian garrisons in Lower Nubia were partly abandoned, but some Egyptians remained there and went into the service of the Upper Nubian kingdom of Kush (Kerma culture), which occupied Lower Nubia circa 1650 BC. Egypt was now under the (loose) control of the so-called Hyksos, i.e. "Rulers of the Foreign Countries," an Egyptian term originally used for foreign chiefs and bedouin leaders. This title was officially adopted by the kings of the 15th Dynasty, who emerged from the dynasty in Avaris and probably governed from there. They were crowned in the old capital of Memphis (at least, this is reported by Flavius Josephus about the first king, Salitis). Kings of the contemporaneous 16th Dynasty probably ruled as a sub-dynasty in southern Palestine at Sharuhen (Tell el-’Ajjul). From there the majority of exports, such as olive oil and wine, were shipped to Egypt.
The Hyksos were well connected in the eastern Mediterranean through trade and diplomacy. Besides southern and coastal Palestine and Cyprus, they also had links to the Minoan thalassocracy on Crete, as evidenced by an alabaster lid inscribed with the name of the powerful Hyksos Khayan, found in the palace of Knossos. Hyksos rule was centralized in a "homeland" in the northeastern Delta, from where new settlements of the Syro-Palestinian Middle Bronze Age culture spread. These kings and their followers had mainly West Semitic names. They firmly controlled northern Egypt, where devoted vassals were installed. It does not seem coincidental that the 17th Dynasty in Thebes began at about the same time as the Hyksos dynasty, and perhaps the first king of the Theban dynasty, Nubkheperre Intef VI, had been installed by the Hyksos. The choice of the royal name "Intef" shows that this new dynasty attempted to re-establish a tradition that was rooted in the past glory of the 11th Dynasty, when Thebes became the capital of Egypt and its god Amen was the dominant deity. Once again, at the end of the Second Intermediate Period, Amen became the symbol of Egypt’s liberation from the foreigners.
King Seqenenre Ta’o of the 17th Dynasty was probably the first to attempt an uprising against his overlord, Aawoserre Apophis, in Avaris. Some diplomatic problems are mentioned in a popular tale found in the Papyms Sallier I, from the New Kingdom. More conclusive evidence for events is provided by the mummy of King Seqenenre, with deadly injuries on the skull caused specifically by a Syro-Palestinian battleax. After a crown prince named Ahmose (Louvre statue no. E 15682) died prematurely, Seqenenre was succeeded by Kamose, either a son or a half-brother. In his third regnal year, Kamose successfully led a military campaign north to the region of Avaris and set up two victory stelae in the Temple of Amen at Karnak. He was unable to seize Avaris, however, and died soon afterwards. It is therefore tempting to assume that this king died from the injuries he received in a battle near Avaris.
Kamose’s successor was a son of Seqenenre also called Ahmose. He was only a child when he came to the throne. In such a situation the king’s mother, Ahhotep, was an important figure for the stability of the dynasty and it was many years before Avaris could be attacked again. This probably happened between the fifteenth and eighteenth years of Ahmose’s reign. In order to create stability in the dynastic succession, he married his sister Ahmose Nefertary, which had become customary in the late 17th Dynasty. A new official position for the queen, "the God’s Wife of Amen," was introduced. According to Egyptian religious fiction, the queen conceived the heir apparent with the god Amen, who took the role of her husband. Thus, the divine origin of the dynasty was created and the institution of sister-marriage guaranteed the exclusivity of the royal family.
Ahmose succeeded in cutting off Avaris from Sile, as described on the reverse of the Rhind Papyrus (British Museum EA 10.058), and took Avaris. There he built his residence within the Hyksos citadel after the model of Deir el-Ballas. Close connections with the Minoan thalassocracy, most probably with the court of Knossos, are demonstrated by the abundant Minoan-style wall paintings from two or three of the major buildings in the royal residence at Avaris. Avaris served as Ahmose’s headquarters during the subsequent campaigns in southern Palestine. He attacked the second major stronghold of the Hyksos at Sharuhen (Tell el-’Ajjul) near Gaza, which he took after a siege of three years. He devoted the following years to destroying the strongholds of the Hyksos and restoring the former Egyptian possessions in Nubia by attacking the kingdom of Kush (Kerma). It seems that Ahmose was not motivated to conquer major areas in southwest Asia or Nubia, but he was determined to rebuild Egypt to its former glory. He resumed the traditional trading relationship with Byblos and took over the trade network of the Hyksos. Goods from Syria, Palestine, Cyprus and the Aegean poured into Egypt and the increasing economic stability of the country after its reunification laid the foundations for the prosperity of the New Kingdom, which was truly founded by Ahmose. It was only later that his successors, Amenhotep I and Tuthmose I, started to conquer territories in Nubia and southwest Asia which had never been held before by Egypt. This was done, however, following the trauma of foreign rule in Egypt and the fear of repetition of such an event. Other major powers in the ancient Near East, such as Mitanni, also arose at this time (Late Bronze Age) and Egypt began to play its part as an emerging superpower.
