The Hyksos rule Egypt
Foreign kings take the Delta, and bring the chariot and the composite bow with them.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 100 years
- Known to
- ± 30 years
- Era
- Bronze Age, Holocene
A Levantine population settled in the eastern Delta takes political control around 1650 BCE, ruling Lower Egypt from Avaris for about a century. Egyptian tradition remembered it as a humiliating invasion; the archaeology suggests gradual settlement followed by a takeover. Either way the period introduces the horse-drawn chariot, the composite bow and bronze-working improvements to Egypt, and the reaction against it produces a militarised state.