Patrick E. McGovern, The Foreign Relations of the “Hyksos”, A neutron activation study of Middle Bronze Age pottery from the Eastern Mediterranean, With a contribution by Tine Bagh. BAR Publishing, 2000 [re-published with a 2020 update]. Paperback, 260 pp, 1 color plate, 17 black and white plates, 29 figures, 46 tables ISBN 9781841710884, ISBN 10 1841710881 This volume constitutes the largest, most focused chemical study of ancient pottery ever undertaken for the Old World. It demonstrates that the enigmatic “Hyksos” of Egyptian history and legend most likely immigrated into the Nile Delta from the Gaza region of southern Palestine. Their higher socio-economic status at their new-found capital of Avaris, from which they ruled Egypt for more than a century (ca. 1650-1550 B.C.), is evidenced by the massive importation of goods from their Gaza homeland, including resinated wine, and by the wholesale transplantation of burial, religious, technological, and culinary traditions as reflected in foreign pottery types. Less intense contacts with Middle Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Crete, and Cyprus are also documented in this investigation.

The Foreign relations of the Hyksos; 2020 update

Now republished with a new 2020 preface with links to additional, updated material, this study of Syro-Palestinian pottery types found at Tell el-Dab’a/Avaris keeps being important from the perspective it provides on economic and social developments at what has been identified as the capital of the “Hyksos” in the northeastern Nile Delta during the period from the late Middle Kingdom through the Second Intermediate Period. As well as opening up a new sight-line on the pottery industry at Tell el-Dab’a / Avaris, this study is also extremely important in refining hypotheses and conclusions based on pottery analyses, and, indeed, the author presents his case for a radical rethink in the light of these findings.