Everything about Avaris totally explained
» For other meanings and similar words, see Avarice (disambiguation).
Avaris (
Egyptian: ħ.t wʕr.t,
Hatwaret,
Greek: αυαρις,
Auaris), located at
Tell el-Dab'a (some still argue for different locations), was the ancient capital of the
Hyksos dynasties in
Egypt. Located in the northeastern region of the
Nile Delta, Avaris was the base of the Hyksos kings of Egypt's
Second Intermediate Period. The city was built atop the ruins of the
Middle Kingdom town Rowarty that had been captured by the Hyksos. After their takeover, the Hyksos heavily fortified the city and ruled the country using new technology, specifically the
chariot which had never been witnessed before by the Ancient Egyptians.
Overview
The site at
Tell el-Dab'a
, covering an area of about 2 square
kilometers, is in ruins today, but shows that at one point, it was a well-developed center of trade. Artifacts excavated at a temple erected in the Hyksos period have produced goods from all over the
Aegean world. The temple even has
Minoan-like wall paintings that are similar to those found on
Crete at the
Palace of Knossos. A large mudbrick tomb has also been excavated to the west of the temple where
grave-goods, such as copper swords, have been found.
Towards the end of the
Seventeenth dynasty,
Ahmose I, the founder of the
Eighteenth dynasty, captured Avaris just before the Hyksos were finally expelled from Egypt, after a water-borne siege. The Hyksos capital was razed to the ground in the aftermath of the Egyptian triumph. Soon after, however, a palace compound was constructed in the early 18th dynasty. It consisted partly of mudbricks from the Hyksos citadel and seems to have functioned as a royal residence. The palace area was settled up to the reign of Amenhotep III, or possibly up to the reign of Ramesses II.
The town itself appears to have been mainly abandoned after the Hyksos expulsion but seems to have been reoccupied by the
Nineteenth dynasty, at which time it may have taken the name of Pi-Ramesses (also spelled
Pi-Ramases).
Evidence has also been unearthed in Avaris that shows contact between early Mediterranean civilizations.
Etymology of the name
Exodus Decoded, a made-for-TV documentary by Simcha Jacobovici reported an unlikely etymology for the place name Avaris (
Hatwaret/
Auaris), suggesting the place name derives from the Hebrew word for "Hebrew" (
Hebrew: עִבְרִי,
Tiberian: ʕivɾi,
Israeli: Ivri). If so, it would mean something like "the place of the Hebrews", and thus identify the Asiatic
Hyksos with the biblical
Hebrews. Nevertheless, while a
Canaanite/Hebrew origin is plausible, it's difficult to show how the Canaanite/Hebrew word-root
ʕ.b.ɾ (עבר), meaning "to pass" (whence a "Hebrew", a "passer-by", one who "goes across"), could linguistically become
ħt wʕrt in Egyptian.
The Hebrew to the word Ivri (Israelite) "עברי" has its roots in the words "מעבר הנהר" which translates as "from across the river". for example The Hebrew's or Israelites as such were commonly known as "those from across the river" (the Nile).
Pi-Ramesses (Per-Ra-mes-su)
In the
Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Avaris regained its past glory when Pharaoh Ramesses II founded his new capital at this old site. The city was now called
Pi-Ramesses Aa-nakhtu, meaning "
Domain of Ramesses II, Great in Victory" though it previously served as a summer palace under
Seti I.
The decision by Ramesses II to transfer his government and official residence this far north from
Thebes may have been caused by geopolitical reasons. The troublesome Egyptian vassal states in
Philistia lay much closer as did the border with the hostile
Hittite empire. Intelligence and diplomats would reach the Pharaoh much quicker. The main corps of the army were also encamped in the city and could quickly be mobilized.
Pi-Ramesses flourished for a century and poems were written over its splendour. The demise of Egyptian authority abroad during the
Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt made the city less significant and it was largely abandoned by c.1130 BC onwards as a royal residence When the
Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt established their capital of Lower Egypt at another site called
Tanis in the Egyptian Delta to the north-west of Pi-Ramesses, stone from the abandoned Ramesside temple in Pi-Ramesses was reused and recycled for the creation of great new temples at Tanis by the 21st Dynasty kings. The Pharaohs of the
Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt also transported many old Ramesside obelisks, stelas, statues and sphinxes from Pi-Ramesses to Tanis. The changing waterways of the Nile river Delta likely also have made the site less accessible for river transports.
The removal of the monuments of Pi-Ramesses to Tanis led early archaeologists to erroneously identify Tanis as the site of Pi-Ramesses based on the "masses of broken Ramesside stonework [which] were visible in the ruins of San el-Hagar (ie. Tanis). However, more recent and thorough excavations at Tell el-Dab´a and Qantir have identified the true site of both the Hyksos capital Avaris and the Ramesside capital Pi-Ramesses. In recent decades, the site has been excavated by an Austrian team of archaeologists headed by the Austrian Egyptologist,
Manfred Bietak.
The discoveries here include the foundations of palace buildings, temples, arsenals, storehouses, and tombs. Pi-Ramesses was spread over a vast area of about 18 square kilometers, or 6 kilometres long by 3 kilometrees (2 miles) wide according to the latest estimates. This makes it one of the largest cities of ancient Egypt.
Biblical Ramses
The place name
Ramses (
Hebrew: רַעְמְסֵס,
Tiberian: ɾaʕəmses), sometimes
Raamses or
Ra'amses, occurs four times in the
Tanakh:
Genesis 47:11;
Exodus 1:11 and
Numbers 33:3,5. The Septuagint equates this name with the Egyptian name Ramessu, hellenizing it as
Hramessê (
Greek: ραμεσση, ʰramɛsːe), whence Latin
Ramesses, whence traditional English.
The location is synonymous with
Goshen, the land where
Joseph and his descendants settled. According to the biblical account, the
Israelites departed from Ramses in their
exodus from Egypt (Exodus 12:37).
Archeologists have not yet pinpointed the time or place of both major cities in the Exodus namely Pithom and Raamses, and some dispute its historicity. The Biblical Raamses is acknowledged to almost certainly be Ramesses II's vast capital city of Pi-Ramesses, located today at the sites of
Tell el-Dab´a and
Qantir respectively, whereas the Biblical
Pithom or
Pi(r)-(A)tum, (literally domain or house of the god
Atum) is possibly located at Tell er-Retaba--as
Kenneth Kitchen argues--rather than Tell el-Maskhuta as some writers previously thought. These two sites, at Qantir and Tell er-Retaba, are 15 to apart.
from
Knossos,
Crete.]]Besides
Thera and
Crete, only two other sites have a record of
Minoan civilization besides Avaris. They are
Tell Kabri, and
Alalakh in Syria. It is speculated by the excavator of Tell Dab'a (Austrian,
Bietak), that there was close contact with the rulers of Avaris, and the large building representing the frescoes allowed the Minoans to have a ritual life in Egypt. French archaeologist Yves Duhoux proposed the existence of a Minoan 'colony' on an island in the Nile delta. These finds may also imply the later arrival of the
Sea Peoples. It might be of interest that the Minoan
hieroglyph system (Linear A) contains some signs bearing a resemblance to Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Further Information
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