The arm of Egypt was growing longer, and its weight was being felt in
regions where it had previously been entirely unknown. Eventually the
collision came. Egypt collided with an Asiatic power, and got the worst
of the encounter. So much the worse that the Theban monarchy of the
Middle Kingdom was overthrown, and Northern Egypt was actually conquered
by the Asiatic foreigners and ruled by a foreign house for several
centuries. Who these conquering Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, were no
recent discovery has told us. An old idea was that they were Mongols. It
was supposed that the remarkable faces of the sphinxes of Tanis, now
in the Cairo Museum, which bore the names of Hyksos kings, were of
Mongolian type, as also those of two colossal royal heads discovered
by M. Naville at Bubastis. But M. Golenischeff has now shown that these
heads are really those of XIIth Dynasty kings, and not of Hyksos at all.
Messrs. Newberry and Garstang have lately endeavoured to show that this
type was foreign, and probably connected with that of the Kheta, or
Hittites, of Northern Syria, who came into prominence as enemies of
Egypt at a later period. They think that the type was introduced into
the Egyptian royal family by Nefret, the queen of Usertsen (Senusret)
II, whom they suppose to have been a Hittite princess.
Pages:
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157