Nadene Goldfoot
New York City and Boston are cities with harbors. AVARIS was such a city. Avaris was the Hyksos capital of Egypt located at the modern site of Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta. As the main course of the Nile migrated eastward, its position at the hub of Egypt's delta emporia made it a major capital suitable for trade. It was occupied from about the 18th century BC until its capture by Ahmose I.
The disappearance of the Pelusiac branch is one of the many hydrogeomorphologic changes of the delta that took place at various spatial scales, some being natural (avulsions, sedimentation of abandoned channels), and others being anthropogenic (bank stabilisation, etc.; Coutellier and Stanley, 1987). Avulsions of the channels, maybe cyclical as in most anastomosing systems (Nanson and Knighton, 1996; Makaske, 2001), led to a changing landscape that had to be adapted by man to suit its needs (Tronchère, 2010). On a more regional scale, the delta itself forms a large, typical (Makaske, 2001) anastomosing system that underwent several large-scale transformations (shifting or disappearance of entire branches).
Researchers now believe the move was not an invasion but due to other conditions--like droughts, changes in climate affecting food, etc.
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2The site has been occupied from the early Middle Kingdom until the Roman Period with a hiatus during the 3rd Intermediate Period. A city of such importance had to be accessible by ship from the rest of the kingdom. Indeed, archaeological findings, such as Minoan inspired frescoes, reveal that the city was even in relationship with the whole Mediterranean world (Bietak and Marinatos, 2003). Such communication means that the city was equipped with a quite large harbour.
Furthermore, the Khamose stele mentions that Avaris was the mooring place of the military fleet of the Hyksos (Montet, 1956). This is crucial because it implies that basins must have been present. Quays along the active channels would not have been safe enough for the mooring of military ships, and would not have been conductive to their easy maintenance. Until now, however, the exact location of the harbour basin in the city was unknown.
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Locating this harbour and reconstructing its chronology was our main objective. Harbour archaeology has been an especially dynamic field in modern geoarchaeological studies. It has concerned both marine [harbour of Rome (Goiran et al., 2010), Alexandria (Goiran, 2001), Phoenicia (Marriner, 2008)…] and river environments [Karnak (Ghilardi, 2009), Birket Habu (Kemp and O’Connor, 2007), Aquileia (Arnaud-Fassetta et al., 2003; Carre et al., 2003)], as well as lagoons and lakes (Marea, Taposiris; Boussac and El-Amouri, 2010). Sedimentology has been the main tool to analyse these specific, anthropised environments (Goiran and Morhange, 2003; Marriner and Morhange, 2006, Marriner et al., 2010) that play a considerable role in ancient economy and geopolitics.
The human history of Avaris is quite long (Bietak, 1975; fig. 2) The city of Avaris has been occupied since the Middle Kingdom, attested by the presence of temples and palaces from the 12th dynasty, most of them being found in the northeastern part of the studied area. A strong spatial development occurs between the 13th and 15th dynasties. When the Hyksos access to power (15th dynasty), the city expands towards the south and the northeast. New palatial complexes are built. When the Hyksos are defeated, the city remains occupied. Palaces are even expanded during the 18th dynasty. During the Ramesside period, Avaris becomes the harbour of Pi-Ramesse, the capital city built on the northern bank of the river. The city is continuously occupied during the New Kingdom and until the Roman period, Roman settlements being present on the western bank of the river.
Pi-Ramesse was a city built by the Hebrew slaves of Egypt mentioned in the Torah in Genesis that evidently became the capital of the Hyksos, according to this. Confusingly, Hyksos and Hebrew slaves both seemed to live in Goshen during the same periods, and this implies that they were one and the same. Joseph, known to us as the son of Jacob/Israel and Rachel, was 2nd in command and over all the land of Egypt, first of the family to be in Egypt.
The probability is that the Hyksos were people from Ur or that area who migrated first or at the same time as Abraham fleeing for the same reasons. They were of the same religion as that of the area they were coming from. It was Abraham who followed along who thought differently and made the difference. Thus, it's possible that the two existed at the same time but with Abraham's 70 and descendants choosing differently.
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A temple dedicated to Seth, a main divinity of the Hyksos pantheon, existed about 200 m to the south west of core AV-01 (fig. 5). Seth (Set), son of
During rituals, the statue of the god was carried on a ceremonial boat along the Nile. Such a ceremony implies a physical link to the river, as well as installations such as quays near the temple. This central place of the city was probably an important location, for economic, military as well as symbolic reasons. Stratigraphic analysis was used to compare the sediments encountered in this depression to the ones observed in the other river channels.
A. The Land of Goshen and City of Rameses (Tel el-Dab'a)
1. The Land of Goshen is where the Hebrews lived for 430 years in Egypt.
a. Rameses was the city of Tel el-Dab’a, also known as Avaris. The archeological site of Tel el Dab'a is located at 30.787419°N 31.821367°E. Located 1 km south of Rushdi, 3 km west of As Samanah, 6 km north of Farkous, 45 km west of the Suez Canal, 80 due south of the Mediterranean Sea.
b. The Land of Goshen was a large territory from Rameses to the Gulf of Suez, south to the Wadi Tumilat and included Ballah lake and Timsah lake.
2. Rameses is listed as the place they departed from as they began the exodus.
a. "So Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered." (Genesis 47:11)
b. "Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children." (Exodus 12:37)
c. "They journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the next day after the Passover the sons of Israel started out boldly in the sight of all the Egyptians," (Numbers 33:3)
According to a Midrash, as a result of Jacob's blessing, the famine ended after only 2 years instead of the 7 years foretold by Joseph.
47:13-27 describes how Joseph used his immense economic power to accumulate nearly all the wealth of Egypt and Canaan and nearly all Egyptian land for Pharaoh.
Thutmose III could have been the pharaoh who would not let the imprisoned Israelites free 400 years later on.
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