The Seventeenth Dynasty (Part 9)

Kamose was not fated to finish the job of expelling the hated Asiatics. With the accession of Kamose’s younger brother, Ahmose, we come to the end of the Second Intermediate Period and the beginning of the New Kingdom. As Ahmose is the first King of Dynasty Eighteen, his reign is, strictly speaking, not a part of the period covered by this paper. This section cannot close however, without a brief mention of the final sack of Avaris.

Helck places this event in year ten of Ahmose’s reign while Redford places it in year fifteen (Vandersleyn, pp. 33 – 4). Vandersleyn points out that the Rhind Papyrus bears two dates, year thirty-three of Apopis, and year eleven of an unknown King. He then reasonably argues that this unknown King is Ahmose, rather than Khamudy (the last of the Hyksos Kings) and uses this to support his argument that the sack of Avaris took place no earlier than year eleven of Ahmose (Vandersleyn, pp. 33 – 4). The actual sack of Avaris does not seem to have been accomplished smoothly. The biography of Ahmose Son of Ebana records two battles at Avaris, with a battle south of Avaris between them, once again indicating that some Egyptians remained loyal to the Hyksos (Lichtheim, Miriam, Ancient Egyptian Literature vol. 2 (Berkley: University of California Press, 1976), p. 12).