The Lords of Avaris: Uncovering the Legendary Origins of Western Civilisation 9780712677622

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A Test of Time Volume Ihree

The Lords of Avaris Uncovering the Legendary Origins of Western Civilisation

Also by David Rohl A Test of Time Legend Th e Lost Testament From Eden to Exile

A Test of Time Volume Three

The Lords of Avaris Uncovering the Legendary Origins of Western Civilisation

by

David M. Rohl

Published by Century in 2007 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Copyright © David M. Rohl 2007 David Rohl has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. First published in the United Kingdom in 2007 by Century The Random House Group Limited 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SWlV 2SA Random House Australia (Pty) Limited 20 Alfred Street, Milsons Point, Sydney, New South Wales 2061, Australia Random House New Zealand Limited 18 Poland Road, Glenfield Auckland 10, New Zealand Random House (Pty) Limited Isle of Houghton, Corner of Boundary Road & Carse O'Gowrie, Houghton 2198, South Africa Random House Publishers India Private Limited 301 World Trade Tower, Hotel Intercontinental Grand Complex, Barakhamba Lane, New Delhi 110 001, India The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009 www.randomhouse.co.uk A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Papers used by Random House are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. ISBN 978 0 7126 7762 2 ISBN 0 7126 7762 3

Subject classification: History, Archaeology Typeset by Ditas Rohl Printed and bound in Great Britain by Scotprint, Haddington

To the future: Mohan lain Vanessa Rebecca Robert Maya

Contents Preface

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Introduction .....................................................................................................

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Flinders Petrie and the Dark Age of Greece (17) -- A Brief History (22) --The Arrival of the Inda-Europeans (23) --The Israelites in Egypt (24) -- Legends and Traditions (25) --The Late Bronze Age in Egypt (27) --The Close of the Bronze Age (28)

Part One

The Lords of Chaos Chapter One: And the Walls Came Tumbling Down ................................

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37

The Sheshi Scarab (39) --The Destruction of Joshua's Jericho (41) -- Dating Biblical Events (42) --Raamses (43) --Remarkable Parallels (47) --The Israelites in Egypt (50) --The Ipuwer Papyrus (52) -- Kenyon's Dating for the Fall of Jericho (56) Chapter Two: The Hyksos Kings .....................................................................

59

Dating Sheshi (60) --The Lesser Hyksos Arrival at Avaris (63) --The Greater Hyksos Arrival at Avaris (68) Chapter Three: The Royal Canon

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TheTurin Canon: A NewReconstruction (73) --The Greater Hyksos Kings in the Turin Canon (76) Chapter Four: Seth's Kingdom

79

Evidence for Slavery in Egypt (80) -- Sothic Dating (82) -- A New Chronology Dating for the SIP (85) --The so-called '14th' Dynasty (86) --The Fortress of Zile (88) Seth - Lord ofRo-Ikhte (89) --The Year Four Hundred Stela (90) -- Shemau (93) -­

Chapter Five: The Hyksos Expulsion ............................................................

Taa 'the brave' (97) -- Kamose 'the battler' (100) -- Ahhotep 'the steadfast' (105) Ahmose 'the liberator' (106) --The Climax of the War of Liberation ( 108) --The Fall of Avaris (113) -- A Possible Link withThera (114) -­

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97

Part Two

Divine Pelasgians Chapter Six: Sons of Anak

127

A Byblos Connection (127) --TheTombs of Byblos (130) -- Anakim in the Negeb (135) --The Arrival of the Anakim (137) --The Original Philistines (139) Chapter Seven: The Real Lords of Avaris ....................................................

The Legend of lo (151) -- IdentifyingTelegonus in Egyptian History (155) -Identifying lo in Egyptian History (156) -- Ahhotep -The Warrior Queen (159) Inachus - A Hyksos King? (161) --TheTreasure of Queen Ahhotep (162)

149

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Chapter Eight: The Voice of Seth ..................................................................

Dating the Eruption ofThera (170) --The 18th Dynasty Palaces at Avaris (175) -The Port of Perunefer (181) --Theran Pumice (183) -- Of Pots, Pharaohs and Precision Dating (184) -- Dating theTheran Eruption in the New Chronology (188) Deucalion's Flood (193)

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Chapter Nine: A Lost Epic ..............................................................................

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197

Ring of Fire (197) --The LM IB Destruction Debate (202) --The Fall of Minoan Civilisation (204) --The West House (205) -- An Epic Adventure (208) Chapter Ten: Origins

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229

The Inda-European Homeland (229) --Return to Eden (233) --The Coming of the Hittites (236) -- Chieftain of the Umman Manda (237) --The Inda-European Incursion (238) --The Legend of Keret (238) -- Interim Summary (239) -The Arrival (240) --The Horse (241) -- Inda-Europeans in the Bible (242) -The Early Hyksos Milieu (243) -- Bull-Leapers (243)

Part Three

The Coming of the Greeks Chapter Eleven: Minos and the Minotaur ....................................................

Seeing Double (247) --The Greeks of Knossos (249) -- Evidence from Egypt (250) -- King Minos the Elder (252) -- King Minos the Younger (253) --The Destruction of the Palace at Knossos (255) --The Pelasgians (260) --The Kretim (262) -- Black Athena (263) --Theseus and the Labyrinth (264) --The Power of the Bull (267) Ritual Human Sacrifice (272) -- Child Sacrifice at Knossos (275) -­

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247

Chapter Twelve: Danaus and Aegyptus .........................................................

277

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Golden Mycenae (280) -- Mummies on the Move (285) -- Wealth BeyondReason (287) The Legend of Danaus and Aegyptus (290) --The Five GreatRaces of Man (296) Danaus and the Flight from Egypt (297) -The House of Atreus (298)

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Chapter Thirteen: The Trojan War

303

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LoftyTowers at WindyTroy (305) -- W hich Troy? (312) -- Clues from the Aegean (320) --The End of Mycenae (322) --The Post-War Era (324) -- Clues from Egypt (326) -- Clues from Anatolia (327) -- Eteocles and the Epigonoi (335) -- Hittites in the HomericTradition (339) -- Manetho's Date for theTrojan War (341) Chapter Fourteen: Homer and the Dark Age ...............................................

345

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The Birth of the Dark Age (345) -- Dark Age Consequences (347) - Continuity Across the Dark Age (349) --Trouble atTroy (350) -- Setting the Greek Dark Age Boundaries (352) -The Pottery Periods (354) -- Middle Geometric Pottery at Megiddo (356) The Demise of the Dark Age (357) -- Problems for Homerica in the Light of the Dark Age (359) --Restoring a Ninth-Century Iliad (364) -

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Chapter Fifteen: The Sons of Heracles .........................................................

367

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The Coming of the Dorians (367) -- Archaeology Versus Genealogy (372) Eratosthenes and the SpartanRoyal Lineages (373) --The Generation Game (376) The Spartan Genealogies (378) --The Greek Generations (380) -- A New History for Archaic Sparta (382) -- Accepting theTraditions at Face Value? (385) -­

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Part Four

The Great Migration Chapter Sixteen: Mopsus and the Sea Peoples ............................................

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393

In the Footsteps of a Legend (393) --The Invasion of the Sea Peoples (399) -- Identifying the Sea Peoples (404) --The Legend of Mopsus (413) Chapter Seventeen: From the Ashes of Troy ..................................................

A Neo-Hittite Dark Age (430) --The Neo-Hittite Art Problem (432) -- Midas and the Mushki (433) --The 'Nail' (437) --The Western Phoenix (441) -- Carthage and its Foundress (445) -- Wenamon and Zikarbaal (446) --The Shardana of Sardinia (448) TheTursenoi of Lydia (449) -- A ForeignTongue (451) --The Arrival of the Etruscans (453) -The Greek Colonisation Movement (454) -- Archaeological Continuity (457) -- A Connection with the Sea Peoples (458) -- Aeneas and theTrojanRefugees (460)

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429

Chapter Eighteen: The Founding of Rome ...................................................

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TheThirteen Altars (465) --TheRoman Problem (470) --Romulus andRemus (476) The History in Legend (477) -- EarlyRoman Chronology in Detail (478) --TheRoman Republic (479)

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Chapter Nineteen: Lords of Avarice

489

In the Beginning (490) -The Hyksos Domination (491) --The Hyksos Expulsion (494) --The Foundation of Mycenaean Greece (496) --The Dorian Invasion (497) The Sea Peoples' Invasion (498) -- Colonisation of the West (499) . . .

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Part Five

Refere nee Section 503

Acknowledgements Abbreviations & Sources for Illustrations .............................................................

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519

Bibliography ....................................................................................................... Notes and References ........................................................................................... Index

Preface he morning of27 April 1991 began with a typical grey sky hanging over central London as I headed through the streets of Bloomsbury towards the equally grey Ionic splendour which is the British Museum. I was already late for the ISIS 1991 Fellowship Lecture as I headed up the steps of the portico and through the doors into the atrium of that august institution. A sharp left tum quickly took me to the Egyptian sculpture gallery and another left tum by the Rosetta Stone led to the corridors of ORTHOSTATS from the palace of King AsHURBANIPAL of Assyri