The Hyksos and the Stag

 Although the Hellenistic Egyptian historian Manetho portrayed the Hyksos invasion of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period as violent and brutal, archaeology points to an Asiatic presence at Avaris, which would become the center of Hyksos activity for over 150 years before the beginning of Hyksos rule.  Evidence indicates a gradual Canaanite settlement beginning during the 12th Dynasty around 1800 BCE.  Egyptologist Manfred Bietak points out that Egypt had long depended on the Levant for expertise in areas of shipbuilding and seafaring, with possible depictions of Asiatic shipbuilders being found from reliefs from the Sixth Dynasty ruler Sahure. The Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt is known to have had many Asiatic immigrants serving as soldiers, household or temple serfs, and various other jobs. Avaris in the Nile Delta attracted many Asiatic immigrants in its role as a hub of international trade and seafaring.

When the last pharaoh of the Egyptian 13th Dynasty, Sobekhotep IV died around 1725 BCE, Egypt appears to have splintered into several kingdoms, with one based at Avaris and ruled officially by the 14th Dynasty whose names indicate West Asian origins. After the palace there was burned, the 14th Dynasty was replaced by the Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty.  Although some scholars interpret the activity was a Hyksos invasion, Bietak notes that a stela of Neferhotep III indicates Egypt was overrun by roving mercenaries around the time of the Hyksos ascension to power.

Archaeology has revealed trading relations of the Hyksos were primarily with Canaan and Cyprus, especially with many imports of Canaanite wares, and may have reflected the Canaanite origins of the dynasty. According to the Kamose stelae, the Hyksos imported "chariots and horses, ships, timber, gold, lapis lazuli, silver, turquoise, bronze, axes without number, oil, incense, fat and honey". Trade relations with Cyprus were also very important, particularly at the end of the Hyksos period .

Hyksos period art reflected a blend of Egyptian and Levantine motifs. A gold diadem found in an elite female's tomb in Avaris is decorated with gazelles but with a stag, possibly representing the "Stag God" of Indo-European origin on the brow. We see the stag motif used in Cypriot pottery during this time.

This blending of cultures extended to Hyksos bural practices as well. Hyksos tombs often included  Egyptian-style chapels, but they also included burials of young females, probably sacrifices, placed in front of the tomb chamber. Human sacrifice was rare in Egypt after the First Dynasty although it was sanctioned in cases of rebellion or other serious transgressions.  See my article "Cannibalism in Roman Egypt"

https://ancientimes.blogspot.com/2017/08/cannibalism-in-roman-egypt.html

The Hyksos also interred infants who died in imported Canaanite amphorae and practiced the burial of horses and other equids, likely a composite custom of the Egyptian association of the god Seth with the donkey and near-eastern notions of equids as representing status.

Near-eastern inspired diadem with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers, belonging to an elite lady discovered at a tomb at Tell el-Dab'a (Avaris) dating from the late Hyksos period (1648–1540 BCE) now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Near-eastern inspired diadem with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers, belonging to an elite lady discovered at a tomb at Tell el-Dab'a (Avaris) dating from the late Hyksos period (1648–1540 BCE) now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Terracotta zoomorphic askos (vessel) with antlers, Cypriot, ca. 1725–1600 B.C.E. at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

A man described as "Abisha the Hyksos" leading a group of Aamu, Tomb of Khnumhotep II (circa 1900 BCE.)  Courtesy of Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

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The Stag God of the ancient Near East

From Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt in the south to Thrace, Anatolia, and the Caucasus in the north, and from regions as far west as mainland Greece all the way east to Iran, the great royal houses forged intense international relationships through the exchange of traded raw materials and goods as well as letters and diplomatic gifts during the Second Millennium BCE. This unprecedented movement of precious materials, luxury goods, and people resulted in a total transformation of the visual arts throughout a vast territory that spanned the ancient Near East and the eastern Mediterranean.  Cult scenes or religious processions are commonly represented in the art of this period.

Hittite texts mention that animal-shaped vessels made of gold, silver, stone, and wood, in the appropriate animal form, were given to the gods for their own use. One such god, worshiped in animal form, was the stag god.  It is thought that the ‘Stag God’ originated in the steppes and was brought to Anatolia by the early Indo-Iranian peoples who left their Kurgan burials at Trialeti and elsewhere in the region and mixed with the Hurrian and other peoples as far as northern Anatolia. Although this vessel is a few centuries older than the Neo-Hittite era, its stag god was probably the basis for Karhuhas (or Kurhunta), thought to have been a fertility deity or protector of nature, later worshiped during the Neo-Hittite period. The stag has even been found as tattoos on the so-called ‘ice princess’ in the Altai Mountains. Here at the eastern extremity of the IE steppe culture zone, her frozen body was recovered with Scythian style stags still plainly visible on her skin.  

"This silver drinking vessel in the form of a stag was hammered from one piece that was joined to the head by a checkerboard-patterned ring. Both the horns and the handle were attached separately. A frieze depicting a religious ceremony decorates the rim of the cup, suggesting the uses for which the cup was intended. A prominent figure, thought to be a goddess, sits on a cross-legged stool, holding a bird of prey in her left hand and a small cup in her right. She wears a conical crown and has large ears, typical of Hittite art. A mushroom-shaped incense burner separates her from a male god who stands on the back of a stag. He, too, holds a falcon in his left hand, while with his right he grasps a small curved staff. Three men are shown in profile, moving to the left and facing the deities. Each holds an offering to the divinities. Behind the men is a tree or plant against which rests the collapsed figure of a stag. Hanging from the tree is a quiver with arrows and an object that appears to be a bag. Two vertical spears complete the frieze and separate the stag from the goddess. Spears were venerated objects, so it is possible that the stag was killed in a hunt, as suggested by the quiver and bag". - Metropolitan Museum of Art

Images: Stag vessel, Anatolia, Hittite Empire, 14th–13th century B.C.E. at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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