ut his names are lost except for the Hyksos
kings. The Abydos tablet ignores all between the XIIth and XVIIIth
Dynasties. The Turin Papyrus preserves many names on its shattered
fragments, and the monuments are for ever adding to the list, but it is
difficult to assign them accurately to their places. The Hyksos names
can in some cases be recognized by their foreign aspect, the peculiar
style of the scarabs on which they are engraved or by resemblances to
those recorded in Manetho. The kings of the XVIIth Dynasty too are
generally recognizable by the form of their name and other
circumstances. Manetho indicates marvellous crowding for the XIIIth and
XIVth Dynasties, but it seems better to suggest a total duration of 300
or 400 years for the whole period than to adopt Meyer's estimate of
about 210 years (see above, Chronology).

Amongst the kings of the XIIIth Dynasty (including perhaps the XIVth),
not a few are represented by granite statues of colossal size and fine
workmanship, especially at Thebes and Tanis, some by architectural
fragments, some by graffiti on the rocks about the First Cataract. Some
few certainly reigned over all Egypt. Sebkhotp (Sekhotp, [Greek:
Sochotes]) is a favourite name, no doubt to be connected with the god of
the Fayum. Several of the Theban kings named Antef (Enyotf) must be
placed here rather than in the XIth Dynasty. A decree of one of them
degrading a monarch who had sided with his enemies was found at Coptos
engraved on a doorway of Senwosri I.

The Hyksos period.

In its divided state Egypt would fall an easy prey to the foreigner.
Manetho says that the Hyksos (q.v.) gained Egypt without a blow. Their
domination must have lasted a considerable time, the Rhind mathematical
papyrus having been copied in the thirty-third year of a king Apophis.
The monuments and scarabs of the Hyksos kings are found throughout Upper
and Lower Egypt; those of Khian somehow spread as far as Crete and
Bagdad. The Hyksos, in whom Josephus recognized the children of Israel,
worshipped their own Syrian deity, identifying him with the Egyptian god
Seth, and endeavoured to establish his cult throughout Egypt to the
detriment of the native gods. It is to be hoped that definite light may
one day be forthcoming on the whole of this critical episode which had
such a profound effect on the character and history of the Egyptian
people. The spirited overthrow of the Hyksos ushered in the glories in
arms and arts