Pots and Peoples in the Egyptian Delta

Abstract

Occasionally, a fortuitous combination of archaeological discovery, preserved inscriptional data and historical evidence enables scholars to correlate a particular population group with a specific material culture and a precise, or relatively precise, ethnicity. Such is the case with the Hyksos, a once enigmatic people belonging to a period of Egyptian history still generally considered a dark age. Archaeological work in Egypt's eastern Delta has established beyond doubt that the ethnic origins of the Hyksos lie in Middle Bronze Age Syria-Palestine. A key element of Hyksos material culture, the pottery, appears to be a highly sensitive indicator of Hyksos cultural development. This paper focuses on the hybrid character of Hyksos culture as expressed in the Hyksos ceramic corpus excavated at Tell el-Maskhuta and its implications for Hyksos ethnicity.