by
Damien F. Mackey
“The kingdom of Mitanni, located in northern Syria, and the 12th Dynasty of Egypt … were contemporaries who engaged in a limited amount of trade and diplomatic interactions. While the 12th Dynasty primarily focused on the Nile Valley and
its immediate surroundings, the Mitanni controlled important trade routes
in Mesopotamia and northern Syria”.
AI Overview
Ancient Egypt becoming cosmopolitan
The dynasty that began the cruel Oppression of Israel, the Twelfth Dynasty (including its various Old Kingdom manifestations), faded out while Moses was yet exiled in Midian (Exodus 4:19), its last ruler being a woman who has been triplicated in conventional Egyptian history (as Khentkaus, Nitocris and Sobekneferure).
During the course of this great dynasty, Egypt advanced technologically. According to Nicolas Grimal (A History of Ancient Egypt, 1994, pp. 165-166): “Foreign workers were also flowing into Egypt, bringing with them new techniques and preparing the way for a slow infiltration that would eventually result in ‘Asiatics’ gaining temporary control over the country”.
Gavin Menzies identifies some of these newcomers as “Hyksos” (The Lost Empire of Atlantis: History's Greatest Mystery Revealed, 2011, p. 108):
The Hyksos probably arrived in the late 12th Dynasty (Middle Kingdom) period. They may have come originally as shipbuilders, sailors, soldiers and craftsmen. It’s not difficult to imagine Avaris as the Dubai of its day, with a vast building workforce drafted in from overseas.
The pharaohs settled them here deliberately in the late 12th Dynasty, to create a harbour town and perhaps even build ships. But at a later time of political weakness the workmen established their own small but independent kingdom and had to be swatted back. Hyksos artefacts have been found in the Knossos labyrinth [in Crete]. ….
Added to this, the Egyptian rulers had at their disposal a huge slave labour force from the peoples whom they had conquered, Libyans, Nubians, Bedouin, and of course, the Israelites whose own “overseers” were relentlessly pressurised by Egypt’s “slave drivers” (Exodus 5:14).
All the ingredients were there for the land of Egypt to undergo its massive building program. For this was the Pyramid Age.
A famous relief depicts Semitic types entering Egypt early in the reign of pharaoh Sesostris (so-called II), when Moses would have been officiating in Egypt according to my revision - far too late for it to be a representation of one or other of the early Hebrew patriarchs and family: https://madainproject.com/procession_of_the_aamu
“The procession of the Āāmu of Shu, or the procession of "Asiatics" (as commonly referred to by Egyptologists today), at Beni Hasan is an ancient Egyptian painting on the northern wall of Khnumhotep II's tomb in the Beni Hasan necropolis. Dated to the sixth year of Twelfth Dynasty Pharaoh Sesostris II (ca. 1892 BCE), the Āāmu in this scene have been identified as the Asiatic nomadic traders who are sometimes considered Hyksos or at least their forerunners. The group, led by a man called Absha (or Abisha, Abishai), is depicted bringing offerings to the deceased Khnumhotep II”.
In the land of Palestine, cities and forts had sprung up during the Early Bronze Age (II-III). Many of these cities will be destroyed, and/or occupied, within half a century, by a new people, the Middle Bronze I (MBI) Israelites of the Exodus.
Biblical archaeology has been badly thrown out due to the mis-identification of the MBI people with the nomadic Hebrews at the time of Abram (Abraham), almost five hundred years earlier.
“Semitic groups” dwelt in ancient Avaris (modern Tel e-Dab’a), the store city built by the Israelite slaves that is named “Rameses” in Exodus 1:11.
That this accords with the biblical account is suggested by various scholars: https://patternsofevidence.com/2016/06/02/new-archeological-discoveries-about-to-hit-overdrive/
The dig site of Tel el-Dab’a is a good example of the effort it takes to uncover just a fraction of a single location. This site is at the location of Rameses, which is mentioned in the Bible as the city the Israelites built during their bondage in Egypt.
Avaris lies under (and is therefore older than) the city of Rameses [Ramesses], and the fact that it was populated mainly by Semitic herdsmen who begin the history of the city as free people living by permission of the Egyptian state uniquely fits the Exodus account of the Israelites early history.
Egyptologist Charles Aling commented on the history of excavations at this important ancient city of Avaris in one of the bonus features on the Collector’s Edition Box Set of Patterns of Evidence. When asked about how much of ancient Avaris had been uncovered, Aling said, “Avaris itself, this is one of the most massive sites in all of the ancient Near Eastern world. And they have excavated there 60 seasons now. (A season lasts about two or three months, they do two seasons a year usually). And Professor Bietak, the excavator, said that that accounts for about 3% of the total site.”
It seems amazing that after digging for more than 30 years, the Austrians have only uncovered about 3% of the city.
What other clues will be found as the excavation continues? Dr. Aling also said, “With Egypt, there are huge gaps… We have large gaps in our information.” He stated that most of the surviving material from ancient Egypt remains to be found and guessed that we know about 10-15 % of what there is to be known.
Mansour Boraik, the Director General of Antiquities at Luxor also emphasized that new finds are made every day. He estimates that more than 60% of Egypt’s monuments remain buried underneath the surface.
When speaking about Avaris, Professor John Bimson from Trinity University in Bristol, England, mentioned that many other Semitic sites from the Middle Bronze Age also exist in the area nearby. Bimson noted that, “If we go back to the 18th-19th centuries BC [sic], we’ve got settlements of Semitic groups, or what the Egyptians called Asiatics. We don’t know exactly when they started arriving or exactly when these settlements stopped, because many of these sites have not been fully excavated yet. You’ve got a good many settlements, twenty or more, which would fit the land of Goshen where the Bible says the Israelites were settled.
There are more than 20 Semitic settlements in Egypt’s Nile Delta waiting to be explored.
“The Avaris site of course, no one knew how big that was until excavation began. There’s some hope to investigating with ground penetrating radar like they’re doing with the Rameside section of Avaris. Have you seen the plans they’ve produced of Rameses by ground penetration radar? They’re showing stables and things on a huge scale. ….
The pharaohs settled them here deliberately in the late 12th Dynasty, to create a harbour town and perhaps even build ships. But at a later time of political weakness the workmen established their own small but independent kingdom and had to be swatted back. Hyksos artefacts have been found in the Knossos labyrinth [in Crete].
….
Gavin Menzies writes further about the important Avaris (op. cit., p. 109):
Whatever this city’s name was – through time it had been Avaris, Piramesse or Peru-nefer – it was certainly a major port, bustling over the summer trading season and humming with the activity of many ships. And … the Minoans, or Keftiu, were here in force.
Avaris/Peru-nefer became a crucial military stronghold. The city was the starting point to the overland route to Canaan, the famous ‘Horus Road’ known in the Bible as the ‘Way of the Philistines’ (Exodus 13:17).
Previously Gavin Menzies had written: “Tell el Dab’a, a Middle Kingdom palace on a hill in the Nile Delta … a place that was named Avaris during the Egyptian 13th Dynasty, when it was a crucial trading port dominated by the commercial traders known as the Hyksos”.
Gavin Menzies had earlier discussed the island of Thera, which will figure prominently in his book (ibid., p. 61): “The island of Thera was, in the Bronze Age, a very important place, the equal of Phaestos [in Crete], Alexandria, Tell el Dab’a, Tyre or Sidon …. many ships”.
Another important trading partner with Egypt at the time was Syro-Mitanni:
AI Overview
“The kingdom of Mitanni, located in northern Syria, and the 12th Dynasty of Egypt, spanning roughly from 1985 to 1780 BC [sic], were contemporaries who engaged in a limited amount of trade and diplomatic interactions. While the 12th Dynasty primarily focused on the Nile Valley and its immediate surroundings, the Mitanni controlled important trade routes in Mesopotamia and northern Syria”.
https://althistory.fandom.com/wiki/Pepi_I_(Pharaonic_Survival)
“The contact with Ebla is established by alabaster vessels bearing Pepi’s name found near its royal palace G …”.
In my revision, pharaoh Pepi Neferkare of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty is the same ruler as Sesostris Neferkare (N. Grimal, op. cit., p. 164) of the Twelfth Dynasty.
Scrutinising my proposed revision
Although I am entirely confident that my placement of the biblical Moses in Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty is correct, and that Moses continued on into the Thirteenth Dynasty,
with Khasekhemre Neferhotep (so-called I) as the Pharaoh of the Plagues and Exodus, this scenario does admittedly meet with several seemingly awkward difficulties.
Some of these are:
1. Apparent archaeological evidence for pharaoh Neferhotep as being synchronous with Yantinu – Zimri-Lim – Hammurabi (properly revised to the time of King Solomon);
2. Neferhotep reigning in close chronological proximity to the Hyksos king, Khyan (Khayan), supposedly of Egypt’s Fifteenth Dynasty;
3. The total lack of evidence in Egypt during the Twelfth and Thirteenth dynasties for chariots, as necessary for the Pharaoh of the Exodus (14:5-7): “So [Pharaoh] had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them”.
Below, I shall discuss these most important considerations (in reverse order, 3-1, as will be the case).
My revision has situated the so-called Thirteenth Dynasty as being partly contemporaneous with the Twelfth. We have seen that some Thirteenth Dynasty personages were officials for the rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty.
Now, as the Twelfth Dynasty began to weaken, due to the long reign of Sesostris, followed by the woman ruler, the Thirteenth Dynasty most likely came to the fore.
This situation of weakness late in a dynasty, due to the overly long reign of a particular king, is perfectly reflected in the case of Pepi (so-called II) of the Sixth Dynasty, which I believe to be the very same period of weakness as in the Twelfth Dynasty (a woman concluding the dynasty): https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pepi-II
“Pepi II, fifth king of the 6th dynasty (c. 2325–c. 2150 [sic] BCE) of ancient Egypt, during whose lengthy reign the government became weakened because of internal and external troubles. Late Egyptian tradition indicates that Pepi II acceded at the age of six and, in accord with king lists of the New Kingdom (1539–1075 BCE), credits him with a 94-year reign”.
That excessively long reign needs to be approximately halved.
The Problem of horses and chariots (3. above)
Despite the fact that: https://pharaoh.se/dynasty-XIII “The true chronology and number of kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty is very difficult to determine as many of the kings' names are only known from fragmentary inscriptions or scarabs. Furthermore, the placement of many kings listed in this dynasty is very uncertain and disputed among Egyptologists”, several of its rulers were not entirely insignificant. And it may have been these who introduced the chariot (so vital to the Exodus account) to Egypt: https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/chariots/
It is generally considered that the Hyksos introduced the chariot to Egypt. The names commonly ascribed to the component parts of the chariot were semitic and common design motifs were Syrian in origin.
If the story of the exodus is to be taken at face value … and the ancient Egyptians rode chariots when pursuing the fleeing [Israelites], then it would seem that the exodus occurred after the Hyksos incursion.
However, the discovery of horse remains dated to the Thirteenth Dynasty … may suggest that horses were introduced into ancient Egypt at least in some limited sense before the Hyksos occupation.
A stela depicts Army Commander Khonsuemwaset, son of Dudimose (an obscure Thirteenth Dynasty King) seated with his wife on a chair with a pair of gloves depicted underneath him may indicate that he was a charioteer. ….
This Dudimose will actually come to the throne after the Exodus, for it will be in his time that there occurred a major Hyksos invasion of Egypt.
Dudimose is, I believe (following others), the “Tutimaeus” of Manetho:
Tutimaeus …. In his reign, for what cause I know not, a blast of God smote us; and unexpectedly, from the regions of the East, invaders of obscure race marched in confidence of victory against our land. By main force they easily overpowered the rulers of the land, they then burned our cities ruthlessly, razed to the ground the temples of the gods, and treated all the natives with a cruel hostility, massacring some and leading into slavery the wives and children of others. Finally, they appointed as king one of their number whose name was Salitis. ….
In the Thirteenth Dynasty king list a Dudimose (Dedumes) comes not long after Neferhotep (Pharaoh of the Plagues and Exodus).
Sobekhotep and Senwosret (both as Sesostris) in this Thirteenth Dynasty list would precede Neferhotep in my scheme, the true sequence being (so I think):
Sesostris (12th Dynasty) –
Neferhotep (13th Dynasty Pharaoh of Plagues and Exodus) –
Dedumes (Dudimose/Tutimaeus), time of the Hyksos invasion.
Thus (revised):
Neferhotep II
Sobekhotep VII = Sesostris Neferkare
Senwosret IV = Sesostris Neferkare
Montuhotep V Neferhotep
Mentuemsaf Mentuemsaf?
Dedumes = Tutimaeus
I myself have found it extremely difficult to identify Egypt’s stubborn ruler at the time of the Plagues and the Exodus. A main reason for this was a preconception, only recently rejected, that the “Jannes and Jambres [Mambres]” of 2 Timothy 3:8 were Egyptian rulers, with “Jannes” being Unas (a pretty good name fit at least) – who is appropriately placed in my revised scheme - and that necessitating that “Jambres” or “Mambres” be the stiff-necked king upon whom the Lord rained down the series of Plagues.
I had opted for the name version, “Mambres”, and had tentatively settled on pharaoh Sheshi Maibre (Mambres?) of the Fourteenth Dynasty.
However, with my more recent realisation that Jannes and Jambres (preferable to Mambres) were actually the troublesome Israelite (Reubenite) pair, Dathan and Abiram, I could free my mind for a different choice for the hard-hearted Pharaoh.
At this point in time, my preference would be that the hard-hearted ruler of Egypt at the time of the Plagues and Exodus was the Thirteenth Dynasty’s Khasekhemre-Neferhotep, so-called I, this choice being based on Dr. David Down’s suggestion: https://creation.com/searching-for-moses
There are records of slavery during the reigns of the last rulers of the 12th Dynasty—Sesostris III, Amenemhet III and Sobekneferu (some include an obscure figure known as Amenemhet IV before Sobekneferu). With the death of Sobekneferu the 12th dynasty came to an end. ….
A period of instability followed the demise of the 12th dynasty. Fourteen kings followed each other in rapid succession, the earlier ones probably ruling in the Delta before the 12th dynasty ended. Kings of the 13th dynasty had already started to rule in the north-east delta and, when the 12th dynasty came to an end, they filled the vacuum and took over as the 13th dynasty. (The idea of dynasties was not an Egyptian idea at the time. It was a later invention of Manetho, the Egyptian priest of the 3rd century BC who left a record of the history of Egypt and divided the kings into dynasties.)
The elevation to rulership over all Egypt by these kings resulted in fierce contention among themselves, resulting in a rapid succession of rulers and more or less anarchy in the country.
This only settled down when Neferhotep I took the throne and restored some stability, ruling for 11 years.
I identify Khasekemre-Neferhotep I as the pharaoh from whom Moses demanded Israel’s release. I do so because Petrie found scarabs … of former kings at Kahun [Illahun]. But the latest scarab he found there was of Neferhotep, who was apparently the pharaoh ruling when the Israelite slaves suddenly left Kahun and fled from Egypt in the Exodus.
According to Manetho, he was the last king to rule before the Hyksos occupied Egypt ‘without a battle’. Without a battle? Where was the Egyptian army? It was at the bottom of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:28). Khasekemre-Neferhotep I was probably the pharaoh of the Exodus. His mummy has never been found. ….
If Khasekhemre Neferhotep really was the Pharaoh of the Plagues and Exodus, then we are a long chronological distance before Ramses II ‘the Great’ of the Nineteenth Dynasty, who is probably the most popular candidate for the biblical Pharaoh.
In conventional terms, Khasekhemre Neferhotep (d. 1730 BC) comes a good 400 years earlier than Ramses II (c. 1300 BC).
In my scheme, however, Ramses II (c. 800 BC) is a good half a millennium after his conventional manifestation. On this, see e.g. my article:
The Complete Ramses II
https://www.academia.edu/108993634/The_Complete_Ramses_II
Pharaoh Neferhotep may, appropriately, have been a military-minded ruler:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neferhotep_I
“Neferhotep I seems to have come from a non-royal family of Thebes with a military background. …. His grandfather, Nehy, held the title "officer of a town regiment".”
Likewise Amenemhet (Amenemes), the dynastic founder of Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty, the “new king” of Exodus 1:8, may have been a non-royal nobleman.
Let us recall what I have written previously about this.
Expanding on the Twelfth Dynasty
Some of this gets complicated.
The dynastic founder of Exodus 1:8, the infanticide “new king”, I have traced back to a Sixth Dynasty (non-royal) nobleman from Abydos, named Khui.
Khui, whose daughter Ankhesenmerire, pharaoh Pepi married, was none other than the Fourth Dynasty founder, the obscure Khufu (Khnum-khufui = Khui), or Cheops, whose daughter, Meresankh (inversion of Ankhesenmerire), the “Merris” of tradition, married Khafre, or Chephren, the “Chenephres” of tradition.
“Merris” was the Egyptian foster-mother of Moses (Eusebius following Artapanus), and “Chenephres” was the pharaoh who persecuted Moses, and who sought his life (Exodus cf. 2:15; 2:23).
The correspondence of my revision with the traditional “Merris” and “Chenephres” (who absolutely permeates my revision for this era), about which latter I have concluded:
Conclusion: The vindictive “King of Egypt” of Exodus 2:23 was, all at once, “Chenephres” (tradition) – Chephren (Khafre) of the Fourth Dynasty – Pepi Neferkare of the Sixth Dynasty – Sesostris (Story of Sinuhe) Kheperkare of the Twelfth Dynasty …
is a reason why I am convinced that Moses belonged to Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty, and why I believe that this mighty dynasty was one and the same as the Fourth and Sixth.
But I must also include here, for “Chenephres”, Unas of the Fifth Dynasty (see below), and Sobekhotep Khaneferre supposedly of the Thirteenth Dynasty.
And that will not be the end of it, for there is a further crucial dimension to be added to this already complicated synthesis, as we are now going to learn.
The Foreign ‘Hyksos’ aspect (2. above)
The so-called "Hyksos Sphinxes"
The Twelfth Dynasty, during which time Egypt became more cosmopolitan, with Syro-Mitanni coming into consideration, and apparent Hyksos influence, may have set the trend that was taken up much later by some Eighteenth Dynasty rulers, of intermarriage between Pharaoh and Mitannian princesses.
Though I have no clear evidence at this stage that this actually happened, it is possible considering the sharing of trade - and probably treaties - between Egypt and Mitanni.
But what makes me particularly suspicious that this may be what really happened, that the dynastic founder, Amenemes (Khui), may have had amongst his wives, one or more Mitannian princesses, is that a supposed Hyksos ruler, a great one, Khyan (Khayan) is now thought to have reigned at the same time as Sobekhotep, whom I have identified as Amenemes’ son-successor, Sesostris.
Regarding this intriguing name, Sobekhotep, it is apparent, from the name of the last Twelfth Dynasty ruler, the female Sobekneferure, that this dynasty worshipped the crocodile god, Sobek.
Now, Sesostris ruled alongside no one.
So, if Khyan ruled when Sesostris did, this would lead me to conclude that Khyan was Sesostris – another of this Pharaoh’s many alter egos.
Was not Sesostris indeed a great and legendary king?
Read, for instance, what Herodotus has to say about him (obviously exaggerated):
https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/herodsesostris/
Herodotus claims the king subdued the Arabian Gulf and defeated every nation in his way in a massive land campaign. He also refers to a number of stelae recording his deeds which the pharaoh placed at the limits of his empire and reports that the inscriptions included depictions of women’s genitalia, as a sign of the pharaoh’s lack of respect for his subdued enemies.
The pharaoh allegedly subdued the Scythians (near the black sea) and Thracians (northern Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, eastern Serbia and parts of Macedonia) and left a band of warriors at the river Phasis (now known as the river Rioni, in the republic of Georgia) who settled and formed the people of Colchis (who protected the Golden Fleece, according to Greek mythology).
….
Finally, Herodotus advises that the king was worshipped in Ethiopia, and two huge statues of him were established outside the temple of Hepaistos (Ptah). Much later on, when Egypt was under the control of the Persians, the priest of Hephaistos refused to allow the Persian king Daruis to set up his own statue in front of those of Sesostris. He told the invader that he could not match the deeds of the great pharaoh and so he could not usurp his position. Surprisingly, the Persian did not punish the priest, and agreed not to install his own statue in front of the temple. ….
Similarly, the ancients wrote wonderful tales about the exploits of Tirhakah (Taharqa), a Pharaoh over Egypt-Ethiopia whom we meet also in the Bible (e.g. 2 Kings 19:9). While Egyptologists scoff at some of the wide-reaching conquests attributed to this biblical Pharaoh, he figures in my Ramses II article (above) as an alter ego for none other than Ramses ‘the Great’ himself.
Likewise, there may be far more to Sesostris than we have so far realised, who, if he were also Khyan, then his influence spread far and wide:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khyan
“Khyan is one of the better attested kings from the Hyksos period, known from many seals and seal impressions. Remarkable are objects with his name found at Knossos and Hattusha indicating diplomatic contacts with Crete and the Hittites. A sphinx with his name was bought on the art market at Baghdad and might demonstrate diplomatic contacts to Babylon, in an example of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations.
On this last point, my revised geography does not have Babylon anywhere near Baghdad in Mesopotamia. See e.g. my article:
Correction for Babylon (Babel). Carchemish preferable to Byblos
https://www.academia.edu/123163742/Correction_for_Babylon_Babel_Carchemish_preferable_to_Byblos
And, regarding the so-called Abbasid Baghdad (just in case anyone is interested):
Original Baghdad was Jerusalem
https://www.academia.edu/117007478/Original_Baghdad_was_Jerusalem
Khyan can apparently take his place amongst those:
More ‘camera shy’ ancient potentates
(6) More 'camera shy' ancient potentates | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
for, where are all the statues of this great king, whom Egyptologists have trouble dating (anywhere from c. 1700-1580 BC)?
He is supposed to have re-appropriated this statue from the Twelfth Dynasty.
Khyan
Khayan, Khian, Chayan
Remains of a statue of the Twelfth Dynasty reappropriated by Hyksos ruler Khyan, with his cartouche inscribed on the sides over an erasure.[1]
But was Khyan, rather, an actual ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty?
Was Khyan, in fact, the great Sesostris Neferkare/Khakheperre under the guise of Sobekhotep Neferkare/Khaneferre (the traditional “Chenephres”)?
Khyan Seuserenre as Senuseret (Sesostris)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khyan
“The early position of Khyan within the 15th dynasty may be confirmed by new archaeological finds at Edfu. On this site were found seal impressions of Khyan in close connection with seal impressions of the 13th Dynasty king Sobekhotep IV, indicating that both kings could have reigned at about the same time”.
Hammurabi (1. above)
That pharaoh Khyan, a Semitic name, was not a pure Egyptian, but had Syro-Mitannian blood may possibly be attested by evidence for Khyan as being an ancestor of the great Syro-Mitannian ruler, Shamsi-Adad I, son of Urukabkabu (c. 1800 BC) - revised by Dean Hickman to c. 1000 BC as being a foe-contemporary of King David, the Syrian “Hadadezer”, son of Rekhob (= U-Rukab-kabu) (2 Samuel 8:3).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khyan
The name Hayanu [Khayan] is recorded in the Assyrian king lists—see "Khorsabad List I, 17 and the SDAS List, I, 16"--"for a remote ancestor of Shamshi-Adad I (c.1800 BC)".
But what does all this do to my first point above?:
1. Apparent archaeological evidence for pharaoh Neferhotep as being synchronous with Yantinu – Zimri-Lim – Hammurabi (properly revised to the time of King Solomon).
If Khyan (as Sesostris) recently preceded Neferhotep, as the Pharaoh of the Plagues and Exodus, how, then, can this pharaoh Neferhotep be, as is thought, a contemporary of Hammurabi (a younger contemporary of Shamsi-Adad I - potentially a descendant of Khyan (Hayanu) - if Dean Hickman is right that Hammurabi belonged to the much later era of King Solomon (which I accept he did)?
If pharaoh Neferhotep were a contemporary of Hammurabi and Zimri-Lim, then much of my revision would be thrown into utter chaos.
My counter would be that, as in the case of Khyan’s supposed son, Yanassi, the evidence is very thin, indeed, that Neferhotep was contemporaneous with Hammurabi and Zimri-Lim. Here is what we read about it for “Neferhotep I” at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neferhotep_I
Historical synchronism
A stela bearing Neferhotep I's name is of great importance to archaeologists and historians alike as it enables a concordance between the Egyptian and Near Eastern chronologies. …. This stela depicts the "Governor of Byblos, Yantinu ... who was begotten by Governor Yakin" seated upon a throne, in front of which are the nomen and prenomen of Neferhotep I. …. This is significant for two reasons: first, Yakin is plausibly identifiable with a Yakin-Ilu of Byblos known from a cylinder seal of Sehetepibre [pharaoh Amenemes], indicating that this king and Neferhotep are separated by a generation. …. Second, a "King of Byblos Yantin-'Ammu" is known from the archives of Mari who is most likely the same person as the Governor of Byblos Yantinu of the stela. …. Indeed, Byblos was a semi-autonomous Egyptian governorate at the time and "the king of Byblos" must be the Semitic king of the city ruling it in the name of the pharaoh. The archives of Mari predominantly date to the reign of the last king of the city, Zimri-Lim, a contemporary of Hammurabi who ultimately sacked Mari. This provides the synchronism Neferhotep I – Yantinu – Zimri-Lim – Hammurabi. ….
As with the Canaanite fortress of Hazor, the ruler had the generic name of Yabin (Jabin), which emerges, now at the time of Joshua (Joshua 11:1), but also later, now at the time of Deborah (Judges 4:2). Some very good revisionists have gone badly wrong by presuming an identification of a Jabin (“Ibni-Addad of Hazor”) in the Mari Letters, at the time of Zimri-Lim and Hammurabi, with the Jabin at the time of Joshua, a chronological discrepancy of about half a millennium.
And I think that the same sort of mistake has probably been made with Yantin, again confused with a contemporary of Hammurabi and Zimri-Lim.
The poorly attested Yanassi (Ianassi): “Nothing is known of his actual reign” (https://1743.slovaronline.com/514-iannas), supposed eldest son of Khyan, would likely, I suggest, be as duplication of Khyan himself, some of whose alternate names were: Yannas, Jannis, Iannes, Joannis.
Presumably Yanassi is simply (his presumed father) Khyan Yannas.
This strengthens my view that Pharaoh Unas of the Fifth Dynasty was, again, Sesostris. For, Unas’s alternate names were, very like Yanassi: Onnus, Jaumos, Onos, Wenis, Ounas, Wenas, Unis:
http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn05/09unas.html
From all of this, it looks like convention has (yet again) got things completely wrong.
Hyksos (Syro-Mitannian?) types had come to infiltrate Egypt peaceably during the Twelfth Dynasty, along with many other peoples. Khyan Sesostris may have been a royal product of Egyptian-Mitannian co-operation.
This was not an invasion.
That came later, in the Thirteenth Dynasty, during the reign of Dudimose, when a people called the Hyksos – whoever they may have been – invaded Egypt and took control of it. Legend has it that the first of these foreign kings was one Salitis, who, if so, has mistakenly been placed before Khyan in the king lists:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteenth_Dynasty_of_Egypt
Fifteenth Dynasty
Name Image Dates and comments
Salitis
Mentioned by Manetho as first king of the dynasty; currently unidentified with any known archaeologically attested person. Ruled for 19 years according to Manetho, as quoted by Josephus.
Semqen
Mentioned on the Turin king list. According to Ryholt, he was an early Hyksos ruler, possibly the first king of the dynasty;[22] von Beckerath assigns him to the 16th dynasty.[23]
Aperanat
Mentioned on the Turin king list. According to Ryholt, he was an early Hyksos ruler, possibly the second king of the dynasty;[22] von Beckerath assigns him to the 16th dynasty.[23]
Khyan
Ruled 10+ years.[9]
Yanassi
Khyan's eldest son, possibly at the origin of the mention of a king Iannas in Manetho's Aegyptiaca
Sakir-Har
Named as an Hyksos king on a doorjamb found at Avaris. Regnal order uncertain.
Apophis
c. 1590?–1550 BC
Ruled 40+ years.[9]
Khamudi
c. 1550–1540 BC
