| Khyan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 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]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aStatue_Khyan_CG389_Naville.jpg) Remains of a statue of theTwelfth Dynasty reappropriated by Hyksos ruler Khyan, with hiscartouche  inscribed on the sides over an erasure.[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | Dating subject to ongoing debate in Egyptology. Possibly second half of the17th century BC[2] and more generally floruit may be anywhere between c.1700 BC and c.1580 BC.[3][note 1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Sakir-Har | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Yanassi orApepi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Children | Yanassi ♂ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monuments | A Stela inAvaris | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | Fifteenth Dynasty | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SeuserenreKhyan (alsoKhayan orKhian) was aHyksosking of theFifteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling overLower Egypt in the second half of the17th century BCE. His royal name Seuserenre translates as "The one whomRe has caused to be strong."[6] Khyan bears the titles of an Egyptian king, but also the titleruler of the foreign land (heqa-khaset). The later title is the typical designation of the Hyksos rulers.
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 atKnossos andHattusha indicating diplomatic contacts withCrete and theHittites. A sphinx with his name was bought on the art market atBaghdad and might demonstrate diplomatic contacts toBabylon, in an example ofEgypt-Mesopotamia relations.[7][8]
Khyan's seat of power was located inAvaris, which hosted a strongly fortified palace.[9] Seal impressions of Khyan and a stela of his eldest son, princeYanassi,[10][11] were found in two areas of the city during excavations, confirming his presence onsite.[12] The palace, possibly destroyed during the later conquest of the Hyksos' kingdom by the Thebans underAhmose I,[note 2] comprised a high platform built on massive brick casemates surrounded by columned halls and monumental staircases leading to a still higher platform, on which the royal apartments probably stood.[9] This palace seems to have been abandoned c. 1600 BC, at which point an enormous ritual feast was orchestrated, filling several 5 m (16 ft) wide pits with animal bones and thousands of pottery fragments in consequence. Some of these fragments came from an array of vessels produced by theKerma culture, aNubian kingdom and Hyksos' ally during the Second Intermediate Period.[14]The Egyptologist Manfred Bietak proposes that the ritual feast and abandonment of the palace were triggered by the death of its owner,[15] most probably Khyan.[16][17] On the western edge of Avaris, another fortress was subsequently erected in the later Hyksos period c. 1560-1530 BC, likely under Khyan's successorApepi.[15]
East of Avaris, the Hyksos controlled the massive 350 m × 400 m (1,150 ft × 1,310 ft) fortress ofTjaru on the road toSinai andCanaan, where stelae of the Hyksos king Apepi were uncovered.[18]
According to Manfred Bietak, Khyan's rule marks the peak of the Hyksos kingdom power.[19] In this view, Khyan directly ruled over Lower and Middle Egypt up toCusae and indirectly dominated the Nile Valley as far south as Thebes,[20] forcing native Egyptian kingdoms including those of the16th andAbydos Dynasty into vassal states.[21] At the time of Khyan, relations between the Hyksos and their Egyptian vassals were likely peaceful, centered on exchange and trade and possibly even including donations to Upper Egyptian sanctuaries, such as one inGebelein, were blocks inscribed with Khyan's name were uncovered.[22] All of this is contested however. For Alexander Ilin-Tomich, the territory directly ruled by the Hyksos kings of Avaris was likely confined to the eastern Delta and the nature and extent of their control over Middle Egypt remains unclear.[23]
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Khyan is identified with king Iannas in the works ofJosephus whose knowledge of the Hyksos Pharaohs was derived from a history of Egypt written byManetho. Josephus mentions him after Apophis when discussing the reign lengths of kings who ruled after Salitis. This led 18th century scholars such asArthur Bedford to place Khyan after Apophis, towards the end of the Hyksos dynasty. However, inSextus Julius Africanus' version of Manetho's Epitome, Khyan (whose name is transcribed there as Staan) is listed after a king Pachnan, perhapsYaqub-Har. Nonetheless, the hypothesis of a temporal proximity between kings Khyan andApepi is now commonly accepted though questionable and contested.[23][25][26]Stylistically Khyan's scarabs resemble closely those ofYaqub-Har, who might date rather to the beginning and not to the end of the Hyksos-period.[27][28] This indicates that Khyan was one of the earlier rulers of the 15th dynasty.
The early position of Khyan within the 15th dynasty may be confirmed by new archaeological finds atEdfu. On this site were found seal impressions of Khyan in close connection with seal impressions of the 13th Dynasty kingSobekhotep IV, indicating that both kings could have reigned at about the same time.[29] The scholars Moeller and Marouard discuss the discovery of an important early 12th dynasty Middle Kingdom administrative building in the eastern Tell Edfu area which was continuously employed into the early Second Intermediate Period before it fell out of use during the 17th dynasty when its remains were sealed by a large silo court. Fieldwork by Egyptologists in 2010 and 2011 into the remains of the former 12th dynasty building which was also used in the 13th dynasty led to the discovery of a large adjoining hall which proved to contain 41 sealings showing the cartouche of the Hyksos ruler Khyan together with 9 sealings naming the 13th dynasty kingSobekhotep IV. As Moeller and Marouard write: "These finds come from a secure and sealed archaeological context and open up new questions about the cultural and chronological evolution of the late Middle Kingdom and early Second Intermediate Period."[30] These conclusions are rejected by Robert Porter who argues that Khyan ruled much later than Sobekhotep IV and that the seals of a pharaoh were used even long after his death. Another option he proposed is that Sobekhotep IV reigned much later than previously thought.[31]
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Nearly all carbon-14 analyses of materials related to the Second Intermediate Period yield dates on average 120 years earlier than was expected from the prevailing chronological reconstruction of the 15th Dynasty. While the debate is ongoing, Egyptologists have acknowledged the validity of these observations and that they indicate some major issue with the consensus reached hitherto. Khyan's rule is no longer dated with any accuracy. The Egyptologist David Aston has shown that available evidence is compatible with Khyan ruling anywhere between 1700 BC and 1580 BC, with the former his preferred scenario.[3] The possibility that one or more kings reigned between him and Apophis is now the dominant hypothesis.
A stela of Khyan mentioning aking's son was also discovered at Avaris.Manfred Bietak observed that: "a stela set up inAvaris contains thenomen andprenomen of Khyan and a now lost dedication (presumably to Seth, Lord of Avaris) below which are inscribed the title and name of the Eldest King's SonYanassi."[33][34]
The Danish EgyptologistKim Ryholt, who published an extensive catalogue of the monuments of all the numerous pharaohs of theSecond Intermediate Period, notes an important personal detail regarding this king's family; Ryholt writes that the association of Khyan with those of his eldest son upon this stela suggests that Yanassi in fact was his designated successor, as also implied by his title." Ryholt speculates that Manetho might have mentioned Yanassi in a now lost passage and that one possible explanation of the name Iannas used by Josephus for Khyan is a misquotation of such a passage in which the son's name was extracted instead of the father's.[34]
Ryholt notes that the name, Khyan, generally has been "interpreted asAmoriteHayanu (readingh-ya-a-n) which the Egyptian form represents perfectly, and this is in all likelihood the correct interpretation."[35] It should be stressed that Khyan's name was not original and had been in use for centuries before the fifteenth (Hyksos) Dynasty. The name Hayanu is recorded in the Assyrian king lists—see "Khorsabad List I, 17 and the SDAS List, I, 16"--"for a remote ancestor ofShamshi-Adad I (c.1800 BC)."[35]
| Preceded by | Pharaoh of Egypt Fifteenth Dynasty | Succeeded by |
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