THE PREHISTORIC EAST 181 



have them before us much as we have the speeches 

 and portraits of our contemporaries in the illustrated 

 newspapers, and can venture to express some opinion 

 as to their ethnic affinities and appearance, and can 

 judge more accurately as to the familiar statements 

 of the Bible respecting them. 1 Lastly, Maspero and 

 Tomkins have, with the aid of the names fixed by 

 the survey of Western Palestine, revised the lists 

 given by Thothmes III., in the temple of Karnak, of 

 the places which this Egyptian Alexander had con- 

 quered ; and they have thus verified the Hebrew 

 geography of the Books of Joshua and Judges. 



Another unexpected acquisition is the solution of 

 the mystery which has enshrouded that mysterious 

 people known as Hyksos or shepherd kings, who 

 invaded Egypt about the time of the Hebrew 

 patriarchs, and, after keeping the Egyptians in sub- 

 jection for centuries, were finally expelled by the 

 predecessors of the Amunoph already referred to. 

 They constitute a great feature in early Egyptian 

 history, but disappear mysteriously, leaving no trace 

 but a few sculptured heads, Turanian in aspect and 

 markedly contrasting with those of the native Egyp- 

 tians. It now appears that a people of Northern 

 Syria and Mesopotamia, known to the Egyptians at 

 a later time as Mitanni, and who were neighbours 

 of and associated with the Northern Hittites, have 

 the features of the Hyksos. It also seems from a 

 letter in the Tel-el-Amarna tablets that they spoke 



1 Sayce, Races of the Old Testament, Religious Tract Society. 



