Deir el-Ballas and the Hyksos Expulsion
Dr Peter Lacovara
Monday Sept 1st Zoom 7pm
Despite playing a pivotal role in ancient Egyptian history, Deir el-Ballas is not very well known. It was the forward capital of the Theban kings during their drive to expel the Hyksos invaders in the north and reunite the land. Founded by Seqenenre Tao around 1550 B. C. Deir el-Ballas served as the campaign palace for the Kings Seqenenre, Kamose, and Ahmose. It was first excavated by George Andrew Reisner working for the Hearst Expedition of the University of California, Berkeley in the years 1900-1901, but it was but never published and was long forgotten.
As a student in the 1980s I came across the records of the site in Reisner’s archives in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and was able to pend several seasons surveying, mapping and excavating there to understand those records better.
Almost ten years ago, now, Mustafa Waziri who was then Chief Inspector at Qena, asked me to come back to the site because it was in danger of destruction by the expansion of the neighboring modern village. Working as the Ancient Egyptian Heritage and Archeology Fund with Salima Ikram of the American University in Cairo, we are continuing work to protect, preserve and publish this important ancient city.
