More on this symbolism of renewal and refreshment of the south:
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At the latest during the reign of Nefrusobek, this ruler was able to found his own dynasty, the 14th, which, ruling from the city of Avaris, controlled at least the eastern Nile Delta, and perhaps all of Lower Egypt.
After the death of Nefrusobek, and the end of the 12th Dynasty, kingship over Upper Egypt, the part of Egypt that was not under control of the 14th Dynasty, passed to the eldest son of Amenemhat IV, Sebekhotep I, who is considered to be the first king of the 13th Dynasty.
The initial contacts between both rivalling houses may have been of a military nature, as the miltary burials of this period in Avaris seem to indicate. After these initial hostilities, a status quo appears to have been agreed and both houses coexisted peacefully, allowing each other access to their territories for trade.
The first kings of the 14th Dynasty appear to have had fairly long and prosperous reigns. Despite their foreign origins, they adopted the traditional royal titulary, and included the name of the Egyptian solar god Re into their own throne names.
This dynasty also seems to have had very good relationships with Nubia and at least one of its kings, Sheshi, may have been married to a Nubian princess.
During the second half of the dynasty, several kings included the words "nourrishment" and "provisions" into their throne names and this seems to indicate that food may have become a very important political factor. There is also a drastic increase in burials at this time, with several tombs functioning as mass graves. This suggests that the latter half of the 14th Dynasty was ravaged by famine and plagues.
The rapid succession of kings at this time may show that even the most powerful could not be protected from illness. The short reigns also destabilised and weakened the central authority of the 14th Dynasty, making it no match for the invading troops of a foreign people known as the Hyksos, who rapidly conquered Avaris and brought the 14th Dynasty to an end.
From: [
www.ancient-egypt.org]
Now from the above it seems that there was a substantial influence of foreign rulers into the delta, which fractured control into little fiefdoms in the area. It would seem that famine had become prevalent during this time. Upper Egypt was governed by the 13th dynasty in the South and Lower Egypt was ruled by the 14th dynasty. The 14 dynasty seems to have started with some rulers with foreign sounding names, much like the Hyksos rulers. It may be from this period that the seeds of the Hyksos invasion were planted.
Anyway, the only recorded rulers that we can identify securely with inscriptions from the time is that of King Nehesi. Nehesi is the son of Seshi, the one who supposedly married a Nubian woman:
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Nehesi is the only pharaoh of the 14th Dynasty who is attested to in any contemporary writings. There are a collection of artifacts that date from Nehesi's reign, including an obelisk at the temple of Seth in the northeast delta city of Raahu, two stelae at Tel Habwe, a column in Tanis with his mother's name on it, and a number of scarab seals wth his name.
Surprisingly, his name means Nubian in Egyptian and may indicate that he was Nubian himself, which is not surprising. Nubian troops made up a large part of the Egyptian military forces (despite the fact that the pharaohs of preveious dynasties seemed to be perpectually at war with the Nubian people.
The Turin canon lists him as the firs tking in the 14th Dynasty, but there were probably a number of kings who ruled before him that are not accounted for in the papryus. Since the 14th dynasty cooexisted with the 13th and possibly the 15th after it in the turmoil of the Second Intermediate Period, it's likely that the turin canon and other king lists have a distince local bias -- listing only those kings with local or provincial power. The other kings may have had long reigns, compared to the brief stretch of time that is allotted to Nehesi.
Nehesi writes himeslf that he is "the son of a pharaoh", but quite suspiciously does not say who exactly it is -- leading most to believe that he was fabricating his history in an attmept to legimitize his rule. Proabably, his father was a commander or other government official who took power in the delta (along with a number of other local leaders.
From: [
www.phouka.com]
Another reason why they may have left out the earlier kings is because they were considered as foreigners.
Likewise, in the latter half of the 14th you begin to see the words for renewal and replenishment show up in the names of the kings. Likewise, after Nehesi all the names of the kings are quite Egyptian and not foreign sounding, the early names and those listed as unassigned are foreign sounding.
