Hyksos: In the 18th and 17th
centuries BC, Canaanites settled massively in the eastern
Nile delta, eventually seizing
dominion over lower Egypt. The Egyptians called them "Hyksos" ("foreign
rulers") – and managed to throw them out after a century. The ceramic
remains, scarabs and weapons at the Hyksos capital of Avaris (biblical Zoan)
are very similar to those found in contemporary Canaanite sites. In the century
before this Canaanite conquest of lower Egypt,
the major cities in Canaan received massive systems of fortification,
including huge earthen ramparts, which gave many of the tells the shape they
hold to the present day.