ABSTRACT
With the decline and final collapse of the Middle Kingdom in around 1782 bc, a period of more than two centuries passed, known today as the Second Intermediate Period, when Egypt split up into different regions. Many little dynasties and kings came and went, holding sway briefly in various areas of the country, many overlapping one another; while in the north, the so-called ‘Hyksos’ kings – foreign princes who had invaded Egypt – established their capital, Avaris, in the Delta. Many of these ephemeral kings left evidence of some activity at Karnak, including a stela of Sebekhotep IV (PM II 1972: 52) who recorded building works: ‘a gate of ten cubits . . . a pure floor . . . a second door . . .’. An inscribed lintel or two, a few stone blocks, some door jambs, are otherwise all that remain to speak of these building programmes; while further stelae, statues, even an obelisk, show that these kings paid homage to Amun by embellishing his temple. Of note, Wegaf (Dynasty XIII) left a throne (PM II 1972: 110), and Ameny-Antef-Amenemhet of the same dynasty dedicated a very large and fine offering-table composed of two sandstone blocks forming a table of the North and a table of the South, each half carved with twenty circular depressions for receiving offerings, and the whole inscribed around its four sides (PM II 1972: 94).
