Professor Manfred Bietak is now delivering his paper on the spiritual roots of the Hyksos elite, research bringing together and synthesising a multi-variate set of information. His focus is on 'sacred architecture' in the East Delta with Bronze Age culture, particularly Tell el Daba, Avaris. His discussion begins with the seals and seal impressions from Syria in MBA, then onto the Near Eastern type temples from Avaris - broad-room type, bent-axis temple next to an Egyptian temple- for sky goddesses and perhaps Hathor. Many of the comparable temples come from Northern Syria and Mesopotamia, but not so much in Southern Levant. He suggests the spiritual home of the people at Tell el Daba at the time of its non-Egyptian temples was in N.Syria-Mesopotamia: one for Astarte and one for the Storm-god -  a gendered duality.
The talk showed the extent to which Egypt and the areas to the north were inter-connected - but how did that happen? Watch this space!