If Ancient Egypt had an Independence Day, this man would be its hero – King Ahmose I.
Ahmose was born into a time of civil war – the Second Intermediate Period.
Foreign peoples from West Asia, later called the Hyksos, had settled in the Delta region and slowly exerted their dominance, with Memphis eventually falling under their control.
Ahmose’ family in Thebes declared their independence from Hyksos rule and led a revolt against the foreign kings.
But this fight was not only about liberation. For Ahmose, it was personal; the war had already killed his brother, Kamose, and father Tao.
Around 1550 BC Ahmose’s troops eventually drove the Hyksos across the desert and out of Egypt. Ahmose became the first ruler of a reunited Egypt – the New Kingdom - and a figure that later pharaohs held as a model of the mighty warrior pharaoh.
Perhaps, after all these years, he's exactly the sort of guy Egypt needs once again.
This ushabti of Ahmose, tasked to do any manual labour required of him in the afterlife, is in the British Museum, London.