User:Mariamauf/sandbox

Hatshepsut, “the foremost of Noble ladies”, is one of the earliest recorded examples of a woman who managed not only to ascend to power and rule Egypt, but also to keep it. She lived during the New Kingdom, in the 18th dynasty (14th century BC). She was the longest-reigning female to rule Egypt. She is considered one of the most successful kings that governed Egypt and her triumph is owed to several factors. However, shortly after her death, traces of her reign were erased from history and thus it took Egyptologists a long while and considerable effort to discover her.

Early life

Hatshepsut is the fifth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty. She was born in the year 1508 BC to King Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose. In 1496 BC, King Thutmose I passed away and his son Thutmose II ascended the throne. Hatshepsut, then, married her half-brother and acted as his queen and principal wife. Thutmose II’s reign didn’t exceed fifteen years as he died, leaving Hatshepsut as a widow with only a daughter, Neferure. However, Thutmose II had a male heir to the throne, a son born to Isis, a woman from the harem. The young heir, Thutmose III, was appointed as Egypt’s pharaoh and Hatshepsut was to rule as his co-regent.

From Queen to Pharaoh

Hatshepsut wasn’t satisfied with her title as King’s Chief Wife but rather she added another title and became also known as God’s Wife of Amun. This title may have helped pave her way to the throne. Furthermore, early evidence depicts her making offerings to the gods and ordering the construction of obelisks. Such functions were restricted to the male king. Therefore, there are multiple indications to her early intentions of claiming the throne. Soon, Hatshepsut took over the throne and claimed herself as the legitimate ruler of Egypt, but not as a queen but rather as a king. It is difficult to know the reason behind such change, from a co-regent to a pharaoh. Nevertheless, her legitimacy as a Pharaoh was uncertain for two main reasons: it unusual in ancient Egypt to have a woman as the ruler, despite the fact that the status of women in ancient Egypt was greater than any other civilization at that time. Also, it can be attributed to the fact that there was a legitimate king for the throne. Therefore, she put forward several arguments to strongly support such powerful move. Firstly, she highlighted her royal ancestry and said that her father had publicly appointed her as his successor. Additionally, part of the respect that she had may be attributed to the fact she retained and awarded her father’s, Thutmose I’s, faithful officials and appointed them in important positions to assure their loyalty, support and to strengthen her position. Further, she announced herself as the daughter of Amun. This was based in part, on the claim that Amun had taken the form of her father and visited her mother and that Hatshepsut was the result of this divine union between god and queen. The Divine Conception and birth of Hatshepsut are pictorially depicted on the walls of her temple at Deir El Bahri.

Accomplishments

Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for a total of almost twenty-one years and her main concern was to reconstruct the country, especially after the damage the Hyksos had caused in the Second Intermediate Period. She was highly interested in securing economic prosperity rather than seizing new lands. As a result, she embarked on an extensive building program. At the temple of Karnak, she renovated her father’s hall, expanded the temple complex and built two great obelisks standing at the entrance, one of which survives until today and is considered the tallest obelisk we’ve from the ancient period. Also, she built a huge mortuary temple at Deir El Bahri. Another achievement was the construction, at Maediner Habu, of the temple Djeser-djeseru, or the “holiest of holy lands”, which she dedicated to the god Amun. Another great accomplishment for King Hatshepsut was the trade expedition to the Land of Punt in her ninth year. This expedition was very successful and brought to Egypt many goods. The entire trip was depicted on her temple’s walls, which shows the importance of the trade voyage. There are several connotations for such a trip. It might be solely owed to her attempt to further enhance the country’s economic situation by bringing valuable goods to Egypt or keep the army busy – and away.

The Names of Hatshepsut as a King

When Hatshepsut depicted herself as a male pharaoh, she didn’t deny her femininity and early inscriptions prove that. The names she acquired as a king were formed with grammatically feminine participles and therefore acknowledging her feminine gender. Also, she was often referred to as the “female Horus”, the “daughter of Amun-Ra” and the “perfect goddess”. While her birth name had no reference to a deity, her throne names incorporated references to the goddesses and were written in a manner that was similar to Thutmose I, her father (The names of Hatshepsut as a king, Robins). This might have been intentional and the purpose might have been to imply her divine aspects as the daughter of Amun and thus reinforce her legitimacy. Later, Hatshepsut dropped the female ending from her name ‘t’ and was known as “his Majesty, Hatshepsu” and represented herself solely as a male.

Male Portrayal

Despite the fact that her throne names incorporated references to her femininity, her art greatly contrasts that, as she was depicted as a male pharaoh. When she acted as a queen and a principle wife for Thutmose II, all her statues show her as a female, in the way she is dressed and her body. Subsequently, when she claimed herself as a King, she represented herself as a male ruler. This is seen in the statues of her wearing a king’s kilt and a crown in addition to having a male body with broad shoulders and a false beard.

Banishment from History

When Hatshepsut passed away, the legitimate heir to the throne, Thutmose III took over. Archaeologists have discovered that at least twenty years after her death, Thutmose began erasing her presence from history. He removed her name from everything that was visible to the public and he replaced her name with the name of her father Thutmose I, or her husband (and his father) Thutmose II, or even with his own name. In addition, he built massive stonewalls around the obelisks to hide them from public view and this might be the reason why they’re still standing until today because his actions led to their preservation. It is believed that the destruction of her monuments was a political decision rather than one that was governed by emotional considerations. Nonetheless, Thutmose III’s motives are not clear since there is no documents surviving that explain his actions. Yet, there are various suggestions. One logical idea proposes that Thutmose III had a male heir to the throne who was also born from a harem woman and not a royal queen and therefore he didn’t want to have his queen follow the footsteps of Hatshepsut. So abolishing her memory he secured the reign of his son. Also, the record indicates that Thutmose actually completed a big part of Hatshepsut’s unfinished construction plans. Besides, Thutmose only destroyed the inscriptions that bore her name as a king but kept those that named Hatshepsut as a queen and a principal wife.

Discovery of Her Mummy

In 1903, the archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Hatshepsut’s sarcophagus. It was found in KV20. The sarcophagus, which was one of three that Hatshepsut prepared, was empty. There were two mummies found in a tomb, one was retrieved and identified as her nurse and the second mummy was left in the tomb and was later lost. Later, an Egyptologist, Donald Ryan, started a research on under decorated tombs in the Valley of Kings. He then discovered the once-lost tomb of Hatshepsut and retrieved the second unidentified mummy. Ryan studied the mummy but there were no indications that it was Hatshepsut’s, since it had no regal bearing. Yet, he was certain that the mummy belonged to a royal person as it was extremely well mummified and the mummy was striking a royal pose. However, there were no solid proof to clearly identify the owner of the mummy. In 2005, Zahi Hawass, Head of the Egyptian Mummy Project and then- Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, launched a campaign to find Hatshepsut’s mummy. There were four unidentified mummies and in early 2007, the four mummies undergone CT scans. Hawass then retrieved a wooden box with Hatshepsut’s cartouche on it. The box was thought to contain her liver, but instead a tooth was found. The four mummies then were re-examined and one had a missing tooth. Ashraf Selim, professor of Radiology at Cairo University, measure the tooth and the mummy’s root and both matched. Accordingly, the obese mummy was identified at Hatshepsut’s. The late queen/king might have died of an infection in her tooth with complications of bone cancer and a possibility of diabetes. The speculation behind the removal of her body from the tomb of her nurse might have been owed to a desire to protect since many of the mummies of the royals of the New Kingdom were hidden to ensure their safety and security.