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Hatshepsut

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Historical figures

              Persondata
   NAME              Hatshepsut
   ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hatchepsut
   SHORT DESCRIPTION Pharaoh of Egypt
   DATE OF BIRTH     {{{Birth}}}
   PLACE OF BIRTH    Ancient Egypt
   DATE OF DEATH     {{{Death}}}
   PLACE OF DEATH    Ancient Egypt
   Preceded by:
   Thutmose II  Pharaoh of Egypt
                18th Dynasty    Succeeded by:
                                Thutmose III
                              Hatshepsut
                              Hatchepsut
   Reconstructed statue of Hatshepsut in her mortuary temple at Deir
   el-Bahri
   Enlarge
   Reconstructed statue of Hatshepsut in her mortuary temple at Deir
   el-Bahri
   Reign        1479 BC to 1458 BC
   Praenomen

                M23 L2


                <

                  ra mAat kA
                            >
                   Maat-ka-re
                "Truth is the Ka of Re"
   Nomen

                G39 N5


                <

                  i mn
                    n W9 t
                      F4
                          t A51
                               >
                   (Khnumt-Amun) Hatshepsut
                   "(Joined with Amun),
                Foremost of Noble Ladies"
   Horus name




                G5




                  wsr s  X1
                        D28 D28
                            D28

                               Image:srxtail2.GIF

                   Wesretkau
                Mighty of ka's
   Nebty name




                G16




                   M13 X1 M4 M4 M4

                   Wadjrenput
                Flourishing of years
   Golden Horus




                G8




                  G5


                  nTr t xa
                        Z2

                   Netjeretkhau
                Divine of appearance
   Consort(s)   Thutmose II
   Issues       Neferure
   Father       Thutmose I
   Mother       Queen Ahmose
   Died         1458 BC
   Burial       KV20
   Major
   Monuments    Temple of Karnak, Deir el-Bahri,
                Speos Artemidos

   Maatkare Hatshepsut or Hatchepsut was the fifth pharaoh of the
   Eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt. She was believed to have been
   co-regent from about 1479 to 1458 BC (years 7 to 21 of Thutmose III) .
   She is regarded as the earliest known queen regnant in history and as
   the first great woman in recorded history. She was only the second
   known woman to assume the throne as "King of Upper and Lower Egypt"
   after Queen Sobekneferu of the 12th Dynasty of Egypt.

Family and early life

   Hatshepsut was the eldest daughter of Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose, the
   first king and queen of the Thutmosid clan of the 18th Dynasty.
   Thutmose I and Ahmose are known to have had only one other child, a
   daughter Akhbetneferu (Neferubity), who died in infancy. Thutmose I
   also married Mutnofret, possibly a daughter of Ahmose I, and produced
   several half-brothers to Hatshepsut: Wadjmose, Amenose, Thutmose II,
   and possibly Ramose, through that union. Both Wadjmose and Amenose were
   prepared to succeed their father, but neither lived beyond adolescence.
   In childhood, Hatshepsut is believed to have been favored by the Temple
   of Karnak over her two brothers by her father;a view promoted by her
   own propaganda. She apparently had a loving relationship with both
   parents, and produced a propaganda story in which her father Thutmose I
   supposedly named her as his direct heir (see below) Hatshepsut dressed
   like a man to prove that she could be Pharoah and Egypt would have many
   great years under her rule.

   Upon the death of her father in 1493 BC, she married Thutmose II and
   assumed the title of Great Royal Wife. Thutmose II ruled for thirteen
   years, during which it has been traditionally believed that Hatshepsut
   exerted a strong influence over him, but he died and only had one son
   to take his place on the throne. But this was not Hatshepsut's son, as
   he was the son of a lesser wife named Isis. The boys name was Thutmose
   III.

   Thutmose II had one daughter with Hatshepsut: Neferure. Hatshepsut
   groomed Neferure as crown prince, commissioning official portraits of
   her wearing the false beard and side lock of youth. Some scholars
   speculate that this is evidence that Hatshepsut was grooming Neferure
   for the throne; others that she was merely planning another Hatshepsut.
   Whatever her intentions were, they came to nothing as Neferure did not
   live into adulthood.

Dates and length of reign

   Hatshepsut is given a reign of about 22 years by ancient authors.
   Josephus writes that she reigned 21 years and 9 months, while Africanus
   states her reign lasted 22 years; both of whom were quoting Manetho. It
   is also at this point in time that Hatshepsut disappears, as is
   indicated by the fact that Thutmose III's first campaign was dated to
   his 22nd year, which would also have been Hatshepsut's 22nd. Dating the
   beginning of her reign is more difficult, however. Her father's reign
   definitively began in either 1506 or 1526 BC according to the low and
   high chronologies, respectively. However, the length of the reigns of
   Thutmose I and Thutmose II cannot be determined with absolute
   certainty. With short reigns, Hatshepsut would have ascended the throne
   14 years after Thutmose I's coronation. Longer reigns would put her
   ascention 25 years after Thutmose I's coronation. Thus, Hatshepsut
   could have assumed power as early as 1512 BC or as late as 1479. Older
   chronolgies dated her from 1504 to about 1482. Modern chronologers tend
   to agree that Hatshepsut reigned from 1479 to 1458, but there is no
   definitive proof either way.

Rule

   Upon Thutmose II's death, the throne passed to Thutmose III, and
   Hatshepsut—as the boy king's aunt and stepmother—was selected to be
   interregnum regent until he came of age. At first, it appears that
   Hatshepsut was patterning herself after the powerful female regents of
   Egypt's then-recent history, but as Thutmose III approached maturity it
   became apparent that she had only one model in mind: Sobekneferu, the
   last monarch of the Twelfth dynasty, who ruled in her own right.
   However, Hatshepsut took one step further than Sobekneferu and had
   herself crowned pharaoh around 1473 BC, taking the throne name
   Maatkare.

   Hatshepsut surrounded herself with strong and loyal advisors, many of
   whom are still known today: Hapuseneb, the High Priest of Amun, and her
   closest advisor, the royal steward Senemut. Because of the close nature
   of Hatshepsut and Senemut's relationship, some Egyptologists have
   theorized that Hatshepsut and Senemut were lovers. Among the evidence
   they offer to support this claim is the fact that Hatshepsut allowed
   Senemut to place his name and an image of himself behind one of the
   main doors in Djeser-Djeseru (a rare and unusual sharing of credit),
   that Senemut had two tombs constructed near Hatshepsut's tomb (this
   was, however, a standard privilege for close advisors), and the
   presence of graffiti in an unfinished tomb, used as a rest house by the
   workers of her mortuary temple, depicting a male and a hermaphrodite in
   pharaonic regalia engaging in an explicit sexual act. Although the
   belief that Hatshepsut and Senemut were lovers is well known, it is
   highly contested among Egyptologists; all that is agreed on is that the
   steward had ready access to the queen's ear.

   As Hatshepsut reestablished the trade networks that had been disrupted
   during the Hyksos' occupation of Egypt (the Second Intermediate
   Period), the wealth of the 18th dynasty that has become so famous since
   the discovery of the burial of Tutankhamun began to be collected. She
   oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt.
   The expedition set out in her name with five ships, each measuring
   seventy feet long, and with several sails; each ship accommodated 210
   men, including sailors and thirty rowers. Many goods were bought in
   Punt, notably myrrh, which is said to have been Hatshepsut's favorite
   fragrance. Most notably however, the Egyptians returned from the voyage
   bearing thirty-one live frankincense trees, whose roots were carefully
   kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. This was the first ever
   recorded attempt to replant foreign trees. She reportedly had the trees
   planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahari mortuary temple. She had
   the expedition commemorated in relief at Deir el-Bahri, which is famous
   for its unflattering depiction of the Queen of Punt.

   Although many Egyptologists have claimed that her foreign policy was
   mainly peaceful, there is evidence that she led successful military
   campaigns in Nubia, the Levant and Syria early in her career.

   Hatshepsut died, either as she was approaching or just entering middle
   age, in early February 1482 BC or 1483 BC; no record of her cause of
   death has survived, although both natural causes and murder have been
   proposed. Her mummy is believed to be missing from the Deir el-Bahri
   Cache, and has never been officially identified. An unidentified female
   mummy—found with Hatshepsut's wet nurse Sitre In and with her arms
   posed in the traditional burial style of pharaohs—has led to the theory
   that the unidentified mummy might be Hatshepsut. In March of 2006, Zahi
   Hawass claimed to have located the mummy of Hatshepsut, which was
   mislaid on the third floor of the Cairo Museum. Further comment has not
   been released, however.

Building project

   Djeser-Djeseru is the main building of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple
   complex at Deir el-Bahri. Designed by Senemut, the building is an
   example of perfect symmetry that predates the Parthenon.
   Enlarge
   Djeser-Djeseru is the main building of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple
   complex at Deir el-Bahri. Designed by Senemut, the building is an
   example of perfect symmetry that predates the Parthenon.

   Hatshepsut was one of the most prolific builders of ancient Egypt,
   commissioning hundreds of construction projects throughout both Upper
   and Lower Egypt. Under her reign, Egypt's trade networks began to be
   rebuilt following their disruption during the Hyksos occupation of
   Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period.

   Hatshepsut was a builder pharaoh. As pharaoh she initiated building
   projects that were grander and more numerous than those of any of her
   Middle Kingdom predecessors. She employed two great architects: Ineni,
   who had worked for both her husband and father, and the royal steward
   Senemut. During her reign so much statuary was produced that almost
   every major museum in the world has a collection of Hatshepsut
   statuary; for instance, the Hatshepsut Room in New York City's
   Metropolitan Museum of Art is solely dedicated to these pieces. Like
   most pharaohs she had monuments constructed at the Temple of Karnak.
   She had twin obelisks, at the time the tallest in the world, erected at
   the entrance to the temple. One still stands today, as the tallest
   surviving ancient obelisk on earth; the other has since broken in two
   and toppled. Karnak's Red Chapel, or Chapelle Rouge, was intended as a
   barque shrine and may have originally stood between the two obelisks.
   She later ordered two more obelisks to be made to celebrate her
   sixteenth year as pharaoh. However, one of the obelisks broke while
   being made, causing a third to be made to replace it. The broken
   obelisk was left at its quarrying site in Aswan, where it still is
   today, and has proven valuable in learning how obelisks were quarried.

   The masterpiece of her building projects was her mortuary temple
   complex at Deir el-Bahri. It was designed and implemented by Senemut on
   a site on the West Bank of the Nile close to the entrance to the Valley
   of the Kings. The focal point was the Djeser-Djeseru or "the Sublime of
   Sublimes", a colonnaded structure of perfect harmony nearly one
   thousand years before the Parthenon. Djeser-Djeseru sits atop a series
   of terraces that were once graced with gardens. Djeser-Djeseru is built
   into a cliff face that rises sharply above it. Djeser-Djeseru and the
   other buildings of the Deir el-Bahri complex are considered to be among
   the great buildings of the ancient world.

Official propaganda

   Carved sphinx with face of Hatshepsut, depicted with the false beard,
   another symbol of pharaonic power, in the Cairo Museum.
   Enlarge
   Carved sphinx with face of Hatshepsut, depicted with the false beard,
   another symbol of pharaonic power, in the Cairo Museum.

   Hatshepsut was an excellent propagandist, and while all ancient leaders
   used propaganda to legitimize their rule, she is one of the most known
   for it. Much of her propaganda had religious overtones supported by the
   priests at the Temple of Karnak.

   In ancient Egypt, women had a higher status than they did elsewhere in
   the ancient world, including the court-protected right to own or
   inherit property. Yet having a female ruler in her own right was rare:
   only Khent-Kaues, Sobeknefru and possibly Nitocris preceded her as
   ruling in their own name. Pharaoh was an exclusively male title; at
   this point in Egyptian history there was no word for a Queen regent,
   only one for Queen consort. Hatshepsut is unique in that she was the
   first woman to take the title of King regent or King in the absence of
   a word or title for Queen regent.

   Hatshepsut slowly assumed all of the regalia and symbols of the
   Pharaonic office: the Khat head cloth, topped with an uraeus, the
   traditional false beard, and shendyt kilt. Many existing statues show
   her in both a feminine and masculine form. Statues portraying
   Sobekneferu also combine elements of traditional male and female
   iconography and may have served as inspiration for the works
   commissioned by Hatshepsut. However, after this period of transition
   ended, all depictions of her showed her in a masculine form, with all
   of the pharaonic regalia and with her breasts omitted. Her reasons for
   doing this are a topic of great debate in Egyptology. The traditional
   explanation is that her motivation for wearing men's clothing was
   sexual. However, most modern scholars believe in a more recent theory:
   that by assuming the exclusively male symbols of pharaonic power,
   Hatshepsut was asserting her claim to be King or Queen regnant and not
   "King's Great Wife" or Queen consort. Even after assuming the male
   persona, Hatshepsut still described herself as a beautiful woman, often
   the most beautiful woman, and although she assumed almost all of her
   father's titles, she declined to take the title "The Strong Bull".

   While the queen-pharaoh had herself depicted in art wearing the
   masculine regalia of the king, such as the false beard, it is most
   unlikely that she actually wore such ceremonial decorations. Statues
   such as the ones at the Metropolitan Museum of Art depicting her seated
   wearing a tight-fitting dress and the nemes crown are a more accurate
   representation of how she would have presented herself.

   One of the most famous pieces of her propaganda is a myth about her
   birth. In this myth, Amun goes to Ahmose in the form of Thutmose I and
   wakes her with pleasant odours. At this point Amun places the ankh, a
   symbol of life, to Ahmose's nose, and Hatshepsut is conceived. Khnum,
   the god who forms the bodies of human children, is then instructed to
   create a body and ka, or corporal presence/life force, for Hatshepsut.
   Khnum and Heket, goddess of life and fertility, lead Ahmose along to a
   lion bed where she gives birth to Hatshepsut.

   To further strengthen her position; the Oracle of Amun proclaimed that
   it was the will of Amun that Hatshepsut be Pharaoh. She publicized
   Amun's support by having endorsements by Amun carved on her monuments,
   for example:

          Welcome my sweet daughter, my favorite, the King of Upper and
          Lower Egypt, Maatkare, Hatshepsut. Thou art the Pharaoh, taking
          possession of the Two Lands.

   She also claimed that she was her father's intended heir and that he
   made her crown prince of Egypt. Most scholars see this as revisionism
   on Hatshepsut's part, but one of her best-known biographers, Evelyn
   Wells, takes her at her word. Propaganda supporting her claim was
   commissioned on the walls of her mortuary temple:

          Then his majesty said to them: "This daughter of mine,
          Khnumetamun Hatshepsut—may she live!—I have appointed as my
          successor upon my throne... she shall direct the people in every
          sphere of the palace; it is she indeed who shall lead you. Obey
          her words, unite yourselves at her command." The royal nobles,
          the dignitaries, and the leaders of the people heard this
          proclamation of the promotion of his daughter, the King of Upper
          and Lower Egypt, Maatkare—may she live eternally

Burial complex

   Hatshepsut had begun construction of a tomb when she was the Great
   Royal Wife of Thutmose II, but the scale of this was not suitable when
   she became "king", so a second tomb was built. This was KV20, which was
   possibly the first tomb to be constructed in the Valley of the Kings.
   The original intention seems to have been to hew a long tunnel that
   would lead underneath her mortuary temple, but the quality of the
   limestone bedrock was poor and her architect must have realized that
   this goal would not be possible. As a result a large burial chamber was
   created instead. At some point it was decided to inter her father,
   Thutmose I from his original tomb in KV38 into a new chamber below her
   own. Her original red-quartzite sarcophagus was altered to accommodate
   her father instead, and a new one was made for her. It is likely that
   when she died (no later than the twenty-second year of her reign) she
   was interred in this tomb along with her father.

   The tomb was opened in antiquity, the first time during the reign of
   Hatshepsut's successor, Thutmose III, who re-interred his grandfather
   Thutmose I to his original tomb, and then possibly moved Hatshepsut's
   mummy into the tomb of her wet nurse, In-Sitre, in KV60). Though her
   tomb had been largely cleared (save for both sarcophagi still present
   when the tomb was fully cleared by Howard Carter in 1903) some grave
   furnishings have been identified as belonging to the female pharoah,
   including a "throne" (bedstead is a better description), a senet game
   board with carved lion-headed red-jasper game pieces bearing her kingly
   title, a signet ring, and a partial ushabti figurine bearing her name.
   In the Royal Mummy Cache at DB320 an ivory canopic coffer was found
   that was inscribed with the name of Hatshepsut and containing either a
   mummified liver or spleen. However, there was a lady of the
   Twenty-first dynasty of the same name, and this could belong to her
   instead.

Names

   As with most pharaohs, Hatshepsut had a number of names. Her birth
   name, or nomen, was Hatshepsut, to which she suffixed the epithet
   Khenmetamun, and prefixed the praenomen, or throne name Maat-ka-re. Her
   names are written as shown in Egyptian hieroglyphs on the right;
   Maat-ka-re to the top and Hatshepsut to the bottom.

   Maat-ka-re means " Ma'at is the ka-spirit of Ra" and Hatshepsut means
   "Foremost of distinguished women, Joined with Amun". Together they mean
   "Ma'at is the ka-spirit of Ra, Foremost of distinguished women, Joined
   with Amun". After she ascended the throne she changed her name from the
   feminine Hatshepsut to the male Hatshepsu. The names are technically
   transliterated as m3at-k3-ra H3t-špswt–hnmt-ỉmn.

   Hatshepsut and Hatchepsut are the most common spellings of her name,
   but Hapshepsut and Hat-shep-set are sometimes found.

Changing image

In Egyptology

   These two statues once resembled each other, however the symbols of
   pharaonic power: the Uraeus, Double Crown, and False beard have been
   stripped from the left image. Images portraying Hatshepsut as Pharaoh
   were destroyed, or vandalized within decades of her death.
   Enlarge
   These two statues once resembled each other, however the symbols of
   pharaonic power: the Uraeus, Double Crown, and False beard have been
   stripped from the left image. Images portraying Hatshepsut as Pharaoh
   were destroyed, or vandalized within decades of her death.

   After her death, many of her monuments were defaced or destroyed.
   Replacing the names on older monuments with the name of the current
   ruler was a common practice of pharaohs, but in some cases this is
   thought to have been an act of damnatio memoriae—condemning a person by
   erasing him or her from recorded existence. Egyptologists have
   differing views on who defaced Hatshepsut's monuments and their
   possible motivations including resentment for the belief that a female
   Pharaoh was against Ma'at.

   The traditional belief is that Thutmose III was responsible, and view
   the act as revenge for being denied the throne for so long. However,
   researchers such as Charles Nims and Peter Dorman have examined these
   erasures and found that those which can be dated were done after the
   forty-second year of Thutmose's reign, while Donald B. Redford suggests
   a more sympathetic and complex motivation: Thutmose's need to
   demonstrate his legitimacy. Redford notes that:

          Here and there, in the dark recesses of a shrine or tomb where
          no plebeian eye could see, the queen's cartouche and figure were
          left intact ... which never vulgar eye would again behold, still
          conveyed for the king the warmth and awe of a divine presence.

   Of interest on this topic is the recent discovery of nine golden
   cartouches bearing the names of both Hatshepsut and Thutmose III near
   the obelisk at Hatshepsut's temple in Luxor. Further study may shed
   additional light on the question of their relationship and the eventual
   attempt to erase Hatshepsut from the historical record.

In popular culture

   As the Feminist movement matured, prominent women from antiquity were
   sought out and their achievements became increasingly publicized.
   Hatshepsut went from being one of the most obscure leaders of Egypt at
   the beginning of the 20th century to one of its most famous by the
   century's end. Biographies such as Hatshepsut by Evelyn Wells
   romanticized her as a beautiful and pacifistic woman — "the first great
   woman in History". This was quite a contrast to the 19th-century view
   of Hatshepsut as a wicked step mother usurping the throne from Thutmose
   III.

   The novel Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, maintains
   the wicked step-mother view by casting Hatshepsut as the story's
   villainess. The plot revolves around the efforts of the slave girl Mara
   and various nobles to overthrow Hatshepsut and install the "rightful"
   heir, Thutmose III, as Pharaoh. They blame Hatshepsut's numerous
   building projects for the bankruptcy of the Egyptian state and she is
   depicted as keeping Thutmose III as a prisoner within the palace walls.

   In 1960 a small main belt asteroid discovered by Cornelis Johannes van
   Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld and Tom Gehrels was named 2436
   Hatshepsut in her honour. There is a popular theory that states that
   Hatshepsut was the princess who found Moses floating in the Nile, which
   has been largely debated by Egyptologists and Biblical scholars .

   Hatshepsut is one of the AI leaders featured in the turn-based strategy
   computer game Sid Meier's Civilization IV, and her mortuary temple was
   reproduced in the computer game Serious Sam. To date no film has been
   made featuring Hatshepsut, but a screenplay named Daughter of Ra has
   won awards, and is being lobbied for online .

   At least three authors have written historical fiction novels featuring
   Hatshepsut as the heroine; Hatshepsut: Daughter of Amun by Moyra
   Caldecott, Child of the Morning by Pauline Gedge and Pharaoh by Eloise
   Jarvis McGraw, and the Lieutenant Bak series of mystery novels is set
   during her reign.

   American humorist Will Cuppy wrote an essay on Hatshepsut which was
   published after his death in the book The Decline and Fall of
   Practically Everybody. Regarding one of her wall inscriptions, he
   wrote,

     For a general notion of Hatshepsut's appearance at a certain stage
     of her career, we are indebted to one of those wall inscriptions. It
     states that "to look upon her was more beautiful than anything; her
     splendor and her form were divine." Some have thought it odd that
     the female Pharoah should have been so bold, fiftyish as she was.
     Not at all. She was merely saying how things were about thirty-five
     years back, before she had married Thutmose II and slugged it out
     with Thutmose III. "She was a maiden, beautiful and blooming," the
     hieroglyphics run, and we have no reason to doubt it. Surely there
     is no harm in telling the world how one looked in 1514 B.C.

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