The Queen Who Would Be King [ Hatshepsut ]

Smithsonian Magazine ^ | September 2006 | Elizabeth B. Wilson

[SunkenCiv]

Hatshepsut seems to have idolized her father (she would eventually have him reburied in the tomb she was having built for herself) and would claim that soon after her birth he had named her successor to his throne, an act that scholars feel would have been highly unlikely... [I]t was the accepted New Kingdom practice for widowed queens to act as regents, handling the affairs of government until their sons -- in this case, stepson/ nephew -- came of age... says Peter Dorman, an Egyptologist at the University of Chicago and a contributor to the exhibition catalog. "But it's also quite clear that Thutmose III was recognized as king from the very start." ...By the seventh year of her regency, however (and it may have been much earlier), the formerly slim, graceful queen appears as a full-blown, flail-and-crook-wielding king, with the broad, bare chest of a man and the pharaonic false beard... As to why, "No one really knows," says Dorman... "She was not pretending to be a man! She was not cross-dressing!" says exhibition co-curator Cathleen Keller.

[SunkenCiv]

It depends on what your meaning of is is.

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"To look upon her was more beautiful than anything; her splendor and her form were divine," read an inscription on one of the many images commemorating Hatshepsut's rule. The head of one of her desecrated statues (above) was reassembled from fragments discovered in 1928. The dark square on her forehead is the remnant of the hacked-off uraeus, or symbol of royalty [Metropolitan Museum of Art]

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[SunkenCiv]

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[devolve]

[potlatch]

That is really a beautiful graphic. The colors are wonderful.

[devolve]

I upsized that for the webpage

This looks like my sister's kind of Smithsonian thread

[potlatch]

You can send her the url. If it grows large she will enjoy reading it.

[Talking_Mouse]

Thank you so much for posting this very interesting article. I had been taught the prevailing wisdom of the time that Hatshepsut was an evil usurper.

However to learn that her reign was long and prosperous, that she did not keep Thutmose III imprisoned at the palace, but had him learning to be a soldier (which he later showed he learned very well), and that he did not start "erasing" her until the end of his reign is fascinating.

There are two quotes that help tie this together for me. The first being the one explaining why Thutmose III may have "erased" her:
But Dorman suggests that Hatshepsut's unconventional reign may have been too successful, a dangerous precedent "best erased," he writes in the catalog, "to prevent the possibility of another powerful female ever inserting herself into the long line of Egyptian male kings."

The second being why schools may have for so long taught incorrectly about Hatshepsut:
But so much of what was written about Hatshepsut, I think, had to do with who the archaeologists were...gentlemen scholars of a certain generation."

[SunkenCiv]

from KMT I think:

(after William Petty)
Significant Events	Yrs from death of Thutmose I	Regnal Year of Thutmose II	Regnal Year of Hatshepsut	Regnal Year of Thutmose III
Thutmose II assumes the throne	1	1
	2	2
Mortuary temple inscriptions	3	3
	4	4
Thutmose II dies, Thutmose II assumes the throne	5	5		1
Dedication inscription at Semma	6			2
Hatshepsut assumes full titulary Senenmut's tomb started	7		7	3
Donation stele of Senenmut	8		8	4
Punt expedition, Sinai Stela, Useramen appointed vizier, counting from the accession of Thutmose III ceases	9		9	5
	10		10
	11		11
	12		12
Menkheperre & Hatshepsut depicted together	13		13	13
	14		14
Hatshepsut's obelisks begun	15		15	15
First actual joint dating	16		16	16

[SunkenCiv]

Hatshepsut mummy found
Egyptian State News Service | Friday, March 24, 2006 | unattributed
Posted on 03/26/2006 11:43:05 PM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1603736/posts

[SunkenCiv]

also related (for reasons seen when you visit it):

Burial complex of Mentuhotep II
The History of the Ancient Egyptians | May 2002 | Ian Bolton
Posted on 07/27/2004 2:56:40 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1179621/posts

[nickcarraway]

Is this supposed to be preparing us for Hillary?

[SunkenCiv]

Heh... an undue amount of attention is paid to a handful of pharaohs, a sort of man-bites-dog situation.

[BlackVeil]

Hatshepsut seems to have idolized her father (she would eventually have him reburied in the tomb she was having built for herself)

I saw on a tv programme that her father was buried in her tomb beside her. I wondered if she was married to him - the Egyptian royalty saw nothing wrong in that.

[Talking_Mouse]

She was married to her half brother (when she was twelve) to insure his legitimacy to the throne. He was Thutmose II.

[Dustbunny]

Judging from this reassembled image, she was very feminine looking and really quite beautiful.

[tomzz]

Queen of Thebes/Sheba. Big article by Emmet Sweeney in latest issue of Charles Ginenthal's journal.

[SunkenCiv]

Yes.

[SunkenCiv]