Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut Hatshepsut was one the greatest rulers of Ancient Egypt but her rise to power didn’t come without deceit and betrayal. As daughter of Thutmose I a great Ancient pharaoh and Ahmose his famous wife, Hatshepsut had a passion for power and the family blood to fulfil her dream. With Successful military campaigns, peaceful country and a thriving economy, Hatshepsut had all the components of a great Pharaoh but this did not come easy. How did the first woman pharaoh rule for over 2 decades? What made her such a successful ruler and how did a woman come to power in a male driven society? Hatshepsut was a unique personality which gained her power amongst the Egyptian people. Born in the 18th dynasty to Thutmose I and Ahmose, Hatshepsut had power and authority in her blood to rule a great and influential nation. Hatshepsut acquired this authority from the rule of her father which left great expectations for her since birth. Hatshepsut was sister to Princess Neterukheb and her two brothers Wadjmose and Amennose who had both died at a young age leaving Hatshepsut as heir the Dynasty. This didn’t last long as she was married off to her half brother Thutmose II at a young adolescent age. As a child, Hatshepsut was taught how to read and write hieroglyphics by the royal scribe. Hatshepsut questioned her requirement to be educated as it hadn’t occurred to her that one day she may become pharaoh. Throughout Hatshepsut’s rise to power she obtained various titles to her name. Hatshepsut inherited the title â€Å"God’s wife of Amon† from Queen Tetisheri which was then passed down to Hatshepsut’s Daughter, Neferure. But it is clear that her greatest title she ever acquired was not only Queen of Egypt but King of Upper and Lower Egypt. Hatshepsut gained this position after the death of her Pharaoh husband Thutmose II whom which they shared the same father Thutmose I. Thutmose II only reined for about 3 years before an unknown illness took his life. This left his son to a minor wife Thutmose III the heir to the throne at a very young age. Thutmose III was too young to rein so Hatshepsut took the title or regent with the young soon to be pharaoh. She then crowned herself co-regent and finally declared herself pharaoh of Egypt. During her reign Hatshepsut had a number of people which helped her gain the power in which she held. Senenmut was a close associate of Queen Hatshepsut during and before her reign. Senenmut first entered the royal court under the reign of Thutmose II which led him to an influential associate when Hatshepsut announced herself as pharaoh. Senenmut had a close relationship with not only king Hatshepsut but also with her daughter Neferure. There were scandals of an affair between Hatshepsut and Senenmut which were recorded in graffiti by the workmen building the temple. Their close relationship resulted in Senenmut supervising the erection of Hatshepsut’s main monuments at Deir el-Bahri and Karnak. Although Senenmut played a significant role in the royal court, towards the end of Hatshepsut’s reign Senenmut disappears from view. There are many theories to explain the disappearance or death of Senenmut. These include that Senenmut decided to leave Hatshepsut and join with Thutmose III after the death of Hatshepsut’s daughter Neferure. Speculation remains high with Senenmut’s two tombs empty and unused by the royal associate. Imagery and monuments of Senenmut were attacked or desecrated soon after his disappearance leaving the question was it Hatshepsut or Thutmose III. Hatshepsut may have attempted to remove him from history as he was seeking to join Thutmose III, or did Thutmose III remove Senenmut with the expectation that Hatshepsut would soon fall. As Hatshepsut was one of peace and prosperity she had ample time to build and restore important monuments to the people. Hatshepsut repaired many temples and chapels including the Temple of the Lady Cusae and the Temple of Thoth. Many of her buildings were built for Amun-Re as he was her claimed father and Hatshepsut wanted to re-establish her connection with Amun-Re. But it is clear that her main achievements came from the new monuments at Deir el-Bahri and Karnak. The Mortuary Temple at Deir el-Bahri is one of Hatshepsut’s most recognised building projects. With its main dedication to the God Amun it also has parts dedicated to the God Anubis and Goddess Hathor. Located west of the great capital Thebes and designed and supervised by the royal associate Senenmut, Hatshepsut had created a master piece. Hatshepsut was particular about where the building was going to be placed but after numerous strategic calculations, Hatshepsut decided on Deir el-Bahri. It was positioned on the axis of the great temple at Karnak and in the sacred valley to the principal feminine goddess whom was connected with the funeral world. The most astonishing feature is that the temple stood in a straight line from the tomb which the Queen had proclaimed hers and had it excavated in the Valley of Kings. The temple consists of two ramps which lead to three layered terraces with the magnificent cliffs and the Valley of Kings as a background (See image 1). The three layered terraces reach 30m in height or 97 feet. Each of the Terraces is precisely constructed by a double colonnade of square piers and all the terraces are connected by long ramps. Hatshepsut still contained the classical Theban appearance with courts, a chapel, sun court and a sanctuary. On both sides of the entrance (See Image 2) are pillars which depict images of Hathor as the capitals. Under the roof line is in image of Wadjet who is the Goddess of Lower Egypt, Papyrus and the Protector of the Pharaoh. She is displayed as a two sided solar symbol and bordered by two long serpents. Hatshepsut often depicted herself as a male pharaoh by wearing false beards and the traditional male regalia of previous Egyptian Kings. She would often wear a Khat head cloth and false beard to show her power and to persuade the public that she was capable of performing a male role. She would wear a Shendyt kilt as depicted in many statues in the temple. Often Portrayed as a male it did not mean that she denied her female gender. Depicting herself as a male authority was a show to foreign rulers to respect her as a male and to gain acceptance among the Egyptian population. The temple at Deir el-Bahri includes an image that depicts Hatshepsut as a male pharaoh (see image 3) which shows her giving offerings to Horus the ancient sky god. Once stood statues and ornaments throughout the temple but they have since been stolen or destroyed by other pharaoh’s or robbers. It previously housed two statues of Osiris, an avenue lined by sphinxes and the many statues and sculptures of Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut led many expeditions but one of the most famous is the expedition to Punt. Hatshepsut took pride in announcing the departure of 5 Phoenician style ships to Punt which is now modern day Somalia. It was the first time in 500 years that the voyage had been embarked on. Punt was â€Å"God’s Land† as its terraced land was theoretically represented by the lands of gods. It is suggested that a French scholar Auguste Mariette believed that Hatshepsut’s Temple Deir el-Bahri represented the land of gods by being constructed in terraces like designs. The scenes of the expedition to Punt were carved on the walls at Deir el-Bahri on the Middle Colonnade opposite the Divine Birth Scenes representing and indicating the importance of the Expedition. The Expedition to Punt was most likely for trade with inner Africa rather than conquest of the rival civilisation. The trip was made to please her god Amun and fulfil his wishes of have a Myrrh tree in the garden of Amun. Amun had indicated that he would like to walk among them so Hatshepsut obeyed. Hatshepsut did not go on the voyage to Punt but she sent her official Nehesi and a selection of Egyptian soldiers. Sending the soldiers indicated that Hatshepsut had an army. The cargo of the ships included gold, ebony, elephant tusks, monkeys, baboons, panther skins, greyhounds and many trees. The cargo also included slaves and their young dependable family. When the fleet landed on the shores of Thebes, Hatshepsut and an elongated line of people marched the fleet. Hatshepsut was never far off making yet another dedication to Amun and she dedicated the best of the traded produce to Amun. The incense trees were planted in the open area of the central pathway at Deir el-Bahri. A stump of the tree is still able to be seen today. Hatshepsut was such a successful Pharaoh as she continued to re-establish a strong link with the god Amun which reassured the people that she was fit to be pharaoh. Hatshepsut created a thriving economy which created stability for the Egyptian people. Hatshepsut had many followers which made her rule so successful, for example Senenmut who supported throughout her reign till the unexplained disappearance shortly before she fell to Thutmose III. When Hatshepsut lost her throne and Thutmose III became Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt, Thutmose III attempted to remove every written and visual piece of evidence to suggest that she was never pharaoh. In lists of the 18th dynasty pharaohs, Hatshepsut was often left off the list and her face hacked and cut out of art works depicting her as a pharaoh. Sculptures of Hatshepsut were removed and replaced with other Pharaoh statues and her name hacked out of carved writings. Thutmose III did everything in his power to remove her from history and yet she still is one of the most known Pharaohs of Egypt. Her accomplishments were triumphant making her a successful and respected Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty. Discussion-the availability of sources was ample as Hatshepsut is such a well known Pharaoh as she wasn’t just Queen she was King who ruled for over 2 decades. Different sites have different information for example one site will say that she ruled for 18 years and another will say 22 years. For the essay I had to take an opinion and use it in the essay as it was my piece of writing. Interpretations of images at various temples are different and you have to combine them to gain a complete understanding of the image. Appendix Image 1: Image 2: Image 3: | Bibliography: -NNDB tracking the entire world http://www. nndb. com/people/265/000162776/ Date accessed 6/5/2011 -Hatshepsut http://www. king-tut. org. uk/egyptian-pharaohs/hatshepsut. htm Date accessed 6/5/2011 -Hatshepsut – J. G. A. H. L. K. http://www. richeast. org/htwm/Hat/hat. html Date accessed 6/5/2011 -Hatshepsut – Caroline Seawright http://www. thekeep. rg/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/hatshepsut. html Date accessed 7/5/2011 -Senenmut http://ib205. tripod. com/senenmut_2. html Date accessed 7/5/2011 – Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut http://www. bluffton. edu/~sullivanm/egypt/deirelbahri/deirelbahri. html Date accessed 9/5/2011 -Midland Travel Tours http://www. comeseeegypt. com/hatsut. htm Date accessed 13/5/2010 -Hatshepsut first great woman in history http://www. all-about-egypt. com/hatshepsut. html Date accessed 13/5/2011 -Voyage to Punt http://www. camdenh. schools. nsw. edu. au/pages/Faculties/History/ancient/Hatshepsut/Voyage%20to%20Punt. html Date accessed 19/5/2011 Hatshepsut #301 Hatshepsut Hatshepsut was the fourth female pharaoh in Egyptian history, and was considered one of the greatest rulers, male or female, of her time. As Pharaoh, she encouraged trade and sent a voyage to the land of Punt, sponsored a vast building project in Egypt, added to the temple of Amon at Karnak, and commissioned her famous mortuary temple, Deir el-Bahri, decorated with her most impressive achievements. She is renowned for being strong and assertive, whilst also fair and just. The many reliefs and paintings in this temple serve as sources from which we can draw conclusions about her life and her reign. Hatshepsut was the daughter of King Thutmose I and his wife, Queen Ahmose, and married her half-brother, King Thutmose II. When King Thutmose II died after a short rule, Hatshepsut’s stepson Thutmose III inherited the throne. However, as Thutmose III was considered too young to rule, Hatshepsut served as his regent. Shortly afterwards, some sources say Hatshepsut claimed the throne for herself, whereas others say that she ruled with Thutmose III as a diarchy. The birth and coronation scenes at Deir el-Bahri show Hatshepsut's divine birth, although they have been greatly damaged, supposedly due to a vengeful Thutmose III. According to the scenes, Amon (a prominent god in Upper Egypt) goes to a sleeping Ahmose in the form of Thutmose I and awakens her with pleasant odours. At this point Amon places the ankh, a symbol of life, to Ahmose's nose, and Hatshepsut is conceived. From this source, historians have been able to decipher that in order to justify her leadership, Hatshepsut claimed that she’d had a divine birth. In these scenes Hatshepsut is shown as a young boy, and through her claim of divinity she won the support of the priests. To further strengthen her position, the oracle of Amon was published on the walls of her tomb, stating, â€Å"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 had the following commissioned on the walls of her temple: ‘Then his majesty said to them: â€Å"This daughter of mine, Khnumetamun Hatshepsut, may she live! I have appointed as my successor upon my throne†¦ he 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. ’ Hatshepsut is regarded as one of the most outstanding of Egypt’s female rule rs, and was the first to assume the Godship with the Kingship. She was often portrayed wearing the double crown, indicating sovereignty over the lands of both Upper and Lower Egypt. In many representations she has been shown wearing masculine attire and a traditional false beard, although it is unlikely that the false beard was actually worn, as opposed to being strictly an artistic convention. Statues such as those at the Metropolitan Museum of Art depicting her seated wearing a tight-fitting dress and the nemes crown are a more accurate depiction of how she would have presented herself. Hatshepsut took great pride in the trading expedition she sent to Punt in around year nine of her reign. We know that she regarded it as one of her major achievements as she had it carved on the middle colonnade walls at Deir el-Bahri. Reliefs show that exotic goods such as myrrh trees, frankincense, oils, ivory, ebony and animal skins were brought back and offered to Amon-ra. Inscriptions state, â€Å"the ships were laden with the costly products of the Land of Punt and with its many valuable woods, with very much sweet-smelling resin and frankincense, with quantities of ebony and ivory†¦Ã¢â‚¬  There is another scene in which Hatshepsut is offering these products to Amon-Ra, with inscriptions showing him praising her and promising success for future expeditions. This evidence reinforces Hatshepsut’s obedience to the Gods, as well as showing her power and confidence in her officials to plan and undertake such a voyage. During her reign, Hatshepsut built a rock temple, now known as Speos Artemidos and dedicated it to the Goddess Pakhet. On the facade above the entrance there is an inscription in which she complains about the damage done during the reign of the â€Å"Asiatics of Auaris†, three generations before her reign, and reports, â€Å"I have raised up what was destroyed†. She claims full responsibility for rebuilding Egypt, and has inscribed, â€Å"My command stands firm like the mountains and the sun disk shines†. Hatshepsut also constructed four obelisks at the Temple of Karnak, one of which remains standing today at 29. 6m high, weighing 320 tonnes. It is inscribed with, â€Å"O ye people who see this monument in years to come and speak of that which I have made, beware lest you say, ‘I know not why it was done'. I did it because I wished to make a gift for my father Amun, and to gild them with electrum. Author and broadcaster Joyce Tyldesley teaches Egyptology at Manchester University, and is Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, Liverpool University. She states that, â€Å"By promoting the cult of Amon, she was effectively reinforcing her own position and promoting herself. † Early on with the lack of evidence or inscriptions it appeared as though Hatshepsut was a pacifist and didnâ⠂¬â„¢t undertake any great battles. J. A Wilson in â€Å"The Culture of Ancient Egypt† states that, â€Å"She records no military campaigns†. However Redford in â€Å"History and Chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty† states there were four to six campaigns. These included a campaign to Nubia, possibly by the Queen herself in the early period of her reign, a small battle in Palestine/Syria and two campaigns by Thutmose III shortly before her death invading Gaza and Nubia. Hatshepsut emphasises her military role by referring to upgrading the army and portraying herself as a traditional warrior-pharaoh sphinx. An inscription at Speos Artemidos reads, â€Å"My might causing the foreign countries to bow down, because the uraeus that is upon my forehead pacifies all the lands for me. â€Å"My army, which was unequipped, has become possessed of riches since I arose as king. † Hatshepsut died in 1458 BC during her twenty-second regal year; no record of her cause of death has survived. There were no bodies in Hatshepsut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings when archaeologist Howard Carter unearthed it in 1903. However, an unidentified female mummy, found with Hatshepsut's wet nurse Sitre, and with her arms posed in the traditional burial style of pharaoh, lead to the speculation of the discovery of Hatshepsut’s remains. In June 2007, a molar was found with Hatshepsut’s organs and was matched with a gap in the mummy’s teeth. DNA tests were run, which established her identity and the theory was confirmed. â€Å"We are 100 percent sure,† said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council on Antiquities, when asked about the mummy. Tests of her mummified tissue showed that Hatshepsut died of bone cancer around the age of 50. She also suffered from diabetes and was obese. Many primary sources related to Hatshepsut are most likely biased. For example sources from her temple Deir el-Bahri could be considered subjective as she was alive when they were made and she had herself portrayed as divine, as was common for Pharaohs. These sources should only be relied upon to an extent, as they are open to interpretation. Individuals’ interpretations may also be biased and influenced by personal opinions and views. Sources from this time are also quite heavily damaged due to the fact that after Hatshepsut died, Thutmose III supposedly had her name and representations chiselled away from temple walls, and replaced with those of Thutmose I, II and III. The statues and sphinxes she had built in her temple were broken to pieces and thrown away. However, as with most sources, there has been controversy in interpretation. Both Gardiner and Wilson argue that as soon as the Queen died, Thutmose III, in hatred, immediately destroyed her name and monuments so as to obliterate her name and memory forever. However, recent research by historian Nims argues that the damage was not done until the year 42, when Thutmose III replaced Hatshepsut’s cartouche with his own. This leaves us speculative, if he hated her so much, why would he wait 20 years for his revenge? All new kingdom Pharaohs altered or destroyed some buildings of their predecessors, including Hatshepsut with the Temple of Karnak. New theories suggest that by erasing the cartouche of Hatshepsut and replacing it with that of Thutmose I or II, he was merely trying to legitimise his right to the throne by emphasising his links to these previous Pharaohs. Inscriptions often refer to both Hatshepsut and Thutmose III as Pharaohs, and show that Hatshepsut gave Thutmose III important roles leading the military. These sources lead us to believe that the relationship between Hatshepsut and Thutmose III may not have been hateful, as many sources state, and they may have indeed ruled as a diarchy. They also highlight the controversy often encountered in the interpretation of sources in general. Bibliography: J. G. , A. H. and L. 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