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| Hatshepsut |
Let’s fast forward 1000 years to the New
Kingdom’s 18th Dynasty to meet with our new extraordinary and fascinating
Pharaoh, Hatshepsut. Why is he…sorry she so fascinating? Precisely because now
after a long period of male rule, a “she” now appears in the historical record
not as just “anybody” but as a Pharaoh!
Hatshepsut is the daughter of the Pharaoh
Tuthmosis I and sister to Pharaoh Tuthmosis II.
Unlike Tuthmosis II who was born to a minor wife Mutnofret, she was the
daughter of the principle wife Ahmose, whose title “God’s Wife” she
inherited. Following tradition, Tuthmosis II and Hatshepsut married and had a
daughter, Neferura, although Tuthmosis II also fathered a son, Tuthmosis III,
by a minor wife, Iset. After a brief reign, the frail Tuthmosis II died. His
son Tuthmosis III was still an infant, so what Hatshepsut was supposed to do? She became regent…no even better…she went one step further and had
herself established as Pharaoh two years into her regency!
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| Tuthmosis III |
So began the reign of a wicked and ambitious
stepmother? There are a number of conflicting sources. Suffice to say that all
the conventions of the court were all warped and distorted to suit the rule of
a woman. She would proceed to appropriate all of the paraphernalia of a
Pharaoh. That one insignia of a Pharaoh is a beard posed no problem at all to
Hatshepsut, who had no qualm dressing up as a man, flaunting a royal titulary
and adopting her ultimate public guise. She is portrayed in statues and wall
carving with a delicate oval face with an incongruously false royal goatee. It
is clear that henceforth she was to be shown as a male king, but nonetheless be
consistently referred to by feminine pronouns, her male garb not being intended
to fool the citizens into believing she was actually male (her gender would
have been obvious in any event from her name!).
So what gave Hatshepsut the courage to
establish herself as Pharaoh? After all she was not the king's mother, only his
stepmother. Nonetheless, she was the daughter, sister and wife of a king and a
God’s Wife like her grandmother Ahmose-Nefertari. This no doubt would have
given her quite an edge. Holding full royal titles, Hatshepsut was “King of
Upper and Lower Egypt”, “Maatkare”, “Daughter of Ra”, “Khnemet-Amen”, “the
Horus”, “Weseretkau”, “She of the Two Ladies”, “Wadjrenput”, “the Golden Horus”,
“Netjeretkhau”. Once crowned, she remained Pharaoh even when Tuthmosis III came
of age and they became co-rulers.
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| Neferura on Senmut's lap |
During co-regency, while Tuthmosis III led
two campaigns through Palestine and became an accomplished warrior, Hatshepsut
too sent at least military expedition into Syria-Palestine and south to Nubia.
Contrary to the claim that her reign was barren of any military achievement,
there were in fact at least four campaigns where enemies were slaughtered and
she became known as “She who will be a Conqueror, flaming against her enemies”.
As Pharaoh, Hatshepsut handed the hereditary
position of God’s Wife priestess to her daughter Neferura, who was educated and
raised by Senmut. He would become Neferura’s chief steward who accompanied her
to the Hathor temple of Sinai, where Hatshepsut sent expeditions. Hatshepsut
also regularly traded with Byblos, exchanging their cedars for papyrus, while
the alliance with Crete ensured a steady flow of Minoan goods into the Nile
Valley. The painting of long-haired Cretans in their colourful kilts bringing
Minoan perfume vessels decorated with painting of sea shells, seaweed and
octopuses was even portrayed in Senmut’s tomb at his hometown Armant. Unfortunately,
the fate of this prosperous neighbour of Egypt was unexpectedly cut short
following a great volcanic eruption on Thera. The resulting tsunami wreaked
havoc on Crete’s harbours and around the eastern Mediterranean coastline of
Syria, Palestine and Egypt. This was confirmed by the analysis of pumice
gathered in the Delta in the 18th Dynasty levels which revealed that
it came from Thera. The cloud of black ash from the eruption covered so much of
the ancient world that the Egyptian texts claim that “for nine days none could
see the face of their fellow”.
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| The Land of Punt |
Another destination for Hatshepsut’s
expeditions was Punt, “God’s Land”, located south down the Red Sea (roughly
modern Somalia). It was here that Hatshepsut traded every decent thing from her
court in exchange for myrrh, both its resin and the resin-producing shrubs.
Allegedly, at Amen’s command she ordered the shrubs to be placed in pots and
transported on the Egyptian ships. Not merely as a form of ritual protection,
myrrh’s protection qualities were real as it could destroy bacteria and be used
as medication in medical papyri of the time.
Read on in our next blog to discover more of
Hatshepsut’s achievement as a Pharaoh….
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