Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut is one of the Personalities in their Times options in Section III (25 marks). You answer one question on your personality, with two or three parts, at least one worth 10–15 marks. The syllabus asks you to study:

• Historical context: the geography of Egypt; the early New Kingdom after the expulsion of the Hyksos; kingship, the role of royal women and the cult of Amun.
• Background and rise to prominence: her family; her roles as King's Daughter, Great Royal Wife and God's Wife of Amun; her regency for Thutmose III; her assumption of kingship.
• Career: how she legitimised her rule; her building program; the Punt expedition and other foreign policy; her relationships with officials and with Thutmose III; her death.
• Evaluation: her impact and legacy; the attack on her monuments; ancient and modern images and interpretations.

All dates are BC and approximate; Egyptian dates vary by a few years between textbooks.

The New Kingdom began when Ahmose I expelled the Hyksos, foreign rulers based at Avaris in the Delta, in the mid-16th century. The kings of the 18th Dynasty then built an empire in Nubia to the south and in Canaan and Syria to the north-east. Gold from Nubia and tribute from Asia made Egypt rich.

The king was the son of the gods and the upholder of maat, the order of the universe. He was expected to be a warrior, a builder of temples and the chief priest of every god. The god who gained most from the empire was Amun of Thebes, whose temple at Karnak received huge donations. Kingship was ideally male, but royal women were important: queens such as Ahmose-Nefertari had held the title God's Wife of Amun, an office with its own estates and staff, and some may have acted as regents for young kings.

• As Great Royal Wife of Thutmose II she held the title God's Wife of Amun, which later passed to Neferure.
• About 1479: Thutmose II died. His heir, Thutmose III, was a young child, and Hatshepsut governed as regent. The official Ineni wrote that she ‘managed the affairs of the Two Lands according to her own plans’.
• Between about year 2 and year 7 of Thutmose III (the date is debated) she took the full titles of a king, with the throne name Maatkara (‘Truth is the soul of Ra’). Thutmose III remained king; she became the senior of two kings. She ruled until her death in about 1458, in Thutmose III's year 22.

• Descent: her monuments stress that she was the daughter of Thutmose I. Reliefs at Deir el-Bahri show Thutmose I presenting her to the court as heir — a coronation that probably never happened.
• Divine birth: the Deir el-Bahri reliefs show Amun visiting Queen Ahmose in the form of Thutmose I, and the god Khnum shaping the child on his wheel. Hatshepsut is Amun's daughter.
• Oracle of Amun: texts on the Red Chapel at Karnak describe Amun choosing her as king.
• Royal image: early images show a queen; later she appears as a male king with a kilt, nemes headdress, false beard and as a sphinx, although her texts often keep feminine grammar. This fitted her into the only accepted image of a king rather than disguising her.
• Restorer of order: at Speos Artemidos she claims to have restored what the Hyksos ruined — the traditional boast of a good king.

• Djeser-djeseru at Deir el-Bahri (west bank of Thebes): a terraced temple against the cliffs beside the temple of Mentuhotep II, with colonnades, reliefs of her divine birth, the Punt expedition and the transport of obelisks, and chapels for Hathor and Anubis. It was the destination of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley. The official Senenmut is often credited with its design, though his exact role is debated.
• Karnak: red granite obelisks, including a pair, one of which still stands nearly 30 m tall; the Red Chapel, a quartzite shrine for Amun's barque, dismantled in antiquity (its blocks were reused) and reconstructed in modern times; the eighth pylon; work on the processional route to Luxor.
• Elsewhere: the rock temple of the lioness goddess Pakhet at Speos Artemidos in Middle Egypt; temples in Nubia, such as at Buhen; restoration of older temples.

The program honoured Amun, provided settings for festivals, displayed Egypt's prosperity and supported her claim to rule.

• Punt (about year 9): five ships sailed down the Red Sea, led by the chancellor Nehesy, to Punt (probably in the region of modern Eritrea, Sudan or northern Ethiopia). The Deir el-Bahri reliefs show the ruler Parehu and his wife Ati, and the return with incense trees, myrrh, ebony, ivory, gold and animals such as baboons. Incense was essential for temple ritual, so the expedition served Amun.
• Military activity: her reign was once called peaceful, but inscriptions record at least one campaign in Nubia, and Thutmose III may have campaigned in her later years. Egypt kept control of its empire.
• Mining and trade: expeditions to the turquoise mines of Sinai continued.

Hatshepsut relied on capable officials, many of whom owed their careers to her:

• Senenmut: steward of Amun and tutor of Neferure, shown on several statues holding the princess. He had two tombs near Deir el-Bahri. Stories of a love affair with Hatshepsut rest on gossip and a crude graffito of uncertain meaning, not on evidence.
• Hapuseneb: High Priest of Amun and overseer of works, a link to the powerful priesthood.
• Nehesy: chancellor, who led the Punt expedition.
• Ineni: a veteran official of earlier reigns whose biography describes her regency.

Thutmose III was not removed. He appears beside her on monuments, usually behind her, and seems to have commanded the army. After her death he became one of Egypt's greatest warrior kings.

• She was buried in KV20 in the Valley of the Kings, a tomb that also held Thutmose I. In 2007 a mummy from tomb KV60 was identified as hers, using a tooth found in a box bearing her name; many accept the identification, but some scholars question it.
• The attack: her images and names as king were cut away or replaced with those of Thutmose I, II or III; statues at Deir el-Bahri were smashed and dumped; her Karnak obelisks were walled around (possibly at a different time). Later king lists (for example at Abydos) omit her.
• Dating: most scholars date the main attack to about year 42 of Thutmose III, about twenty years after her death. This undermines the old theory of a vengeful stepson and supports a political motive — restoring the proper male line (maat) and securing the succession of Amenhotep II.

Interpretations

• Early and mid-20th century (e.g. James Breasted; William Hayes in the 1950s): an ambitious, scheming usurper who kept Thutmose III from power.
• Later scholars (e.g. Joyce Tyldesley, 1996; Peter Dorman): a capable ruler who took the throne gradually, perhaps in a crisis, and ruled successfully; the attack was a late, political act.
• Kara Cooney (2014): a skilled politician who worked within the system, presenting her rule as serving the dynasty.

You do not have to name historians to reach the top band, but using an interpretation accurately to support your argument is credited.

Questions often ask you to assess or evaluate her rule, achievements or legacy. Consider:

• Achievements: stable rule for about fifteen years; a major building program; the Punt expedition; a strong team of officials; a smooth handover to Thutmose III.
• Limits: her kingship needed constant justification; her monuments were later attacked and she was removed from official memory.
• Legacy: her temple at Deir el-Bahri remains one of Egypt's finest; her rediscovery has made her a famous example of a woman holding supreme power.

A model paragraph

Here is how one paragraph might use evidence and evaluation (on her officials, not one of our bank questions):

‘Hatshepsut's reliance on officials was a strength of her rule. Men such as Senenmut, who rose from a non-royal family to become steward of Amun, owed their careers to her and so had every reason to support her kingship. The Punt reliefs name the chancellor Nehesy as leader of the expedition, showing that she delegated major projects to trusted men. Yet this dependence may also explain why her name could later be removed so easily: her supporters had disappeared by the time Thutmose III ruled alone.’

• Mixing up the Thutmosid kings and their mothers (Mutnofret was the mother of Thutmose II; Isis of Thutmose III).
• Saying Hatshepsut removed Thutmose III. He stayed king throughout.
• Treating the divine birth and coronation reliefs as records of real events.
• Repeating the old revenge theory without mentioning the late date of the erasures.
• Presenting the Senenmut romance as fact.

• 10-mark parts often ask you to explain one aspect: her rise, her building, her officials, Punt, or the attack on her monuments.
• 15-mark parts usually ask you to assess her methods, achievements or legacy. Open with a judgement and keep returning to the question.
• When you use an Egyptian royal text, say what kind of source it is (royal propaganda carved on a temple) and what it tells you about how she wanted to be seen.
• Useful terms: maat, regent, co-regency, God's Wife of Amun, legitimacy, divine birth, propaganda, proscription.

• New Kingdom Egypt to the death of Amenhotep III: the society Hatshepsut ruled, the cult of Amun and the empire.
• Akhenaten: a later 18th Dynasty king whose monuments were also attacked after his death.
• Agrippina the Younger: a comparison of royal women's power and hostile later images.