Autor: Isaia Raluca, clasa a XII-a C
Sursă imagine: https://blocs.xtec.cat/ceipsantrocenglish/grammar/connectors/
Today her body lies in the Royal Mummy Rooms at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, alongside other pharaohs. Next to her is a sign which says ‘ Hatshepsut, the king herself ( 1473-1458 BC)’. But in 1903, when the archaeologist Howard Carter found Hatshepsut’s coffin in the Valley of the Kings, it was empty. Had her mummy been stolen or destroyed? The truth only came out a century later when Egyptian scientists identified a mummy called KV60a from a less important tomb, as that of Hatshepsut. None of the treasures normally found were with it. It was not even in a coffin.
Hatshepsut was one of the greatest builders of ancient Egypt, who built numerous monuments and temples. At Karnak, we can still see an inscription describing her hopes as to how she will be remembered: ‘ Now my heart turns this way and that, as I think what the people will say. Those who see my monuments in years to come, and who shall speak of what I have done. ‘
But following her death, her successor and stepson Thutmose III set about erasing her memory, ordering all images of her as the king to be removed from monuments and temples. Her statues were smashed and thrown into a pit. Yet the images of her as queen were left undamaged. Why?
Hatshepsut was the eldest daughter of Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose, But Thutmose I also had a son by another queen, and this son, Thutmose II, became pharaoh when his father died. As was common among Egyptian royalty, Thutmose II married his sister, Hatshepsut. They had one daughter. Another, less important wife, Isis, gave Thutmose II the male heir Hatshepsut was unable to provide. When Thutmose II dies not long after from heart disease, his heir, Thutmose III, was still a young boy. As was the custom, Hatshepsut took control as the young pharaoh’s queen regent. At first, Hatshepsut respected convention and just handled political affairs while the young king was growing up. But before long, she began performing kingly duties. And after a few years she no longer acted as queen regent, but fully assumed the role of ‘king’ of Egypt, the supreme power in the land.
No one really knows why Hatshepsut broke the conventional rules. Was it a key moment in Egypt’s history when a strong leader was needed ( Thutmose III was still a boy)? Did she believe she had the same right to rule as a man? Did she feel a right as a direct descendant of the pharaoh, Thutmose I? Or was she just hungry for power? Whatever the reason, her stepson was relegated to second-in-command and ‘ the king herself’ went on to rule for an amazing 21 years.
At first Hatshepsut made no secret of her sex – in images her body is unmistakably a woman’s – but later she is depicted as a male king, with headdress and beard, standing in a self-confident manner with legs apart. Many inscriptions still exist which have references to ‘ my people’. These suggest that she knew she had broken the rules and wanted her subjects’ approval. Her stepson, Thutmose III, meanwhile, grew increasingly frustrated. After Hatshepsut’s death, he took his revenge, doing his best to erase her memory as pharaoh from history. But, ironically, in the long term it is Hatshepsut, ‘ the King Herself ‘, who has achieved greater fame.
