The Woman Who Would Be King (48 page)

11.
This passage is from the “Instruction of Ptahhotep”; my translation is based on Lichtheim,
Ancient Egyptian Literature
, 1:64.

12.
This passage is from the “Instruction for King Merikare,” which dates from the First Intermediate Period; my translation is based on ibid., 106.

13.
See Sethe,
Urkunden der 18. Dynastie, Band 1
, 159.

14.
Only scraps of this building activity remain. Depictions of Hatshepsut as queen regent were found at Karnak. See Gabolde,
Monuments décorés en bas relief
, and the Karnak Temple page on the webpage of Karl H. Leser, “Maat-ka-Ra Hatshepsut,”
http://​www.​maat-​ka-​ra.​de/​english/​start_​e.​htm
.

15.
Peter F. Dorman, “Hatshepsut: Princess to Queen to Co-Ruler,” in Roehrig,
Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh
, 88.

16.
See Gabolde,
Monuments décorés en bas relief
, plates XI, XLII.

17.
This was not always the case; the evidence suggests that during later Dynasties 25 and 26 these priestesses were unmarried and, it seems, also celibate. See Mariam F. Ayad,
God’s Wife, God’s Servant: The God’s Wife of Amun (c. 740–525 BC)
(London: Routledge, 2009).

18.
Ancient Egyptian letters do not usually contain gossip, unless there was a legal issue at the core, and they certainly do not include discussions of the king’s (or regent’s) romantic engagements. See Edward F. Wente,
Letters from Ancient Egypt
(Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990).

19.
For the erroneous hypothesis that these graffiti represent Hatshepsut and Senenmut, see Edward F. Wente, “Some Graffiti from the Reign of Hatshepsut,”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
43, no. 1 (1984), and John Romer,
People of the Nile: Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt
(New York: Crown, 1985), 156–59. For a muchneeded corrective, see Bryan, “In Women Good and Bad Fortune Are on Earth,” 35: “Surely more caution is demanded. The tolerance for female rulers exhibited throughout Egypt’s first eighteen dynasties must be taken into account before we espouse such unsubstantiated opinions.”

20.
Consider the parallel of Catherine II (the Great) of Russia, who bore two children with one of her lovers, having taken the throne after the overthrow and subsequent murder of her husband, Emperor Peter III.

21.
Toivari-Viitala,
Women at Deir el-Medina
, 168–70.

22.
Some Egyptologists once believed that Neferubity was Hatshepsut’s second daughter, born after Nefrure, but most would now argue that Neferubity was Hatshepsut’s sister instead. See Dodson and Hilton,
Complete Royal Families of
Ancient Egypt
, 140. Nonetheless, it is completely within the realm of possibility that Hatshepsut bore another daughter to Thutmose II during his three-year reign and that the girl died in childhood, leaving us with little evidence of her existence beyond the mention that Nefrure was Hatshepsut’s “eldest” child in the tomb of Ahmose Pennekhbet.

23.
From the Netjery Menu temple at East Karnak. See Gabolde,
Monuments décorés en bas relief
, and Blyth,
Karnak
, 65.

24.
Anthony J. Spalinger, “Covetous Eyes South: The Background to Egypt’s Domination of Nubia by the Reign of Thutmose III,” in Cline and O’Connor,
Thutmose III: A New Biography
, 344–69.

25.
It is also possible that Thutmose II appointed Senenmut as chief treasurer before Hatshepsut became regent and during his own reign. The Egyptian name for the treasurer was Overseer of the Seal, which meant that he was in charge of the seal placed on the doors of the treasury and thus monitored everything that came in and everything that went out. See Bryan, “Administration in the Reign of Thutmose III,” 77–81.

26.
These obelisks were placed in East Karnak, at what the Egyptians called the “Upper Gateway.” See Blyth,
Karnak
, 55. For a reconstruction, see the contra temple obelisks on the UCLA Digital Karnak website at
http://​dlib.​etc.​ucla.​edu/​projects/​Karnak/​feature/​Obelisks​At​Contra​Temple
. It is possible that the limestone temple Netjery Menu, which was constructed during Hatshepsut’s regency, was also here at East Karnak. See Gabolde,
Monuments décorés en bas relief
, 26.

27.
Judith Weingarten, “Hatshepsut and the Tomb Beneath the Tomb,”
http://​judithweingarten.​blogspot.​com/​2009/​03/​hatshepsut-​and-​tomb-​beneath-​tomb.​html
; José M. Galán, “The Tombs of Djehuty and Hery (TT 11–12) at Dra Abu el-Naga,” in
Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists
, ed. J.-C. Goyon and C. Cardin,
Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta
(Leuven: Peeters, 2007), 777–88. For Egyptian tombs without mention of a husband or wife, see Ann Macy Roth, “The Absent Spouse: Patterns and Taboos in Egyptian Tomb Decoration,”
Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt
36 (1999): 37–53.

28.
His family seem to have been low- to mid-level elites from Armant. If we hypothesize that Senenmut started his palace career around age twenty, serving in an administrative post in the royal treasury during the reign of Hatshepsut’s father, Thutmose I, then he would have been thirty-four at the accession of Thutmose II and almost forty when Thutmose III took the throne, when Hatshepsut was around sixteen.

29.
None of Senenmut’s many statues are dated with certainty to the reign of Thutmose II. Most come from the joint reign of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut. See Dorman, “Early Reign of Thutmose III,” 63.

30.
For more on the position of King’s Son of Kush, also known as the Viceroy, during the reign of Hatshepsut, see Spalinger, “Covetous Eyes South,” in Cline and O’Connor,
Thutmose III: A New Biography
, 344–69.

31.
Useramen’s father had been vizier from Thutmose I onwards, and his son’s appointment as vizier by Hatshepsut is a testament to the family’s strength. Hatshepsut likely had no political choice. JJ Shirley, personal communication, 2014. For more on the officials who served during the reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, particularly in the vizierate, see Bryan, “Administration in the Reign of Thutmose III.”

32.
E. Dziobek, “Denkmäler des vezirs User-Amun.”
Studien Zur Archäologie and Geschlchte Altägyptens
18 (Heidelberg: Heidelberger Orient-verlag, 1998). Userhat’s tomb decoration has much in common with Thutmose III’s own tomb decoration and may have been done later.

33.
H. Carter, “A Tomb Prepared for the Queen Hatshepsuit,”
Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte
16 (1917): 179–82.

34.
For depictions of Nefrure as the God’s Wife of Amen, see Paneque, “Official Image of Hatshepsut,” 83–98.

1.
I have not mentioned Nitocris in this summary because sources for her are so problematic. This Egyptian woman may have ruled at the end of Dynasty 6, but there are no contemporary Egyptian sources about the queen, only a possible and disputed mention in the Turin Kinglist, a papyrus from the reign of Ramses II that preserves a canon of Egyptian rulers, which may actually refer to a male ruler; stories from Herodotus; and a mention in Manetho. For more about ancient Egyptian female leaders in general, see Bryan, “In Women Good and Bad Fortune Are on Earth.”

2.
Troy,
Patterns of Queenship
, 2.

3.
A broken statue of Sobeknefru is preserved in the Louvre (Louvre E 27135). See ibid., 30, and Elisabeth Delange,
Catalogue des statues égyptiennes du Moyen Empire, 2060–1560 avant J.-C
. (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1987). Most of the head is missing, but it is still clear that the female king is wearing the traditional dress of a queen in combination with a
nemes
headdress and a king’s kilt over the female dress. It is disputed whether Sobeknefru was a sister of Amenemhat IV (and thus whether Amenemhat IV was even of royal blood at all), because she lacks the title King’s Sister; however, she does bear the title of King’s Daughter (of Amenemhat III). See Bryan, “In Women Good and Bad Fortune Are on Earth,” 29; Dodson and Hilton,
Complete Royal Families
, 95. For this history and the ensuing decline after the fall of the Twelfth Dynasty, see K. Ryholt,
The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period, c. 1800–1550 BC
(Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997).

4.
Dorman, “Early Reign of Thutmose III,” 53.

5.
The dating of Hatshepsut’s accession depends on an ostracon found buried in the fill in front of Senenmut’s tomb at Sheikh abd el-Gurna, Theban Tomb 71, when the tomb of his mother and father was sealed. The ostracon reads
“Year 7, month 4 of sprouting, day 2,” and this is understood to have been the date when the tomb was closed. Inside the tomb were inscribed materials, including one marked with “the Good Goddess Maat-ka-Ra” testifying that by this point Hatshepsut had formally been named king. The Semna inscription, another text used to date the formal beginning of Hatshepsut’s reign, is problematic because it was recarved at least twice in antiquity. For a thorough discussion of the dating of Hatshepsut’s accession, see Dorman,
Monuments of Senenmut
.

6.
For the translation, see Dorman, “Early Reign of Thutmose III,” 41.

7.
The Ennead simply means “The Nine” and refers to the first generations of divinities after the first creation: Atum, Shu, and Tefnut; Geb and Nut; Osiris and Isis; Seth and Nephthys. These are the nine gods of the Helipolitian creation, since the god Atum created his First Time at Iunu, the city of the sun, called Heliopolis by the Greeks. For more, see Erik Hornung,
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many
(London: Routledge, 1983).

8.
The Sehel text is published in Labib Habachi, “Two Graffiti at Sehēl from the Reign of Queen Hatshepsut,”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
16, no. 2 (1957): 88–104. The translation follows his.

9.
Dorman, “Early Reign of Thutmose III,” 48.

10.
For this important block, now located in Luxor Museum, see H. Chevrier, “Rapport sur les Travaux de Karnak (1933–1934),”
Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte
34 (1934): 172, plate 4; Abeer el-Shahawy,
Luxor Museum: The Glory of Ancient Thebes
(Cairo: Farid Atiya Press, 2005), 116–17; and Peter F. Dorman, “Hatshepsut: Princess to Queen to Co-Ruler,” in Roehrig,
Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh
, 88.

11.
This limestone block was found in 1930 by the French archaeologist Henri Chevrier at Karnak, and it belongs to a chapel dismantled toward the end of her reign or after. It is now displayed in the Luxor Museum. See Chevrier, “Rapport sur les Travaux de Karnak (1933–1934),” plate 4. For a discussion of the image, see Karl Leser’s Karnak page on his website at
http://​maat-​ka-​ra.​de/
.

12.
The translation is based on Warburton,
Architecture, Power, and Religion
, 231–32. The mention of “his majesty” is confusing and unclarified, and although Warburton sees this as referring to the god “Amen,” I am not convinced because the god is referenced later in the text. Also see Dorman,
Monuments of Senenmut
, 22. For a description and image of block 287 with the Luxor oracle, see Schnittger, Hatschepsut: Eine Frau als König von Ägypten, 42.

13.
The translation is based on Warburton,
Architecture, Power, and Religion
, 232.

14.
The translation is based on Lichtheim,
Ancient Egyptian Literature
, 2:28.

15.
This text appears on Hatshepsut’s Red Chapel and is in reference to the coronation. The translation is based on Warburton,
Architecture, Power, and Religion
, 229.

16.
Ibid., 230.

17.
For these scenes, see Franck Burgos and François Larché,
La chapelle Rouge: Le sanctuaire de barque d’Hatshepsout
, vol. 1 (Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2006). Her coronation is also depicted at her Deir el-Bahri Temple of Millions of Years as well as at Buhen Temple (now reconstructed at the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum since the creation of Lake Nasser).

18.
Although some might argue that this merging with Amen is meant to be sexual in nature, it is doubtful this is what is meant by this new prenomen. She melded her essence with his and took on his powers and abilities through that process of royal initiation.

19.
The
nebty
name was the Two Mistresses name, and the writing shows the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjyt. For more on the titulary of ancient Egyptian kings, see Peter A. Clayton,
Chronicle of the Pharaohs: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1994), and Jürgen von Beckerath,
Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen
, 2nd ed. (Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern), 1999. For a discussion of the titulary of Hatshepsut, see Gay Robins, “The Names of Hatshepsut as King,”
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
85 (1999): 103–12.

20.
Murnane, for example, argues that the oracular events promoted Hatshepsut’s claim to the throne by expressing Amen’s doubts concerning Thutmose III’s ability to rule (
Ancient Egyptian Coregencies
, 33–34).

21.
These first obelisks were placed at East Karnak. Her second pair commemorated her Sed festival in year 16 and were placed in the Wadjyt hall of her father, Thutmose I, or in front of the fifth pylon. See Blyth,
Karnak
, 55. For a digital reconstruction of the obelisks in the Wadjyt hall, see the UCLA Digital Karnak website at
http://​dlib.​etc.​ucla.​edu/​projects/​Karnak/​feature/​Obelisks​Of​Wadjet​Hall
.

22.
The addition of the element of
ka
, or “soul,” does seem to move Thutmose III one step from the source of active creation, but why was this particular element added to the boy king’s name? Did the
ka
denote a masculine element that Hatshepsut lacked? Perhaps the change was orchestrated by an oracle of Amen to validate Hatshepsut as the leading king in a feminine-masculine pair. Or was the
ka
linked to Maatkare and therefore Hatshepsut’s place on the throne, thus making the claim that Thutmose III was dependent on her rule for his own? Hatshepsut never explains why the name was altered, but she obviously felt that it was necessary: Thutmose III’s kingship had to change to fit her rule.