Co Regency Of Hatshepsut And Thutmose example essay topic

Year 12 Ancient History HATSHEPSUT 1473-1458 B.C. Hatshepsut of ancient Egypt was considered the greatest female ruler of all time. Born in the 15th century BC, she was the fifth rule of the 18th dynasty, the daughter of Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose, both of royal blood. At the time of royal families it wasn't a surprise that she married her half-brother, Thutmose II, who had a son, Thutmose. When his father died, Thutmose was appointed power, however due to the boy's young age Hatshepsut was appointed to rule along side until the year of 1473 where she declared herself pharaoh. There were many complications along the way. There was always a threat of revolt, especially as her bitter nephew came of age.

Using propaganda and keen political skills, she cleverly ascended and maintained her power. The co-regency of Hatshepsut and Thutmose lasted for at least thirteen years. There's evidence remaining from the period of co-regency to support them both being displayed as Pharaohs. Hatshepsut was most commonly displayed as the domineering partner.

Occasionally on 'stelas' beyond Egypt (particularly Nubia and Sinai) Thutmose is represented alone. Within Egypt though, Hatshepsut is displayed as a sole power. Dressed in men's attire, Hatshepsut fought her way to power and held the throne of the world's strongest empire at that time of 34 years. Since her father had conquered most of the main world, the empress wasn't faced with any external enemy. During her reign she set about re-establishing peace and fortune within Egypt, encouraged trade, rebuilding roads and temples, and re-equipping the army. An extensive building program was also implemented.

A great deal of controversy surfaced from the empress' reign, many people opposed the idea of a woman breaking the masculine tradition. Upon the death of Thutmose II, Hatshepsut startled the populace by announcing that she was a man. She wore a fake beard, male clothes (as mentioned above) and even changed her name from Hatshepsitu to Hatshepsut, the male equivalent. Hatshepsut also crushed all further opposition by announcing that she was not the daughter of Thutmose 1, but the virgin birth son of God Amen and her mother Ahmose.

For those that questioned her, a scene was painted on the bedroom walls of her temple in graphic detail outlining the now-to-be 'truths' of her birth. From that time on, sculptures and portraits would depict her with a beard and male features. Despite her masculine facade, appearance wise - the empress never lost touch with her feminine side according to scribes who wrote that she was "lovely to look at: graceful in her movements, and fragrant as a flower". Hatshepsut became firmly established as Pharaoh for the next 21 years (1479-1458 BC), and as the prosperity of Egypt greaten ed so did her popularity. She was a sharp administrator, and would send ambassadors to all her conquered lands. Eventually gold tributes became so many; they were no longer weighed but measured in bushel baskets.

A fellow by the name of J. A Rogers wrote: : "She began to publicize herself in the most sensational manner of that time, that is, by the building of temples, pyramids, and obelisks, the size and grandeur of which had never been seen before and regarded by the popular mind as a gauge of the ruler's power". It's difficult to determine why Hatshepsut took the exceptional step from being regent to being the crowned pharaoh. Already as regent for the young, Thutmose appeared to hold all the power at her will. It was Hatshepsut's duty as the Pharaoh to govern Egypt and to maintain justice and 'order'.

Her position was the major link between gods and the people of Egypt. The welfare of Egypt relied on the good relationship between the gods and the king. Hatshepsut as king was responsible if disasters affected Egypt. The building plan Hatshepsut approached was a fairly traditional role for a New Kingdom pharaoh to pursue. The plan saw the construction of the Mortuary temple at Deir El Bahari.

The structure bears no resemblance to other Egyptian temples and plays a significant source for information concerning the king's reign. The empress contracted an adviser by the name of Senmut to build the temple. He appeared to be her main adviser although some historians consider him to be the empress' lover. To quote one historian: "Hatshepsut commissioned her black architect boyfriend, Senmut, to build a structure" - Dr Leroy Vaughn In the temple the empress assembled a series of reliefs of the 'divine birth' on the middle colonnade.

Although again Hatshepsut is shown as a young boy, the texts that accompany these scenes often use both male and female pronouns and suffixes to describe her. The reliefs however have been quite badly damaged. Another method the empress used to reinforce her right to rule was to publicise the story that her father chose her as his successor and made her king. Although to assume this as true you would be ignoring the rule of her half-brother / husband Thutmose II. The story was carved in scenes into the middle colonnade. Historians question the possibility of this scenario being more than fiction.

If so the piece serves as a very authentic and daring plot of propaganda put forward by the empress. Once again the relief portrays her as both a male and a female. The empress's building program wasn't just construction from the ground up, it also involved re-building, carried out commonly to restore damage made by the Hyksos. Hatshepsut has been mentioned to have restored a variety of temples, these include: o The Speos Artmideos temple itself which was dedicated to 'her-upon-the-mountains' o The temple of the lady of Cusa e o A Temple for the goddess Paket o Restoring temples for Hw or, Uni and She o (Assumed) The rebuilding of a 'great temple' o As well as emphasizing that she was developing Egypt internally, Hatshepsut took great pride in the trading expedition she sent to Punt.

She obviously held high regard for the motion as one of her most prized accomplishments since the scenes are also carved on the middle colonnade in Deir el Bahari. The expedition that was carried out opened up trade between Egypt and inner Africa. Contact was made for trade purpose, not for conquest. The location of Punt is not precisely known but lies somewhere on the coast of Africa close to the Red Sea, perhaps present-day Somali. Scattered and fragmented evidence point to several military campaigns.

In the 'Speos Artemidos' inscription Hatshepsut emphasizes her military role by referring to upgrading the army and portraying herself as the traditional warrior-pharaoh sphinx. Bias is often placed in this area since the traditional view is that Hatshepsut had no military campaigns. We are to wonder whether historians were so biased that their gender dictated how they would assess their evidence. The historian DB Redford however concludes that there could have been four or more campaigns waged during Hatshepsut and Thutmose's joint reign. These campaigns were: o A campaign against Nubia led by Hatshepsut, probably early on in her reign. o Mopping up of operations in Palestine and Syria, perhaps led by the queen or one of her generals. o The capture of Gaza by Thutmose later in the reign. o A campaign in Nubia led by Thutmose shortly before Hatshepsut's death in year 22. It was not unusual for a female to take an active role in military matters during the early part of the 18th Dynasty.

Queen Ahh otep could have suppressed a military rebellion. It is thought that Hatshepsut was related to these forceful, strong queens. Queens continued to play an important role after Hatshepsut. One of the most controversial aspects of the co-regency was the relationship between Hatshepsut and Thutmose.

Several historians have made claims that are very difficult to back up with evidence. Much has been written and spoken about the hatred of Thutmose for Hatshepsut. This is based generally on the fact that her name was hacked out of many inscriptions, and replaced by the name of Thutmose I, Thutmose II or. The question remains whether Thutmose was responsible for all the defacement's and damages of the monuments. Both Gardiner and Wilson argue that as soon as the queen died, Thutmose, in hatred, immediately mutilated her name and monuments to erase her name and memory forever. However, research by the historian C Nims argues that the damage was not done until the year 42, when Thutmose replaced Hatshepsut's cartouche with his own.

It is thought that if he despised her so much, why would he have waited twenty years to do so? Of course for some buildings, damages could have occurred through much later reigns. All New Kingdom pharaohs were guilty of altering or destroying buildings of their predecessors. It was quite common for a pharaoh to erase previous names of monuments in order to insert their own. Hatshepsut herself was responsible for altering previous Pharaohs' buildings. Some of these include the insertion of Hatshepsut's obelisks between the fourth and fifth pylon of the Hypostyle hall in Karnak.

Another source states the empress re-used blocks of Thutmose II in the foundations of the southern obelisk at the eastern end of the Karnak temple. Doors were dismantled and blocks that presented his name in Deir el Bahari were altered to hers. A sanctuary owned by Amenhotep II and Ahmose was also destroyed in order for Hatshepsut to build a mortuary temple that stood on its grounds. Historians don't doubt that Hatshepsut was consumed by hatred for these past kings. E Neville, the archaeologist who excavated Deir el Bahari believed that much of the damage occurred more than a hundred years after the reign of Hatshepsut, during the Ramesside era.

Others suggest that damage to the figures of Amon and Hatshepsut may have been done by Akhenaton in promoting his own god, the 'Aten'. Thutmose made offerings to his ancestors honouring them in the chamber of kings, though Hatshepsut is not included on the list of sixty-one. She was also omitted from later official king lists. Redford states that Hatshepsut died on the 10th day, 6th month, of year 22. There is no evidence that she died an unnatural death (suggested by some historians), some believe that Thutmose could have formed a military revolt in order to overthrow her - although we will never truly know. Whatever else may be written about the empress, the period of co-regency appears to have been a time of relative peace and prosperity.

She certainly emphasized the peaceful development of Egypt in her monuments, and established an economic base for Egypt after the Hyksos. There is no evidence to support any threats from foreign lands during the co-regency, so it is thought that Thutmose and Hetshepsut were provident protectors of Egypt. Hatshepsut created a solid and wealthy base from which Thutmose launched a large military campaign to the north after her death. He could not have done this without a stable and productive land behind him. Did Thutmose launch a campaign after his more 'peaceful' partner had died? The rest is up to speculation...

Bibliography

'Personalities from the past' (Published in 1997) by Jennifer Lawless, Kate Cameron, Thomas Catalan otto, Dianne Hennessy, Gary Kenworth y, Bill Leadbetter, Alanna No bbs, Kathryn Welch 'Hetshepsut' by Leroy Vaughn web The story of Hetshepsut - David Be diz web.